I see there's been no topic like this in recent times (by that I mean I did a search for 'rules,' and there haven't been any threads like this for a few days). For you role-players out there, do you have any rules that you follow to stay in character/create moments that pop? Share them, so that we may all grow in the way of role-playing.

Here are the rules I'm using for my current character, a hedonistic bastard who would be magnificent (but usually isn't):

- Only allowed to use enchanted, charged weapons.
- Cannot recharge weapons. Out-of-charge means broken.
- Cannot swim in armor unless using a water breathing effect. If he falls into the water while in armor, he must ditch the armor. (He spent all night naked in the wilderness after getting dumped out a waterfall once. Good times!)
- Must always be trying to buy something. If he's gained over 10,000 gold, he's probably doing something wrong. Greed is good! Frugality is bad! When in doubt, buy and drink all the booze in town.
- Sleep every night. Never wake up before 10.


Here are some things I try to stick to, but they're not rules, per se:

- Replace armor after particularly intense dungeons. (Is there a better way to simulate armor breaking?)
- Always have a substance to abuse at night (alcohol and moon sugar derivatives).
- Avoid fast travel. Note: Fast travel is okay if you know there are no radiant event spawn points between you and the destination.
- Always go for the short-term gain. Be completely blind to long-term benefits.
- If you come close to death just before killing a boss, maybe drop your weapons and wait for 10 hours or so to simulate recovering from a severe injury. I lost a sword this way. Getting back to town was quite an adventure...


Well, what do you guys do? I would've posted in a thread like dead-is-dead, but I don't actually play dead-is-dead. My character is far too dumb to live, after all. (And that's the fun of it!)

Well, I just RP logically. I have a Nord Warrior/Berserker type character who uses 2h's and 1h's and is a werewolf, he's not "evil" but he pleases himself and I always take what I want when I want, no matter what. He's a baller, and doesn't care who he offends. I don't do the thieves guild or mages guild stuff with him, because he is not a stealthy guy and not a mage.

Likewise, my assassin doesn't do any companion stuff or mages stuff, he just does thieves guild and dark brotherhood.

This will vary, drastically from character to character. Simply put...If it's not fitting to the character's personality, don't do it.

If there is no logical reason for them to go there...Don't go.
If they are a nice person...Be accepting towards others.
If they are a angry Orc with a hammer and an NPC gets rude...Cave their skull in.

if anybody in the game says somethin snarky to me no matter what the situation is i clock em in the face. just for the [censored] of it

Well my current character has some pretty strict rules she has to follow:

1) No fast travelling (carriages are okay depending on circumstance, because you have to pay for them).
2) Walk (even on a horse, in the wilderness, in town, etc. The only time I can run is in combat, dungeons, or if the situation calls for it such as running to catch up with someone).
3) I must eat a decent breakfast every morning and dinner at night (usually cooked meat, some vegetables, bread and drink, which varies depending on what is available).
4) I must sleep every night, for a reasonable amount of time. If out in the wilderness, I need to set up camp.
5) No magic. I can use enchantments and potions etc, but my character can't use magic.
6) No stealing. This includes things that aren't marked as owned (e.g. if you went into someone's house and saw a sword sitting on the table, you wouldn't take it just because it isn't marked as stolen).
7) I try to avoid healing in combat whenever possible, though sometimes its unavoidable.
8) Only equip what is reasonable within the context of the situation. (e.g. My character was once bathing near mortal when a dragon attacked. She only had time to throw some clothes on and grab her bow and arrows, so she had to fight like that).
9) When dealing with quests I've already completed before on other characters, I try to avoid making decisions based on the outcomes.

And possibly a few more that I don't recall right now. I find that these rules make the game seem more real. When walking, it takes longer to reach my destination, and so there is more use for things like camp, feeding and drinking, bathing, etc. It also makes the entire game last twice as long, because every time a quest sends me from one town to another it becomes its own mini adventure.

You shouldn't have to conform to rules for roleplaying. Just roleplay. That said, I do have a couple: Disable your compass, never fast travel, and never look at your map. Exploration is way more fun when you have to learn to recognise landmarks, watch the Sun, and keep an eye out for locations/ambushes.

1. Never use the invisibility spell more than once in a day;
2. Paralyze is not for spamming;
3. Damage magicka regeneration potion is purely for coin, so don't exploit it;
4. Even though the beggar's bonuses are cool, don't make it a rule before every trade;
5. The game introduction is boring and lengthy but it sets the ambiance for the character, so lets go through it;
6. Spare some mercenaries even if they are wearing Ebony armors;
7. Ask the bard to stop singing when you go to bed. If youre a member of an army, interrupt him if they start to sing your enemies hymn.
8. Buy at least a salt pile of every inn you go in... maybe an ale even if you don't drink it.
9. Don't be a nice vampire.
10. Don't be a rude khajiit.

... and many others but these ones are the only ones I can remember now.

• Do what it takes to make money.
  
• Never pay for your crimes, do the prison instead.
  
• Use one sword with a "Drain Health" enchantment, and the other Sword with a "Soul Trap Enchantment"
  
• Have to use the best Bow possible.
  
• Always have a companion with me wherever I go.
  
• If someone has something I want, I have to kill them and take it unless they are a trader or in a main town.
  
• Bandits must be killed on sight.
  
• Must use enchanted armour.

I have few strict rules I follow, and those I have basicly boils down to "Would my character in the confines of his/her beliefs and morality do this? And would he/she use this item/crafting type?" and other things like that.

The most important thing for me is to stay in character. Would my character do this quest? What decision would she/he make in this situation? Would my True Nord Warrior really hire a mage as the Imperial Marcurio? (No, unfortunately.)

If there's a quest I want to do, a special dungeon I want to clear or if I want a special outcome of some quest, then I must find a visble reason for him/ her to do it, not just travel across half of Skyrim because I know there's a quest or word wall or whatever there I want.

Then I have some general rules:
1. Eat at least breakfast, lunch and dinner. Eat an apple, bread or something if I'm on my way somewhere and it's been too many hours since I last ate. I don't eat raw meat or fish. The only exception is if I used food instead of healing potions, then I count it as a meal.
2. Sleep every night. 6-8 hours under normal circumstances, sometimes less, sometimes more, depending on what the day was like, how much I slept the previous nights and so on.
3. Avoid fast travel. I use it sometimes, if there's a good reason (like I want to get to a city before I shut the game down for the night or if my follower disappear...), but the general rule is No Fast Travel.

Then I can have more specific rules depending on character. My Nord warrior doesn't use any magic besides shouts - she knows a healing spell for emergencies, but she rarely uses it. She would never put on Elven armor. She rarely eats sweets or drink wine but like apples and mead. She only trades with Khajiti traders if it's absolutely necessary. She always prays at Talos shrines, and often leave offerings. She always gives coins to beggars. She can't pick locks above adept level unless she drinks a lockpicking potion or use some fortifying gear. She's lousy at sneaking and doesn't pickpocket at all. In the beginning of the game, she needed recipes to mix potions, but she got better. She only knows how to make restore health, restore stamina, resist fire and resist frost.

Among other things.

i honestly do not understand people that feel they need to do things like sleep through the night, eat every day, or other "Day-to-Day" type things. I admit that it might thrust you into the game world a little, but can you not assume that your character does that on their own?

This is probably because I prefer a more 'cinematic' style of roleplaying; power levels and whatnot don't matter, but making the audience(me) emotionally involved matters. So I do things like starting out with my weaker spells/weapons, and if I can kill them with that, great; if not, then I move up to the next level, and so on and so forth. Essentially I set myself up as that one end game boss with like 6 stages, and if the enemy can kill me well then good job! But if not, I tend to cackle over their body(sometimes in respect for their efforts) and move onwards.

By playing this way, I get to enjoy both the difficulty of a tough fight, but also simultaneously the knowledge that I am a badass and can kill them whenever I wish, something that any good anti-hero/anti-villain should have, I think.

Oh, I also like to turn off the enemy detectors on the compass, it removes all stress from the game at all. And it can be cool to turn off the place detectors too, because there's nothing quite like walking up to an ancient fort in the forest that you didn't know was there and seeing it for the first time. Plus, otherwise, with the way the compass was designed in skyrim I always feel like I'm just following the compass everywhere instead of actually playing the game.

I've only set "rules" for one character but I tend to follow them loosely. More of a moral code really.

Only kill if absolutely necessary.

Do not steal from friends.

Only except jobs I find at least somewhat justified.

No usage of fast travel, only carriage, horse, or foot. I'm fine with running/jogging.

Sleep, don't wait, but only at appropriate times. As an insomniac, I have trouble sleeping, more so taking naps.

Eat daily. Usually bread.

I don't follow rules on any character besides my 62 Rogue.

Never take candy from Sheogorath

My RP rules vary with the character but in general the same as other's. My Characters act as I would in that situation IF I was them.
*I need to eat at least twice a day, 3 times If I need to or am hungry.
*I need to sleep at least 6 hrs a night or I tend to be groggy and a witch to deal with the next day, so my characters do also.
* My thief and assassin are low key ppl, they don't attract attention to themselves, never wear TG or DG armor unless on the job.
* Dalhia is coldhearted, so only does "helpful" quests IF they will help her keep her cover. IE Jarl's quest for buying house, being a property owner is a good cover.
* My thief never kills anyone that doesn't attack her first.
* The rest of my character's do what their personalities tell them to do.
* don't fast travel, only exception being if a companion get's lost or stuck. Carriage riding is ok because it's paid for.
* when I have a horse or am running myself it's in spurt's...run, jog, walk... I can't run all day, neither can most horses.

Mostly I try to keep it as realistic as possible.... in a fantasy game.

Ah, forgot about that one! Yeah. And on the rare occasion where I have to go undercover/be inconspicuous, I leave all my other armor behind and hope that I won't have to fight.

Y'know, I don't follow rules like this for most of my characters. But every once in a while, I do, and these rules usually create interesting and exciting situations I wouldn't have come upon otherwise.

I think this is a given. My last character didn't have any of these rules, but she had an insanely cluttered journal from all the quests she picked up that she would never finish for her own personal reasons.

This sounds interesting! I'll have to try it someday.


One thing I forgot: My character never loots armor from corpses. Such equipment is usually badly damaged in the process of its owner dying, so isn't worth selling. Besides, what are the odds it's in my size? Besides, buying new armor is a nice little money sink.

I don't typically god-mode it, but I do try to make my character more powerful. Considering, in lore, the Hero of and Elder Scroll becomes much more powerful then the average mortal. So, not many rules, but I try to stay away from the fortify restoration stuff and console commands. Oh and mods that add things from different games/lore.

edit: said human, forgot about elves and beasts for a second is there a way to address all the races besides saying "person on Nirn"?
nevermind, mortal will suffice.

a while ago i added a new rule to my rping.

non-thiefing characters like warriors do not open locked chests or doors. i only do so if the game forces me to do it(which sadly happens sometimes, but there are also tons of ways to require keys for locked things). also my wariror uses the blessing that allows you to open locks once per day.

I do the basics.

1. Eat twice a day.
2. Sleep once a day.
3. Drink throughout the day. (Only wine, I just have to rp he drinks things like water. =/)
4. Never fast travel.

Then I do a few more things.

5. If I sprint my stamina bar to empty, I have to rest wherever I stopped at.
6. I always place lightning runes around my bed, assuming it's not in an inn. (My character is terrified of being snuck up on)
7. Try not to travel at night.
8. Visit the shrine of Malacath regularly.
9. Only carry 6 potions at a time.
10. In what I carry I can only carry the clothes on my back, and my mace. I do wear armor that has a small satchel, so I also carry a few smaller trinkets.
11. I don't spam potions.
12. Rest between fights.
13. Spend a lot of time walking to and from Strongholds, tending to only take Orcish companions.
14. Always buying a room in an inn whenever I visit a town.
15. I always dress accordingly to the area I'm exploring in. (Generally various furs)
16. Treat Bretons poorly. (Spend a lot of time in the Reach )
17. I've given my character fears and allergies. (His major fears being Vampires, Werewolves, Dragons, and the Undead) (Nightshade being his allergy)
18. Likes and dislikes. (His biggest likes being Salmon, Orsimer, Khajiit, Dunmer, wine, history, artifacts, reading, fighting, restoration, exploring, and his Orcish heritage) (Biggest dislikes being Bretons, Necromancy, Ale/mead, The Dark Brotherhood, The Thieves Guild, and heights.)
19. I've given my character a personality, I won't go into it here, though.
20. In my characters down time I have it to where, generally in inns/taverns, he will write in his journal, stories, or various theories. I actually write these out on my computer, and try to write them like the in-game books.

So, you got a major chunk of how I roleplay! Haha

If werewolf, can't use any silver items unless they are unique items like Hircine's Ring.

I don't have any other rules.

RE 14: My current character is building friendships and relationships all over Skyrim. Whenever he's out of town on business (Riften is his home), he'll freeload at a friend's house. If he's staying too long and doesn't have any, erm, intimate friendships, he'll rotate places to stay so as to not overstay his welcome.

RE 15: This is something I've been thinking of picking up. Currently he'll only wear armor if he's expecting trouble--if he's spending all day in town, he'll wear normal clothes.

I've started my first RP just a few days ago. 16 hours and only level 7, and I'm enjoying the pace.

I'm not great at coming up with stories (in this case background for the character) so I just devised something brief. 3 brothers, each taught her (my character) something, smithing (including mining), one handed with swords, and archery. Her mother left her a restoration spell in the will, hence why my character can use restoration. But only the starting spell. And her father was murdered by bandits. She is becoming quite the bounty hunter.

My rules are as follows...so far.

-Walk, always. I'm surprised, but I have not gotten sick of this. I'll move faster in combat of course, and other times it's needed.
-Eat twice a day, minimum. Something small, or a full meal.
-Sleep 6 hours, depending on how fatigued she is.
-See the sights of whatever town she is in. Rent a room, talk to the locals, do some shopping. Offer to do some work.
-Weight restrictions. This one is a toughy, but so far I've been able to stay below 150.
-Make my own armor. She needs custom fit, comfortable armor. Always mine and hunt for smithing supplies. She never buys them.
-Whatever happens, happens. If a follower is stuck, then I consider him gone, etc.

And a few others I'm sure. If at any time I'm finding these to be more of a chore, I'll tweak them a bit. After all, I bought the game to have fun.

Then there's personality. She doesn't trust anyone, yet. She stays away from doing dirty deeds, unless SHE believes them to be good, or justified. If there's a bounty, she'll take it. And so on and so forth. There's more to her, but she hasn't shown me yet.

I can take weapons off people, but not armor, clothes, robes or anything that would strip them naked.

On good characters, no taking things from random corpses. On all characters, no digging through zombies and skeletons for gold or bonemeal (but I'll take weapons and armor)

Bingo. This is the only rule anybody needs. All other rules are just a variation of this.

1. No fast traveling, ever.
2. Eat and drink at least once per day.
3. Sleep regularly.
4. Walk in towns and from place to place, only run when it would be acceptable.
5. No potions during combat. Unless I run from the fight and hide somewhere and then drink one. It has to be reasonably realistic that I could down a potion.

Friends are better than gold, so no mercenaries

Craft my own armor/weapons from all gathered ingredients

Avoid imperials at all cost( I'm RP a runner from the imperial draft)

Honor above need, no stealing or murdering for this character.

No fast travel

Food/water

Sleep