Ive often had difficulty maintaining consistency with some of my own self imposed RP rules (regular eating and sleeping, not jogging from one end of the province to the other)
What are some of your self imposed rules and how do you go about remaining consistent with said rules?
Replies
Oooh, tricky. Lemme think. One rule for one such character is no/limited looting, IE only getting enough gold to buy a horse, or the like. If I loot, or worse steal, I have to donate a certain amount to the temple, IE shoving gold in a chest and praying at a nearby shrine.
Generally it depends on the character's nature but here are a few I have:
Ever since modding my game I find myself taking things like traveling and dungeon crawling much more slowly just to take in the sceenery. With things like eat/sleep, or feeding if youre a vampire, I try my best to keep to a schedule. It helps that I have animation mods that play when I consume food items from my inventory. Although I dont use realistic needs mods that force me to eat regularly, the animations are a nice touch. I believe I have a lightweight camping mod installed which I tend to use for more reclusive characters who wouldnt likely spend much time in cities.
With vampires I tend to forgo sleep as they tend not to be burdened by mortal limitations like fatigue. Depending on the nature of my vampire I'll either prey on NPCs nobody will miss such as bandits, or innocent towns folk and travelers. How secretive I am about feeding is determined by how important blending in with mortals is to my character. I do my best to avoid wandering around in day light, and I actually have a mod installed called Better Vampires which makes adhering to that restriction key to my survival. The mod not only lets you adjust how damaging sunlight is to vampires, but randmly sends powerful vampire hunters after you. It makes you think twice about venturing out during daylight.
I do a few things but nothing too hardcore.
- Only pick up reasonable items. I don't think I ever go over 150 carry weight so I really only pick up what I call "satchel items" which includes gold coins, gems, soul gems, some books, potions, and other small items. I only ever really carry my main weapon (if I use one), armor (if I wear it), and maybe a backup.
- Followers follow this same rule. I don't use them as pack mules and try to keep them reasonable in carry weight/items.
- Try my best to rest in some form. Usually this means a regular stop in at the nearest city or town for a bed. I often don't worry about eating or drinking as that gets tedious sometimes. I will maybe snack on a found piece of food but never sit at a table to mimic having a meal.
- Try to accumulate rest areas that are owned by me. Depends on the character but have at least one or two "safehouses" to drop collections of books and sometimes store gold. Anise's Cabin celler is always the go to when starting out.
- Try not to metagame as best I can. Quick gold right off the bat from a few short quests? Sure, but it is just another chore if I dart right to them to go through the motions. I try to make any quest encounters I know of more organic like only if I happen to bump into the NPC.
Avoiding Meta Gaming is probably the most important roleplay rule to follow.
A lot of builds will suggest, for example, joining the Dark Brotherhood specifically to assassinate the Emperor. But how would your character know joining the Brotherhood would lead to assassinating the Emperor?
Well, for most of my rules, there are mods now, but I mostly try to keep it realistic. Walking is mandatory if I have no horse. You'd be amazed by everything I discovered by simply walking through Skyrim. Eat, sleep. Bathe in rivers or lakes but first take clothes off. Go on dinners or feasts if you're playing as a noble. When I play as a merchant, I like to travel from town to town and sell my goods. No fast travel.
Apologies for hijacking this discussion but what are your roleplay considerations with player homes?
It depends. If I'm roleplaying as an adventurer, then I limit myself to one home only (not expensive looking) and the rest, I sleep at inn's. If I play as a noble I like to have the most houses I can and they have to be in cities. If I'm thane then I build one of the homes from Hearthfire. I once played a Dunmer adventurer so I had my home on Solstheim only. You just have to think on what house goes with your character. Sellswords don't usually have a home or have a small one. They spend the days walking from town to town. Hopefully I answered your question.
For mercenary type characters I'll usually forgo buying a permanent home in favor of staying at inns or camping out. For unlawful characters I feel secrecy is crucial, so rather than a house out in the open I opt instead for secret lairs. There's a lot of great player home mods that offer well hidden hideouts for your character.
I take off my helmet when in cities just conversing wit regular people. I also keep ang fully enclosed helmet off when using shouts. Imagine using Fire Breath with a fully closed helmet. Your face should get roasted.