The Imperial speaks as if he were about to murder a small old woman. J'rahzir thinks the Imperial should stop thinking and just rush in, screaming loudly amongst the darkness. Khajiit never found a guard who expected a shadow to scream.

This has been a great read. Thanks everyone.
As for the issue of the PS3 overwriting save files, I've only had that happen if the character is named the same as the new one. As of now I have 3 characters saved and I alternate between them each week. When I restarted my Mage, "Raspy", I named the new guy Raspy and after I'd played and saved a few times, the old Raspy save file was gone.
Also, my game auto-saved right before you design your character so I use that when I want to start anew (instead of going through the whole intro). I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but it could be worth a try to start a new character.
I hope this helps.
Again, this thread has been a refreshing and great read.

You mean it overwrites the old auto save?. It shouldn't ever overwrite a manual save, least it's never happened to me with like 8 or 9 characters due to my own restartitis (360 should be same save system as ps3). What it does for me the game saves itself at the character select screen, it's a new save and doesn't overwrite any of the auto saves it looks like 596 Prisoner Level 1 so as soon as I get control of my character I do a manual save on top of the new prisoner save and that's the save I'll use throughout the whole play through.

It's never overwritten any of the saves from before all my retired saves are still there.

Are you doing anything different?, like only using the auto saves and not making your own manual saves?.

The Khajiit speaks the truth. J'rahzir sounds as if he's a fan of a friend of mine, name's Lamora? Just a guess.

Raspy - glad you like it. I see no reason to end it, simply b/c I've stopped crying and made a decision.

But on the ps3 issue - I've had mine overwrite files with separate names, so be careful. Using the same file (at the character creation point) may work, but I have to be honest, I'm not taking any chances. I'm pretty sure when I created Medani, just getting to the character creation spot (when you're on the cart w/ Ulfric), it wiped out my last guy. Just saying... tread lightly.

And I'd agree w/ Raspy as well. Thanks everyone.

Nothing says you can't help out a certain merchant by retrieving their missing claw for them, return it for the reward, and then, once they go to sleep, sneak in and steal it for your self.

Think of some of these helpful quests as a way to case out potential victims.

Yup - that's what happened to me. But I have to be honest, that's a "recent" development. There was a time when I had two or even three characters. Maybe that's the key? I don't know. I'm reluctant to try it. Although if I do, I suppose that could answer the original question as well... the hard way! ha ha!

Agreed gethe, but again, I'm my own worst enemy. How could I do anything to poor Ysolde? And yes, I know she's not THAT innocent, but that's the "good guy" in me at odds w/ my thief character.

This Khajiit knows no Lamora, but J'rahzir would perhaps enjoy a chance meeting... yes?

Can you back up your save onto cloud or a USB flash drive on ps3 so you can have a play around with the save system without fear of it borking up. When you save what do you do?, leave it to the game to save, manually save over your current saved game or manual save as a new save?.

I do the second, manually saving over my existing game. But I think manually creating a new save game file EACH and EVERY time you want to save would be best for you, that way if one of your saves goes funky and gets overwritten you have fifty or more old saves in there that you can go back to.

That's about all you can kill...other half is all essential..

I do the same, manually save over the same file every time, in addition to whatever auto saves the game does for me. Next time I get restart-itis, I'll have to make sure I've got a bunch of save files. Thanks Pete!

i pretty much never restart, and never try to play multiple characters. in a game as such, i prefer to play with a single character and live through the entire experience in all its glory. if i decide to experiment with fire, i give it a shot, if i decide to play with my bow, i give that a shot. eventually i get pretty good at the things i enjoy most. sometimes i don't even like going back to a previous save when bad things happen, like killing my companion by mistake or something like that. sh*t happens, it's all part of it.

the only problem with a heavy single character is on major differences between play styles, not the little things. like when there is a twist in the plot based on the character's race. that was the case with the Dragon Age game i remember, which really entailed a different angle to a chunk of the game based on the race you picked. i don't see that much in TES games, other than on a few minor occasions. although in Skyrim PERKS make a difference, and that might cause me to go through another playthrough eventually...although by the time i finish with my wood elf, a new game will come along. you can always save a bunch of perks though for the very end and explore a couple of dimensions that may be completely unknown just for the fun of it. so i like a game that makes you sacrifice some things for others, but with enough flexibility not to ruin the experience. Skyrim is pretty out there. i'll play it to the extreme with my wood elf...and finally move on.

I found it best to not limit yourself. I did this:

I created a Vampiric Stealthy Assassin that is a Expert Illusionist and Adept Destructionist. This took me about 8 characters before I finally got it right. Basically how I did it was this, I felt the need to have to be what the game projected, as an emotional player myself (and logical too) I found that I was being told that I was a Dragonborn when, I roleplayed and figured no I wasn't at all but I was one who new a great knowledge of the shouts, such as the greybeards and Ulfric himself know the dragon language. I also changed the options to my liking, and also a great deal of in gameplay I altered to my liking, such as:

-No HUD
-Adept gameplay
-Carry weight won't exceed 200
-limited amount of carryable arrows, potions, lockpicks
-prowl during the night, take shelter during the day if possible (to go with the RP of a vampire)

Also if you do make rules of your own, then feel free to change them, like I mentioned do not limit yourself. I started on Master, and relized I seen a great deal of unrealistic combat fights, I bumped it down to expert, it was going great until Mammoths/giants were outrageously overpowered, I am now on Adept which seems to be doing well, however I wish the enemies were a bit stronger but my damage is the same.

Regardless that is my "Evil" character. He is the only one in my saves at the moment. I do however have future plans to create a "Holy benevolent Paladin" character in which he is the true dragonborn. I always wondered how cool it would be if the two came together and fought each other in the wilderness. How awesome is that lol. That is what keeps me going and from restarting a new character.

Whenever you get the urge to create a new one, stop playing free your mind of thoughts by taking a break. This is truly the only way to supress thoughts while playing the game in my expierences. Good luck and I would like to hear how you are doing with your character!

You could create a new profile for each character. I have five characters, each with its own profile, just so I don't accidently overwrite one. Also, whatever you do, don't save over the original "Prisioner" save the game creates at start-up. The game will always overwrite that slot when you start a new game and if you save over it you won't be able to tell which slot it is. This has led to a great many folks accidently erasing their game.

Hmm, good idea Turija. I suppose I could use my 7 year old daughter's email address. ( I had to create her own just so she could be a registered Girl Scout... don't ask)..

I think part of my hesitation is the time put in also. I would've been level 60 by now if not for all of my ... cough cough... impulsiveness.

But then, I run across a thread like the 2 favorite spells one and all I think of is making a mage... hmmm.. perhaps Khajiit mage/archer... (see what I mean?! )

You don't need an email address for a new profile. I have a bunch of profiles I only use for Skyrim characters that are not connected with any email address or Playstation Network account. If I want to download a patch or watch Netflix, I switch to "User 1" which is connected to my Playstation Network account, but for playing Skyrim you don't need to be connected to the internet.

How do you deal with not knowing what your health is? I tried no HUD but gave it up when I realized I had no idea if I was at full health or within an inch of dying. I thought you could tell byt the blood spots blurring your vision but that did not seem to work cause there were times I could hardly see because of all the bloodspots on my screen, but when I went into the inventory to take a potion, I was already at 90% health. Othertimes I was at 10% health with no blurry bloodspot vision.

well... I'm a dummy. Thanks Turija! My daughter's email will remain completely unused!

I solved my restartitis by writing very detailed background stories for my characters, which makes me feel very attached to them.

That's what you need to stop right there. When I'm playing an rpg I don't let what "I'd" do ever enter the equation, it's not me PLAYING that character, it's that CHARACTER living his story.

I must admit I am a compulsive re-starter, never got beyond level 25 yet and I've clocked just over 500 hours. Testing the Beta's account for some re-starts, and then making or adding in mods that do effect the game will make me re-start, but I think that it is just an excuse. I find the building of your character upto say level 15/20 in all Beth games since Oblivion gives me the most enjoyment, once you hit that level where the enemy start to feel a bit to easy I start to lose my way. As someone else said 'Expert' and 'Master' levels just do not 'feel' right balance wise, its like FO3 on Very Hard where a half naked women can take 10 shotgun blasts and still walk??? Adept gives a better balance across the board but is slightly to easy with some bandits, so a level of in between 'Adept-Master' would probably be best. (Any ideas on any Mod that does that???)

I do avoid following the same 'path' with re-starts so I often find I'm doing totally different things/mini-quests, I just enjoy being the wanderring adventuer so I tend to side step the main story lines but in the end I do get drawn back to at least do 'Whiterun' as the Dragons do need to be in the game as its an integral part of Skyrim. I'd be surprised if I ever do get to finish all the possible story line paths, maybe? maybe not? Skyrim has become a little like Morrowind was for me, turn off fast travel and just go 'that way' no 'that way' well how about 'that way' Oh all right He He

OP: You just sound like you're too hung up on tacking one of two alignments to yourself: Good or Evil. You want to be good, but you commit evil acts from time to time. You're missing the most fun (and natural) alignment: Neutral.

More specifically, your thief/assassin sound like he's chaotic neutral: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alignment_(Dungeons_%26_Dragons)#Chaotic_Neutral

I would just live with my actions and move on. No one is perfect.

I open up the skills and it displays my health.

Couple of things. First of all, turn off the Autosaves, all of them. Use manual save slots so the game will not over write your content. Get in the habit of saving before you go somewhere or to a new cell. Save in the middle of a cell. Never save just after you enter a cell. Keep a save point from before you start a quest, one for during it, and one at major stages. This way if the quest borks, then you can go back.

Now, to have multiple characters active, either have a PS3 profile for each one or do this: