Oohh... a Thalmor spy! Mind if I steal that idea? You've got a nice one for the Khajit too. Hmmm... I think I need to dig a bit deeper.

I play six characters and cycle through them. If one becomes tiresome, then I retire that one--but I find that cycling them keeps my interest up for longer.

well i lost my main because i was so stupid and oversaved him.

did everything i wanted to do with him, but i never delete my mains... normally

I had to retire my first character due to a glitch, but I just rebuilt her. If I get bored with a weapon set or attack style, I change it up; it fits my character too, for the most part anyway. She specializes in two handed weapons like a greatsword and battle axe, and she keeps a bow handy. But if things get stale she'll switch to one handed and magic, or use the bow more frequently.

I generally retire my character(s) in Skyrim at around the level 70 - 75 range. At this point leveling is so slow that it's almost non-existent, and it's getting very very difficult to discover a new location or to find a new quest. So about this time I'll retire my character and think up a new archetype idea.

I am like the player earlier. I make one charater and play until I get bored. I feel kinda lame if I just start over to do a different type of attack charater.

Saying that, I do love my charater even at lvl 92. Every villager I have killed, every monster or bandit, I have stripped naked. In front of the kings palace, i dump all loot. I have filled up the bridge, moats, and more. Then when i leveled crafting pr alchamy, i just used my stuff I had stored in what i call my graveyard.

don't know if anyone else has had it happen, but I also have three NPC bandits who help me attack monsters. I not sure how ithappened, maybe bad hate but I feel like a tribal leader.

About 130 hours, only 1 char

So I'm at 120 hours now, 1 character, halfway to lvl51, and is 1 1/2 yrs old, by in game calender standards. I think for as long as I play skyrim, she'll be active.

600+ hours with 5 retired characters typically at around level 40 (highest is level 60). By then I typically feel overpowered and nothing is really challenging anymore, creating just boring gameplay. Although I don't think I'm exploiting anything, I'm also not much for gimping for the sake of gimping, just to extend a characters lifetime.

I don't mind creating new characters though, as I get to try some new approaches (perks) since we no longer get to master everything (which I agree on btw). Still, I wish the game could increase its difficulty as you go along, and not only wrt combat. I'm not really into "questing", I haven't even done the main quest, DB, companions, or civil war quests yet with any of my characters. But I'm heavy into exploring and living in the wild. Just wish there was a proper hardcoe mode to support that gaming style.

I've never actually heard of people retiring their characters before. You learn something new every day, haha. Personally, I've got one main 'everything goes' toon and then a handful of more rigidly defined side characters. My main's just for fun, an extension of my own fickle whims. She's top dog in all of the guilds, does whatever quests strike my interest, brazenly explores every last cave and dungeon in Skyrim - that sort of thing. My sides, on the other hand, have fleshed-out personalities and motives, moral compasses and backstories and whatnot. They're not allowed to do whatever they want, but restrictions can sometimes be more entertaining than total freedom. I don't retire them, per se, but if I get bored with one of the playstyles I've experimented with I'll just quit playing it. Unlike my main, whom I could never get bored with.

I don't role play so my character will never be "retired".

She will go on until every quest is completed, every location is plundered dry and every skill point is earned.

Then I'll probably just stop playing Skyrim.

No problem, man. It's not like you'll commercialize it or anything, so be my guest. And even if you would, there'd still be no problems 'cause those are only very vague story ideas. Nothing's fleshed out yet.

Also, you'll have to RP a lot to play the Thalmor spy if you can't use console commands ("player.addfac 39F26" to add your char to the Thalmor faction if you can), because the other Thalmor will still go after your head.

I usually start a new character when I look around for a minute and can't think of anything I want to do next. This happens a lot when a character gets way up in skills, so I don't feel like there's much else to look forward to. However, that said, it takes me a long time to reach that point. I've only rolled 3 characters or so in Skyrim.

I'll be on my fourth probably next month.

My characters don't 'retire' they go into hibernation. I get to a point when they've finished all the tasks I set for them and I leave them. However, I often find myself coming back to a character months later. Picking up again and finding them some new adventures.

Same deal here. I almost never fully completely retire them. I stick the saves in a "hold" file that waits for when the whim strikes me.

I do tend to keep a save file from each character I spend a decent amount of time on (OB/FO3/SK), but I've never actually gone back to them. It's never occurred to me to do so, plus it would be nigh-impossible since each one (other than the first) has a specific mod install. So I'd have to 1) try to remember the dozens of mods that character used, and 2) reinstall the game and all those mods. So, yeah.... even if I wanted to, I can't really go back to older characters.

I do agree with this. It must be hard to return to a previous char but i personally couldnt delete a char which ive put all those hours into.

I don't try to do everything with one character. It just doesn't seem right, for a warrior character to join the Mages. I create many different characters with different personalities. Their actions and decisions are based on what THEY would do and where THEY would go. So far none of the 12 characters have even done the main quest. Only 2 have made it to the Greybeards.

My characters retire one of two ways :
1 - They complete everything that is suited for them ( or I just grow tired of them )
2 - They die.

I guess that was actually three ways.

Never, if possible. Still on my first character.

Some good portion of time after the Dragon crisis , but that will never happen cause I'm playing really SLOW. ( by that I mean I take it with the RP )

Usually once I get into the 40s. I'm determined to hit 50 wth one character so I'm getting my spellshield up there.