Have you roleplayed a character in a videogame? Tell us a story!

[CommanderL]

My current Skyrim charcter I have a mod that allows you to start in another place other then helgen.
So my guy is a high elf who ran away from the summerset isles and ended up buying a home in whiterun.
He kills any thalmor he comes against and is unsure of who to support in the war.
he his leaning towards the empire he has heard rummors of dragons and such but he hasnt seen any yet.
he also recently raided a thalmor base and during the raid killed his father who was pressed into service with the thalmor. He is great with a bow and horrible with magic at the moment leaving the magic based stuff to his two followers that are amazing at magic.
he is at heart an explorer and spends many hours exploring the lands of skyrim learning its custom and ruins.

 

[Kasten]

I have a weird thing where in Assassin's Creed, I like to give the Assassins slightly different personalities; obviously they're established characters, but say in

Spoiler: III

I had Haytham use his sword and taunts more and engaging in pragmatic, opportunistic engagements where he'd fence or disarm and fistfight the enemies in single combat as much as possible, only ever really engaging two at a time. Often, he'd save officers for last. He wasn't stupid though, if the enemy was at any distance and he couldn't immediately close and engage, he'd just shoot their asses, and would often avoid starting off engagements with his pistol to maintain that option. Despite this relatively honorable and distinctly traditional fighting style, if he could get a rifle to the roofs he'd snipe as much as he liked, often sniping British soldiers for sport and practice.

Connor was less traditional, he'd dodge into alleys, lure enemies up buildings and kick them off. He uses fists just as often as weapons, and will charge into the thick of the enemies and beat down three at a time. His fighting was less honorable, he'd choke out and hunt down enemies into smaller groups, or just ambush them and kill them all before they'd even had a chance to draw. Hessians were a bit more of a challenge, but not much. He'd shoot them simply because they were inconvenient, and when drawn into closer combat would disarm them and stab them immediately as oppose to Haytham's stylistic fencing with touches of pistol, Connor will fluidly exploit pistols fists and hatchet as a sort of finisher, usually killing the majority of enemies before actual combat occurred. Sometimes he'll brawl or let the enemy actually fight him. But only if he's absolutely certain he can handle the foes, and they're too isolated to flee or get help. He's not as interested in the showmanship and his view of survival contest doesn't include the idea of a 'duel', just combat.

In II, I made Ezio really inventive, and I tended to use a lot of taunting, then gadgets. As in, during combat, I'd taunt then quickly chain a bunch of people with the knife. I almost always used a dagger, and his various tools over the sword. Stuff like that.

Makes each Assassin feel more unique. Way back in the original Assassin's Creed, I tended to avoid combat entirely, Altair was almost a complete ghost.

When I'm playing stuff like Sins of a Solar Empire, or Supreme Commander, I tend to opt for there actually being people on the battlefield, and when I'm indecisive or doing something, I tend to imagine the things happening between my soldiers on the fields, or the political/military struggles that might be going on within my faction. Meaning, what my fleet leaders and Capital captains might be doing whilst they move around the war, how my population could be responding to news, or what they might think of my weird tactics. Even down to what different frigates or cruisers might have going on when they see enemy forces attacking, or enter into combat next to whatever primary forces I have.

 

[FPLOON]

Spoiler: I think this is a pretty accurate take on the matter.

Aw... I remember that being the first video I ever saw from those guys... (Glad I subscribed when I did...)

Now, I'm going to marathon Freeman's Mind once more...

 

[persephone]

I seldom play a video game *without* roleplaying in my head. One of my big prerequisites for really getting into the game is if the game allows me sufficient freedom to create a character and act it out freely, which is a big reason I play so much Skyrim.

Every character I make, as I'm physically designing the character, I'm also brainstorming in my head: What's her motivation? Her background? How old is she? Her goals in life? Her combat preferences? How easily will she fight, and does she seek out or look forward to fighting, or avoid it? And so on.

I've easily played at least a dozen characters (not counting the ones I dropped shortly after making), each of which had their own distinct personality and goals, ranging from "I'm just here to make a living as a hunter/gatherer/alchemist in a war economy, why does everyone want to attack or hire me" to "I want to become a vampire and live forever with a secure social position" to "I want to learn about magic and the Dwemer and worship Azura in peace, and I wish people would leave me alone to my pursuits." One character showed up in Skyrim with two goals: join the Stormcloaks and find a husband. Another showed up with the only goal of joining the Legion and helping put the rebellion down. I've also played characters who are partially or totally crazy and/or evil in some way. Generally I play each character until their personal goals and story arc are complete.

I recently finished played a Nord named Halla, whose goal was to come to Skyrim and help deal with the Forsworn while there was a war diverting most of the resources that would normally deal with the problem. Halla went straight to Markarth, and long story short, spent twenty plus levels dealing with internal and external threats to the Reach, improving her skills, becoming thane, and so on, all without ever leaving the hold. Once she'd scoured just about every Forsworn camp (though they do unfortunately respawn) and been just about everywhere in the Reach, I was done playing her. Halla wouldn't leave the Reach; she'd continue policing it until the Forsworn were no longer a threat, which isn't something the game will let me do, not to Halla's satisfaction. I moved on and made a new character.

I used to play a ton of Zelda, too, because I enjoyed the gameplay and dungeons, and Link is close enough to my personality for me to have a very easy time of projecting myself into him. (I'm just as socially clueless as he is! I could totally get engaged without noticing ... I've certainly been openly hit on many a time, and only found out later when my friends informed me that's what occurred.) When I play Zelda I almost always have an internal monologue about Link's thoughts and motivations, especially when he's interacting with people he cares about.

 

[Muspelheim]

I roleplay all the time. Hell, that is what kept me playing WoW (and still does, from time to time). I love it, it's like text based improvisation theatre.

In single player games, I do that too, to a certain degree. I try to act reasonably... Real, I suppose. Using the walk button and I don't put buckets over people's head and rob them blind. Hell, if the mood really takes me, I say the line I would say in place of the actual dialogue.

Skyrim sadly didn't have a disguise mechanic, but on my assassin character, I still tried to wear a good disguise for the job. I pretended that he was simply really bad at making convincing disguises, which was why everyone immediately saw through it.

-"Is that... A tail?"
*stabbitystab*
-"Ay'shot is foiled yet again... He is rather shit at this.

Eventually, I began leaving behind a deathbell leaf at every assassination scene, as my "mark" of sorts. I imagine the guards must've been rather frustrated with this incompetent, theatrical murderer they could never really catch.

I actually have a little roleplaying thing going on in Minecraft, too, of all places. More like a theme, really. I pretend running an EgoCorp company with my username in it. Then, I build a "front" for the next Big Project. Like a fake farm on top of my dimensional doors research complex, or an ice cream factory that is actually my secret space program base.

It's rather fun, and gives Minecraft projects a little bit more depth, pretend as it is.