Well, one of my characters(Kraven) does work like wood chopping and cooking and etc. And yes, farming. I like to roleplay a lot, and he does all the wood chopping on weekdays

But then again, he has no true faction or allegiance . . .he's certainly no superstar like Aravi. He was once, but now in Skyrim I have him going back to his pre-Morrowind days of farming and picking flowers and compassion. He believes in the whole "Honest pay for honest work" thing. He does mercenary work for the companions, don't get me wrong. He's also a warrior, but in his free life he settled down a bit.

I like Skyrim's more simple things, and Hearthfire certainly adds that. Like Lady Saga said, most people of the time worked such dirty jobs. But the nobility simply fatted themselves with good food or had their servants do their work while they got the income through birthright and other means that don't relate at all to hard labor. It all depends on our characters though. I have some that wouldn't dare touch a vegetable in the ground or chop wood simply because they don't have to. Their noble status simply keeps them from doing such things while my more humble characters who had a commoner's life and low-class status continue to do so not only because of desire but also because that's the only thing they've ever known.

Sure, killing bandits, saving damsels in distress and chopping up monsters is a partime job. But I don't always like to picture them as the ultimate heroes. That's why none of them have done the main questline. Personally, I don't like much of the prophesized hero that saved the world, not in the sense that my well-developed characters would become them. I leave that for other random characters I just make and leave them for the game and not the lore behind them. But that's just me.

Yes, Kraven. I want to start reading fanfics again, I enjoyed the tale of your slave in Morrowind a few months back. So far behind. Sigh.

Hearthfire is awesome, I agree. YEah, it's a little shallow in certain ways, but it still adds so much, so many little things here and there that get noticed slowly as our characters evolve. HF also makes me feel like my Crusader is 'dug in' to his new environment, a truely rural, land-owning lord or something.

Heh, I am nearly done with it. Fifteen or so chapters and I am finished! *wiped forehead*.

Lucky. I don't have Heartfire yet. I heard it will be $2.50 the first week when it comes out this month for the PS3. I will definetly buy it only because I wanted a home in Falkreath . . .and the new ingrediets and food!

WOW you're finally getting it!!! I"m so happy for you. You're gonna love it!

damn...see I don't wanna spoil anything further, I forgot you don't have HF yet. I feel like I already said too much!

He, I was spoiled about the DLC before I even have it. I was spoiled by Dawnguard a few days before the release through leaks, haha. I know just about everything about it.

That's pretty interesting actually, the way one character is calming and the other not so much. Aravi goes through phases. In the middle of a questline, she can be very demanding and driven. Other times, she can just go to a lake or steam just to swim, and spend the whole day doing so. She does casual alchemy as well. She loves gathering ingredients and making potions, but she pretty much sucks at it.


I thought Kraven would fit in well with the culture of the Companions. Are you just doing the radiant quests with him?

Just something I want to add too, Aravi doesn't think less of people just because they do 'dirty jobs,' She was in that position before. She doesn't view herself as a superstar as you two put it. She has a pretty humble attitude for the most part.

Somewhat, yes. He fights for honor and glory but not to the degree that he once did as a slave. Curious though, since he would technically be a free man. During this time there is much more at stake than honor and glory and money. Especially money, which is something materialistic and temporary. I do radiant quests with him sometimes, but most often he gets his money from hunting game and killing mammoths or farming . . .or chopping wood and many times killing bandits and necromancers.

Oh, well, that's not what I said. I never thought Aravi would think less of people at all. Well, being a Dragonborn would be amazing though for one, I can imagine how she must feel of using the Voice and Fo's Ro Da'ing suckers all over the place . I like her a lot though.

Wasn't my intention to put words in your mouth.

I really liked hunting and making leather armors out of the hides and cooking up stews from the meats.

Basically one of my favorite things to do after I completely conquer every aspect of RPG's like Fallout or ES is to roleplay a commoner.

Go hunting, find a dumpy place to live, go to work, hit local clubs, maybe an odd quest here and there as long as it doesn't seem like something impossible for an average person to do (no powerful artifact quests, or deep advancement into any guild).

I know I'm a really boring person.

Why? Because you dare to create a character who is mundane as the ground he walks upon?

That's actually rather interesting to me.

For those interested, Olivia is still around. She's light armor, heavy shield, blade, and conjuration. A little bit of bow too.

She's not quite a peasant, but she does mining and chopping. She's been smithing things and selling them. Does the occasional bounty and random Companions quest. Her morals are a little looser, so it wouldn't surprise me if she joined the Thieves guild. I don't see her being an assassin or a vampire yet, but perhaps I'll be surprised.

That is cool, Coin. I am glad Olivia is not a dud.

Mycharonna the Ice Witch was tempted to start the very beginning of Thieves guild (stealing that ring from the lizardman) after listening to a very persuasive pitch from Brynolff about how "she's never earned an honest Septiim in her life". ....but she botched the job, and wound up a hunted woman for many hours. She eventually landed in jail!

No more TG for Mycharonna, I don't think.

KC, I’m glad Olivia is still with you. It sounds like she might get into some things that Aravi wouldn’t touch, which could be fun.

Here’s another idea that I’ve tried. As soon as I saw that you could give your character two blind eyes I knew I would eventually make a zombie character. Backstory inspired by Olen’s short story found here (the character would be the wife in Olen’s story), and “build” inspired by Mason’s Revenant found here.

A note because this thread is in the non-spoiler section: There are mentions of specific items and places here. If you don’t want to know for example that undead wearing a certain armor type can be found at X location or that a shield named Y exists, you should skip this. There are no quest spoilers.


Njal the Unliving

The idea: Njal the warrior is cut down on the field of battle. Sovengarde calls him home. But no! He awakens in his own tomb when draugr attack during his resurrection. Shock energy makes the necromancer’s spell go awry (Ooh, like Frankenstein). He sates his undying hunger on his dear wife’s soft flesh. She sold his armor and weapons to pay the necromancer, so he finds some gear in the tomb and shuffles out into daylight. His undeath begins.

The skills: Heavy Armor, One-handed, Block, Enchanting, Conjuration for raising dead only, some perks in Speech. A note about Speech: this one might seem odd, but it’s the opposite of the game’s description of the skill. Merchants will trade any goods with Njal just to get his terrifying corpse-breath out of their faces.

The gear: Here's a picture. Ancient Nord armor (self-enchanted with regenerate health and stamina if you like), Targe of the Blooded, Helm of Yngol, Ring of Namira. He wields the war axe Blood Feeder, self-enchanted with Absorb Health (and Absorb Stamina when his enchanting hits the top). This is important because of the following…

The challenge (or why this is not just another fighter): Njal is undead, and so potions do not work for him. Neither do Restoration spells. Njal heals in battle only by absorbing health and stamina through his weapons and by feeding on fresh corpses (Ring of Namira). I used the Lord Stone to boost his AR and magic resistance, but the Lady Stone for regeneration would also be a good fit. Also Njal has no ranged attack. Remember his cloudy, dead eyes? He can’t see well enough to shoot. I put dragons in my zombie’s game, so he has to run when he encounters one.

Imaginary mods: Of course PC users can give their zombies a good start from the first minute, but I had to do some in-game work before I dropped Njal in his tomb and “started” his RP. Getting the Ring of Namira is quick and easy. Ancient Nord armor can be looted from the first dragon cultist you kill in Forelhost. Get the quest, kill one guy for his armor, then get the heck out! Pick up some extra draugr axes while you’re there. Keep making stronger versions of Blood Feeder to keep up with the world as Njal’s Enchanting improves. Targe of the Blooded is tricky to get at low levels, but possible. (Njal is played Dead-is-Dead, so I sweated that part quite a bit.) It looks awesome with the ancient Nord armor. Plus the extra bleeding damage is what this guy is all about. He is a blood-soaked savage. The Helm of Yngol provides a tomb-robber look as well as the frost resistance that a zombie should have. On a PC I would give my zombie weakness to fire and shock (because of the shock spell that helped to animate him in the first place) along with resistance to frost, poison, and disease. On consoles we can use enchantments.

The story: Of course every zombie’s will be different, but here is the abridged version of Njal’s. He remembered the events of his life, but not the feelings. He was drawn to people but he didn’t know why, and of course they were repelled by him. He took up residence in the abandoned house in Markarth. Eola followed him for some time. She liked the way he ate people. Eventually Njal realized that he didn’t have a soul. He went to the daedric princes hoping that one would have an extra for him. No joy. But he did collect some excellent junk, some of which he gave to Eola. It’s a shame he didn’t notice how hot she looked in the Savior’s Hide. Oh well. Njal’s greatest delight was raiding bandit enclaves. He would skulk about watching how they lived together until that nameless yearning got to be too much. Then he would slaughter and eat them. Njal now has all of the daedric artifacts but still no soul. He is semi-retired hoping that a future DLC will bring hope to his dead, dried-up heart.

That's a really cool idea Grits!

Brilliant idea! He certainly looks the part too! But playing Dead is Dead with an undead character? He's dead to begin with!

I suggest playing him in Dawnguard. One of the locations you go to in the main quest is the Soul Cairn. It is where all souls that have soul trapped go to. He could find his laying around there somewhere.

I love this idea! Mason's builds on the Skyrim Blog are usually spot on. I recently tried his Alik'r build and I'm having a great time with it.

I love that picture at the top of that Alik'r page! But a Redguard using magic! I guess I am an old fuddy duddy, because I remember Redgaurds as people who don't like magic and distrust anyone who uses it as being both sinister and weaklings.

Yeah, when did that change?

Redguards have an innate distrust of Eastern magic, what they term nudri-hi. This is magic that tampers with souls (Conjuration) or tampers with the mind (Illusion). They revere what they call yoku-hi, which is Yokudan magic that closely resembles Restoration and Alteration. Why Bethesda didn’t choose to give Redguards a bonus in these two schools of magic as opposed to Alteration and Destruction escapes me.

Sorry Njal, she’s right! Game over buddy!!


Now that is genius. I have not gotten past the first assignment on the vampire side, and anyway I was not thrilled about the character who was doing it. Typical Dunmer for fire resistance with skills that would be augmented by the vampire goodies. *yawn* Njal has an actual reason to go down that path. I’ll have to do the whole going to Fort Dawnguard part out of character and just have him show up at the crypt. He wouldn’t try to kill Serana. He doesn’t eat vampires.


I agree, I always get some idea from his builds even if I don't replicate the whole thing. For example my archer/illusionist (Denelle) took some Destruction training and added cloaks and runes to her bag of tricks, plus the augmented element perks boost her enchanted bows. Idea from his Arcane Archer. I never would have thought of that myself since she doesn't cast any of the other Destruction spells.

I've also tried an unarmored Redguard swordsman inspired by the Alik’r and the old Kung Fu TV show. He used a bound sword as a stand-in for a spirit sword plus Restoration for healing. He carried no armor or weapons. Wandered the world looking for good deeds like convincing a farmer to help a jester fix his wagon wheel (lol). Combat was so incredibly fun (until he was killed by unseen sabre cat #2). Lots of sprinting and power attacks. I forgot the guy’s name, though. I was pretty sick that week. I remember it was right after Asrael (Redguard Spellsword) died.

Njall likes his meat fresh?

It sounds like Njall would be perfect doing the quest from the vamp side. Except of course you have to become a vampire to do it. But you could just pretend he was not a vamp, and never use the vampire lord form (I never found it to be much use. Helregin was far more powerful without it - she was doing over 100 damage with one hit of her hammer). The vamp powers you get might even help with your undead roleplay. OTOH, it would change his appearance, with the glowing orange eyes and sunken cheeks. But that might work for you too.

Something For You Role Player’s
Last night I took my female Redguard warrior on "A Daedra's Best Friend Quest" with that annoying dog Barbas nipping at my heels. After slaying the vampires at Haemar's Shame and speaking to Clavicus Vile, I proceeded to head toward the next objective. Freezing from the cold snow and weary from my battle with vampires, I decided to rest at Falkreath Stormcloak camp east of Helgen. (Having already decided to join the stormcloaks but haven’t yet started the rebellion quest line) I was greeted warmly and decided to rest for the night, sleeping in a tent on a pile of hay with that mangy hound Barbas as my pillow.

The following morning I awoke to depressed and despondent Stormcloak men and woman huddled around the camp fire. I walked through the still falling snow to the tent of Thorygg Sun-Killer who told me (roleplaying) that the imperials had cut off their supply wagons and they have had little to no food or weapon supply’s reach this camp in weeks. I was my duty to feed and re-supply these miserable stormcloaks.

I proceeded toward Orphan Rock my goal in mind was to slaughter the Necromages and pilfer their resources. Mind you I only left Orphan Rock with 4 tomatoes, a handful of gold, a few lock picks and a strength potion from the Hagraven’s chest, I decided to head toward Helgen for better luck. I arrived at Helgen and was greeted by three rampaging bandits who I shield bashed in the face and cut off one of their heads than ran around the ruined shell of Helgen collecting ale, wine, pots and pans and a few wooden bowls. I headed into the castle to kill more bandits and loot their weapons and armor. I left Helgen with lettuce, potatoes, tomatoes, rabbit legs, tankards, ale, wine, cheese, an arsenal of steel weaponry, three buckets (for the stormcloaks to s#^# in.) Feeling satisfied I headed back to the camp and proceeded to lay out their s#^# buckets, stuffed their barrel with food, tankards and dishes, laid out the pot and pans around the campfire stuffed with rabbit legs (one of the stormcloaks yelled at me saying “What Are ye doin”), stocked Thoygg’s chest with weaponry for the soldiers, and left 2,000 gold in the end table inside the map tent to aid their cause. Feeling satisfied I left with that filthy dog nipping at my heels.

That's a neat idea, Elderscrolls20. It would allow non-warrior types to contribute to the war effort, whichever side they chose. Also, welcome!

Thanks for the welcome.

Instead of destroying your well thought out characters through DEAD is DEAD try doing what I do.

If you die you lose 35% of your total gold. Say you have 15,000 gold one death means you lose 5,250 gold. Now you have 9,750 total gold. Die again you lose 35% of 9,750 which is 3,412 leaving you with 6,338 gold. You will value your life a lot more if your losing massive amounts of gold per death but it will also allow you to learn from your mistakes (as we do in life) and value your gaming life that much more.

If you’re an Argonian then leave your gold in a body of water. If you’re a religious Nord leave the gold at the Temple of Talos for a chance at redemption. No matter your background, char, history, race, ideals you can always find somewhere to leave your gold. Use your imagination you’ll be surprised what you can come up with on getting a second chance to learn from your mistakes and keep your character!

Also this playstyle keeps making money interesting. If you play on expert or master level like most of us do and not using potions and gimping out your characters every death will mean something and you’ll feel better about moving on than saying reload save and try again. You can even go as far to throw away your weapons armor and jewels along with the 35% of your gold if you wanna go at it a little more hardcore but without feeling bad about having to reload a save with no consequences to your death. I don’t know just my thoughts on not losing characters and losing the chance to see them grow and to have more experience with the characters you love.

I'm sure the Nords would have been happy if you had just come back with ale. LOTS of it.

That’s an interesting idea. In Oblivion I used to play that a death meant the character was left for dead, which I did by disposing of their inventory (except for gold and quest items, sigh. Oh, and not keys) in a respawning container. It would be even better since in Skyrim the gold can be removed from inventory. That would make me more comfortable trying Expert or even Master with a beloved character. The high level ones really need to be bumped up to keep fights fun, but I’m still scarred over losing Zuuri to a scavenger so soon after I increased her difficulty. Hmm…

Also being left for dead can have a major impact on a character’s path while death just ends it. That’s how one Oblivion character started down the road that took her to the Dark Brotherhood. Your method keeps the danger and consequences but allows for greater risk and growth, which to me are the best parts. You’ve given me something to think about, thank you!!

I haven't been able to do a DiD character. Even Olivia was killed once. She was supposed to be with Farkas and she got surrounded by draugr and I haven't a clue where Farkas was. Pissed me off, and I didn't want to create a new character.

Brilliant idea! I hope you come back with some potions of true shot to go along with those buckets!

Heh, this is interesting. As is the way you approached helping the Stormcloaks in general. You've got a lot of imagination.




The money thing is cool, thanks for sharing! ... I don't play on Expert or Master though, that just seems like asking for pwnage! In the past few months I've dumbed down my action from default to Apprentice, actually!

So what kind of RULES do you guys use for your game? Like for instance I use

No Fast Travel
Remember to pack Bread, and drink for your travels
35% of total gold lost on death
and many many more.


If you wouldn't mind listing me some of your favorite or silly rules as well...I’m always looking for new ideas and would defiantly like to hear what you guys have to say!

This isn't a rule, but its a habit:

Whenever I see a sabre cat I don't kill it. I let it chase me around the map


And welcome to chorrol Elderscrolls20! I'm king of beasts, or KOB for short. can also be so be spelled KoB, but either way is fine.

If I come upon an inn, I HAVE to sleep in it. A girl needs her beauty sleep

Because if she doesn't, the man has to deal with Alduin World-Eater all day


No offense to anyone

...

...

...


Shutup.

..

XD

Okay......what ever You say

Ya know what, KOB?

I found a bird for you.

Who crapped in your cornflakes?

ALDUIN. XD

At least he didn't EAT your cornflakes. I'm still hungry

Speaking of... We should get back on topic XD

The only thing I really do is I don't have my characters use health, stamina, or magicka potions in combat.

I still use fast travel, and my characters usually carry food, but I don't make it a part of the roleplay.


You get NOTHING!

I could be here all morning adding items to my list and it would still feel incomplete. Some of mine:

Eat/sleep. My vampire does not eat mortal food, but she will suck on some meat (raw, preferably) if she hasn't fed on a mortal, and is nearing Stage 4.

Minimal fast-travel: if I've been back and forth in a specific area several times (like I leave Whiterun, get to the stables and realize I forgot something back in the Bannered Mare) I will fast-travel. Sometimes I won't, sometimes I will: it all depends on how much free time I've got before I have to get me or my child to bed.

Note: fast-travel is not an instantaneous teleport like some people assume. Time passes by when we FT. Teleporting is instantaneous (according to my D&D roleplaying books) therefore FT in the world of Tamriel is not teleporting. Back in the days when I played tabletop games (1980s-early 90s) we would roll dice sometimes to simulate travel from one location to another. If there was no encounter (no enemies or friends) who showed up during this travel, there was no reason to spend an entire set of hours or days RPing anything. Therefore, the dice roll (with no encounters) represented an entire set of days or hours. This is similar to FT in the world of TES.

No excessive gear: Back when I started Oblivion in 2008, I had a Tomb Raider mentality. Lara Croft can somehow carry several guns, several different ammo types, healing packets (etc.), and somehow still manage to do wonderful flips in the air across chasms, and swan-dive into beautiful lagoons. So when I started Oblivion, Renee Gade would carry several weapons (big weapons like greatswords) several armor sets, hundreds of items--as long as the encumberance limit wasn't met, it was all good.

With Renee Gade II (my 4th character of all), I trimmed this down to the way we did it in our tabletop games: One big weapon, with maybe one smaller weapon for back up. One armor set, with maybe one change of clothes (for in-town stuff). If a shield is being carried, it would need to be dropped on the ground if a bow & arrow is used. Etc. Potions and items have a "limit" as well. If I feel there's too many being carried, my char. will find somewhere to stash or ditch those which aren't going to be used, or those which won't bring too much cash.

....see I told you...I could go all morning with this, and I'm nowhere near done!

Tabletop skills: I still use a variety of skills from TFT (The Fantasy Trip) and DnD; skills that don't appear in Tes, that is. Not all my characters can swim, for instance, not all of them can ride horses, not all of them can run long distances (before getting winded). Not all of them are spell-casters. Alertness (using the "wait" function to see if enemies are nearby) can only be used by some chars. but not others. Naturalist (ability to discern certain ingredients and what they do on sight) is another important one.

Skills & spells are dictated by intelligence (IQ) and other attributes in these older games, and so I usually only add one skill or spell per level-up, just like we did it in the old days. This keeps my characters from becoming "ubers", with dozens of skills & spells at their disposal. My Oblivion games level upwards super-slowly, so some of my top characters in this game literally only have a handful of spells and/or skills, rather than this gigantic list.

I'll do one more

No magical compass. Everyone at Beth knows this one, and I may have mentioned it in the OP of this thread. But I'll mention it again, now. In Skyrim I dim the HUD all the way, and then bump it one notch to the right. This means the HUD is barely useful. I can see stats (Health, Magika, Stamina) which I need because I play DiD, and I need this sort of feedback. The compass in Skyrim visible if I look really hard at the top of the screen, but not useful. I don't like magical GPS-styled compasses immediately telling me where landmarks are.

In Oblivion (where the HUD can't be dimmed) I literally cover up the compass by using electrical tape.

That's all for now, and it's quite a list, eh?

Welcome!

I love and agree with the ideas of no fast travel and the food and drink - both are things I'm pretty strict about in my own game.


@ Lady Saga - I know exactly what you are talking about on the gear - with me it was Fallout 3. I was a walking arsenal my first game, and rarely used any but a few of the guns. My weight was always right on the edge, where I had to repair weapons or armor or drop stuff if I came across something I wanted to loot. (loved that repair feature!).

I've changed that too now, only carry a limited supply of absolute necessities now. Also, used to store so much stuff in my house in Skingrad that you couldn't walk by it without losing FPS, now I sell anything I'm not using unless I earned it in a quest (although I do still keep my collection of Ayleid statues).

The only thing I have that’s like a rule is to do what the character would do. But of course there are exceptions even to that one. For example I don’t hesitate to take out-of-character actions to modify a character’s game. I just switch to first person, do what needs doing, then switch back and continue on with the story.

Eating, sleeping, how much to carry, and what kinds of things get looted from tombs and corpses are all character decisions. For example Jerric snacks throughout dungeons, but Darnand often forgets to eat all day until bedtime. Jensa or Mikke would never touch grave goods unless they were specifically searching for something, and even then they do not remove items other than the one thing they’ve been sent for. Rowan does not believe that gold offers any benefit to the dead, so she takes it. However she doesn’t loot tombs either if her Nord husband is along for the adventure.

Yeah, it just makes things that much more believable. (Believable...is that a word? Lol). Some people RP it that all the extra gear they carry is stored on another plane, which is fine, but I can't go there. I like having limits.

Here's another RP idea I do sometimes, especially with melee-oriented types. Some of mine will wear cheap armor and carry cheap weapons when they start a random expedition. Like if they're not trying to kill some top-uber boss (like Umaril in KotN), and they are just trying to do some bandit raids, they'll go in wearing cheap unenchanted stuff. Leather and armor. Steel. Maybe even fur!

... Now let's say one of my fighters is in some cave and finds some Boots of Shock Resist. These will fetch some coin at the market, of course, or my character might want to add these to his/her wardrobe. What usually happens is these enchanted boots will usually be taken. The cheap leather boots get stored into a barrel (or a dead body) so they'll essentially get respawned out of the game at some point.

This is a good way to either make money, or have some better gear. If my character were to go in that some bandit hole wearing top gear, and finds those Boots of Shock Resist, chances are he/she would have an awkward moment. Can't carry around two pairs of boots, right?! Not if dozens of potions and other items are already being carried, anyways. So wearing cheap stuff, and swapping it out later is a solution.

Granted, some characters of mine (like The Mighty Khahkhayre) would never dream of wearing cheap armor and brandishing a cheap weapon. Perish the thought! But that's another story....

I go the exact opposite way. My characters aren't allowed to equip any piece of armor that they didn't forge or improve themselves. If you find it in a tomb take it, but you can't wear it until you improve it (read alter it to fit) at a forge. The same rule applies even if you buy said armor in a shop. I keep the same rule in place for a compound weapon like the bow. I don't think a serious archer would trust his/her life to a bow that he/she found laying around a tomb. Until I can get it to a forge, I just won't use it. All other weapons and jewelry can be equipped immediately.

I also limit the number of arrows my characters can carry. 50 is my number of choice for a dedicated archer, 25 for a melee character who uses archery as a backup. If I find better quality arrows in a dungeon then I'll replace the arrows in my quiver with the new arrows.

Agreed on the dungeon crawling in cheaper gear - I like your thought behind it better than mine! Maxical always used leather for dungeons, never wore her good glass armor to crawl through caves in. Kind of like how you put on your old torn jeans to garden in, ROFL!




I love this division of personalities! My three characters do have very different personalities and I also do different things with them in their games. (Maxical, Shivani, and Bubba the Redguard).

Example: Bubba is in the Dark Brotherhood. Maxical is afraid of them, and Shivani wouldn't join but knows some members. Their eating habits are different (Maxical doesn't eat meat, etc).

I rarely play Shivani (since she is dead now, she only got resurrected for the Pirate story and for when Maxical visits Clavicus Vile's realm in her story).

Bubba gets played even less often (but Bubba has been to Shivering Isles, neither Shivani or Maxical have!), when he does he is usually a thief and assassin.

Like many others, I use a no excessive gear rule which I started back in my Fallout 3 days. In that game a character could use one rifle/shotgun, one sidearm, and one melee weapon. They could pick up other weapons as loot, but I RPed that those were stashed away in a bag, possibly even disassembled, so could not be brought out and used. It really helps keep the game from feeling like Doom, and seem more like I am playing a role.

I had already been doing something similar in Oblivion, in that each character had their primary weapon and their armor/clothing. Anything they picked up was just loot to sell. In that game I never wanted to change out to a different weapon because the things I self-enchanted were better than anything I found in the game anyway. So there never was the temptation to use anything I found as loot. Plus I always went to an effort to make sure my character's gear all matched to look good. I could never allow a character to use something that would look bad after all!

Aravi will wear fur if it is cold, no matter what. If it is a warm area (like the Rift) she'll often dress waaaay down and wear a bra and loincloth.

She often doesn't wear the best she can either, but what she wants to wear instead. Elven gear looks really nice on her, and so does studded armor.