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Discussion: Unplanned Changes in Direction

Tags: #RP:Discussion  #Zonnonn 
  • Member
    January 2, 2018

    Wag1 famalam, your friendly Roleplaying host Zonnonn here with another discussion for ya. This time it's about Unplanned Changes in Direction.

    Now I'm sure we all spend far too long planning our characters to a tee, ensuring that they have a certain path of progression that is inline with how we want to play. But sometimes life throws a spanner in the works (heh, ain't that the truth?). Or does it? Have you ever had a moment that changed the way your character thought and acted? Something that you didn't plan on happening but decided to roll with when it cropped up?

    To give an example (which I'm sure many of you have heard before, I talk about it a lot), once I was playing an Imperial Spy, and so of course I was snooping around in the houses of Windhelm. I found the Summerset Shadow hideout, which I had completely forgotten had existed, and because of this my character 'got involved' in the whole situation, which I RPed by taking a much more proactive role in the Thieves Guild quest and spying on the Thalmor more to see if there was a connection between the two groups. This eventually lead to the character being more of a Thief than a Spy. Stuff like that!

  • January 2, 2018

    Man, I think for me this always involves death being the catalyst for change...That's kind of morbid but other the only other thing I can think of is when my character learns that s/he is Dragonborn, that and death are the only major 'unplanned changes' for my characters that I can think of.

    I mean, I do remember a character I was playing around two years ago, that had hired Jenessa back at Level 5 (the first thing she did in Whiterun) and then they fought together for most of the character's pre-planned story. The basic idea of the character was to follow the Main Quest and Dawnguard to kind of be a relatively 'Heroic' character, but Jenessa ended up dying during one of the DG quests and I sort of just ended the character there. A moment of weakness there that ended up with my Dragonborn going all hermit in the Morthal house (the one you get for being Thane anyway) and giving up on saving the world. Liked to think it all ended relatively alright for the rest of the world (aka, someone else...probably Isran kicked Harkon's ass) but yeah, that was a particularly...not fun but interesting way to end the character earlier than I'd planned.

  • Member
    January 2, 2018

    Mega-Dragonborn-of-Doom (1921) said:

    Man, I think for me this always involves death being the catalyst for change...That's kind of morbid but other the only other thing I can think of is when my character learns that s/he is Dragonborn, that and death are the only major 'unplanned changes' for my characters that I can think of.

    I've been trying to think of some other past examples and I think you're right. Death is the only thing large enough to cause a real change for most characters, and I think this is down to scale. Most characters have big goals - be it to save the world, create a criminal empire or master the arcane. All of these things, at least from a RP perspective, require sacrifice, and as a result put them above the petty concerns of less driven individuals. It'd be interesting to see if anyone's got any examples for citizen characters, or at least those that start humble. Losing 1000 gold or contracting an illness would mean a lot more, and as a result change the character's path a lot more, to a blacksmith or a miner compared to a big hero.

    Whoops, sorry for rambling Deeberius, just got me thinking. I like the dramatic turn your playthrough took, and the consequences that would come as a result of it (someone else having to save the world). Although as Jenassa bloody annoyes me I can't share your character's pain :P

  • January 2, 2018

    Once I played a character who was all fine and dandy and then he became a vampire, like from one of those random caves the companions make you do before you do Proving Honor. And lol, I'm a dummy, as I've aptly demonstrated here on several occasions, I didn't know, cause I was interior a lot and it was night when I would come out, cause vanilla skyrim nights are nothing. This was before I got the  dlc, cause I had the base game for several months. Ha! when he was chased out of some city, probably Morthal (I keep remembering swamps), for being a stage iv, I stopped being the standard warrior that I was playing and then opted full vampire. Abandoned companions and went Dark brotherhood, because I needed a place to stay and Babette understood. 

    EDIT: It is a bit of the inspiration behind my collab with Fawn on that rp profile Zulfiqar Twice-Shamed. I may revisit the concept later, but Dawnguard sort of ruins the whole fear thingy. That was sooo surprising to be chased out. I was like WHOA, what did I do? Wish I had finished the DB with that one, but lol, I bought the dlcs and used my old Bosmer for that until it bugged and then I rolled a new character for the DB and all that. 

     

  • Member
    January 4, 2018

    Zonnonn said:

    To give an example (which I'm sure many of you have heard before, I talk about it a lot), once I was playing an Imperial Spy, and so of course I was snooping around in the houses of Windhelm. I found the Summerset Shadow hideout, which I had completely forgotten had existed, and because of this my character 'got involved' in the whole situation, which I RPed by taking a much more proactive role in the Thieves Guild quest and spying on the Thalmor more to see if there was a connection between the two groups. This eventually lead to the character being more of a Thief than a Spy. Stuff like that!

    Maybe oneday we'll see an RP Profile of this oft-mentioned, light-fingered Imperial Agent :p

    Unplanned changes in direction are like a double-edged blade. To embrace the chaos and follow the muse is a freedom which can alleviate the symptoms of restartitis, but they can also make you go, "oh cool! Now I really wanna play an xxx character." Honestly, though, xxx characters are the nuts, too.

    These days I tend to be more chill, only planning enough backstory and character so as to allow the game to determine direction. If my character starts out with sympathies to the Empire and a tendency to be drawn to the Eight Divines, if I find he or she starts siding with Ulfdick and possibly having a fondness for Sanguine, well, I can live with that and enjoy how that happened.

    Faith is the major one, though. Crisis of faith can be the thing which derails a planned character for me.

  • Member
    January 4, 2018

    I was playing a disgraced Dunmer Battlemage, one who had been ejected from the Legion near the end of the Great War for errors made when he was drunk during a Thalmor ambush. He crawled into a bottle for over thirty years and swore he’d never use magic again, but circumstances dragged him back.

    I was surprised at how intensely he bonded with Erandur, another Dunmer trying to correct his mistakes. They were a good influence on the other, the Battlemage encouraging Erandur to get out into the world while Erandur’s faith bolstered my long-hopeless character. It changed the playthrough from that of a kind of guilt-driven hermit answering his failed duty to that of a genuine hero who made peace with his past and moved on.

  • Member
    January 4, 2018

    The Long-Chapper said:

    Once I played a character who was all fine and dandy and then he became a vampire, like from one of those random caves the companions make you do before you do Proving Honor. And lol, I'm a dummy, as I've aptly demonstrated here on several occasions, I didn't know, cause I was interior a lot and it was night when I would come out, cause vanilla skyrim nights are nothing. This was before I got the  dlc, cause I had the base game for several months. Ha! when he was chased out of some city, probably Morthal (I keep remembering swamps), for being a stage iv, I stopped being the standard warrior that I was playing and then opted full vampire. Abandoned companions and went Dark brotherhood, because I needed a place to stay and Babette understood. 

    EDIT: It is a bit of the inspiration behind my collab with Fawn on that rp profile Zulfiqar Twice-Shamed. I may revisit the concept later, but Dawnguard sort of ruins the whole fear thingy. That was sooo surprising to be chased out. I was like WHOA, what did I do? Wish I had finished the DB with that one, but lol, I bought the dlcs and used my old Bosmer for that until it bugged and then I rolled a new character for the DB and all that.

    I LOVE stuff like vampirism or lycanthropy for changing a character. You know like when Vilkas talked about talks about still hearing the 'call of the blood', or in fantasy books when vampires catch themselves staring at people's necks without realising it. It adds loads of depth, and like in your example can change the character altogether. I like the fact that they still kept some humanity though, as it was the villagers and not their 'monsterous' self that forced them to run away. 'Babette understood' also speaks volumes, they're still them, but suffering from an affliction, rather than just switching to basically another personality.

    And please do continue the concept if you find time, I loved the profile and seeing more of it would be great.

    Paws said:

    Maybe oneday we'll see an RP Profile of this oft-mentioned, light-fingered Imperial Agent :p

    Unplanned changes in direction are like a double-edged blade. To embrace the chaos and follow the muse is a freedom which can alleviate the symptoms of restartitis, but they can also make you go, "oh cool! Now I really wanna play an xxx character." Honestly, though, xxx characters are the nuts, too.

    These days I tend to be more chill, only planning enough backstory and character so as to allow the game to determine direction. If my character starts out with sympathies to the Empire and a tendency to be drawn to the Eight Divines, if I find he or she starts siding with Ulfdick and possibly having a fondness for Sanguine, well, I can live with that and enjoy how that happened.

    Faith is the major one, though. Crisis of faith can be the thing which derails a planned character for me.

    Wait, a host contributing something relevant to their group? I'm sorry, I don't think I understand :P

    I hear you on restartitis, in fact that's one of the reasons why I consider a development like this so important. I think we get so wrapped up in creating the perfect character that we forget that characters aren't perfect, and nothing is ever completely linear. IRL wise, people study biology and end up computing, no one has kids when they think they will and shit happens. If we apply that to our characters as well not only will it make them more real, but they'll be way more interesting and invested as well.

    Faith is also a great shout, but for me it can be difficult to apply, which is why I think a change like that hasn't happened to me when it wasn't planned. Stuff like vampirism, like Liss mentioned, or followers dying like Deebs and Merc said, are tangible - you can see the evidence on screen. Stuff like religion, that is purely in the roleplay, is hard to be shifted without us planning on it. Interesting though, I imagine not much would change a character as much as their faith, especially given the polarity of the deities in Tamriel.

    Mercurias said:

    I was playing a disgraced Dunmer Battlemage, one who had been ejected from the Legion near the end of the Great War for errors made when he was drunk during a Thalmor ambush. He crawled into a bottle for over thirty years and swore he’d never use magic again, but circumstances dragged him back.

    I was surprised at how intensely he bonded with Erandur, another Dunmer trying to correct his mistakes. They were a good influence on the other, the Battlemage encouraging Erandur to get out into the world while Erandur’s faith bolstered my long-hopeless character. It changed the playthrough from that of a kind of guilt-driven hermit answering his failed duty to that of a genuine hero who made peace with his past and moved on.

    Proper like your character, Merc! Crawling into a bottle you say? Can't say I've heard of that before, very original. It's been said that Skyrim doesn't exactly have the best dialogue, so I love it when characters bond so closely to an NPC like this.

  • Member
    January 4, 2018

    Revenge.

    Case in point: I might have a completely different objective in mind, but every time I hit level 30 and that Boethia Cultist comes at me, I drop everything and pay Boethia's Sacellum a little visit for some retribution--it's usually a pretty tough encounter, but oh so satisfying. Then I turn my back on Boethia. It happened to me just this morning, and because my character is a champion of Khenarthi, it put some of the other more malignant daedra on my radar; I gathered all the pieces of Mehrune's Dagger, killed Silus, and four daedra at the temple. Gonna use Ahzidal's Boots to walk out as far into the ocean as I can and toss that dagger into the deepest parts of the sea... who knows what's next?

    All I know is that when I woke up this morning, I had no intention of targeting any daedric princes, and now it looks like Imma sweep Skyrim clear of them xD

  • Member
    January 4, 2018

    ShinJin said:

    Revenge.

    Case in point: I might have a completely different objective in mind, but every time I hit level 30 and that Boethia Cultist comes at me, I drop everything and pay Boethia's Sacellum a little visit for some retribution--it's usually a pretty tough encounter, but oh so satisfying. Then I turn my back on Boethia. It happened to me just this morning, and because my character is a champion of Khenarthi, it put some of the other more malignant daedra on my radar; I gathered all the pieces of Mehrune's Dagger, killed Silus, and four daedra at the temple. Gonna use Ahzidal's Boots to walk out as far into the ocean as I can and toss that dagger into the deepest parts of the sea... who knows what's next?

    All I know is that when I woke up this morning, I had no intention of targeting any daedric princes, and now it looks like Imma sweep Skyrim clear of them xD

    I've been there! You start off doing a simple fetch quest, and before you know it you've robbed every house in Whiterun and are now on the run from all the town guards and one very angry shop owner... Have fun on your righteous crusade!

  • Member
    January 4, 2018

    Zonnonn said:

    I've been there! You start off doing a simple fetch quest, and before you know it you've robbed every house in Whiterun and are now on the run from all the town guards and one very angry shop owner... 

    Okay... that's hilarious xD