Just thought I would make a thread where people can post there different playstyles, or different ways of rping for example what rules do you follow? I think this will help improve other peoples experience with the game.

Current character is a stealth,archer,alchemist with some lockpicking and pickpocket.
She doesn't fast travel,she eats three times a day and sleeps at least 6 hours a night or daytime,whenever she can.
She doesn't run everywhere most of the time she walks during her travels and pick ingredients along the way.
She has joined the theives guild and uses no followers.
Her main goal is to become filthy rich,gold is her motivating force.

Right now I'm RPing a Nord warrior who never backs down from a fight, even if he's losing badly, because his honor is more important to him than his life.

I also don't fast travel often, if ever, to make it more realistic, and I stop to sleep every night. If I'm not near an inn, I wait until morning to simulate stopping on the side of the road (or wherever I am) and resting. Unless I'm on some kind of important mission, in which case I travel through the night.

This has been done before, but oh well, it's always interesting to read.

- I don't fast travel, although I use carriages.
- I sleep at the end of every day, making exceptions depending on the immediacy of the quest I'm doing.
- If my followers die, they are dead. If that follower died while successfully defending me, I leave their weapon with them, no matter how valuable, as a sign of respect.
- If a follower survives long enough, and proves to be great help, I have him or her join the Blades.
- I only wear a helmet during battle.
- If I'm going to commit a crime, I put on the Nightingale cowl.
- I keep some items for sentimental value, and I've been using the shield of Ysgramor ever since I found it, despite having better ones.
- I started doing questlines as a good character (Companions, College), and I progressively turned evil forced by the circumstances (Thieves, Brotherhood). I did them in this order to follow what would be a more logical character arc, and I act in consequence.

Sounds good, sometimes when I'm nowhere near an inn I try and find somewhere like an imperial camp or somewhere with a bedroll.

Just some general things I can suggest anyone: take you time to explore, and don't fast travel everywhere. On my first character I fast traveled everywhere, but now I take more time to get from one place to another, I find that I'm enjoying the game a lot more. Of course I fast travel sometimes, especially to areas I've visited before, but it's less immersive. Also, it adds to the game if you play like you would in real life: sleep at night, cook some food every now and then, et cetera. It makes the game more immersive, and adds to the experience.

I play an archer that specializes in kiting. He uses the fastest bow (long bow), the lightest armor (hide) and upgrades them via smithing. He uses and abuses slowing poisons.

Right now I'm playing as a Khajiit warrior who is now forced to get by as best as he can ie; joind the assassins guild, joind thieves guild, skilled archer,bladesman, dabbles in destruction,illusion,alteration. I tend to walk/run every where rather then fast travel and if I am in a hurry I will hire a carriage to get me there. While on the road I try to plan out my route so as to make a big loop back home and if I wont make it in a day I plan my route so I will make it to a inn to spend the night.( due to I multitask alot of quests, I tend to have 4-6 going at one time.) I wear clothing instead of armor but if I had to choose it would be glass, and finally my last and most important rule is that I kill any Redguard wearing Hammerfell garb just to play the part of a Khajiit warrior whom has a chip on his shoulder when it comes to Redguard's and the conflict with Elsweyr.

Currently RP-ing an Alik'r warrior.
Wearing nothing but Hammerfell Garb, Gloves and Redguard Boots
Only using a scimitar
Only looting items I could logically carry in real life and selling them off immediately (only have clothes, a precious ring, lockpicks and my weapon in my inventory)
No magic, potions, scrolls etc.
No crafting or level-grinding
Sleep and eat normally
No fast-travel but sometimes use carriges
All perks into sneak and one-handed so far

NOTE; I'm out to get you Carrots!
Lol, I kid.

To
yougivingmelipboy? By the twin moons you better be sneaky, my cat-sense is tingling!!!

These posts are all awesome. Thank you all. I'm going to implement them all. This,is exactly what all TES games have lacked for me.

nord loyalist, major= 1-h/light/block (can max) minor= archery (mid-range and used sparingly), no magic, 1st tier alchemy only

smith= only use mined material but can buy small amounts iron/steel, only smith used equipment = no powerleveling.

saves all prisoner stormcloaks

lockpicking= must train to appropriate levels to pick higher locks other than novice/apprentice (make notes on chests/types if i want to go back and open later)

no magic means enchanted items are discarded after empty.

i use a printed out map of skyrim and add in new locations as i get them and do not use in-game map to see current location.

My current playerstyle is "anything goes" that means
1. maxed alchemy/enchantment/smith
2. abuse fact that NPC cannot jump
3. summon and run to slowly weaken opponent
4. lure into traps
5. fast travel
6. potion spam

And I still can die 10+ times per dungeon. This is due to playing on Master Difficulty with a No Leveling Policy.

BTW: AES does not actually loop because the percentages are too low without perks.

What's a no leveling policy? No perks?

I play as an Argonian who escaped a life of fighting in the pits of the Imperial City's arena for his slave masters. It's a pretty beefy back story, but here's the play style:

Major Skills:

• One Handed
  
• Block
  
• Light Armor
  
• Alchemy
  
• Restoration

Minor Skills:

• Sneak (2 points for the x6 backstab)
  
• Smithing (2 points for Arcane blacksmith)

Restrictions / Playstyle:

• Will not buy crafting materials, only using what can be hunted/gathered in the wild
  
• Banned from any and all magic aside from Restoration, this includes Enchanting, staves, scrolls, etc
  
• Master difficulty
  
• No fast travelling whatsoever
  
• Attempts to sleep at night and eat a few times per day

Healer, no armour, relies on restoration, Ebonyflesh and alchemy, mainly fortify health, to survive, as her main means of dealing damage is the Ghostblade, and getting up close with no armour is a serious business with the melee heavy hitters in this game. None of that -100% magicka cost stuff, but otherwise enchanting has been taken as far as it can go, with this build every little helps.

pretty fun thing I did lately is some kind of werewolf thief.

in normal form don't use weapons except bow+arrow for distraction and just try to sneak through everything and steal stuff.
quite rewarding the first moment you've reached the final chest of a dungeon without killing anyone.

(to mention you should use some mods for balance so your sneak doesn't get too OP highlevel)

if you can't avoid a fight or are detected, transform to wolf

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1343124-idea-new-playstyle/page__fromsearch__1

Casual roleplaying-munchkin style...

-Grind skills as needed
-Sleeping is for sissies
-Exploring is useful, but I′ve seen the path between Whiterun and Windhelm enough times, I don't need to see it for the thirtieth time
-Play at average difficulty, combat isn't that fun that I want to spend 10 minutes in a war of attrition with every Dwemer construct in the game
-I'd prefer if I didn't have to use the compass, but with the option being going over rhe entire Skyrim with a fine-tooth comb - Quest markers it is
-Staying in character as far as accepting quests, joining factions and choosing perks go
-Make use of techniques and AI-stupidiy such as sneaking, high-terrain and hit-and-run in the early game when the character is generally weak, less once the character becomes specialized and powerful within their style (unless their style is sneaking)
-Collect and equip cool looking stuff, I refuse to have spent all that time on my character's looks to wear a stupid mask in front of it the entire time

Yeah, after 3 months of playing this game I'm leaning more and more toward papercut_ninja's style. I tried to construct a poll post for this topic, but I'm as dense as irridium and can't figure out how. My choices would have been these:

1. hardcoe roleplay -- I create a high-concept character with a detailed backstory whether it fits the game mechanics or not (like a hunter who doesn't interact with anyone or an Ashlander who won't use money -- seen both of these on the forum) and stay in character at all times. I place a page full of restrictions and rules on myself. I also play on Master and Dead-is-Dead.

2. High roleplay -- I create a detailed character background that fits within the general game setting. I restrict myself to quest lines that fit with my character concept. I also use realism restrictions like inventory limits and not using fast travel, although I'll use carts. I mentally construct a storyline for my character as I play. Much of the action is in my head. You can read about it on my blog I made for my character.

3. Combo of roleplay and meta-gaming -- I have a character roleplay concept but I'll also use game mechanics like fast travel, and won't worry too much about things like my inventory or sleeping. If it's in the game I'll use it. I usually stick to quest lines that make sense for my character and try to have an in-game reason for doing things, but I'm not above doing a quest or joining a guild to get a specific item just because it's cool.

4. Straight meta-gaming -- The game is meant to be beaten. Yeah, my character has a backstory. It's that I want to get all achievements, do all quests, find all locations, and max all skills, or at least try to. I may do it with one character or several. I may grind sometimes to raise a skill but won't go overboard with it, and won't use recursive crafting tricks and exploits to become uber. I try to get that way naturally.

5. Uber all the way -- I WILL use recursive crafting tricks and exploits in order to become an overpowered, Daedric-equipped, ancient-dragon-one-shotting god as quickly as possible. My play style is "I win everything always." I also play on master because I'm just that bad-ass.

To be clear, I like all of these play styles, or at least reading about them (I know some uber guys personally -- their game-beating skills amaze me). I stick to #3 most of the time. I tried #2 but had trouble maintaining my internal storyline and shifted it more meta. Maybe if I'd had a blog....

id say im #4 of the list above on first playthrough (i think i did EVERYTHNG [all locations & quests] except wolf queen pt.2 cuz i cant level up).

other playthroughs are probably #3. i try to stick to one or 2 factions & not do all the side & misc quests.

pretty much the only "rule" for me is nothing that covers my characters face unless i grow to hate it

My character is an Imperial Assassin. I made a background, play style, and some quirks basically.

- I do fast travel but try to restrict myself to cities and towns only, roleplaying that I'm basically traveling to a well known place and it's just fast forwarding.
- Being an assassin, I restrict myself to only Dark Brotherhood quest lines. To make my story arc more interesting, my background involves my character's parents once being Dark Brotherhood members in Cyrodiil until the Great War. The entire first few days of my character's journey involves his wish to contact the Dark Brotherhood, somehow.
- My character is a disciplined yet free spirited assassin. He cares a lot about personal freedoms yet also has honor which means he doesn't kill civilians unless he needs to and especially doesn't use bows. He does use magic to some degree but not to kill his enemies directly.
- I try to be a respected member of the community and wear fine clothing when residing in cities.
- Despite being a Dark Brotherhood member, my character supports the Empire. Reason being is that he blames the Thalmor for the death of his parents and the Stormcloaks for making him get caught in the border.
- I don't plan on doing the Main Quest for quite a while. My character doesn't care as there's only one dragon and he's leaving it to the Empire. Just inform the Jarl and let it be. Don't go to Bleak Falls Barrow.
- On a related note, after absorbing the knowledge from several Word Walls, my character is starting to get suspicious.
- I kill EVERY Thalmor person I see out of retribution.

Right now I play a Nord warrior who:

1) Uses no magic or potions, except for potions or enchanted items he buys or finds. Not to say he has no magical talent, he simply refuses to admit it.

2) Grabs every gem and piece of jewellery he finds. Before the great war, he was a jeweller in the Imperial City, after that he became a mercenary.

3) Sleeping every night, and eating meals.

4) Shares loot with his companion Stenvar.

5) Is restricted to a more realistic carrying capacity. He can't carry 3 sets of heavy armour or 5 battle axes for example.

Daedra Worshipping Dark Brotherhood Assasin.

Wears Jester outfit, Jester gloves and shoes with shrouded hood when in cities, and wears Daedric Armor out in the field/dungeons.

Mace/Axe expert, heavy armor, master of shock destruction, sneak, and summoner.

Limited fast travel, limited enchanting, limited smithing. Favorite weapons are Mace of Molag Bol, Glass Waraxe (15 shock damage), and Mehrunes Razor.

His activities include assasinations, rare book retrieval, and Daedra worshipping and bidding.