Learning The Definition Of Role-Playing

Morrowind's visual style is pretty... uniqueIn case you didn't already know, I've decided to start playing The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (specifically, the Game of the Year Edition on Xbox). I poured around twenty-five hours into Oblivion earlier this year, and I was really enjoying it, but one thing seemed to hold me back. After gaining a few levels, I found myself struggling to keep up with the game's enemies, which seemed to be getting rapidly stronger (much more so than myself, at any rate). As they left me behind, rendering me unable to hold my own against them, I came to realise that I hadn't set out on my adventures in Cyrodiil with a real vision of what I wanted to achieve. Instead of thinking about what I wanted to do in Oblivion, I'd just charged in and tried to bolster as many stats as possible. I hadn't given any thought as to the role I wanted to play. Call me crazy, not knowing that I had to pick a role in a role-playing game, but that's genuinely what happened.

Truth be told I was probably just used to playing JRPGs, where the roles are often pre-defined and the player has nothing to worry about. Games like Final Fantasy IV don't offer any flexibility in a character's role whatsoever, giving them a fixed class from the start. Some JRPGs offer a Job system, but these aren't really that much more flexible in the long run. While they do allow you to put any character in any role at any given time, all the important decisions regarding stat distribution are made by the game on your behalf. In Oblivion and Morrowind, those decisions are up to you. Whether you want to focus on combat, magic or stealth, you have to organise the stat distributions of your character and ensure that they grow in the way you envision. That's a big responsibility as a player, especially when your decisions can effectively break the game and leave you stranded (just like I was in Oblivion). Thankfully, it's a responsibility that I'm now ready to live up to. 

Vvardenfell, here I come!Anyway, the point of that little aside is, I'm not going to make the same mistake with Morrowind. I've been thinking long and hard about what I want my character to achieve, and what kind of experience I want to get out of Morrowind. I decided I wanted to focus on combat, and on creating a strong character that could look after himself in the harsh environments of Vvardenfell. So after a couple of trial runs with default characters to get the gist of which stats do what, I've finally decided to settle down, create a finite character and start questing. My final character choice is DanK the Dark Elf (not a traditional name for a Dunmer, but we'll roll with it), a charismatic warrior-type with a penchant for enchanted swords and alchemy. My intention is to focus on creating a combat-oriented character, placing an emphasis on fighting, collecting loot to sell for cash, and brewing potions to keep me fighting fit.

In summary, my character sheet looks a little like this:

Name: DanK

Race: Dark Elf (I opted for this primarily to fit in in Morrowind, seeing as it's natively inhabited by Dunmer)

Sign: The Lady (Chosen due to the significant boosts it gives to Endurance (for carrying all that lovely loot) and Personality (to establish a better rapport with traders when it comes to selling said loot))

Class: Adventurer (the default name for the game's custom class)

Specialization: Combat (slice and dice first, ask questions later)