This came up in another thread so I thought I would start one as it had me curious.

Roughly how long does it take you on average to create a character from start to finish in the creator ("who are you" to name)? I'd like to note that I know coming up with the original concept or idea of them might take longer but I'm wondering how long it takes once you start moving sliders to naming them.


I usually have a rough concept in mind when I create mine so it usually takes me 10-20 mins, maybe a bit longer if I get stuck on a feature or can't come up with a suitable name. My longest would have to be around 30mins as I was attempting to create myself and had a hard time getting him just right....once my hands were free and I got another look at him, I deleted with a sigh as he didn't look right


EDIT: I'd like to add that I'm curious as to how long it takes to create a serious character for RP or other long play sessions, not a mere throwaway. In another thread someone mentioned 70mins or more which is mind boggling to me but I understand the "writers block" or perfectionist thing as I have that problem with making music and will listen to the same 10 second clip 100 times just to get the sound right

Quite awhile, because I usually make a few on a few different races so I have a selection to choose from.

Took me 10 minutes because I was making him look like Mr.T

If you just mean physically in the character creator, it usually takes me about 45 minutes since I listed all the options by how many nudges from the left they took to reach a place I felt was really good. There are adjustments, of course, depending on the type of character and race but it holds fairly true to what I like. If you also mean from the first thought in my head about a character for a certain kind of playthrough, it can take weeks...and the name can be the most difficult part. I have to connect with the name.

ha nice, any pics? I hope you made a "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqJE5TH5jhc"
ha I hear you about connecting with your character, I usually have a rough concept of character before starting the game but not always the name, sometimes I have to take a look at the finished character and let them name themselves (not literally ha).

I was asking about how long it takes in the game creator

It depends. If it's more of a gameplay character or achivement hunter, I don't put much time into the character, I just choose a race, cycle through presets, tweak it a little, and ship it our with a name thought from the top of my head.

Roleplay characters however....

Well, that depends on what you mean by "making it". The character creation itself tend to only take a few minutes since I have a good idea of what I want before I start the character. if you add in the thought process of it, it might extend much further since sometimes I might have come up with a character concept in the back of my mind long before I even decided to make it.

ha yea the RP/serious characters is what I'm wondering about...I just added that as an edit to my OP. I'm guessing you're one of the ones that takes over an hour which is understandable when you have to get those eyes just right or something to that effect

Only takes me a few minutes, regardless of race. I play mainly in first person, and the character will usually be wearing headgear of some sort, so 'presentable' is sufficient.

If I ever install the Race Menu mod customizing might take a fair amount of time, with all the options available

7 minutes on average. I usually use presets with minor tweaking. I once spent 20 minutes on a character though.

The first one took me maybe 20-30 minutes. Now that I know the mechanics it really doesn't take me long: 5-8 minutes. I usually play the same races (Breton, Nord, Bosmer) so it helps. If you asked me to create say an Orc it would probably take a bit longer.

EDIT: I find the name before I get to the creation screen...

Customizing looks and finding a suitable name is hard, my canon Shepard in Mass Effect went through 5 years of adjustments, but that chargen was bad. In Oblivion I almost gave up and went default. My solution was to simply set every slider in neutral(center) position and make small adjustments from there, usually eyes, nose, brow, chin and hair options and leave rest centered. Finding a name is worse so I end up using my own, which also limits race choice. Works for a Nord so I play those the most, some Altmers in there too. Now I spend at most 10 mins with that routine.

it takes me at least 1 hour if i put try to make them look good or like a proper nord warrior.
then when i try to name the character that takes more than 15 minutes.
i have a nord female called Dovah[censored] because i couldnt think of a name at all.
i have a nord male called Nord because i couldnt think of a name.

my newest nord is Anya Stormblade. she took 1 hour to create.
the first name i got from gears of war and the second name is because she is a stormcloak.