Ok, it's another restart thread.

I'm an emotional player. I play RPGs for the immersion, and not for min/maxing the best and the baddest. But I feel I make the mistake of getting too carried away with the type of character I play, even if it has little to no bearing on the game itself.

Case in point - my current char - Medani, Imperial thief/assassin - or at least that's how I see him, he's yet to get to teh guilds, mostly tooling around Riverwood/Whiterun at the moment... ready to head to Riften...

But here's the problem - I tend to be a "good guy" player. I do the quests, I get Ysolde her mammoth tusk, I get Amren his sword back... stuff like that. Haven't gone too far on the MQ yet, but I intend on doing it... it's my first real playthrough. I'm not saying I need to be the bad guy, but the whole thief/assassin thing, and then helping out a merchant with her quest to be the best ever merchant just gives me some congnitive dissonance, that's all. But at the same time, I killed those travellers headed to their friends wedding. Not sure if cognitive dissonance is the right term, but it makes me question the character.. so there it is.

So... what to do? Restart? Play a Nord Warrior, hero of Skyrim? I guess to add to the dilemma, I work, I've got a family, if I get about 6 hours of gaming time a week, that's pretty good. My char right now is level 15 and I just don't know if I can handle going through the intro, Embershard, Bleak Falls and all the intro stuff again. I've probably restarted at least 5 or 6 times... and coincidentally, it's usually around level 15 or so that I start to get... antsy.

So, what do the experts think? Restart? Or get my butt to Riften asap?!

I tend to have two major characters types (out of multiple characters) good and bad. Good ones help people, bad ones steal and kill. Now, in these games, Thieves are not typically murderers, but it is still a crime. Some will even roll a thief and roll an assassin.

There is no reason not to have multiple characters, rolled for each play style you want to do. In fact, the game is better with a character that is built for certain things to do those certain things. My current Paladin is not a Thief, will not steal and will not kill for money, only defense or principal. I can never take him through the Thieves, DB or even most of the Daedric Quests.

Thanks for the quick reply CCNA. Yes, I agree. The Thief is not going to do the Companions quest - but again, I tend to play more like a warrior then a sneaky thief. Although, for instance, I just finished the Valtheim Towers mission to get the sword back and I loved sneaking around, taking each guy out and moving on. My intention would be to do TG and DB as well as MQ with this character.

The other complication is I have restart issues - I play on PS3 and everytime I restart it overwrites the old character immediately. I've tried getting around it, I used to have two active characters... but that doesn't seem to be the case anymore.

Perhaps I need to get into a more of a "mercenary" type - takes jobs, whether it's to help, steal or kill... But again, the sneaky playstyle sure can be fun, except when you get ganged up on... then it's back to the last save due to death.

It's Skyrim, nobody cares if you kill half of the world.

Hey dude, I'm a totally emotional player too!

Sometimes when I get a bit confused about why my character would do this and not that, etc, I get my notepad and write a little story about the occurrance. When you pretend you are writing a snippet from a story it is amazing how you can justify somewhat bizarre behaviour.

I tend to get frustrated and restart games a lot, and it sometimes ruins the experience for awhile so I try my hardest to avoid it. Up to you of course!

just like CCNA said: multiple characters.

i very STRICTLY roleplay my characters in this game and find it to be very liberating. my "bad" thief/assassin doesn't need to worry about all the quests that help others and can just go on.

my non-alchemy character doesn't need to pick up all the ingredients everywhere. or, accept those quests that need them.

my non-magic character doesn't need to worry about enchanting or the college, etc.

i've started characters over many times. it took me awhile to get my nord loyalist down correctly and have been to level 30-ish on multiple occasions. and, in fact, due to a recent post i may restart him, since, i wasn't paying attention to the fact that adding enchantments, uh, increases enchanting. and, i wanted a strict non-magic user.

so, i really feel skyrim is set up to have multiple characters with a variety of builds, with very strict role-playing adherence.

I can't handle multiple characters personally. It gets a bit confusing. D:

I love sneaking around and using my bow but when I have to I whip out a sword in one hand and a fire ball in the other and I'm having a lot of fun.I know how you feel about restarting.Every game I play I always start a character and play till about level 10 or so just to get the feel for the game and then I start over and make whatever changes I need.

Nobody's perfect. Your good guy can have a dark secret or a major weakness, like an addiction. My generally good girl has a little secret: she has a thing for garlics. She can't help stealing them. She'd ignore gems, gold, valuables, but she can't walk past a garlic braid.

Since I'm not a multiple character type of gamer, I try to do as much as possible with one character. So I just create a story: my character isn't out there for an adventure or two, it's a lifetime out there. So my good girl eventually gets overwhelmed with what she sees, learns and experiences, the power, wealth and knowledge she gets, and it slowly consumes and corrupts her. Now, I do't know yet whether she can entirely change and kill innocents, probable not, but she might just wander the grey area and come up with lame exuses for some not so good actions. Like Zevran of DAO used to say: assassin's victims had it coming anyway. She won't do bad Daedras' biddings though.

You can do the deeds requested but for your own reasons. For example, give Ysolde the Tusk not because you are an altruist, but because you want to win her confidence for some future payback (like marraige or just information). Amren becomes a trainer if you help him so you have better reasons than simply being a "good guy" you wanted to pick his brain so you can become a better assassin. Bad guy types don't get very far if they are crappy to everyone they meet.

So, Get your butt to Riften.....Get your butt to Riften.....Get your butt to Riften.....

(funny how hearing Arnold say that fits so well into Skyrim. The guards all sound like him anyway.)

it really can be, but, i limit it to 2 character types: a "good" nord loyalist and a "bad" khajiit thief/assassin, for example. very opposite and so it's easier to get right back into them.

DID's are an entirely different beast.

plus, some days i just feel like being bad, lol.

IMO its the tell of a great RPG to restart many times; play with very different PCs, and see how the game reacts to them.

* So in a game with no ending... I say restart whenever the whim comes along.

But that's the problem - I care. "It's not you, it's me"... know what I mean. I'm the problem.

Lynzi, I appreciate the thought - writing down a bit of a backstory. I already have one for this guy, and that could be the problem. I may need to start "fresh" to avoid this, with a character NOT from a book or movie or some other source, but just a totally fresh idea without a name and background taken from somewhere else that I then try to make fit.

Grace - you hit the nail on the head, except one thing. My char is not a spell user, so if the sneaky bow doesn't work, and I'm suddenly surrounded, well, it's my one sword versus bandits with warhammers, it usually goes the wrong way for me. Granted, that's my choice, it's how I choose to play. But I suppose that's my problem. I want to have a sneaky bow guy who can whip out fireballs and lightning bolts AND swing a two hander and be the baddest bad a&& in the valley...

as for multiple characters, I think that would be ok for me, IF the ps3 wasn't being a [censored] about it.

Dowaco - nice, you got the arnie reference.

Gizmo, your avatar freaks me right out.

Yeah, I'm on the fence on this one. Wasted time, versus trying to get the right "fit" of character type. I've got some playtime tonight (wife is out for drinks with friends) so I'm somewhat trying to decide whether to get to Riften or start over tonight.

Perhaps a Dark Elf Batllemage - good all around combo there... and maybe I head in the other direction, leave the MQ for a while... go visit Falkreath and the western part of the map, which I've never been to...

And Gizmo, I agree - it's a great RPG. Sure, not perfect, but I've no real complaints about it. It's the best up to now, at least in my experience.

"Lynzi, I appreciate the thought - writing down a bit of a backstory. I already have one for this guy, and that could be the problem. I may need to start "fresh" to avoid this, with a character NOT from a book or movie or some other source, but just a totally fresh idea without a name and background taken from somewhere else that I then try to make fit."

Oh, your dude is based on an actual character? Oh, I couldn't do that, it'd annoy me. I guess it would be interesting to try to play as like... Conan or whatever. xD I think it's more fun to pluck a character out of your mind. Or you could see it as an alternative reality you.

I might have misunderstood what you said there and if so, sorry.

P.S. I feel so bad about PS3 users. You guys seem to have got the short end of the stick. Or however that phrase goes.
Jeez, my brain's given up.

I have found some baddies that all the fireballs and lightning bolts couldn't beat so after the umpteenth reload I just walked up to them and beat them with my war axe and poof............job done.Surprised the heck out of me since that is usually my last resort.Go figure.

Forget the main quest for awhile.I started at the college just to get a room to store things and then I walked around the map to each major city picking up little quests and checking out caves along the way.No fast travel until I found all the cities.It was really fun.

Yes, Khajiit knows the burden of being good. Evil has not been done so easily, but when evil has been committed, it can be most addictive. Khajiit wishes to use every other Dunmer for his example. However, played less, is the neutral character. Khajiit knows neutral very well, doing what he does to turn a profit while trying to build relationships with the right (perhaps financial) peoples. J'rahzir suggests that helping the Nord and the Redguard does not make the Imperial good. Does the Imperial not profit? The Nord does not ask for the Imperial to give to her for the Imperial to recieve nothing. The Redguard does not provide nothing for something. Surely, the Imperial gives oneself too much credit when Khajiit does similar and recieve no such title of 'good.'

It actually took me quite some time to get to joining the thieves guilld as I was completely unaware that

I have to be honest, I haven't had it that bad w/ the other ps3 issues, just the save file. Basically one character at a time. And that's that.
As for the character background - granted, it's a background of my own creation, pre-Skyrim, but it still gets knocked around a bit.

Yup, thanks Grace... if I restart, that's going to be it... check out parts of the world I've not seen. Although I do want to follow the MQ a bit, at least to get the dragons moving along...

J'rahzir - good advice, and I think I could read your posts all day. I dig the IC!


Well, thanks NK - if I make it to Riften, at least I'll get started quickly enough! Ha Ha! Spoiler spoiled!

im doing the same thing, my first character in these games is kind of all- over - the - place but once i have seen enough i then make more "focused" characters.

To OP: It sounds to me like maybe you're pigeon-holing yourself from the get-go by trying to define them within the constraints of a traditional RPG class. Instead, I would suggest, play the character's story. Come up with a simple background for your character and then unleash them into skyrim and let their story evolve. If their background involves some sneak skill, then they'll likely enter Skyrim using what they're best at. However, that doesn't mean they won't learn of, and maybe be enticed by, other skill sets along the way -- maybe even giving up on their original skill set.

And remember that we all behave in seemingly incongruous ways. E.g., an assassin isn't a serial killer or a mass murder, and for many of them, it's simply a profession. When not on the job, they may be the nicest neighbor on the block. Thieves, as well, come in all kinds of variety: petty thieves, muggers, experts only interested in high-value items, Robin Hood types.

Don't give up so quickly on your character and let them evolve. Give them the chance to tell their story. Listen to them instead of the voice in your head that says, "That's not what I expected." Because, after all, if you already know where their story leads, that'd be, well, kind of dull.

That's what they're there for

Ha - CandleThief - yeah, mine's pretty focused, I'm just my own worst enemy.

lilbear - I'm a professional pigeon-holer, so I think you're right.

Ok - verdict... I think I need to head to Riften. Do what I intended to do and not overthink. It's what I've wanted to do, I just need to push on through the moments of doubt. I dig this character and the way he's developing, it's just those other times when something's askew that leads me to question.

But as I said... if I go through Embershard Mine one more time, I may just hack off a limb. (my own)

jeezz, lilbear - if this little paragraph isn't the best argument, I don't know what is. Nicely done.