Do you think of your character as an extension of you? An improvement upon yourself? A separate person altogether?

While my Dovahkiin is a far sight better looking than me, I like to imagine her as an extension of my thoughts and actions. That she is very focused on doing what is 'good', rather than easy. Protecting those who can't protect themselves. Doing what is best for the realm. I can't bear killing innocents or doing evil deeds.


I was thinking about this last night, as a dragon descended on me while I was in the middle of assisting a saber cat in gargling my blade... could you imaging being a regular joe and seeing something like that coming out of the sky? I for one would likely crap myself.

alot like me values friends and family and tries to do right but occaisionally gets into some trouble and all around good person to have as a friend. but if you mess with his friends or family may whatever deity or deities you believe in have mercy on your soul.

Since this is my very first RPG, I am learning as I go along. There are some things that make me feel weird doing, like pickpocketing and stealing. So I guess you could say that I am sorta playing like myself cause I have a major issue with stealing things.

But I don't seem to have a problem killing things and people that are attacking me.

The inherent beauty of fantasy and fiction in general is that you get to explore various mindsets - sometimes completely alien or abhorrent to you - without having to dehumanise the given character. RPG as a genre takes it even further because you can build the mind of a character from scratch and pit them into an environment completely different to the one you function in in real life.

I don't have the imagination of a professional writer so I'm sure my characters (TES or not) tend to have things in common and have more or less of a Mary Sue in them (wish fulfillment is another nice thing about fiction ), but I always treat them as an independent entity and try to give each of them a twist. I've created characters that were good, bad, psychotic and deranged, cynical to a fault, idealistic, natural leaders, recluses, chaotic, lawful, greedy, generous, trustworthy, treacherous... Why limit myself to one mind when I can have lots of minds and all the freedom my imagination can afford?

I always end up making evil characters, any time I attempt to make a good character I get bored.

All 32 of my characters have a trait of my own, even if they direct it in a different manner. I am Zealous in my own Atheism so that same fanaticism is used for my divine crusader only he worships the Nine.

I think of Arriere as a "curiosity killed the cat" sort of character. He will do anything, but it is generally for the fun of it. No responsibility is wanted. Make him guild leader and he walks. Make him thane and he ignores it. Once the experience is over he is off to the next thing. Saving the world is a happy accident, not a real intent. Doing this give me a fun and flexible character.

From a personality PoV he is in many ways the opposite of me. In RL I am a middle aged, married parent with a good job. I take my responsibilities very seriously and wouldn't have it any other way. That is all very good for RL but I don't want to be like that in a video game, so my character is a bit of a flake.

Physically he is what I would be if I was better looking and ridiculously gifted athletically .

Some of the things that I do rely heavily on mental role playing. I give my character a reason for doing something and then I proceed to do it the way that he would do it. For instance, he would not normally join the companions, but there is something interesting that he wants so he disguises himself as a heavy armor/two handed warrior and joins the guild - never taking off his helm. Before joining the DB I have him become a vampire and I do the quests in that guise. In very serious situations Arriere is laughing inside and thinking it's all great fun.

My other toons are for the things that my main would never do. Support one side or the other in the civil war. Really become a guild leader. Whatever I find that I absolutely cannot justify with Arriere.

WOW, great topic!

Our core values are similar, it's easy for me to act and feel like Raksha. For example, we both try to be nice, we like to help, we don't want to hurt innocents. When we encounter something like this:
http://raksha-the-khajiit.tumblr.com/post/22536684922
We both feel sad and angry and we want to murder whoever did this (and as you can see we do it).

Still, I don't think my Raksha can be described as extension of me, we differ too much for gameplay reasons. She is more courageous, more gullible, and she is a warrior (ex hunter) and I am an engineer. I think of her as kind of friend, with whom playing Skyrim is fun.

I actually try to make my Raksha as sort of regular person (or like regular warrior). She can shoot bow and sneak and that's it. She can be eaten easily by sabercat, if she won't find some cover on time. What if she mets dragon while being alone? She just runs for her life!

But, when she is with her friends, thing's change. Together they can take on a dragon, kill some tough boss in dungeon, clear fort occupied by bandits. But they can only do it together.

Playing like this gives me kind of nice touch of realism. Raksha is vulnerable as hell, she can die easily, but with her friends they can be dangerous, they can make Skyrim a little bit better place and even can earn their living in the process.

I always think of her as fey, ill-disciplined, untrustworthy, impulsive, rather dangerous and not necessarily entirely pleasant.
I think she's quite taciturn, and very much a loner but if she does like you then she will like you just as single-mindedly as she would hate you, but she may just change her opinion of you for the most inconsequential of reasons. She could love you forever today and then rob you blind tomorrow.
She's not deliberately "evil", just very fickle and rather random in that allegiances are fleeting and certainly not altruistic; her actions are often performed with little thought or care for their consequences. In a way I suppose she's a bit of a sociopath.
She dislikes authority and is exceptionally stubborn and intransigent when she wants to be.
Conversely she's a committed pescatarian and just loves rabbits - so what can you do?
Personally I find her character fascinating and I am constantly intrigued at how she develops.
If I met her though, I think I would not want to turn my back on her...

--
Is she like me?
No, not really - I'm no lover of authority it's true, I am a pescatarian, and we do have a house rabbit and I am sure that my significant other would concur that I am stubborn! But other than that no - she is what she is. I don't think she fulfils some missing fantasy element for mysterious females either to be honest, however trite that may sound - it's simply not something I've ever considered...
The Skyrim she lives in is not a noble place, it's harsh and cruel and dirty and the indigenous population - (of which she is not one) - tend to represent the lives they lead very well: Nasty, brutish, and short.

A different person from myself with their own history, personality and beliefs that may or may not coincide with mine.

Im never aware of the connection between me and my hunter, her choices are my choices, her morals are my morals, her values are my values. When she, I, kills we dont feel remorse, nor guilt or sorrow. We do not dwell on the past. Our looks don't really matter, we don't care about what others think. One cannot fully understand this unity, it simply is.

All our characters are an extension of ourselves, even though we don't intend them to be, or don't think of them in that way. Despite that, I do think of my characters as people separate of myself. I want them to be vivid, loud, free.

My first character started as an extension of me, but she turned out to be quite different and her own person.
A character might have the same core personality traits as me, but it's the voice that matters. A strong character will have a strong voice and that alone can reshape your vision of the him/her. (writers, amateur writers, forum RP-ers, know what I'm saying? )

I have two main toon's and I'm pretty sure that they reflect both sides of my personality, I can be very noble, trust worthy, a strong leader, kind,etc.. and Leonidas reflects these attributes of my persona.
Gorgun, is conniving, cruel, blood thirsty, will kill you without blinking an eye and is in it for himself and no one else.
I have been told that when angry or in a confrontation I turn into a very cruel person, so Gorgun reflects the animalistic side of my persona.
I guess I'm kinda like Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, I can be loving,caring,compassionate one minute and as cruel, mean, blood thirsty as Hitler himself the other minute, which is why my friends and family like me so much, I'm the guy you want in your corner when you need guidance or if you need a head crushed.
/
That being said, I do enjoy playing as Gorgun, more so then Leonidas, wonder what that means

I try really hard to make characters with different personalities. But I find I never really connect to the ones who I try to make "evil" or even a bit shady. Mine are never 100% good, but I guess the ones whose moral make up is the most like my own are the ones I get attached to.

Love the replies. Keep them coming!

All my characters have a small bit of myself in them, both my good and bad qualities, but their traits are exaggerated or flipped around entirely. My main character is Talindil, a 2,000 year old Altmer wizard-lord from the Aldmeri Dominion. He spent most of his advlt life within his large wizard tower on Summerset. He uses high elf longevity as well as magic to maintain his youthful appearance. He has dark golden skin and orange eyes that glow faintly. He is friendly, polite, genius, youthful, and humorous. He's also a bit arrogant though, and not so secretly believes in elven superiority. While he is loyal to the elven nation, he is wary of where the thalmor will take his people. He came to Skyrim for many reasons: a change in scenary, a chance to explore a new land, and to meet a new culture. He's rather ambivalent toward humans. While he tries to be friendly toward them, he doesn't understand their culture and can't help but see them as backwards, but he doesn't want to see them exterminated either. He has a curious mind, and often holds his scientific curiosity above morals and social norms.

My other major character is Kaienathach, a 14 year old reachmen (Breton) witchblade. Like most of her people, she grew up under the rule of the nords who stole her land. While not a forsworn, she learned the old ways from her father and often wears her people's traditional garb when exploring the wilderness. She shows promise as a spellcaster and is quite skilled with a blade as well. Her skin is slightly tanned, she has green eyes and she wears her hair in braids. She is mischievious, clever, immature, trouble-making, shares many of her people's traditional "values", and holds a great deal of contempt for the nords. She hates them for stealing their lands, and for their hypocrisy. She finds it ironic how they complain about the thalmor taking away talos when the nords took away all of her gods and culture.

I roleplay in real life all the time. When I am at work I act like a businessperson; when I am with my Mom I am the good daughter; when at school I am a scholar and when I had to take a part-time job at a Convenience store after a while I was wearing a trucker's cap and talking like Sally Fields.

So I see these games as a place where I can explore a few types of roles or identities not possible in real life. I've played MMORPGs in which I played male characters to see what that would be like. My Skyrim character has a lot in common with me.... she is a business woman and a scholar .... but she can do things I would never have as options in real life.... like being very athletic and chopping up people who piss her off with an axe!

I find that the character I am playing evolves as I continue to play her, just as in real life. I think role-playing is a very powerful way to learn things. My Skyrim character is becoming something of an addict to soul-devouring. It started with the dragons, and with constantly filling soul gem to level enchanting. But now she is max skill in enchanting but still filling soul gems cause she likes the rush and the sparkles. She started out as a pacifist who wouldn't kill unless attacked, but now she has become a lot more blood-thirsty. The last time a dragon swooped down she ran out laughing to meet it with her sword drawn.

In my experience, even while I roleplay characters who are nothing like me in real life, the role always reveals something of my own real nature. Sometimes something that is a surprise to me. If there is no overlap, the roleplay doesn't flow for me.

Now I have to decide if Leona will succumb to the lusts of her Dragon blood, or if she will reform and swear herself to the service of Mara.

I love the way your brain works

My dark characters are addicted to buying black soul gems and trapping souls of people that he doesn't like or uses it on bandits.

Most of my characters are extensions of me or at least they share a moral compass. I get a bit carried away some times with my characters' back storys though. I've got a back story of 200 years that links my main skyrim character to my main character from oblivion, (great great great grandfather) and ends when an imperial boot kicks him in the face just north of pale pass.

I'd elaborate but i don't want to bore anyone with a wall of text.
edited for punctuation

I don’t think of the character as me, but rather a completely different person who is wholly dependant on me to keep them alive and help them prosper.

I actually started this kind of RP when playing Tomb Raider 1 on the PS, a long time ago. I loved the game but since Lara Croft was a woman and I am a man, the whole ‘me becoming her’ did not work out too well. Instead I became the one who looked after her, made sure she missed those darned spike pits and find those med kits.

I tend to play this way all the time now with whatever character I am playing.

I tend to play Nords, have in all the TES games I've played; male or female, but usually Nord. No idea why.

Currently, when I found myself in Helgen, head on the block, "he" was thinking, "If I get out of this, this Empire is doomed. Bastards!" Surprise of surprises, dragonis ex machina! Holy cow, I'm up and running, already planning my career as a Stormcloak, seeking vengeance, not just for my own ill treatment at Imperial hands, but for all the people they've screwed with over the centuries. Payback is on its way, boys.

He has developed into something of a crusader for justice, for the little guy, for the people crushed under the heel of the Imperial boot. Although honorable and forthright, he is learning deception and sleight of hand when dealing with the Empire and Thalmor, why tip your hand? He is almost to the "ends justify the means" point, but not quite; there are things he simply will not do.

This is 100% me, and I find it refreshing and entertaining to bring my sense of right and wrong to this character. When he arrived in Solitude, naturally drawn to the spectacle unfolding, he could only think, "That's me up there. Does this never end with these people? Is this their answer to every problem?" and the hatred grows a bit deeper.

In other playthroughs, I'm polar opposites from this, and my characters rarely have anything in common with me or my own biases and opinions.

I let it unfold as it will, and it always leads somewhere unexpected and new.

Sometimes, if I create a specific character to them, I'll see them as a separate person.

Otherwise, I don't think too much about it, and I'll just play and also see the character as a separate person. I never become the character.