I actually have never played someone else's character build. I always like making my own and I usually try to put myself in the character's shoes in terms of RP.
I really enjoy making stories for my characters but sometimes they are super short and I never write them down ... just something that I keep in the back of my mind while I play and interact with the game world. It's often the case that these characters are short lived and I restart, but most of the ones that have "stuck" are the ones I have posted.
I used to be an exploit freak. Backstabbing the greybeards while they peacefully meditate, to level my sneak. Abusing soul trap, muffle, and such. That was before I discovered this site. Being fairly new to RPGs, role-playing was a revelation to me. So pumped my game with Frostfall, RND, COT, & other immersive mods.
Now I play according to the character. With combat mods like RotE, & HLE, the game stays playable even after level 30.
Depends on the build. Honestly, I don't really play others builds very often, if at all, but I play my own a lot. Most of the times, it starts off with Alternate Start, an absent flower-picking and alchemy ingredient-hunting so I can think about my character and what they are, before I delve into roleplay and questing. Sometimes I play that absent commoner for a long time, others only a few minutes before I break into a thief or magey warrior.
My favourite playthroughs, though, are the ones I do that are all roleplay. Like, that time I made a Bosmer hunter who lived in Falkreath and did no quests, just living off the land, skinning elk and selling their meat and hide, living with the other hunters at their cabin and trying to stave off the wet chill of the woods until he could finally buy a house and raise a family. Even though I doubt I will ever make builds of them, playthroughs like that are the most memorable to me and the heady immersion and roleplay is kinda addictive to me.
My favourite playthroughs, though, are the ones I do that are all roleplay. Like, that time I made a Bosmer hunter who lived in Falkreath and did no quests, just living off the land, skinning elk and selling their meat and hide, living with the other hunters at their cabin and trying to stave off the wet chill of the woods until he could finally buy a house and raise a family. Even though I doubt I will ever make builds of them, playthroughs like that are the most memorable to me and the heady immersion and roleplay is kinda addictive to me.
These are some of my favorites as well. I remember role-playing a hunter in Fallout 4 and going "Shaun? Whozzat?" Fun times.
First off, I run like over 160 Modifications on my game so options are crazy wild. The Populated series of mods I have as well, though I'm currently trying to figure out which other mod is screwing with the face textures of the Populated npc's. But that's a story for another time.
I have perhaps 5 running characters at the moment, each with their own background and desires. But Morgan is my current project. For him, it started in the life of shadows, working his way through the Dark Brotherhood thinking he would be a top notch assassin. Well, truth be told he is a top notch killer, but he has some sort of moral compass which after the death of Astrid changed his life values. So, he decided to go into work that was still shadowy, but less brutal...and took over the Thief's Guild in Riften.
Here's the thing, while out and about, he generally travels at night on Shadowmere (because red glowing eyes on a horse is just pure cool lol). Every now and then, The Night mother decides to whisper to him in his dreams and occasionally he fulfills a contract for her. On top of which he is slowly building a criminal empire across Skyrim through graft, theft, outright strong arm tactics, protection rackets, blackmail etc.
All this has been done in conjunction with building his own wilderness town. (Blackthorn town building modification). So, periodically, he drops back in for resupply, check on his minions, recruit more followers, and spoil his 6 orphan children he adopted. Sounds crazy...I know, but he lives 2 lives. Most of the world sees him as a strong willed mercenary that made out good with his little town in the Rift. But that's only a front to process stolen goods etc, from across Skyrim. When the need arises in the dark of night, he calls up his Shadowmere and quietly rides off into the darkness.
From there he does whatever deeds need being done, whether in the name of Nocturna as a Nightingale Agent or as the hand of The Dark Mother. Sure, he knows in the end he is doomed, but while alive he cleans up the ugly trash and tries to make one small place in Skyrim decent and reasonably happy.
Well, that's Morgan haha. Now, there are other stories to be told from other toons. If I can get Friendly Faces to work properly (it glitches periodically and screws things up) Then I can have my different toons meet each other in game and work together as companions. Hopefully I can fix that, because from an RP standpoint, it would be awesome to do some crossover stories between my different toons.
I enjoy seeing my husband playing Skyrim He's very lucky (during his game a load of hilarious random encounters happen) adorable TES novice and a born comedian. A little taste: he thought that Jorrvarskr is just another inn and he spent there a lot of time looking for an innkeeper. Or he lost his way to Riften, found Black-Briar Lodge area and he mistook it for a town