What personal rules do you play?

[Georgiegril]

After all of my play-throughs, I can honesty claim universal adherence to only one rule: I Don't Eat People. At least not on purpose. I think I may have bought some "beef" from that guy in Markarth the first time through.....:facepalm:

[NAPALM13092]

Rule #1 Beam me up Scotty!

 

Never fast travel unless by carriage or boat, I have a mod that adds more carriages and make ports reachable by sea, because it kills the immersion of the journey so to speak. Just as there was a real sense of distance and development in fantasy movies and novels like Lord of the Rings, I also enjoy seeing how my character grows reacting to situations on the way from one destination to the other.

 

Rule #2 Jack of all trades, master of none.

 

I like the idea that my character is a specialist and not an infallible killing machine of 97 different forms of Kung Fu. Perhaps I am a skilled hunter but have limited combat experience and tend to flail and swing wildly in melee combat. Perhaps I am a street rat on the run and couldn't tell the difference between a welkynd stone and a soul gem. I don't like my characters to be too perfect. Weakness creates a richer experience.

 

Rule #3 El Presidente of all the cartels!

 

I think we all know how silly it is to be the Listener, Nightingale, Harbinger, etc. all in the same go. Being Dragonborn I feel doesn't entitle me to be "Archbishop of the Entire Freaking Universe" and so I tend to stick to one faction per character and maybe one other that seems like it wouldn't impede with the other like Stormcloak and Companion for example. Even within a single faction I do not like that I become their holy prophet over night so I tend to use mods to make a more believable scenario such as Tolfdir being the new Archmage rather than me.

 

Rule #4 My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard...

 

While I do use mods to make the characters better looking and have no beef with things like prostitution, as it would occur in a medieval social environment such as Skyrim, I do keep it within the realms of what my personal taste perceives as realistic for the setting. People in those conditions would look fairly haggard and dirty. The characters look better as far as texture resolution goes but there are no supermodels with conditioned hair and mascara in my game and most people look like they live a fairly harsh and violent life.

 

Rule #5 You can't fix stupid!

 

The follower AI in Skyrim makes Todd Akin look like Issac Newton. I cannot use a follower for more than 10 minutes without them doing something retarded, killing the immersion for me. Some followers are much better like Atvir Dres but those characters and few and far between so I tend to run solo.

 

Rule #6 Do you even lift?

 

Even though the game allows me to carry a midsized sedan and a few small boulders I tend to keep to what one would rationally carry with a little bit of wiggle room. I usually only carry one set of armor, some cloths, weapons, potions, reagents, misc tools, etc, that one would be expected to have. As far as loot goes, I tend to only pick up low weight high value things like gems or very expensive weapons as walking around with 16 iron helmets and 96 cast iron pots from a bandit camp is fairly unlikely.

 

Rule #7 No, Bear Grylls, I am not drinking THAT.

 

I tend to sleep at night, kinda have to with how dark it gets with mods, and wear armor and clothes conducive to that environment such as fur cloak in the snowy mountains as oppose to a latex g-string and mantassles. I also eat to regain health outside of combat and make potions that are over time rather than instant never die fizzy lifting drinks. I more or less survive as one would be expected to within the realms of being at least somewhat convenient and making use of magic and what not.

[AnkhAscendant]

[......] I think I may have bought some "beef" from that guy in Markarth the first time through.....:facepalm:

 

One Of Us, One Of Us!

[Enatiomorph]

 

Rule #2 Jack of all trades, master of none.

 

I like the idea that my character is a specialist and not an infallible killing machine of 97 different forms of Kung Fu. Perhaps I am a skilled hunter but have limited combat experience and tend to flail and swing wildly in melee combat. Perhaps I am a street rat on the run and couldn't tell the difference between a welkynd stone and a soul gem. I don't like my characters to be too perfect. Weakness creates a richer experience.

That isn't really what a JOAT is. What you are describing is simply sticking to your build/class, not JOATing, or MOATing.

[JanusForbeare]

@Napalm13092: Thanks for the shout out. :)

 

When I play through the game, I have a set of habits that I tend to stick to, but they're not hard and fast rules. They're really more consequences of my own personality than anything else (albeit exaggerated to suit a fictional context).

 

Support the establishment: Unless I intend on playing an outcast from society or building up my own power base, I follow this rule in any RPG. In Skyrim, I'm an Empire man. In NV, I support the NCR. In FO3, I would support the Enclave if there were good enough mods for it. Why? Order > anarchy.

 

Morality is relative: Unless someone is my friend, frak them. I'll steal, cheat, and even murder if it advances my character's agenda. We can't all be winners, after all. It's a dog eat dog world, and I'd rather be the first dog than the second one. As you might imagine, the eastern reaches of Skyrim have usually been decimated by the time the civil war ends.

 

There's no place like home: I love castle mods, particularly when they can be attacked by enemies. I used to adore taking over Castle Seacrest in Oblivion, fortifying it with NPCs, and then loading up 28 Days and a Bit. In any given playthrough, it's pretty much guaranteed that I'll have a fortified stronghold to fall back to, and I'll take over (or RP taking over) the surrounding area. To continue with my previous example, I often removed Countess Carvain's essential tag, assassinated her, and imagined I was taking over Anvil. Or RPed marrying her. Or made her part of my vampire coven. Ah, memories.

 

We hates heavy armour, we does: Who wants to move slow? Sod that! I have never enjoyed characters specializing in endurance/heavy armour/tanking, in any game. I doubt I ever will.

 

Damn it, Jim, I'm a doctor, not an engineer: I'm not one of those players who gets their kicks from becoming the leader of every guild, maxing out every skill, and collecting every artefact. I'd much rather specialize in a few areas than waste my time mastering all of them.

 

If you're killed in the matrix, you die here?: I like my game to be as real as possible. In other words, needs mods are a must. Food, drink, sleep, bathing, etc., I love them all. I'll support the illusion by engaging in unnecessary activities, like walking instead of running, spending time hunting, finding isolated areas in which to bathe, spending hours at the tavern (usually while I eat IRL), and waiting for an hour or two after reading a book.

[NAPALM13092]

@Enatiomorph It wasn't a literal meaning, more of a silly phase very loosely related that I just threw onto the rule to grab the eye like "My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard.." before the rule concerning character beauty or lack there of.

 

@JanusForbeare No problem you made an awesome companion.

[modder3434]

I don't kill the innocent, but after watching any character for a few minutes, it seems no one is.

 

 

"What is life's greatest illusion?"

 

"Innocence, my brother"

[QuillRabbit]

I tend to play as a normal/everyday character in game. Like, thanks to mods, I can have an alternate start, instead of having the main quest pop up, so I'm no Dragonborn.. unless I stumble into it. My rules are still a bit basic though.

 

It also depends on race, or how I feel in-game/want to RP as. But I have some main rules. I do allow my characters to slowly change though.

 

1.) No fast travel - I don't even use the carriages either... not that I think it's wrong, I just don't like them. I'm a bit slow to get on the back of them too, so the driver always yells at me.

 

2.) Stick to my gut - If I decide to play as something (I lean towards hunter/archers/thieves), I stick with it. But, there are exceptions. I do have my hunter take on Bandits - only if they attack first, or I'm bored with trying to shoot elk. My thief will kill, and so on.

 

[variable - Race] 3.) Play by my kind - If I want to roleplay as a race, I play as that race. If it's not allowed a home/ horse - I don't get it.

 

For example; I go a Khajiit - I will not go into towns/Cities, unless I have a work around, like in Riften - I buy my way in. The only real exception, with my Khajiits - is if the town isn't a main one, I can enter**. Yes, this style is the hardest.

 

• [Khajiit **] - If I do enter a town/ city (like Riften) - I have a time limit, as most people inside (Nords) despise my kind, I mainly go 5 minutes (in my time), to do what I need to. Of course, this is mostly from me going to get potions/ craft gear - as I have the dumb habit of getting Smithing up early (Classic Classes mod).
   
  
• [Khajiit] I only sell/buy from the caravans... unless the above,or in Riften.
   
  
• [Argonian] I found myself sticking to the waterways, as being out on land for so long made me itch. *** Town restrictions: Riften and Solitude - anywhere snowy is off limits.
  

 

I also go by armor restrictions: on Khajiit and Argonians - I do not wear helmets.

 

*** I do not like going Argonian, as I keep getting glued on this skin error on the back of their heads, it's on the right side, from the ear to back of head. Does anyone know if a mod can fix that?

Edited November 3, 2012 by QuillRabbit

[Deleted3507349User]

I don't understand why people keep insisting that fast travel is akin to a warp spell. Since time passes in-game during fast travel, it's more like that part of your trip that your mind just sort of blocked out. As I see it, the only real reason to NOT fast travel is to discover new locations as I pass. If I'm on a mission of importance, I don't really care to stop to play with every bandit/wolf/sabre cat/vampire/rabid bunny between points A and B. They'll be there if I decide to wander that way again, I sure.

 

The only real disadvantage to fast travel is that it never fails that I arrive at my destination in the middle of the night.

[slainia]

i don't like fast travel b/c l get into the habit of doing all the quests & knocking them out then finding i've missed half the freeplay part of the game - the exploration etc. + l usually end up needing ores etc.

the reverse of this is that if i'm not careful, l can reach level 20 just by exploring caves and things, then realize l don't like my character because she hasn't done anything important - ie no main quest - and start over. /sigh

i'm really really really enjoying how my economy is right now tho. i can't afford anything in terms of houses! lol