In an effort to flesh out my characters more I find myself asking what does my character do for a living? What do they do on their off time?. One has to assume characters arent off adventuring 24/7, but that’s where my roleplay struggles.
I suppose what I am asking is what do you do to make your character feel like they have a life outside of beating up bandits?
Replies
That really depends on my character type. One of my gals, Zenoya, spends her evenings with in an inn or around a campfire and drinks a couple ales. Another character, a scholar, might read or write in his free time (a mod that adds a journal is super helpful roleplay wise). On a more exciting character, such as a thief or my Yandere, they could literally make a hobby of breaking and entering. "Window shopping" so to speak. I think this isn't a very touched on subject, but it's super important for a more immersive roleplay. A lot of mechanics are missing for characters to have true hobbies and whatnot, but with mods and a lot of workaround imagination, I've managed to give my characters a little more depth.
Adding more to the idea of hanging out at taverns. You could make it a habit to chat up the locals if your character is the social type. This can be really interesting if you have mods that add additional NPCs such as Interesting NPCs and Inconsequential NPCs.
There is a mod out there called Tavern Games that add gambling mini games at every tavern. Great way for your character to pass the time.
A critical mod for this is “Living Takes Time”( I think that’s what it’s called).
What it does is it allows the game clock to keep running while performing tasks like crafting, reading, and cooking.
If your character is a mage and you can stomach a super deep, time consuming roleplay experience, I highly recommend the mod “Spell Research”. It comepletely changes up how one learns spells, and it take a lot of time and material gathering to learn anything.
I’d imagine with all these dieties floating around that worship would take up a lot of one’s time. The vanilla game doesn’t do much with worship which is why Wintersun - Religions of Skyrim is such an amazing mod. It adds a multitude of ways to worship each god and a favor system attached to each of them.
These suggestions might seem like I’m getting off track but your answers lie in anything that makes you want to slow down and experience the game as if you’re actually living in that world.