Elder Scrolls. Fallout. Hell, maybe even Dishonored? Dragon Age? WOW? Other series that gave you a great deal of options in creating or developing your character in a multitude of ways? Share their stories, their deeds of valor and intrigue!

Were they affiliated with the Legion? NCR? Did they sell slaves and nuke Megaton? Did they cure the waters of the Capitol Wasteland, or taint it further? Did they side with the Imperials, or the Stormcloaks? They kill Loghain, or use him as a sacrifice to kill the Archdemon? Marry Anora? Father a child with Morrigan? Murder his own sister in a failed bid to restore peace to Kirkwall?

Come one, come all. Share tales of your heroes, your great giants of myth and legend! :awesome

 

I had the racist-ass female Dalish elf in DA: O. She romanced Alistair, dumped him for a quick fuck with Zevran, than broke his heart and got herself some hot Leliana booty. Her main feature was that I pickpocketed literally every single person I could, and that I played the entire game with the mindset that she was only allowed to kill filthy Shemlen, so the party had to clean up any elves. (And Shrieks, since they're made out of elvish broodmothers.)
Racist elves have the best lines.

 

Well, in DA2 I played my Hawke as a person who changed over time in a realistic sort of way. He started out sarcastic with a tinge of nice when things got serious, and that carried me through about 2/3 of the story. Any time there was a dispute in the party, Hawke tried to keep everything together and make sure everyone came out as friends.

Then his mother was killed by Quentin. I immediately had Hawke sink into an angry sort of depression, lashing out at anyone and everyone. Even after a few years pass, he's still far more aggressive, judgmental. and he barely ever cracks jokes anymore. Whenever there's a question of morality, the new Hawke just picks whichever options saves the most lives, regardless of how horrific it could be in the short term.

 

Well, I’ll list the ones I’ve put the most thought into and are most fresh in my memory. I'll go with my main characters for all of these instead of any secondaries I made. I'm also going to assume that spoilers don't really matter here since you had a few in there already.

Dragon Age: Origins
Male Elf mage, with the Arcane Warrior and Shapeshifter specializations. The basic character outline I made was for a bookish sort who, despite being bitter about a lot of things involving elves and the Chantry, generally had good intentions throughout, but knew that sometimes sacrifice was required. (I think I've said before I can't ever really make myself play a bad guy, so that's something that's in common with all my characters I guess.)

I romanced Morrigan, collected everyone in the party and had good relations with them. I also sacrificed the Arlessa to save Connor, didn't corrupt the Ashes, didn't Annul the Circle, compromised between the Elves and the Werewolves by having Zathrian end his life to remove the curse, made Bhelen king and destroyed the Anvil. When the time came I killed Loghain, though I do wish there were some more options on that front, since he was a pretty interesting character. I had Alistair and Anora marry, and I made the deal with Morrigan, though I kind of justified it to not just be about preserving my character's own life. I killed the Archdemon myself. In the end I think my character asked for the Circle's independence and/or to be Chancellor of Ferelden. As for Awakening, I got everyone, upgraded the Keep and kept everyone alive, and let the Architect live. Then in Witch Hunt I went with Morrigan through the mirror.

I played Dragon Age II once, and my memory's fuzzy on the details. I played a Male Hawke, romanced Merrill, had Bethany join the Grey Wardens and supported the mages in the end.

Mass Effect
Played a female Shepard, with the Colonist origin and the Ruthless background. My interpretation of the Ruthless background was that she did it, wanting revenge for Mindoir, but once it was all done she regretted it and it led to her re-evaluating herself and being more Paragon-ish in the future. When she gets pissed that Renegade side comes out though.

As far as choices go, in ME1 I sacrificed Ashley, let Shiala live on Feros, let the Rachni queen go on Noveria, let Wrex live, and in the end saved the Destiny Ascension. I romanced Liara. In ME2 I did all the loyalty missions and upgraded the Normandy, so none of the squad members died. In my next playthrough I’m contemplating on letting Kelly and some of the captured crew die, so that the mission has some kind of cost to it. I continued with Liara’s romance. In ME3 I let the Rachni queen live again, had Mordin sacrifice himself to cure the genophage, Wrex and EVE took over for the Krogan, had the Geth and Quarians compromise, and continued with Liara’s romance. For the ending I chose Destroy initially, but maybe now it’s a toss-up with Control. I still think the ending’s… illegitimate at best though.

Fallout: New Vegas
Male, sort of a rogue-ish, but reluctantly noble modern cowboy type of character.

I sided with Yes Man in the end, though I had my character stick with House for a while until the Yes Man thing could properly pan out. I support the NCR in theory, but I feel they need a severe re-evaluation of their policies. The Legion can obviously go stick a crucifix up their collective asses. There’s a lot of side stuff in New Vegas, so listing them all could get extensive, but as usual I tried to make things better. I supported the Followers of the Apocalypse where I could, tried to keep the Brotherhood alive despite their issues, got the Enclave remnants back together for a last fight, and basically tried to balance all the factions besides the main ones out so that they’d be stable when the dust settled. As for the DLCs, I’ve got to do another run of the game and piece my ideal method for all that out still. I know I got Graham to show mercy to his enemies in the end of Honest Hearts. Ulysses was really cool too, but I'm not sure whether him living or dying is best for my character and the world he's made yet.

The Elder Scrolls
TES games don’t really give you a lot in terms of personality traits to express in dialogue or anything like the other games here do. But I kind of made up some characterizations for them regardless. My Morrowind character was a Dunmer male mage/light warrior type who was a repentant criminal. He never really views himself as Nerevar reincarnated despite everything, and says as much to Dagoth Ur at the end. My Oblivion character was a female Imperial rogue who was falsely imprisoned. I never got into Oblivion that much, so I don’t have a solid character model for her actually. And for Skyrim, a male Nord warrior who goes from Cyrodiil to Skyrim to find a new life in the ancestral homeland he never knew. I kind of trailed off with Skyrim and haven't really picked it up again, since my attention span for any one thing seems to get shorter and shorter. I didn’t actually get around to supporting the Empire or the Stormcloaks in the game, though the argument that the Empire would do best against the Thalmor seems convincing.

Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines
A male Tremere. I made him into a reluctant vampire. Not a "woe is me" type, but definitely not a gleeful slaughterhouse Alucard type either. He'd acknowledge his nature, but try to surpass it. He doesn't see humanity as weak or vampires as being above humans. I have him care about that girl you can make into a ghoul and look out for her, and try to talk his way through or sneak rather than kill everything. I should play it again to get a more solid handle on the kind of character I want though.

 

I mostly covered my The Traveller Skyrim playthrough here, here and here, but I never did get around to telling the ending. So, here it is: Werewolf event in Falkreath, which was awesome and would've made for a great story had I not been too lazy to write it. Then I got fucked over by the Forsworn seven times over. More bears. Not one dragon encounter. Annnnd that's about it. I stopped playing Skyrim sometime afterwards due to classes starting up and that whole thing. Whoops. Let's just assume The Traveller had a happy ending. Beat up some dragons, did some travelling, conquered his fear of bears. Good times.

 

Well there was that time I became God-King of Unova, but other than that I don't really play any games like those. Except lately Corruption of Champions, but we'll just leave out the details of what my various avatars get up to there.

 

Fallout NV: Male, NCR supporter on the large scale but supported the little guys on a day to day scale. I also made him the goddamn Angel of Death to everyone from the most coked up Fiend alive to the wandering Powder Gangers all the way up to Caesar himself. When I showed up the bad guys didn't try and fight back, they just asked if I'd be kind enough to give them some drugs to OD on and save me the extra fuel. If you were killing, stealing, raping and being an all around asshole to innocent people then it was pointless to try and hide. I appeared in Caesars own chambers, burned him alive before he could even get off of his throne and vanished without taking so much as one bullet. I may not have agreed with all of the NCRs choices and policies and when I didn't, I didn't bat an eyelash at doing things my own way but I figured their rule was the lesser of a pile of evils. The Legion may have imposed order but they were also a personality cult of psychopathic backstabbing uneducated lunatics that would collapse the moment Caesar kicked it. Mr. House might have been intelligent but he was also a batshit crazy Howard Hughes expy and absolutely not someone who should have been running anything. Finally my character knew how to kill and how to lead men in combat but he didn't know the slightest damn thing about running a country and it would be a cold day in hell before I left a robot I barely knew whose loyalties could flip at the drop of a hat in charge.

After it was all said and done I smashed the Powder Gangers spine at the prison and the Vault to ensure that they could never recover. I made sure the Brotherhood survived and worked out a peace treaty between them and the NCR while telling Hardin exactly where he could shove it. I made sure the Fellowship and the Enclave Remnants survived and worked with the NCR to make Freeside a better place and the Remnants use their knowledge to better people. During the "negotiations" I made sure dear old Papa Khan had a little "accident" and that I talked the Khans into fighting with the NCR. Then I talked the King into making Freeside work with the NCR instead of stirring shit up like that little bitch Pacer who had another "accident." In Zion instead of Daniels absurdly stupid plan to run away I helped Joshua massacre the shit of the White Legs using the "Fathers" gun and armor which seemed fitting to defend the home of the children he cared about so much but I spared the Chief to save Josh from himself. At the Sierra Madre I tricked that ancient asshole Elijah into the vault while walking away with my fortune in gold and finally I spared Ulysses and nuked the fuck out of the Legion.

 

Hrmmm, well I haven't finished a Skyrim playthrough yet, furthest I've gotten I to the first meeting with the Jarl guy. I do vaguely recall my Oblivion character though. He was a Breton Rogue/Mage kind of guy, and he was...well, not a nice guy. First thing he did upon getting out was go murder a guy in the middle of he night to take all of his stuff, and then he got involved with the Dark Brotherhood. He had his honor though, and repaid his debts, so he prepared to save the country to repay the debt he thought he owed to emperor for breaking him out of prison. However, if certain people had to die on the side, and those peoples death brought him a profit, well, who's to say they weren't in league with enemy. All in all, he's the kind of guy who was in that jail cell for a reason.

After that, I can remember my main Dragon Age character. He was nicer than my Oblivion character, but a hell of a lot more manipulative. Starting as an Elven Mage, he felt stifled by the Circle and the Chantry, but wasn't ass extremist as some others. Preferring a subtle approach, he did good things for personal gain and what some would consider bad reasons. He sold out his friend to the First Enchanter, not out of loyalty, but because he saw an opportunity. While he mostly put up a sarcastic and sometimes cynical persona in front of most people, he'd change what people saw to accordingly play them to his whims. When getting Sten out of his cage, it he had no compunctions lying. Morrigan and him got along, and probably knew him better than he others. For him, self preservation and Self-gain came first, and he'd use everything he had get it. Which is why he let Loghain live and had Anora rule, and took Morrigan's offer.

My DA2 character, has so far been my character most on the side of "Good Guy." A very lighthearted fellow, he cracks a lot of jokes, but know when to be serious. He tries no to step on too many peoples toes, and keep everyone calm, but his has a habit of pissing people off. He puts other people first, but his personality is more long the lines of doing things because he finds them "fun." Which is probably why I've had him romance Isabella. Hawke also doesn't get along well with authority, mostly because of his protectiveness of his sister and partly because he likes to piss them off more than most others. All in all, he's a barrel of drunken revelry and merriment, with a sense of morals.

And that's about all I've got. At least for my main characters, as I have a load of others for each of those games. I have also toyed with the idea of making a backstory for my WoW character, but never gotten around to it.

 

My New Vegas character has always been complicated. He likes the order of the Legion, but despises their excesses, so I would murder the hell out of legionaries actively engaged in atrocities, but I would also try to help preserve stability by not randomly murdering any of them I saw.

I ended up being best friends with Boone and Arcade, so I usually backed them up in whatever they needed, since they're kind enough to do the same for me. I think, at the end of it all, I let Mr. House assume control. I felt he was the best element to preserve the people. The NCR cares, but just doesn't work very well. Caesar works well, but doesn't care. House doesn't care, but he's pragmatic enough to ensure the comfort and survival of his people for no other reason than because they give him power and influence.


Let's see... ME was a pretty straight-laced Paragon Shepard, with a bit of a dark side. Normally he'd be all mercy and whatnot, but the harming of innocents made him lose his damn mind and go Renegade as all hell. Good Is Not Nice indeed.

Since Shepard cracking under the stress was such a big theme of 3, I decided to have my Shepard slowly go more and more Renegade as time passed in the game, each atrocity making him more resolved to do what was necessary. Then, when there was about a quarter of the game left, (specifically, the quarian-geth conflict) I had him undergo a big soul-searching thing and realize just how far he'd fallen, resolving to be more Paragon from then on, to end the conflict as a good man.

 

My ME-series character was straight Paragon, pretty much. Didn't shoot anyone I didn't have to, occasionally indulged in "upper left blue, I win" style gamplay.

The only Renegade action that really stuck out for me was tossing that one Eclipse merc out the window on Illium in ME2. That was cool.

My current Skyrim character is an amoral thieving fuck of a Nord who's perfectly willing to do anything from help an old lady across the street to consorting with Daedra to get a leg up on Alduin. Plus, fighting dragons is both an adrenaline high and good for the reputation.