Role Playing in Morrowind

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Archived from groups: alt.games.morrowind (More info?)

What do you do to get into a role for a new character in Morrowind?

Two things I typically do are 1) just follow the leads the character
finds in the game, and 2) try to start with an
approach/race/profession/etc that I have not played before, or have
not played in a long while. These combine into helping me avoid ruts
(don't go after Mentor's Ring if no one mentions it, don't go running
to Caldera for the recall amulet, etc.). But I've played MW a lot
since it first came out. (Tiki's following the backstory of the game
was a whole new path for me, and so was a lot of fun. But not all
characters work out so well.) It gets hard to find new approaches to
the game.

So, what do you do?

 

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"DeAnn" <von.sagrillo@verizon.net> wrote in message
news:e7387fa.0406260504.3a0a55df@posting.google.com...
> What do you do to get into a role for a new character in Morrowind?
>

Here's my approach:

1. Make a nice plate of nachos. (This helps for any character class.)

2. Think about, as you said, a class I haven't played in a while.

3. Think about the character's background:
a. race (varies by what the game will allow)
b. gender (Usually male for me.)
c. economic class (Was he rich or poor? How did that influence him
growing up?)
d. education and training (scholarly mage, pious cleric, street-wise
pickpocket, righteous defender of the weak? Morrowind in particular allows
for any combination of traits I could want.)
e. other social stuff like religion and morals (What social forces
affect who he is? Is he expected to go into the family business and be a
mage? Are 60% of the citizens in the kingdom of his birth clerics by
profession, because of their proximity to an evil, sorcerous,
undead-summoning kingdom? Is he exiled from his Dwarvish clan because of
his progressive outlook? Is he a half-elf, accepted by neither humans or
elves, forced by the hard life on the road to learn the arts of unarmed
combat? Is he a halfling male, driven by the need to prove himself in the
world dominated by humans, to demonstrate ferocity in battle and to
accumulate ever more treasure?)

4. From this background, picture his fundamental approach to life, as
represented by the various classes (Will he be a crusading paladin, skilled
mercenary fighter, intellectual magic user, stealthy assassin, etc)

5. A good name is a must, never anything silly.

6. The most memorable characters generally have some weakness. (Tom
Dragonsbane, a paladin, was a swell enough fellow, but you would not want to
bet your paycheck on whether he could beat a 5-year-old at tic-tac-toe.)

/Andy

 

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"Andy B" <AndyNoSpamHereEitherBadeaux@cox.nospam.net> wrote in message
news:NopDc.1023$Rr2.7@lakeread03...
>
> "DeAnn" <von.sagrillo@verizon.net> wrote in message
> news:e7387fa.0406260504.3a0a55df@posting.google.com...
> > What do you do to get into a role for a new character in Morrowind?
> >
>
> Here's my approach:
>
> 1. Make a nice plate of nachos. (This helps for any character class.)
>
> 2. Think about, as you said, a class I haven't played in a while.
>
> 3. Think about the character's background:
> a. race (varies by what the game will allow)
> b. gender (Usually male for me.)
> c. economic class (Was he rich or poor? How did that influence him
> growing up?)
> d. education and training (scholarly mage, pious cleric, street-wise
> pickpocket, righteous defender of the weak? Morrowind in particular allows
> for any combination of traits I could want.)
> e. other social stuff like religion and morals (What social forces
> affect who he is? Is he expected to go into the family business and be a
> mage? Are 60% of the citizens in the kingdom of his birth clerics by
> profession, because of their proximity to an evil, sorcerous,
> undead-summoning kingdom? Is he exiled from his Dwarvish clan because of
> his progressive outlook? Is he a half-elf, accepted by neither humans or
> elves, forced by the hard life on the road to learn the arts of unarmed
> combat? Is he a halfling male, driven by the need to prove himself in the
> world dominated by humans, to demonstrate ferocity in battle and to
> accumulate ever more treasure?)
>
> 4. From this background, picture his fundamental approach to life, as
> represented by the various classes (Will he be a crusading paladin,
skilled
> mercenary fighter, intellectual magic user, stealthy assassin, etc)
>
> 5. A good name is a must, never anything silly.

Amen. This is one of the most fun parts of any game.

>
> 6. The most memorable characters generally have some weakness. (Tom
> Dragonsbane, a paladin, was a swell enough fellow, but you would not want
to
> bet your paycheck on whether he could beat a 5-year-old at tic-tac-toe.)

This is very important as well. Think hard. Pick something, and work hard
to not level it up. I usually pick one stat where I intentionally do not
advance. With my most recent character, who I tried to pattern after Mat in
Jordan's Wheel of Time series, I raised his luck to 100 using console
commands, and then lowered his strength, intelligence, and endurance to 5
each to counter the effect. I concentrated on leveling speed, agility, and
personality the most while keeping strength and intelligence and endurance
to a bare minimum. I relied on a dagger, a bow, speachcraft, and thievery
to make my way through Morrowind.

 

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Archived from groups: alt.games.morrowind (More info?)

"bryan K" <webmaster13nospam@cableone.net> wrote in message news:<IhODc.7559151$iA2.855283@news.easynews.com>...
> "Andy B" <AndyNoSpamHereEitherBadeaux@cox.nospam.net> wrote in message
> news:NopDc.1023$Rr2.7@lakeread03...
> >
>...
> >
> > 6. The most memorable characters generally have some weakness. (Tom
> > Dragonsbane, a paladin, was a swell enough fellow, but you would not want
> to
> > bet your paycheck on whether he could beat a 5-year-old at tic-tac-toe.)
>
> This is very important as well. Think hard. Pick something, and work hard
> to not level it up. I usually pick one stat where I intentionally do not
> advance. With my most recent character, who I tried to pattern after Mat in
> Jordan's Wheel of Time series, I raised his luck to 100 using console
> commands, and then lowered his strength, intelligence, and endurance to 5
> each to counter the effect. I concentrated on leveling speed, agility, and
> personality the most while keeping strength and intelligence and endurance
> to a bare minimum. I relied on a dagger, a bow, speachcraft, and thievery
> to make my way through Morrowind.


I hadn't thought of specifically creating a weakness. I usually
pick a focus of some sort, often a strength, and let the character
crystallize around that. Often the character then does have
weaknesses; but not ones deliberately put in. That is, if I conceive
of them as not being bright and/or adept at magic, they don't do magic
things. But I don't start out by handicapping magic development.

Right now, I'm taking a race (argonian, since I haven't played
beast folk that much), and building a character around racial
(Argonian) strengths. I started by taking the Argonian traits (medium
armor, illusion, spear, alchemy, etc.) and making them either major or
minor skills. These are also the skills I'm trying to use in the
game. Then I added a brief background: dandy, formerly wealthy, who
cares a lot about how he looks (color coordination is important).
Three Ears Long is starting to gel. But he is mostly a bit petulant
about being stuck in Vvardenfell. He joined the legion because he saw
someone in spiffy armor...but so far his armor has not looked anything
near spiffy (so he does not wear it, he wears a bonemold cuirass,
dreugh helm and some very spiffy blue clothes).