If you are I'll probably see you there!

Totally! A while ago while playing Fallout 2, it was even worse, I had to save and load for each movement of my character so he would not get hurt...totally idiotic I know (yeah imagine the number of hours I spent loading and reloading the same save file so it would be perfect...) but I just couldn't help. Now it's better though =)

I'm much the same, but then I agonise over getting the stats/perks to match the type of character/personality I'm trying to create. All of the perks and traits in the fallout franchise put my mind in a twist!

I think I've abandoned Fallout 2 three times within the first 6 hours of game-play because I start to feel the build doesn't reflect the character.

Thank the gods of gog this behaviour doesn't go beyond RPGs :)

Another aspect that bugs me from time to time is that some RPGs have some obscure skilling/character development mechanics that one can't even grasp beforehand.

So I play first to get into the game - understanding it's mechanics and after I know how it works I restart - to get everything right.

But that is also a huge demotivator during my first run because I know it will eventually get deleted and even before even starting the game I sometimes hesitate to pick it up as I don't know if I can make enough room timewise to finish it.

I get that bug with those rpgs that let you be multi class or just some talent of sorts. I always get the chars mixed up and in the end it can't do anything good enough :D That is annoying but i live with it for a little the delete it and start over with something new :)

But people may change!

Sometimes I create my character with some 0% ability and I improve it every level a bit, showing that that character worked pretty hard to achieve something (completely forgetting about everything else...) and now is an amazing doctor, for example!

I don't do that but I know human beings do.

What I will do is start new characters to do some parts of the game. Like for example make an archer to do the Dark Brotherhood and Thieve's Guild quests in Skyrim rather than run through them with my main warrior dude.

I don't know whether it's actual RPG perfection, but the ONLY RPG that I've ever really loved is Fallout and, by extension, its sequels.

Let me jump on this boat as well. This has been one of my "problems" for the longest time now. I just can't stand accidentally misplaced stats on my character and that can only lead to two things:

1. I get bored with the game since I'm already too far in and messed up 1 stat point

- or -

2. I start from the beginning again.

It depends on the game especially the difficulty but I prefer to focus the story and non-combat interaction rather min-maxing the stats. Nonetheless I'll do it, cheating or otherwise, if combat becomes mundane, tricky or too hard.

However, when it comes to choices and consquences I can't really live not knowing what would happen if I had chosen another path and I'm too impatient to wait for a replay to see it so I tend to reload to see different outcomes but I always choose the path that leads to my role playing, not the most convenient, easiest or lucrative.

I read a starter guide before I began to play Arcanum a few weeks ago and he said something about trying to choose a role to play rather than pick whatever suits your own idea of good choices or the most convenient at the time and it was by far the best advice I've read or heard in a while.

There's something that has always bothered me in RPGs but it makes sense from a game designer's point of view because of the work involved. While I enjoy surprises they rarely benefit you in a way that makes playing interesting or creative, at least not in my experience but they usually drag you to a point where your choices were 'broken' so to speak, both regarding gameplay (like stats) and the storyline. This happened to me both in Planescape Torment and Arcanum but not so much it was a deal breaker.

Dude, I know exactly where you're coming from. To some degree, because of this, I almost prefer RPG's with premade characters (at least as far as looks go).

Skill points are a funny thing too; I can't stand just plopping one or two random skill point into a single skill. It drives me crazy! If I'm going to invest in the skill at all, I'm going to max it.

All hail Planescape! They choose your character name for you. One less thing to second guess!

And your portrait!

Definitely not alone. Most distinctly, I remember doing this with Arcanum dozens of times before I finally settled on stats/class/background/inventory, etc, that worked for me.