Things you always do in Computer RPGs

This is more about single player games than MMOs but MMOs are fair game:

I always play a female character. Not sure what that says about me but it’s true.

If it’s a fantasy game, I play a mage. I feel like I am only playing half the game if I don’t take advantage of the magic system they took the time to create.

I am obsessive about poking around in every nook and cranny on a map.

I am a terrible hoarder. I agonize about selling something because a. I may get a companion who can use it. b. It may end up being an item I could use in a quest. Neither of those have never been an issue in any RPG I have played in the last 10 years or so (some older ones had screw you moments built in) but I still do it.

I am almost always a “Nice” character. I feel guilty doing mean things even in a game. Again I am sure that says something about me.

How about you?

The first character I make is me, or the closest approximation I can get. I answer all the questions the way I would in that situation.

I was going to post here, but everything I do has already been covered by Quimby!

I always try to click on a friendly NPC to see if I can kill them, as soon as I begin the game. I’m usually disappointed.
I always give my character a totally non-serious and definitely non-RP type name. For example, I have a Worgen in WoW named “Oddlyfull” - if you’re a Buffy fan, think about it for a while. Or I have a bald human Death Knight named “Savalas”, as in, Telly.

It drives my wife nuts, since she mines her vast trove of fantasy books for the perfect character names, while I’m naming characters ElDuderino and stuff.

  • I always play a woman, but I am one!

  • I prefer mages or, if those are too squishy with my limited computer game skills, a fighter or fighter/healer combo.

  • I play a goodie-goodie, though will also enjoy playing ‘good but snarky.’ I miss out on tons of achievements because I don’t want to do the evil/selfish playthrough.

  • I save before all major battles and conversations, and will reload if things go poorly. I may also reload just to see what other conversational options will result in.

  • If I’m playing a RPG where decisions in game 1 will carry over to game 2 via a save file, I will eventually play with a walkthrough to make a perceived “best choices” game. Depending on how lazy I’m being, “eventually” may actually become “on the first playthrough.”

  • If there’s a male NPC to romance, I will almost certainly try it out as long as he’s not overtly evil. (Exceptions are any romance that I know is (probably) doomed for one reason or another.)

  1. I always start as a magic user. Preferably fire based.
  2. If the option is there, my character will be gay.
  3. I save everything until I’m sure there’s no use for it. Games with limited storage are agony for me.

Forgot - I’m another hoarder. Part of it is the bad old days of adventure games where you needed a random rusty bolt from earlier in the game to be able to win, but when I keep “memento” items as well, that means part of it is not wanting to “hurt” a NPC’s feelings by ditching some outleveled heirloom.

Apparently I’m also a sucker for love, to the point where I’d rather run with the romance and screw up some element of the plot than hurt the boyfriend. (Jedi shouldn’t love? Forget that! “Best” ending involves you or loved one sacrificing yourself? Eh… what else can we do to avoid that? Something vaguely unsavory-ish but gets the job done? Uh, I guess so…) If I can duck around loopholes/game bugs to make the ending better, then hey, I’m all for that!

Each time through a game will look different, but in general:

My first playthrough of a game (or rather, of a particular rulesystem; all D&D games, for instance, use basically the same rules), I’ll go with whatever class the manual describes as being most “well-rounded”. I’ll usually settle on a specific class shortly after that as my favorite, though what class that is varies from game to game.

My favorite material for armor to be made from is air, as long as it’s sufficiently thick. In other words, I generally prefer to be fighting things that are clear over on the opposite end of the screen-- If they don’t have any ranged options, they can’t do anything to me. So I’ll usually go for archer-types or some sorts of casters.

If the game has options for good and evil, I’ll always eventually do an evil playthrough. But it’s never the first time I play.

And I always eventually do a playthrough where I exploit every bug, vulnerability, and dirty trick that shouldn’t work that I can find (usually, this is on the highest difficulty setting). I won’t do anything like hex-editing save files or installing cheat mods, but more things like “Hm, this spell significantly disables enemies, but they forgot to make it so using it enters combat mode. I’ll spam that spell before every combat”. Again, this is never the first playthrough.

I tend to make female and nonhuman characters in preference to male, largely because in real life I’m male and human I think. And because in the case of the women, they’re nicer to look at of course.

Another hoarder here.

If the game allows for flexibility is builds & classes, I tend to make loads and loads of alts. I often don’t finish games because I want to try out a new character type. I still haven’t finished Oblivion or Morrowind for example despite playing both a lot.

I tend to be a completist; to try to search every nook and cranny, to try all conversation choices, etc.

Similar to a lot of you I am an explorer and will delve into every nook and cranny of the map on the off-chance there is something to loot there. I am also a hoarder, if I can’t fit something in my inventory I will usually go sell all my junk and then trek all the way back and pick up what I couldn’t before, even if I know it is practically worthless. I don’t carry much with me though, I tend to sell everything I don’t equip so when I leave the shop I will just have 1 or 2 health potions with me.

I always play as ‘myself’, morality-wise, on my first playthrough and then play as an evil character on the second run, to make sure I get access to all the dialogue options.

-I always play a male

-I’m a hoarder (plus I collect some items. For instance every gemstone existing in the game, or every type of sword, or whatever else)

-I generally try to make a jack-of-all-trade character, with some level of competence in combat, magtic, thievery, etc… as my first character. Genreally not a good idea.

-If the game allows you to be an alchemist or make potions, I’m a sucker. I love picking up stuff and mix them up to see what it results in.

-I rarely use powers, magical weapons with charges, potions, etc…just in case I would need them more later. So, typically, I haven’t used them yet when said power/weapon/potion becomes outclassed/useless.

-I can’t play evil, since I feel bad for the NPCs. Anyway, few games are made in such a way that playing evil is equally interesting, and the options are generally rather psychotic killer massacring people for no reason at all rather than unsensitive jerk who doesn’t care about the outcome of his actions as long as they benefit him.

-Instead of playing one game, then another, etc… I generally start a game, play for some time, start a new game with a different character and picking different options, play for some time, start a new game with a third different character, etc… So I end up with several games, one I’ve barely begun, one where I’ve done the first quests, one where I’m well advanced in the game, etc… The result is generally that when I’m fed up with the game, I didn’t finish it with any of my numerous characters.

-I deeply dislike saving/reloading, feel each death is a failure, and that reloading prevents the game from being challenging (you don’t have to wonder whether you should really try to enter the lair/embark on a quest since you can reload anyway). As a result, I’m overly cautious, and generally impose to myself limitations, like paying an amount of money for each death, or limiting the number of deaths I’m “allowed to”. As a result, I dislike games where it’s mostly impossible to play without being frequently killed. Oblivion, for instance, with its ennemies who level up along with your character, since you can’t really choose to be cautious, all monsters being always seriously threatening. The only thing I can do is to pick the easiest level of difficulty.

I’m another with a strong preference for “good” types. Even though the Horde in WoW is not technically evil, I just can’t seem to get into playing them. In Everquest, I made a troll shadowknight alt, and roleplayed him insisting that he was NOT evil. He wanted to be a paladin, but that wasn’t allowed for trolls in EQ. In EQ2, set 400 years later, I rolled his great great grandson, and did the lengthy quest to let a troll become a paladin.

I rarely play humans where other races are possible. I usually have a druid if that class is in the game, but not always as a “main” character.

I prefer casters and tanks. I generally avoid the healer role. Just not my thing.

I make lots of characters, most never get very far. Think I probably have 20 toons scattered across multiple servers in WoW, but only 3 are over level 80. 3 more are level 50+, I think.

  • I’m a hoarder, though I have been learning to spend my money. I have successfully ended games now without a huge amount of excess cash. I still hoard the items I buy, though. I will end all games with a lot of extra healing items and weapons.

  • I play a wizard/mage as well, though I prefer a combination mage/fighter.

  • I play good the first playthrough.

If there’s a “hardcore” mode, I play it – i.e., if you die, that’s it, no reload.

If not, and assuming the game is well made, I try to play with only one save game. So there’s no saving/loading to see “what if I had chosen this dialogue”, or if I come out of a tough fight with zero healing potions left I don’t load it up to see if I can win the fight better. Some games are better suited for this than others, of course.

I also try to roleplay as much as possible. So for instance, if the NPC insists something is urgent, and I finish the quest but there’s still unexplored areas, I continue on with the urgent quest instead of exploring the other areas, even if it means missing out on loot.

I also turn off as much on-screen stuff as possible, such as floating damage numbers and subtitles, so as to immerse myself as much as possible.

Someone else mentioned never using powerful one-use-only items, which I do too. I’m trying to kick this habit, although games lately seem to make it easier to use them at the right time, by making it clear that “this is the big boss fight” and “you’ll be able to go back to town after this”.

I also make a lot of new characters, which leads to me seeing the beginning of the game a million times, which sometimes makes it hard to finally complete the game once I find the right character, because I’m bored of going through the same intro so many times.

Like others have said, on my first playthrough I try to roleplay myself as much as possible, making choices as if it were me, and pretending like there are serious consequences for every action I take. And then I make my next character a “good” character. :slight_smile:

In single player RPGs, like Knights of the Old Republic, I play a male. In MMORPGs, I play a female because you get preferential treatment that way.

As already alluded to, in single player my first player is always a good version of me.

I prefer paladins type classes.

On the other hand, I never hoard. Sell, sell, sell. I hate a full inventory.

Have you played Wizardry 8? It does that and it deletes your save.

That’s right! I’d forgotten about that one, I did play Wizardry 8 on hardcore… can’t recall if I beat it on hardcore though. The only other games I remember that have a setting like that are Diablo 2, and I just recently bought Torchlight which has it also.

Hmmm, I should have realized Wikipedia would have an article on it – herein case anyone’s interested.

I always never finish the damn thing. I’ll put in 40-50 hours no problem and then either lose interest for no good reason or forget about it and start playing something else. I can’t remember the last RPG I finished. Perhaps Fallout: NV if you can consider that a RPG.

I just started playing Dragon Age again this week and according to Steam the last time I played it was July 2010.

  • Most often play females if there’s a choice. It’s a combination of general misandry, eye candy and female 'toons often having more or better diplomacy options (even if it’s as crass as “fuck the guard to get in”… I’m looking at you* Vampire:Bloodlines*)
  • Humans are boring. If I can play something else, I will. But not elves, because they’re boring *and *annoying. I’ll also steer clear of the most common race/class comboes, mostly out of egomania and elitism. Human paladins are *so *mainstream :slight_smile: (for example, in EQ2 my first character was a Troll Brigand. I think I only ever saw one other than myself.)
  • I generally play as a good-ish, mercenary asshole. That is to say, I tend to follow the “nice guy” storyline and be generally altruistic and helpful, while still being bloody ‘orrible to people. "Yeah yeah, I saved your pissant town and rescued the children from the orcs, stop thanking me and pay me or by the gods I’ll torch the place myself. Yes, I’ll take the kids’ college fund too. Sucks being you, son."
  • Thieves, rogues, assassins and all around sneaky types will be my first pick. Then bowmen, then healers. Fighters and mages are really last resort for me.
  • Reroll when I first understand how the stats work and figure I gimped myself. Reroll again when I realize I missed one item in the starting zone or spent a single point sub-optimally. Reroll again because I don’t like that hairstyle. Reroll because that spell looks cool and my character can’t use it. Really, I hardly ever finish games with a chargen, because I keep changing my mind about what I want to play :]
  • Loot. Loot loot loot loot. If there’s a single bit of loot left on the map and I’m already at 3 times the maximum weight I can carry, you better believe I’m coming back to pick it up & resell it. I don’t care if I’m level 250, have untold riches and it’s a rusty broken dagger lying there on the ground, I’ll be back for it. 3 silver is 3 silver. If it’s not nailed down, it goes in the bag, no exceptions.
  • If there’s alchemy or crafting, you better believe I’m spending the entire WE picking up odds and ends. Plot ? What plot ? Look, there’s a flower I haven’t picked over there !
  • Keep potions, scrolls, rare ammunition or unique guns around “in case I need them”. Proceed to never need them.

Basically all roguelikes (which makes sense, since Diablo was basically a graphical version of a roguelike).