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I am currently playing a Bosmer ranger character, and she is about midway through the main quest. I'm certainly enjoying that character, and intend to continue with her.

But last night, for the first time ever I decided to create a secondary character, one I've never, ever played before. Inspired by Slof's Better Beasts mod, along with Brother Juniper's "Twin Lamps" as well as Endhome's "A Call to Issilar," I created an Argonian who has a strong emphasis in magic with a bit of combat thrown in. I gave her a major in Spear and a minor in Destruction. Normally I opt for Longblade and Marksman.

To the point here...
What is interesting is how very quickly I have developed a sense for my Argonian's personality and background.

Unlike previous PCs I've played, she has a violent streak. Not because she is innately violent, but because she and her nest siblings were captured into slavery and taken from their home in Blackmarsh. They ended up on a plantation somewhere on Vvardenfell where they were routinely tortured and abused. Finally they hatched a plan of escape...But, just as they were about to step from the beach and into the freedom of water slavehunters surrounded them. Unwillingly to return to a life of brutal servitude, they fought... my Argonian was the only one to survive, and eventually she was able to flee to Cyrodil. Though able to make a living for herself as a Master Alchemist, she was haunted by visions of the tortures she had both witnessed and personally endured....and she came to irrationally despise all Dunmer. One day.... she saw one of the Dunmer slave traders in the streets. Blind anger and pain rose up and engulfed her...she let forth a volley of lightening bolts...smiting the Dark Elf down.
For this murder she was placed in jail...where she forgot almost all of her skills and magics.
Until.... the Emperor personally decided to set her free.
Back on Vvardenfell..her mission is one of vengeance.. and to recoup her lost abilities as quickly as possible. When asked to do a certain quest for the Thieve's Guild...she chose the violent route...Driven by rage and agony...she felt it gave her a chance to slay one of her hated enemies, she didn't care that the NPC in question had done her no personal wrong.

Now, I generally play fairly peaceful characters who don't kill anyone unless in self defense. Indeed, I usually find it difficult to do otherwise, maybe because I always seem to end up projecting myself into my characters. But this time... I had no trouble at all.
Also, usually it takes me until at least level ten to have a background story fully worked out for my character, my Argonian is at level three, and only because, due to her sense of urgency, she paid for training.

I'm wondering if these differences are because I'm playing a beast race so identification with the PC is not the same subtle, subconscious process, and thus roleplaying has a totally new perspective.

Has anyone else ever found anything like this?

Not more, but different

I think that you are detaching from you character for the simple fact that she is a lizard, and not as human as the various other races, with the exclusion of the kajits (hope I spelled that right). I have noteced tha same thing with may kajit character, and have no problem mudering people for the fun of it. Also, do you seriously make backround stories for your characters? That is a good idea, I need to remember to do that.

triline beta wrote:I think that you are detaching from you character for the simple fact that she is a lizard, and not as human as the various other races, with the exclusion of the kajits (hope I spelled that right). I have noteced tha same thing with may kajit character, and have no problem mudering people for the fun of it. Also, do you seriously make backround stories for your characters? That is a good idea, I need to remember to do that.

I think the detachment is highly probable and I'm not surprised to hear that you've experienced something similar with your Khajiit. I am still roleplaying, but my character is *nothing* like how I would be in RL. It's not even as though I intend to put myself into my human/elven characters, it just inevitably seems to work that way. But, this is the first time I've played a beast character, and the feel of everything in the game seems completely different. It's almost as though I'm playing MW for the first time.



Well, with my background stories I don't consciously make them, it just happens. As my character evolves, her 'story' almost seems to write itself somewhere in the lower layers of my mind And at some point, I'll just sort of know who this pixellated being is. That always happens, but this time, with my Argonian, it happened really quickly, after about two game days, if even that.


BTW, as an aside, even though are certainly humanoid, I'm including Orcs into my thread too, because I think there is a similar level of disengagement.

Interesting remark about the Orcs. I don't see them as a Beast race. To me they are a bit like elves, not exactly human but humanoid, meaning 'close enough' .

it sounds fun to make up background stories for my characters. i personally have never roleplayed. im starting one, but i havent been playing much lately. and, to the orc comment, i dont consider them human either. in my mind they're savage beasts that should be slain. i guess i'm a little prejudiced due to my first run-in with an orc. i was in the sewers in the vivec foreign quarter. i ran up to a orc i saw and i was like "hi" and he turned on me, took out a staff, and went "PREPARE TO DIE" and he killed me so naturally im a little bit creeped out by orcs now. and wooden staffs.

dragon wench wrote:I think the detachment is highly probable and I'm not surprised to hear that you've experienced something similar with your Khajiit. I am still roleplaying, but my character is *nothing* like how I would be in RL. It's not even as though I intend to put myself into my human/elven characters, it just inevitably seems to work that way. But, this is the first time I've played a beast character, and the feel of everything in the game seems completely different. It's almost as though I'm playing MW for the first time.



Well, with my background stories I don't consciously make them, it just happens. As my character evolves, her 'story' almost seems to write itself somewhere in the lower layers of my mind And at some point, I'll just sort of know who this pixellated being is. That always happens, but this time, with my Argonian, it happened really quickly, after about two game days, if even that.


BTW, as an aside, even though are certainly humanoid, I'm including Orcs into my thread too, because I think there is a similar level of disengagement.

Like DW this is the first time in..well really all my years of roleplaying, that I've tried another race. My Khajiit is a Spellsword and now that I think more about it, I have approached this game with a different attitude, but for me I was more detached from my more human characters, usually tanks,:mischief: big ole melee characters, that includes dwarves also, who just waded straight into battle. This Khajiit though has me actually putting myself into the game more as in what would I really try to do in RL,of course one doesn't get to carry a Nordic Broadsword around in RL,hmm... although I could see myself at work using one on our servers:laugh:

It seems though that all my previous charactors, male or female semi-humanoids, have always had a backstory in my mind

huh, i find if i make a beast character(including orcs) theyre more peaceful then the rest...it might be because i have some weird obsession with killing everything i see...but every time i make a beast(usually argonian cause they look funny) they just dont kill so much...but theyve never lasted past level 5...