Intro: How it Works

Taking a page from my model, I'll be playing a normal, average, everyday, run-of-the-mill, ordinary citizen of Cyrodiil. I'll be following all the rules the game normally provides for NPCs:

1. I must eat. That means at least one meal per day, though preferably two or three. I won't require myself to drink, since NPCs don't have to bother with that.


2. I must sleep. Minimum of 12 hours of rest every 48 hours, though preferably 8 hours a day. This means I'll have to find someplace to live or at least temporarily take shelter. I could buy a house, but that requires money. I could rent an inn room, but that can be even more expensive over time. That means, point 3 is...


3. I must find a source of income. Jobs may be difficult to find, but if I can't manage to support myself, I'll have to resort to plundering dungeons, and no one would read a blog about that!


4. No fast travel. If I want to get somewhere, I'll use my own two feet. Or four, if I manage to scrape together enough to buy a horse. Part of this project is enjoying the immersion of the game. I want to really get inside my character's head and see what he sees.


5. No reloads. This is the big one. NPCs don't get to start over when they die. Except in the case of RL tragedies (say, I forget to pause the game when taking out the trash, only to be ripped apart by wolves), I won't be reloading for any reason.

If you've read Livin' in Oblivion, you'll recognize these rules as a straight rip-off. I'll be making one big change, though: I won't actively avoid adventures and quests. I'm going to try to stay in character and approach thing the way my character would. That's not un-NPC-like. After all, there are NPCs in the game that charge in and try to close Oblivion gates on their lonesome. No, I think I'll take things as they come, only being open to adventure when my character feels up to the challenge.

Who is our not-quite-a-hero, then? Well, I don't think I'll be able to stand looking at someone as fugly as Nondrick for hours on end. I have a tradition from years of gaming that I must uphold: if I must watch a character's butt running around on screen, it will damn well be a hot one. Being of the masculine persuasion, I conclude I must therefore play a chick.

Hello, darling! Can I buy you a dri... eh? She looks different? Well, that's because I'm using a custom race. Our heroine (that's with an "e"; the other kind doesn't exist in Oblivion, since we have skooma instead) is a Wildling, a race hailing from the more remote regions of Tamriel. They're fond of magic, good hunters, and possess the power to partially enter the spirit world occasionally.

How did one get into the Imperial Prisons, you ask? Well, now's a good time to mention another handy mod I'm using: Modular Oblivion Enhanced. It's a large mod with lots of different features, but the one that figures in to this blog the most is the Main Quest Delayer plug-in. It makes it so the Emperor was never assassinated. No one talks about it, there's no invasion from Oblivion, and there's certainly no need to save the world. More importantly for me, it starts the player off on a ship in Anvil. I'm poor as dirt, and I'll need to find a job. That might be difficult, though. First off, Oblivion doesn't generally offer jobs outside of adventuring. Even if it did, there's another problem:

See that wonderful 20 on Personality? Yikes! I think Sharlassa (yeah, that's what I'll call myself) will feel more comfortable in the woods than in town. I'll suppose she's a hunter who's left her homeland seeking adventure, driven only by... ugh, that's so cliché. Ah, I know! I've left my homeland in a fit of rebellion and now seek my fortune by... no, no. That's no better.

Oh, I've got it: I'll be a normal girl from a simple tribe just trying to make her way. I'm not prone to reckless adventure, but I may accept the occasional challenge. I'm a simple girl of simple means with a simple past. I'll make my decisions as they're presented to me and let my experiences change who I am, and maybe I'll grow into adventuring. That's the most appropriate way to role-play, I think, regardless of whether I'm playing an adventurer or not.

Time to get out there and live my simple life. Let's start living in Cyrodill, baby!