Looking at the Tamriel Vault builds, as well as other places like Fudgemuppet's channels, there are a lot of characters that have a backstory of being someone skilled: healer, assassin, mercenary, mage, etc. However, starting off a new build in Skyrim means starting off with at most 25 in each skill, so how do you guys fit this into your roleplaying narrative?
My current character is simply an older guy who hasn't done much fighting in 10 years (and as a pure warrior that means a lot) so it's fairly easy to Roleplay his arms and body simply being weaker.
Though, his 'Potion Mixing' skills are as potent as ever...Considering he started about a year before Skyrim, that means nothing
I think for a lot of our builders the roleplay doesn't really start until the character is complete. It is quite a strange concept but once the character is assembled and everything has been collected, the build is set for life and can be jumped back into whenever the mood takes. I have quite a few characters like that and sometimes load them up if I feel like roleplaying.
Normally though, I find some way of suspending my disbelief and more often than not a character's backstory isn't defined in great detail until later. I guess it evolves with the character. Those starting skills are normally enough for me to believe he/she was adept in their field as a common man or mer is unlikely to possess the same skill level even at level one.
I really start my roleplays first off (well, first is the lore, then the RP, and finally mechanics and combat that would suit it), but I rarely have a good answer to this question.
I prefer to play young or experienced characters or characters who have been sick or debilitated for some time. For Divayth Fyr, I said that he was recovering from corpus disease and has to recover his mental and physical skills.
Another thing that I like to think about is that in D&D terms, getting to level one is actually a big accomplishment and less than level one characters are basically just civilians. Even though this doesn't hold water in TES, it's something that I like to think about.
I have the alternative start mod "live another life" and it is great with backstories.
currently rolling with a Female Bosmer and she lives in Honeyside from Riften and thinking on making her Assassin that is also good. thinking Neutral for the alignment. she does good deeds as well as work for the Dark Brotherhood. she will turn her life around after the Dark Brotherhood quest line.
Another point I'd like to make: My first couple builds will be completely blank slates for role-play, though I have a role-play heavy build queued up for after I get used to the system. That build begins with someone who's fallen out of practice due to her spending too much time in a 9-5 job.
Well crap..I had a wall of text here that somehow didn't make it. Umm TL;DR there are mods for those who run on PC that can give you different starts and with specific housing mods that come with full crafting equipment as well as materials, you can craft your way through between 10-15 levels assuming you have the crafting Mod overhaul. Disperse the skills as you see fit and BAM, you now have a character you can RP as having some skills and acting heroic rather than as a new initiate.
That's why I like the builds (of course I love all the builds here ) that indicate the stages of character developement.
By the way, now I'm playing the female Altmer engineer, rune and blade master that explores Dwemer ruins. I admit, the beginning of the game may be dull (like this: Altmer almost executed by the Imperials..) so this time I created some ridiculous story that she annoyed the Thalmor officers or sth
This is actually a fantastic question, and I feel like you could really delve pretty deeply into this in the Roleplaying group. Personally I like to believe that faced with their own mortality and encountering Alduin at Helgen causes some sort of ability or power to "awaken" within the character (if you're playing as a dragonborn).
But whether you're playing as dragonborn or not, such an experience would certainly be pretty erm... jarring? I approach it from a psychological standpoint; near-death experiences (you're literally on the chopping block and then see a f*cking dragon raining down fire and mayhem) tend to have a pretty huge effect on a person's psyche, so in my mind that's grounds enough to warrant a righteous rallying for fighting evil/saving the world (in whatever way that character chooses to believe is right, just, etc.) or a complete psychological break into utter madness and chaos (especially if those criminal and/or power-hungry inclinations existed pre-Helgen and manifested in smaller more everyday ways).
So... what Lissette said, but with way more words than necessary.
So basically, having a near-death experience by way of dragon triggers awesome? I can live with that.
Me, I just think it off as having been an apprentice or student when you get sent into the world, get caught near Darkwater Crossing and carted off to Helgen.
Unless it's an older-aged character, then it's just being out of practice.
Or you could say that you forgot everything because "By the Divines, I'm gonna die! Quick, void yourself of anything not related to Running Very Fast And Far Away!" also causes brain-farts: you forget everything due to the Brown Pants Moment.