Well - ok here goes:
Niamh is a Pescatarian - (which for those of you who don't know, means she eats no meat other than fish) - this is important because I RP using an eat, drink and sleep mod - she's also completely teetotal, and doesn't like tea or coffee.
She can't carry any more than 200 - (without a pack, which she doesn't have).
She's allergic to Stamina potions, so can't take them.
She's not comfortable with swords and finds blunt instruments too cumbersome so she uses archery and a dagger, but the latter largely for self-defence.
Her magic skills are patchy - it's not that she can't learn them, she's just not very good/consistent at using them and doesn't have a huge mana pool.
Because of her predilection for VERY light armour it behoves her to keep out of the way as much as possible and running away from melee situations is always an option - she tends to lurk near rivers for an easy escape.
All of her skills started at 1.
Needless to say Sneak and Archery are going up faster than the others...
Pretty much everything she has she has to get from the environment one way or another because the Cutthroat Merchants tend to skin her alive.
--
no fast travel
no enemy, quest, or location markers on the compass
no looking at the map unless in a tavern - (map only has some marked areas and is mostly "unzoomable" and cloudy/foggy)
She is not the Dragonborn - (she has her own story).
--
Unless it's a quest-item she:

• Can only carry 2 types of arrow at any one time
  
• Can only carry 3 bows but only if 2 of them are wood, if 2 are not wood, then she can only carry 2
  
• Can only carry a sword/blunt weapon - (but not use it) - if she drops all bows except for the one she's actually using, and she can only carry one of them
  
• cannot carry more than 1 dagger at a time
  
• can only carry 1 ingot/piece of ore of anything at any time

There are other restrictions but I imagine we are at the TL;DR stage now so I'll quit whilst I'm ahead!!

I'd love to use something like that but I'm on PS3. Instead for consle players you could turn the screen brightness down when its dark.

A lot of people do that apparently. There's a guy on the Oblivion forum who puts tape over the compass as well.

You think that's bad? Try combining that lighting mod with http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=11163 one.

It really depends.

My Dunmer thief eats and gets piss drunk when ever he's in town to do so. He's also a closet skoom addict. I also literaly walk everywhere, as in, walk, not even the brisk jog. Occasionaly I steal a horse when the situation calls. Sleep reguarly as well.

It does make a real difference, although I confess to upping the speed a touch because it was painfully slow otherwise...

I don't know why but the idea of just booking it across the land everywhere seems stupid to me.

Indeed, it does make the world seem bigger, more so if you set the timescale to 5!

It's funny how "RP" has become a synonym of "hardcoe". In my mind, RPing is contributing to the story, impacting the world through my actions while getting stronger and improving my character; "hardcoe" is dealing with basic human needs, micro-managing numbers and inventory and that sort of thing.

I always RP. I don't always play hardcoe.

If I do play hardcoe, I don't go to extremes. If there was a mod that only accounted for *simple* hunger, thirst, and sleep, I would use it (unfortunately, the only ones I found required that I track way more crap than just those three). I tend to find shelter at night and sleep. Very rarely I'll handle my inventory in a more realistic way (i.e.: not carrying a ton of stuff) but that just gets annoying because I am an obsessive collector.

Other times, I don't care about any of it because I just want to run around killing things with my axe, and both hardcoe and RP just get in the way of my bloody rampage.

Personally, I RP my characters as much as I can get my mind into it.

They have an eating schedule, sleep during certain times (unless I'm a Vampire {which most of my characters are...}, then I RP that Vamps don't need sleep...), since they are mostly Assassins I'll have them pray to Sithis once every three days after they've killed an innocent, they change into "normal" Fine Clothes before entering a City/town/Village so that no one sees the Dark Brotherhood Shrouded Armor, etc.

I love to RP my characters because I grew up with it. D&D, Vampire: the Masquerade then Vampire: the Requiem, etc.

This game is one of the only RPG's on the market where you [/i]can[/i] really RP your character. Most RPG's claim to be free-form/open world, but then they hold your hand throughout the game. The Elder Scrolls is a game billed as "Live another life, in another world. Be who you want to be, live how you want to live, play how you want to play." and they deliver on it.

For hardcoe RP'ers, this game is the perfect way to RP as heavily as you want to, it's also the only game currently on the market that allows you to do just that.

Like I said, I usually run mostly Assassins. However, I've also run Merchant characters who do nothing but travel from city to city selling his wares (collected from the bodies of Bandits and what-not that my Follower & summoned creatures have killed while defending me), to running a career Mage who's career goal was to be the preeminent scholar in magical affairs, to being a Thief who had picked a city and lived his whole life just living off the fruits of hitting his marks within the city walls.

What other game could possibly allow you to have this much variation in your play style?

If I could afford to buy no other game ever again, I would always make sure that I could pick up the latest installment of The Elder Scrolls series.

@Bethesda: I can't give you enough applause of praise for this series that you have given to us. Masterful work, and even better experiences. I can honestly say that yours is the one game series that I have never tired of playing. I have played your games since Daggerfall, and I have loved each game more than the last. You have made a fan for life, and I thank you again for this wonderful, perfect RPG experience.

Thank you, Bethesda. Sincerely, thank you.

Uriel Nocturne

GT: Vampire Nox

whenever I stop playing in a dwemer ruin, I search a chamber with a bed in it. place some furniture in it, So I have a great camp.

I take RP fairly seriously. At the moment I'm a knight of Arkay and the filling restrictions apply.

Eat twice a day
I sleep in Inns (daily if possible, but I must sleep)
I won't loot the dead
I have a carry capacity (usually 50bs more than my armour and weapons weigh)
I won't murder or steal
I won't use lock picks
I won't do quests which fall outside of the RP.
Ill only use steal weapons
I won't collect ingredients (I'm not an alchemist)
I won't use enchanting.

I do a lot of stuff to provide immersion and prevent me being OP.

Have you tried this one: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=10639
I know what the title of the mod is and yes, a (very) brief set up is required BUT on basic it is pretty much - hungry/thirsty/tired.

No praying, my characters despise the gods. Loved Elsa God Hater from Oblivion! Eat regularly, sleep regularly, never fast travel (but will pay for cart rides), love travelling through bitter storms because it makes you feel alive.

Lol, that's kinda epic, but just spent ￡1200 on a new TV so I don't want to mark the screen. Have to investigate an alternative.

1. Eat, Sleep, and Drink.

2. No mercenary work because I despise mercenaries, if I'm an assassin I'm killing for the night mother, not because of gold, if I'm a mage I'm finding books for Urag because I want to help advance knowledge. This is a golden rule for me.

3. No fast travel except carriages

4. Use the "Dovahkin relaxes too" mod often. Having him read a book or warm his hands on a fire really helps with immersion A LOT.

5. If my character is evil, I need something to accentuate that, be it with necromancy, wearing Dark armor, using dark weapons, serving the Daedra, etc.

Well played sir, I tend to agree with everything you've said. Couple of things I'd like added, like some kind of morality tracker (with ppl changing how they perceive you) and slight alternatives to how a quest can be handled / ended.

Wish my laptop was upto speed do I could play on PC, id love the mods, would really help immersion.

In Oblivion, the compass is down in the corner and easy enough for me to ignore. In Skyrim it is in the top center and I cannot ignore it there (although I hear some can). I usually play Skyrim with the HUD entirely off, because I would not want to damage my HDTV with tape either. You have to guess at your health/magicka/stamina bars with HUD turned off, but it is a more epic experience and forces you to look and listen to what is goign on around you. I also play with music either off or really turned down.

And this is just one of several reasons for which I am so glad I got Skyrim for the PC. There are also just so many mods that help facilitate RPing, as well. I run the Frostfall mod which makes me worry about being cold and wet. I actually had a character freeze to death because she ran out of firewood and couldn't find somewhere to warm herself fast enough. It's got me toying with a mod to add inns all over Skryim. Anyways, running the Dovakhim Relaxes Too mod, when I do find a fire to warm up next to, my character can stand there with her hands stretched out, trying to warm them up.

It's all very nice. I can also add other things, like the need to eat, sleep, and drink. I don't run with those, though, because they feel like little more than inane upkeep. Might as well install a mod that requires me to press '1' every five minutes or I die.

New character -
Bounty hunter.
Not religious.
Always carries one bottle of mead and one venison.
Carries one dagger
Uses only destruction/some conjuration spells.
Only carries equipped armor + one set of clothes.
Only loots gold from corpses.
Never carries over 100 pounds weight.
Doesn't pick locks unless absolutely necessary.
Only steals ingredients.
Must make 10 health and magicka potions before travelling.
Never carries more than 15 of each potion.

If I die, I leave all my gold in a random container.
If I don't have any gold, I leave 10 of my potions in a random container.

If by "RP" you mean act in a realistic way, I RP much more than I don't. I eat and sleep. My time is 5 seconds per real second. When I eat I use the "Wait" function to make an hour pass. I have ale for breakfast and wine for dinner. If I have been out in the cold for too long I look forward to that nice warm inn.

I limit my carrying capacity to one suit of armor, one major weapon, a dagger, a bow, and 10 potions. When I start out my carrying weight is under 40. I do not let it get over 100. For loot I focus on small,valuable items. I will not take more than 2 weapons/staffs. I will not take more than 1 extra helm, gloves, or boots, and usually not that. I never take a cuirass unless I plan to keep it (very rare) and when I do I consider myself to be over encumbered and I go home.

I never fast travel but I do use the carriages sometimes. I usually walk or ride. I have compass markers turned off, so exploration is much more enjoyable.

It has been six months and I have yet to do the MQ. Slow playing makes me feel like I am getting the most out of this game.

I do this too. There have been times when I come over a ridge as the sun is coming up and I see an inn or a town and really breathe a sigh of relief. It's amazing what this game does.

Same here. I have gotten my $60 worth of game several times over.

@Mitheldh The mods you mentioned sound awesome! When I retire, I am going to be like Senior Cinco and get me a gaming PC and play modded games all day. Right now, I work on a PC all day, so the last thing I want to do in my limited free time is deal with one.

Edit, speaking of a warm fire, I saw this NPC once outside of Windhelm. He was some kind of soldier or something, don't remember exactly what, but he was standing there rubbing his hands like he was warming himself in front of a fire. But there was no fire for a hundred leagues. Nothing but snow. It was one of the more humorous glitches I have seen.

Sounds like a good idea, half the time I figure I should RP than I do but than I do something that breaks the RP XD...I tend to have my character sleep alot sence she is a vampire and I try to have her go out only at night unless she has stuff to sell since most shops are closed around 8pm-9pm when she wakes up, so I only have her get up to sell armor and so on but its hard to do anything other, like if I go to a dungeon and get loot I want to take it all with me to get more gold so its hard not to do that, or for example to play more like a vampire type after i break into someone's house either after waiting till they are asleep or hiding in a cornor so they don't know I am there I will drink their blood if I am blood startved or level 2 sometimes than kill them to make it seem like I drained them....wish we drained them, than of course if anyone hears me I run and kill them as well

Honestly, I'm more into getting to the next level. Maybe it's because this is my third time through and I'm getting burnt out. My character doesn't eat, and sleeps just for the resting bonus. I do fast travel because I like getting there quickly, but I have taken in the sites a bit since the graphics are beautiful.

OTOH, the first time through the game I paid some of the bards to sing Dragonborn, and I played games with the kids in Whiterun/Solitude to see what it was like. Then I got moving again.

My previous character did marry Jordis the Sword-Maiden, but only for the daily loot and sleep bonus. Ok, it was cool when she called me "Love."

I'm glad the game was designed to be played however you want to play it.