Oblivion:Roleplaying

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Contents 1 Increased Realism 1.1 Traveling 1.2 Horses 1.3 Eating 1.4 Sleeping 1.5 Houses 1.6 Equipment 1.7 Combat 1.8 Memorials 1.9 Miscellaneous 1.10 Religion 2 Character Type Roleplaying 2.1 General Character Creation 2.2 Specific Character Ideas 3 Guidelines for Contributions

Roleplaying is an optional way of playing the game, that can range from a brief diversion to a full overhaul of the game. By playing as if your character has a personality and preferences beyond the game's basic statistics, you can add additional depth and interest. At a basic level, many players will give their characters some sort of backstory explaining who the character is. Beyond that, you can choose to incorporate limitations that make gameplay more realistic or more challenging, as detailed in Increased Realism. Or you can model your character after any favorite person, real or fictional.

[edit] Increased Realism

There are a wide variety of ideas for how to make the game more realistic, that can be used alone or combined based upon your preferences. PC players can enhance many of these ideas by adding various third-party mods.

[edit] Traveling

• Slow down! You don't need to run/jump everywhere. Take a walk in the forests, pray at the chapel and relax.
• Only travel in good weather. And if you must travel when it is raining, wear a hood and robe, or fur armor if it's snowing, as if to protect yourself from the elements. If you have to travel in rain, run or find a camp or cave to wait out the storm.
• Spend nights in inns or taverns. If you are caught in the wilderness at night, stop by the side of road as if you were camping for the night.
• Use a staff when in the wilderness, like a walking stick.
  • If you do run while you travel, take the occasional rest.
• For players who consider Fast Travel to be unrealistic, its use can be avoided or eliminated altogether.
  • Spending more time journeying across Cyrodiil can greatly enhance the aesthetic appeal of Oblivion; some of the lesser traveled places are stunningly beautiful.
  • Choose to allow fast travel only once you reach a certain level.
  • Enchant a necklace so you can name it, for example, Amulet of Teleportation. "Use" the amulet when you want to fast travel. Place limitations on its use (number of uses before recharging; procedure necessary to recharge it).
  • Limit fast travel to only be possible between cities (like in Morrowind) and give someone a little bit of money as a "fee" to take you to the other city, or bribe a mage as your fee for him to teleport you to a nearby city.
  • Only allow fast travel along waterways, as if you hired a shipmaster to carry you by boat. Your origin point must be a harbor or dock; you must walk by foot to reach the shore. There must be a continuous water route between origin and destination. For example, you can Fast-Travel from the Imperial City Waterfront to Bravil or Leyawiin, but not to Anvil.
  • Only use fast travel once a week, or once a day.
• Use your map and compass more realistically
  • Avoid relying on the quest marker (the red or green arrow in your compass and the red or green icons on maps) when traveling to a location.
    • Don't make the quest active in the first place. As long as no quest is active there will be no compass arrow.
    • Or you can "disable" the arrow by: selecting a quest other than the one you are working on (quest arrows will appear but you can just ignore them); activating a quest with no specific destination (for example, A Venerable Vintage), which will remove the quest arrow; or you can finish a quest and not select a new Active Quest. The only drawback to the last option is that it's possible for an Active Quest to be selected for you if any one of your Current Quests receives an update.
    • PC owners can use one of the horse location mods, such as Dude, Where's My Horse, so the arrow and marker will just point at your horse.)
  • When traveling on the roads, don't look at your map. Actually look at the signposts by the side of the road to find the towns and cities.
  • When traveling to a place unknown to you, don't look at your map. Head in the general direction of the location, then ask for directions when you get closer to your destination or get lost. If an NPC can provide directions, follow those directions. Or else look at your map after talking to an NPC to get a set of directions, equivalent to what the NPC might have said.
    • Example: If you're in the Great Forest having trouble finding Shadeleaf Copse, walk or ride to Skingrad, or to the Gold Road, and speak to someone. Assume you have asked them for directions. Look at your map and remember the location. Don't look at your map again until you get the "You have found Shadeleaf Copse" message, or you ask someone else. For example, you might get lost again and stumble upon Brindle Home, where you can ask directions again.
    • You may decide that only certain people will be able to give you directions, such as guards, as not everyone will know where everything is. A traveling merchant, for example, would be able to give you directions to towns, villages and inns, but not mines and ruins.
    • If you think the person you're asking might only have a vague idea where the place is, don't look at the map when you talk to them, but re-select the related Quest instead. Look at where the compass marker is pointing, de-select the Quest, and head off in that direction. This is as if you were told "I'm not sure, but I think it's over that way."
• The Modular Oblivion Enhanced mod provides more realistic traveling.

[edit] Horses

Take care of your horse more realistically.

• Always leave your horse at a stable, in its paddock
  • When entering and leaving the stables, get off your horse, open the gate, ride it in, then close it behind you after you get off - don't just jump over the fence.
  • Make sure your horse has adequate shelter.
  • Chat with the proprietor and tell them to take extra good care of your horse and bribe him as payment.
  • Place a basket containing carrots or apples on the ground by your horse.
  • Tell a follower to wait next to your horse to care for your horse while you are gone.
• When riding, take your horse's fatigue and Health into account
  • Don't run nonstop straight between cities through the middle of the wilderness, jumping over boulders, running into trees, and swimming across lakes.
  • When possible, stick to the roads.
  • Slow down when your horse is exhausted or hurt by a bandit or animal.
  • Only run full speed when you are attacked or urgently need to get somewhere.
• On the PC, you may use the console to give your equine friend a unique name.

[edit] Eating

Although it is not necessary, eating regularly is an easy way to enhance roleplaying.

• Eat three meals a day at the appropriate times (or less if you are poor). Breakfast should consist of grains, rice, bread or fruit. Lunch can be more bread, fruit, and vegetables. Save the meat and potatoes for dinner, along with your character's preferred alcoholic beverage.
  • Once you have eaten, wait for one hour to show it takes time to actually eat--you haven't just instantly eaten your meal.
• Eat types of food appropriate for your character's position.
  • For example, if you are a noble eat Shepherd's Pie and drink rare or expensive beverages.
• Cook your food by placing food over a fire, preferably using a bowl or other container.
  • Though the game does not have any diseases that discourage eating food raw, your character could be affected if he decides to eat raw meat, for example by becoming sick.
• Lay out your food on the table:
  • Set out a plate of food, with silverware (spoon, knife, fork) and cup or goblet.
  • On top of a plate, place a tobacco leaf and on top of this a piece of Ham (It's flat and stays on the plate well, as opposed to Mutton).
  • Add potatoes and sweetrolls to your plate.
  • Add vegetables such as radish, onion, carrot or tomato.
  • Have a fruit bowl containing strawberries, oranges, apples, grapes, or pears.
  • Create a cheese plate with cheese wedges and a bread loaf.
  • You may want to have a Sweetroll or Sweetcake for dessert.
• Sit down in a chair when you eat.
• Eat out at the local inn. Many citizens gather at the inns around 9:00 PM, giving your character the chance to socialize after a long day.
• Tip the barman if you had a particularly good meal at an inn by bribing him.
• For drinking, you can mix ingredients such as apples, pears, and berries and call the potion "Fruit Juice". You could also find a lake or stream to "drink" from (crouch/sneak down by the water to imitate drinking).
• Carry around cups, cutlery, and plates with you when traveling so you can eat your food
• Make yourself have to eat with a mod like Real Hunger v1.6 Beta.
• Use alchemy to prepare your meals. For example, for breakfast combine a bread loaf, some cheese and maybe an apple. You can name it breakfast or whatever meal you've just "prepared". Then drink the resulting potion and remain seated for the duration of the effect, to roleplay the time it takes to eat.

[edit] Sleeping

• Sleep in a home appropriate for your role. If you can't afford a house (or do not want one), rent a room at an inn or find a bedroll. Also, rent a room when you are visiting a city.
• Put your armor in the cupboards, put your sword on the bed next to you, etc, before you sleep. Why go to bed wearing metal armor pajamas?
• Place a drink or a book on the bedside table.
• Given that most people don't have supernatural attention spans, try not to wait for long periods of time all at once, unless there is a good reason (e.g., you're spying on someone).
• Have a pair of pajamas that you change into at night like shirt and pants
• Read a book before going to bed, like you fell asleep reading
• Make a damage fatigue 100 points for 2 seconds on self spell for when you go to bed, stand on your bed and use it (usually twice for high level characters), this will knock you out and then you can press Sleep or Wait and when the Wait or Sleep screen ends you will get up.
  • To make this more realistic, you can drink a lot of mead or wine and then cast the spell. Then it will look like you passed out from getting drunk!

[edit] Houses

• Set level caps for houses. Maybe buy the shack in the Imperial city when you reach level 5, Benirus Manor at level 15, and buy Rosethorn Hall at level 30.
• On the PC, you can lock your door with console commands every time you leave.
• Take off your shoes when you enter your house.
• There are many options for decorating your house:
  • Fill the house by adding piles of books that you are reading, bottles of ale, food, silverware, weapons and armor. Fill wine cases with wine; place books on bookshelves.
  • Place decorative armor (e.g. Imperial Dragon Armor) on some of the shelves.
  • If you are a mage put potions and scrolls everywhere.
  • Place appropriate items on your desk: quill, parchment, a book, crumpled paper, a weight as a paperweight, an inkwell, or an hourglass.
  • Set up the kitchen area as if food is being prepared. A ladle in a pot or bowl. Place ingredients in baskets or bowls.
  • Create displays that commemorate your adventures, for example by showcasing items representing animals or people you have conquered: a minotaur horn in a display case or a Daedric Artifact on a shelf.
  • Rosethorn Hall contains many display cases and shelves that can be filled with your trophies or favorite weapons. Or fill a display case with all the jewels you find.
• Flag your storage chests to give you a hint as to what they contain. Leave your favorite weapon atop your weapons chest, a pickaxe over the crate where you keep your Varla, Welkynd, and Sigil Stones, etc.
• Have a butler in the manors. Get a follower and tell him/her to wait by the door and greet you when you come home.
• Station the Adoring Fan outside so he lights up the doorway with his torch at night.

[edit] Equipment

• Try playing the game using a realistic limit for the amount of items your character can carry. Ensure that you are never carrying more than one set of clothes and armor, a melee weapon and/or bow and arrows, a few lockpicks, one repair hammer, and perhaps a single potion. If you need to transport more items than a person could realistically carry, use a horse.
• Wear clothing appropriate to the circumstances:
  • Wear fur armor/long sleeves when in snowy areas; wear sandals and lightweight clothes (i.e. short or no sleeved shirts) in warm areas.
  • Wear a hood and/or a long sleeved shirt when it's raining.
  • Wear nothing when swimming.
  • Wear simple clothes without shoes when sleeping.
  • Only have armor with you when going into combat.
• Take off your armor and replace it with casual clothes when you're in towns. Put it back on when you're ready to go adventuring.
• If you use a shield in combat, equip a two-handed weapon or a bow when in towns so that you can use both hands without your shield getting in the way.
• Don't wear the best gear that you can find but instead try for something that suits your character. Pick weapons that are appropriate. Some examples:
  • Knights typically wear human-made armor and weapons (no Daedric, Orcish, Elven or Dwarven). Knights often lived their lives with only one weapon; if you want to swap weapons, break your current one and give it a place of honor.
  • Thieves wear dark clothing or suitable light armor such as leather. For a weapon, use a shortsword or a dagger, with a bow to strike from a distance. Thieves don't use poisons as much as an assassin would.
  • Assassins can wear the Dark Brotherhood Shrouded Armor, Black Hand robes, or the Morag Tong Armor set (from the Mehrune's Razor official plug-in). An assassin who is not a member of the Dark Brotherhood or Morag Tong can use the same gear as a thief, above. Use daggers and shortswords loaded with poisons to take out enemies.
  • Mages wear robes, and possibly matching hoods. Carry a staff and a dagger in case of close combat.

[edit] Combat

• Simulate damage from combat beyond simply losing health.
  • Rest after a fight so you are prepared for your next encounter
  • After a major battle or after catching a disease, take several days to gradually heal. Slowly allow yourself to do more physically demanding activities.
  • Have injuries consistent with the situation. When hit by arrows, assume the body part struck by the arrow is injured.
  • If your leg has been damaged, you need to walk not run. You can represent limping by toggling sneak mode on and off.
  • If your arm is injured, you may not be able to wield a weapon until healed. Or if your shield arm was injured, you have to fight without a shield, or switch to a one-handed instead of two-handed weapons.
  • If you are injured in the head you might not want to use spells, as they require attention and focus.
• Set additional limits on your character's health. Force yourself to reload the last save game if your health falls below a certain level, or if you are hit by more than a given number of arrows.
• When combat is too difficult, you might be scared and run instead of fighting. Perhaps after getting injured you become scared and flee.

[edit] Memorials

If you become attached to the NPCs in the game, you can pay homage to them after they die.

• Place the NPC's robes/cuirass and/or sword in a corner of your house, surrounded by lit torches.
  • Rename the items (by enchanting them, for example) to name them after the NPC who used them.
• Collect Viranus Donton's armor and sword from Forsaken Mine. Put them in a display case at the Chorrol Fighters Guild or return them to his mother Vilena Donton, for example by placing them on her desk. Add troll fat, an item of Blackwood Company armor, or an item of Eduard's armor to the memorial.
• Take the Akaviri blades of any Blades who fall in combat (including Jauffre and Baurus) and place them in Cloud Ruler Temple.
• Conduct a memorial ceremony, for example by shooting a flame arrow into the sky just outside the temple.
• Scatter flowers and torches where someone died.
• Use the weapons or armor of fallen NPCs when avenging their death. For example, use Hannibal Traven's staff and robe when confronting Mannimarco; use Volanaro's Summon Dremora Lord spell, too.
• Straighten out a fallen ally's (or opponent's) body (folding the arms if possible) and place the body in a peaceful location. If he or she died in the water, drag the corpse onto land, possibly a meadow of flowers, and perhaps leave a flower next to the body.
• If near a fire, cremate the body by dragging it in.

You can also honor your fallen enemies, in particular if they fought honorably (unlike assassins or thieves).

• Take their armor only to upgrade your own, not for profit.
• Leave their weapon next to their body to symbolize that they died honorably.
• If dealing with someone like a Pirate, either drag them onto their ship or into the sea and let them float.
• If someone such as a Dark Brotherhood Follower dies, hide the corpse and clothes so no one can learn anything of the Dark Brotherhood's enchanted armour.

[edit] Miscellaneous

• Give your character a personality with preferred foods, activities, and clothes. What creature or race does he/she hate/like the most?
• Do not reload your last save game after making a mistake, such as killing someone accidentally, or when you die. Continue playing and live with the consequences of the mistake.
• Bathe periodically by taking off your clothes and swimming. Wash your clothes, too, by dropping them in the water.
• Read The Firmament to determine which month your character was born in (though those with the Serpent birthsign may find this impossible). Choose a day in that month to be your birthday and celebrate it.
• Use Followers as bodyguards, friends or colleagues.
  • Tell your followers to wait in a place where they would actually stay (Inn, bar, guild hall etc.)
• Adjust the difficulty slider based on your gameplay preferences.
  • If you think sneak attacks or power attacks should be able to kill enemies with a single blow, push the difficulty slider to the left.
  • If you think fights with bears and wolves should be desperate struggles for survival, push the difficulty slider to the right.
• Use mods that increase the game immersion, for example, mods that take the Health, Magicka, and Fatigue bars off the screen, or remove the compass.
• Play the game according to your chosen race:
  • Try to only use skills that your race favors (e.g., skills for which your race has positive modifiers).
  • Only deal with merchants of your race, and generally try to help NPCs of your race.
  • Use appropriate equipment (Orcs use Orcish; Elves use Elven; etc.)
• If you are roleplaying a job for which you should be paid, you can receive your pay in multiple ways:
  • Pickpocket your pay from the person you're dealing with.
  • Duplicate items to then sell for your pay
    • Duplicate items relevant to your job. If you're a Vineyard Helper, duplicate wine or grapes; if you're a Mage's Apprentice, duplicate soul gems, etc.
  • On the PC you can also use the console to collect your pay.
• When you take a book from a guild's library, you have a week to read it before it must be returned. Bribe members in the area for overdue fees.
• Make a permanent Command Creature spell and cast it on a wolf to have a dog that follows you around. On the PC, you can use the console to name your "dog".
• Punch doors before entering houses to show knocking the door, then enter.
• Use a War-Hammer or similar weapon when entering taverns or other places you'd like to be noticed.

[edit] Religion

• Dedicate your life to a Prince or God.
  • Choose a god to follow based on your character's race and class.
  • Worship your Chosen god through activities that would please your particular god.
  • Enchant your armor and give it a name such as "Helmet of Akatosh" so that you can wear your god's armor.
  • Convert as many people as possible. For a more violent approach, kill worshipers of other gods or raid temples dedicated to other gods.
  • If you strongly believe in your god then you could wake up every day at a certain time and place a gift on the altar.
  • Go to the priest and confess your sins.
  • Summon a Daedra Lord only on certain days. You could therefore celebrate these days by acting as a madman on Sheogorath's summoning day, reading books all day when it's the summoning day of Hermaeus Mora, etc...
  • Place fresh flowers on graves to show the gods that you're devoted to them

[edit] Character Type Roleplaying

[edit] General Character Creation

You can create and develop your character to emulate any person you like, including heroes from stories and movies. There are several basic ways you can customize your character to resemble your rolemodel:

• Give your character an appropriate name.
• Choose an appropriate race and gender.
• Customize your character's appearance to match your rolemodel.
• Create a custom class with an appropriate name and skills.
• Equip your character with appropriate clothing, armor, and weapons. Enchant items to rename them.
• Decide which NPCs are your friends and which are your enemies. Only do quests for your friends, and only join guilds that are appropriate for your character.

You don't necessarily have to start a new character, although your options are more limited if you are building on an existing character.

[edit] Specific Character Ideas

The possibilities for roleplaying are infinite, and therefore it would not be possible to list every possible type of roleplay. Instead, the following articles detail a few common types of roleplay. The ideas in these articles can be combined in whatever way you like for your character. These articles are also all listed in the category Oblivion-Roleplaying.

• Assassin: Make a living by killing people.
• Collector: Search for rare items and display them in your house.
• Criminal: Thieves and other criminals live by their own "laws."
• Fighter or Warrior: Sometimes violence is the answer.
• Ruler: Become a member of Cyrodiil's ruling class.
• Guard: Use your skills to serve and protect - or harass and oppress - the citizens of Cyrodiil.
• Jobs: Choose an occupation to provide your income.
• Lifestyles: Decide what type of lifestyle you wish to lead.
• Mage: Manipulate magicka in whatever way you desire.
• Merchant: Buy and sell goods to other merchants to make a living.
• Religious Enthusiast: Let your religious beliefs guide you.
• Scientist: Experiment to increase your knowledge.
• Wilderness Dweller: Detach yourself from normal society.

[edit] Guidelines for Contributions

• Make sure that your ideas are not already covered anywhere in this article or its sub-articles.
  • If there are any ideas similar to your planned contribution, revise or expand the existing content instead of adding new, redundant content.
  • New, redundant sub-articles are likely to immediately be proposed for deletion.
• Place any contributions in the correct place in the article (or its sub-articles).
• Test any ideas and make sure the ideas work as intended before adding the ideas.
• Any roleplaying sub-articles should be Elder Scrolls relevant. In other words, sub-articles with non-ES names should not exist.
  • It is acceptable to mention non-ES ideas within sub-articles, as specific examples of a type of roleplay. For example, the Ninja section of the Assassin article.
• The overall concept described in a sub-article should be possible without console or mods.
  • If there are console/mod tips that augment the core idea (instead of creating the idea), then the tip may be useful. For example, mentioning an archaeologist mod on the Archaeologist section is relevant and useful, but not absolutely necessary to be an archaeologist.
• The role must be one that can be used to play the game.
  • The role must involve doing quests, exploring dungeons, or otherwise doing activities that give your character money, rewards, and skill-building experience. These basics must be possible without console/mods.
• Any sub-articles have to contain substantial, new content.
  • A new article should contain more than just a list of skills and equipment. There should be recommended activities that are not already covered in the general Increased Realism section and are not already covered in other roleplaying sub-articles.