Joslin is going well. Her crush on Erik died after he killed a peddler she was trying to defend, and she ended up getting roped into the main quest which is seriously interfering with her desire to visit shrines and temples. Because she's a hunter I've decided she must hunt all her pelts and hearthfire material, and she's going to stay in fur armour the entire game. Levelling enchanting is really hard when you don't loot dead people, but alchemy is super easy to level when you are always in the wilderness hunting. And I've got to say, there is something terribly liberating about not looting every man/mer/beast race/undead corpse you see.
I still anticipate many hours with Joslin, but I got curious about making a new character. I rolled
Altmer
Kind
Greedy
Archery/Sneak
Blacksmith
Starts in Falkreath
Fears Falmer
Interested in culinary arts.
Motivation: Tracking an heirloom.
Faire belongs to an Altmer family which were once rich and powerful, fell on hard times and can't get over this unpalatable fact. She was born long after the fall, but has inherited a tendency to greediness, love of clothes and jewellery and fine food and wine from them. She decided, against the wishes of her family who want to keep pretending they don't need to earn a living, to apprentice herself to a blacksmith as she wanted an excuse to be around lots of precious gems and metal (she was deeply annoyed at having to learn how to make weapons and armour before jewellery).
One of the few heirlooms this family managed to keep hold of was an Elven Bow of Debilitation, a Circlet of Peerless Archery, a necklace of Minor Haggling, a ring of Wielding, and an Elven Sword of Expelling. The Elven Bow and Circlet are traditionally given to the eldest daughter, Faire, who considered them her birthright. When these heirlooms were stolen and traced to a bandit heading for Falkreath and it became obvious her family had decided getting them back was more trouble than it was worth, she decided to leave her apprenticeship and family and head to Skyrim to track them down herself.
I'll be investing in archery, sneak, and smithing perks for this girl. I might try a follower-less playstyle as well. Her fear of Falmer means she will never willingly enter a Dwemer ruin, and turn around in dungeons the second she spots a Falmer. I'll play her interest in food by having her cook her own meals instead of buying them ready made (she was born too late after her family's fall to consider cooking beneath her) and she will only drink something that isn't wine if she has no alternative. I'll play her greed by having her hoard all the gems, jewellery, clothes and shoes she finds/makes, and not spending money on anything except smithing items, food, wine and jewellery. She will also strip every dungeon she goes through of everything she could get a septim for. Her kindness means her secondary aim is to do every legal side and misc quest in Skyrim, and she will try and sneak around enemies instead of provoking confrontations.
I plan to just have Faire checking shops and clearing bandit camps searching for those five enchanted items (which I picked semi-randomly from generic loot). They've got to spawn somewhere it would make sense for recently stolen items to appear (no ancient crypts or dwemer ruins, just caves with people or shops). If she finds an enchanted item in a shop, she's allowed to interrogate the shopkeeper as to the destination of the person he received it from (chosen by assigning numbers to holds and randomly rolling). She doesn't care so much about the sword, ring and necklace, but she is finding HER bow and HER circlet if it takes her until level 81!