So if you haven't had the chance to read over Idesto's Guide to Immersive Roleplaying (protip: you should!), one of his suggestions for enhancing your roleplay experience is to roll a random character. Now, Idesto published this guide some weeks back, but I keep coming back to this particular point. I can be a bit of a control freak planner and letting go can be difficult for me. So I thought I'd ask all you fine folks:
UPDATE: This generator may be a little better since you can reroll just a single column if there are just too many inconsistencies to reconcile in the initial result. http://www.scenariogenerator.net/game/skyrim
I've always found the random character generators for Skyrim characters to be pretty non-sensical. Like, for example, in this generator I got an Altmer Werewolf who apparently adores the Volkihar Clan. Like, whaaa? Lol. I mean I guess you can use it to draw inspiration but honestly I much prefer starting from scratch with a concept of my own because I just find it too messy tbh.
My level 25 orc character, his name was actually generated from a list of Male Orc Names!
His name is Murkamul Khatbuk. I just call him Murk. :) My cheeky Bosmer character Tav, likes to call him Murkamule Khatbutt. Murk doesn't think that's funny.
Okay giving this generator a go! Haha, got an Argonian lady. She's not too far from my actual Argonian female, Azollah.
Race: Argonian
Gender: Female
Age: Venerable
Class: Warrior
Supernatural: None
Apparel Style: Heavy Armour
Combat Style: Two-handed
Residence: Proudspire Manor
Talent: Restoration
Preferred: Enchanting
Backup: Heavy armor
Auxiliary: One-handed weapons
That random generator is really weird. I got Altmer Agent. Wears only robes, but one of his skills was Heavy Armor. Weird.
Then I got Derkeethus as Spouse. But it says I dislike Argonians. Or they dislike me. It´s really too much random for my liking. But I guess people can choose only some things from these results, right?
Race: Orc
Sex: Female
Class: Rogue
Supernatural: Werewolf
Apparel style: Robes
Combat Style: One Handed
Residence: Proudspire Manor
Talent: Archery
Preferred: Conjuration
Backup: Heavy Armor
Auxiliary: Smithing
She is Chaotic Neutral (the best kind), hates the Stormcloaks and the Imperials, hates the Dawnguard but is friendly towards the Vigil of Stendarr. Oh yes, and CuSith is her Familiar.
Yeah, I'd play that.
Yeah I would say if there's anything that conflicting in the roleplay then it's dealer's choice! After all, you still want to end up with an interesting and believable character at at the end, so I think it's completely fair to take some liberties, especially when you get down to that level of detail (social, personality, family, etc). I think it's unlikely you'd get that cohesive of a character if you tried to apply every single condition. Myself, I would just look at race, appearance, alignment, skills... but leave it there and write the rest myself.
Unless I noticed there happened to be some really interesting combination that emerged.
Haha, yeah there can definitely be some weird contradictions, which is partially why I suggested just sort of looking at core of the character so, profile and skills. If you just took the basic alignment and sort of played through it with no real "agenda" I feel like it's possible some really interesting roleplay could emerge. Coming up with the story is one of the best parts, so I'd hate to be that boxed in with some of these personality and social dispositions. That's a little too specific in my mind.
...And even when you take the core of the roll (profile and skills) it can be conflicting. It would be really great if some of these had better conditional coding implemented into them. So I think drawing inspiration from them could be a solid middle ground.
This tool gives you a little more control so you can reroll just a single column:
http://www.scenariogenerator.net/game/skyrim
In fact, I'm gonna throw this link up in the discussion topic.
Well that's sort of what brought me around to all this! I feel like I don't seem to have much luck with these things. And yet your Shinbira is a really interesting character that came from a random roll: a thief-y Dunmer barbarian with a chip on his shoulder for all the right reasons. Surely lightning must strike twice sometimes??
I actually got a really interesting character:
Race: Breton
Gender: Male
Age: Mature Adult
Class: Acrobat
Supernatural: Werewolf
Apparel Style: Light Armour
Combat Style: Any
Residence: Severin Manor
Talent: Speech
Preferred: Block
Backup: Pickpocket
Auxiliary: Speech
He's Lawful Neutral, Insane, Honor-Driven, and reveres Hermaeus Mora. His disposition toward most of the races is fairly neutral, but he loves Bosmer, Dunmer, Khajiit, Nords, and Werewolves, and doesn't like Imperials.
His faction interactions are pretty funny, especially the Vigilants/Daedra part:
Blades: Zealot
Greybeards: Tolerant
Imperials: Dislike
Stormcloaks: Adoring
Companions: Friendly
College of Winterhold: Zealot
Dark Brotherhood: Dislike
Thieves Guild: Dislike
Bard's College: Hostile
Dawnguard: Hostile
Volkihar Clan: Dislike
Forsworn: Zealot
Thalmor: Indifferent
Vigils of Stendar: Zealot
Daedra: Adoring
And lastly: his familiar is a stray dog.
I would most definitely play this character.
Right Here! Some of these are quite silly or hard to pronounce, but there's a lot of potential. I like to mix-and-match some of these too.
Okay, this generator is awesome: I reloaded (after saving) and got a second super interesting character.
Race: Redguard
Gender: Male
Age: Young Adult
Class: Archer
Supernatural: Vampire or Werewolf
Apparel Style: Light Armour
Combat Style: Two-handed
Residence: Proudspire Manor
Talent: Archery
Preferred: Conjuration
Backup: Destruction
Auxiliary: Two-handed weapons
He's a Lawful Good Insane Joker who hates all gods save for Nocturnal and walks backwards. He hates his own people but loves Argonians, and hates old people but loves children.
Same weird Vigilants/Daedra thing as the last one:
Blades: Tolerant
Greybeards: Hostile
Imperials: Zealot
Stormcloaks: Friendly
Companions: Zealot
College of Winterhold: Dislike
Dark Brotherhood: Hostile
Thieves Guild: Adoring
Bard's College: Zealot
Dawnguard: Friendly
Volkihar Clan: Dislike
Forsworn: Dislike
Thalmor: Hostile
Vigils of Stendar: Adoring
Daedra: Zealot
Again: I would most definitely play this character.
Ah, damn! I rerolled a few times on the second site and now I've spoiled it!
I did get an Altmer stealth-illusionist Companion on my first (or maybe second?) run that uses greatswords and daggers [sneak, illusion, speech]. Given a decent backstory, I'll happily see this through!
I'll check the first site too, subbing in the above to see what the character is like in full.
EDIT: It seems he's a neurotic insomniac with a pet Troll, who loves sailing.
I think thats interesting and both generators rolled something playable. But my problem is they generate stuff you could manipulate. As I read Idestos guide I understood like: You don't choose as what you are born. So role that stuff: Look, Race, Gender maybe, Skills you are naturally talented in. But you can choose whom you marry, what children you adopt, what factions you join (though sympathy might depend on how you were raised). So the first Generator rolls a bit to much things for my taste.
I would happily play as a randomly generated character provided there were a few things I could stipulate.
An Argonian male with green reptilian eyes, as many Bone spikes as possible including eyelids, dark green shading and three scars above his left eye. And he was called Sotek.
This would be fine as long as he could join the Companions, take Aela as his mate and hunt the plains as a werewolf alongside his she-wolf mate.
He would have to have Axes and a Bow. (Spear with mods)
If all that is ok the sure, I'm all for it.
PS.
He'll have to worship Hircine, apart from these minor details its all good.
Oh yes, Alchemy is a must.