The Elder Scrolls Roleplay Playthrough Thread

[Cahir]

Heya, I've been researching mods to plan for future Elder Scrolls playthroughs, and I was wondering if you are using mods in your run that's posted here? To anyone who knows Skyrim, are there mods for it that you consider essential to getting a good experience? I already know I'm going to want a mod for Oblivion that fixes the leveling system.

Ever since the release of Wabbajack installer I started to use this tool to install a preset modlists. For me it's the tool that saves me a long hours of manually installing mods, meddling with load order and fixing mod conflicts with XEdit.
There are two things why this tool is not for everyone, though:
1) It installs preset modlists, so it's not good for someone who wants to have 100% control, which mods they want to install. Most of available modlists are not easy to be modified and modlists authors usually don't provide support for adding additional mods to the list.
2) It is advisable (although not required) to set up a premium account on Nexus, which results in seamless mod download and installation (basically, it's just clicking "Install" and forgettung about it for couple of hours).

There are quite a lot of modlists already available for Skyrim SE in Wabbajack tool, some are closer to Vanilla, some stray far from the base game, resulting a completely new experience, unlike vanilla Skyrim. There is a lot of choice here.

For my first ever Skyrim playthrough, I chose a Vanilla+ modlist, called Legends of the Frost and I'm very happy with the result. The game looks better, but is not straying from vanilla look and what's more important, it's very stable. The UI looks better in my opinion, many bugs that plague the base game is fixed and some quality of life features makes my life easier.

 

[Xzarloxara]

Heya, I've been researching mods to plan for future Elder Scrolls playthroughs, and I was wondering if you are using mods in your run that's posted here? To anyone who knows Skyrim, are there mods for it that you consider essential to getting a good experience? I already know I'm going to want a mod for Oblivion that fixes the leveling system.

If fixing bugs is your main thing (like it is for me), then you probably don't need too many fixes. The main thing is the Unofficial Patch. This should fix the majority of bugs the game has. There are also several others that the creators of that patch recommend, which can be found in the first post here. I would personally recommend:

• SkyUI, which also requires the Skyrim Script Extender to function. This offers an alternative to the default UI which, IMHO, is atrocious and not designed with PC play in mind.
• Achievements Mod Enabler to prevent your modding from disabling achievements.
• Flora Respawn Fix. This is essential if you like harvesting ingredients, as the bug it fixes often prevents harvest points from respawning... ever...

Other than that, I don't really have much experience with modding Skyrim, myself.

 

[BelgarathMTH]

Ever since the release of Wabbajack installer I started to use this tool to install a preset modlists. For me it's the tool that saves me a long hours of manually installing mods, meddling with load order and fixing mod conflicts with XEdit.
There are two things why this tool is not for everyone, though:
1) It installs preset modlists, so it's not good for someone who wants to have 100% control, which mods they want to install. Most of available modlists are not easy to be modified and modlists authors usually don't provide support for adding additional mods to the list.
2) It is advisable (although not required) to set up a premium account on Nexus, which results in seamless mod download and installation (basically, it's just clicking "Install" and forgettung about it for couple of hours).

There are quite a lot of modlists already available for Skyrim SE in Wabbajack tool, some are closer to Vanilla, some stray far from the base game, resulting a completely new experience, unlike vanilla Skyrim. There is a lot of choice here.

For my first ever Skyrim playthrough, I chose a Vanilla+ modlist, called Legends of the Frost and I'm very happy with the result. The game looks better, but is not straying from vanilla look and what's more important, it's very stable. The UI looks better in my opinion, many bugs that plague the base game is fixed and some quality of life features makes my life easier.

Yeah, I've been having trouble getting that and other similar utilities to work, because I'm discovering that they don't play nice with my dual drive computer. They keep insisting on using my C: drive, and only my operating system is on that drive, nothing else.

I put all my games on my D: drive, which is very big. My C: drive is solid state with very little memory available. My operating system alone takes up half of it, so I don't want it getting mucked up with game stuff.

I've tried installing directly to my D: drive, but they still try to put their management folders onto the C: drive, and then they give me error messages complaining that they need to be on the same drive as the game. There are probably some settings that would make it all work from the D: drive, but I can't find them, plus I get fed up with the trouble of it pretty quick, and wind up uninstalling the utility. The other one I tried was Vortex, and it seems even worse than Wabbajack in being unable to handle dual drives.

So, I'll probably be looking for simple mods that I can easily extract into the game data folders.

So far I've successfully gotten Morrowind to use a widescreen graphics enhancement mod, a debugging mod, and some script extender that makes the other mods work.

I successfully installed a small mod into Skyrim that got rid of an annoying bug where "Level Up" appears at the bottom right of the interface permanently, whether there's a level up or not, and even on new characters.

Thank you for the suggestions, though. I appreciate it.

 

[BelgarathMTH]

If fixing bugs is your main thing (like it is for me), then you probably don't need too many fixes. The main thing is the Unofficial Patch. This should fix the majority of bugs the game has. There are also several others that the creators of that patch recommend, which can be found in the first post here. I would personally recommend:

• SkyUI, which also requires the Skyrim Script Extender to function. This offers an alternative to the default UI which, IMHO, is atrocious and not designed with PC play in mind.
• Achievements Mod Enabler to prevent your modding from disabling achievements.
• Flora Respawn Fix. This is essential if you like harvesting ingredients, as the bug it fixes often prevents harvest points from respawning... ever...

Other than that, I don't really have much experience with modding Skyrim, myself.

Thanks, those sound interesting, especially the UI, because I hate Skyrim's default UI. I'll definitely see if I can get that one installed and try it out.

 

[mlnevese]

Yeah, I've been having trouble getting that and other similar utilities to work, because I'm discovering that they don't play nice with my dual drive computer. They keep insisting on using my C: drive, and only my operating system is on that drive, nothing else.

I put all my games on my D: drive, which is very big. My C: drive is solid state with very little memory available. My operating system alone takes up half of it, so I don't want it getting mucked up with game stuff.

I've tried installing directly to my D: drive, but they still try to put their management folders onto the C: drive, and then they give me error messages complaining that they need to be on the same drive as the game. There are probably some settings that would make it all work from the D: drive, but I can't find them, plus I get fed up with the trouble of it pretty quick, and wind up uninstalling the utility. The other one I tried was Vortex, and it seems even worse than Wabbajack in being unable to handle dual drives.

So, I'll probably be looking for simple mods that I can easily extract into the game data folders.

So far I've successfully gotten Morrowind to use a widescreen graphics enhancement mod, a debugging mod, and some script extender that makes the other mods work.

I successfully installed a small mod into Skyrim that got rid of an annoying bug where "Level Up" appears at the bottom right of the interface permanently, whether there's a level up or not, and even on new characters.

Thank you for the suggestions, though. I appreciate it.

It actually works quite well with dual drive computers. My notebook uses a boot SSD and a large HD for storage, where my games are, and it had no problem installing the mods in either drive.

 

[Cahir]

It actually works quite well with dual drive computers. My notebook uses a boot SSD and a large HD for storage, where my games are, and it had no problem installing the mods in either drive.

Same here, I haven't had any issues to set it up for m D: drive. The same with any other standalone mod manager (like Mod Organizer 2 or Vortex) I've tried in the past. It definitely should work.

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

Thanks, those sound interesting, especially the UI, because I hate Skyrim's default UI. I'll definitely see if I can get that one installed and try it out.

Just one tiny suggestion, what Skyrim lacks is good NPC interaction and dialogue, and stuff like romance. It's an exploration game first and foremost, but I started missing that kind of thing after a while, as it has always been an essential part of RPGs for me.

If that's the case for you, you might want to look into NPC mods.

 

[Cahir]

Just one tiny suggestion, what Skyrim lacks is good NPC interaction and dialogue, and stuff like romance. It's an exploration game first and foremost, but I started missing that kind of thing after a while, as it has always been an essential part of RPGs for me.

If that's the case for you, you might want to look into NPC mods.

I agree. In that case, Interesting NPCs SE might be the mod you may want to check.

 

[Antimatter]

Just one tiny suggestion, what Skyrim lacks is good NPC interaction and dialogue, and stuff like romance. It's an exploration game first and foremost, but I started missing that kind of thing after a while, as it has always been an essential part of RPGs for me.

If that's the case for you, you might want to look into NPC mods.

I have to admit, I agree with this. I had 1000 hours in Skyrim and always looked at it as a solo game, staying far away from any companions. In this latest Skyrim run, I decided to explore the vampire questline a bit more, and there I met a vampire companion. I needed to install a mod to fix one bug with this companion, but during the mod installation, I found many more mods related to her and decided to give them a go. And you know what? It's so well-made.

I'm linking a video from the mod creator - you can see how passionate he is about the mod and its future. The mod is excellent, it expands and builds on the default NPC's personality, adds new quests, and romance quests around this NPC (very touching), adds new banter.



(please note that the mod preview shows a different face for the NPC, but I didn't like it, I like her original look - I totally kept it, instead manually changing some outfits for her; the mod is about the content for the NPC, not the look of her).

The mod would also require Relationship Dialogue Overhaul. I also have a few smaller tweaks related to this NPC, allowing me to change and set up her outfits and making item management much easier.

I bet there are other similar gems for other NPCs in the game. You just need to browse and read some player reviews -- once you're set on your friend, companion, or even a love interest.

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

Dúathil the Bosmer, Skyrim Anniversary Edition (spoilers for Thieves Guild questline in this update)

It feels like months ago since I last posted about my progress here. First I had problems with losing saved drafts, then RL got in the way again, and now I've actually lost track of what happened since then. Will try to share a few snippets at least.

Generally I just followed the Thieves Guild questline all across Skyrim. On my way to meet Mercer Frey at Snow Veil Sanctum, I met a beautiful and deadly creature, a Wispmother, who summoned weaker clones of herself. And drained stamina, of course.

And here, finally a lucky find in a store!

I'm sneaky, fast and strong enough that Draugr don't really scare me as much as they used to in the beginning, but look at this beauty, a bit too close for comfort.
The following picture was more to my taste, finding a sniper perch to take them out one by one. Garrus would be proud.

I learned another Word of Power in there after fighting these guys' grandfather, here, the Draugr Death Overlord. Not as frightening as they used to be when I was still a bad sneak.

I found it quite suspicious when Mercer Frey passed through all those puzzle doors without looking for levers, without following any clues, and especially without using a claw to unlock a door that looked very similar to others I had seen before.

However, before I could corner him and ask about it, there she was, Karliah. A poisoned arrow hit me, I was paralyzed, the world started to blur, and all I could hear was that nothing was the way I had thought, and that my friends back in Riften were in great danger.

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

Dúathil the Bosmer, Skyrim Anniversary Edition (spoilers for Thieves Guild questline in this update)

Surprise surprise, I woke up with my face on the cold stone floor and not wherever it is that Apostate Bosmer Companion Dragonborn (hey, ABCD!) end up after death.

And what is she doing here waiting for me? Curiouser and curiouser.

Maybe I should have been hesitant to trust her, but I sensed a sister in her, and something about Mercer Frey had always rubbed me the wrong way. Besides, he practically confessed everything when I was paralyzed but still conscious. I decided to throw in my lot with her. Even if I was anxious to get back to Riften and warn Brynjolf and the others, she needed me to go to Winterhold to meet a scholar, because Gallus, the former guildmaster, had encrypted his journal without leaving a key to decipher it. Typical.
That scholar sent me off to the region of Markrath, into a dwemer excavation site, full of spiders and other nasty stuff, a nice museum where I could steal more books for my collection, and an insane mage building killer automatons, but at least I found the key to read the journal there and went back to meet Karliah and her scholar friend.

She has remarkable eyes, and I can't help but admire her strength. It must have been so difficult to stay hidden in the shadows for 20 years while all her friends believed her a traitor, alone with her grief, and still she was skilled enough to plan carefully from the background how to expose the real traitor and get her revenge.

We finally made the long way back to Riften. I felt very nervous, afraid what Mercer might have done, but believing me dead, he had no reason to change his behaviour towards the other guild members. When I arrived at the cistern, he wasn't there, and Brynjolf was reasonable enough to hear her out instead of attacking her on sight.
Let's skip the details. They both had a lot of talking to do, catching up about past events, planning how to proceed. Me being the practical type and not sharing their common background, it was my task to break into Mercer's house in the city to find clues of his long term plans and his whereabout.

His house had a fierce guard, and Vex told me how to bribe him, but somehow he didn't even want to listen and I had to kill him to get in ((I think this was a bug)). Anyway, I took what I could find from his house, stuff that we might use, and anything that looked like information, but first, something more important!

This time it wasn't for me. I snitched it as a birthday gift for a good friend, because they taste even better when they're stolen!

Once I got back to the Ragged Flagon, Karliah told Brynjolf and me hers and Gallus' and Mercer's secret and took us to a hidden place outside of the city.

We became Nightingales.

Now that we're sworn to Nocturnal in life and death, Karliah told us of Mercer's true crime, and the three of us will have to go to Irkngthand, whatever and wherever that may be.

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

(I have finished the Thieves Guild and the Companions questline. The mods for Brynjolf or more NPC interaction in general weren't convincing or didn't work. I like Skyrim and will get back to it, but I got a bit lonely there, decided to take a break and continue Divinity:Original Sin 2 instead, which I interrupted after Chapter 3 to play something else. I've missed Lohse, Fane and the others, and the combination of darkness and humour, want to know how the story of the Godwoken continues. As soon as RL allows me, I'll update this thread to the point where I stopped playing and would be happy to have you follow my return to Rivellon instead.)

 

[Antimatter]

I've been replaying Skyrim these last few months, and while at first, I had gone with the vanilla version, then I added a few mods as explained 1 month ago. Since then, I've added many, many more mods to the game. I didn't add gameplay-altering stuff, or stuff that makes Skyrim look like the Witcher or a JRPG. Rather, such things as NPC interaction, NPC animations, love, sounds, outfits' materials look, camera improvements, etc. And before I noticed it, the game turned into a full sim. Where my character has not only a follower but a full partner, who can behave towards my main character similar to how partners behave, be it small interactions or full romance side-adventures. This allowed me to have a completely fresh experience from a game I previously had put more than 1000 hours in.

Now, having had such experience with Skyrim, I looked at a few other games, more contemporary games, to see if I could get something like that there as well. And turned out, no. I enjoyed Cyberpunk 2077 and consider it to be among the best games I've played, but unfortunately, that level of modification is not possible in it. There are very modest attempts now to add such stuff as "enhanced romances" to Cyberpunk 2077 during the last few months, with modders giving your love interest a schedule for their activities around the apartment or more interaction. But it pales in comparison with what is available in Skyrim. Fallout 4 modding possibilities are similarly prominent, of course.

Never could I imagine that the game which allowed me the best possible romance experience would be not the Mass Effect & Dragon Age trilogies, the Witcher 3, or Cyberpunk 2077. It would be... Skyrim (but with mods, of course).

That's where the extra layer of fun is, with all TES games: modding. Thus, they will live forever.

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

I've been replaying Skyrim these last few months, and while at first, I had gone with the vanilla version, then I added a few mods as explained 1 month ago. Since then, I've added many, many more mods to the game. I didn't add gameplay-altering stuff, or stuff that makes Skyrim look like the Witcher or a JRPG. Rather, such things as NPC interaction, NPC animations, love, sounds, outfits' materials look, camera improvements, etc. And before I noticed it, the game turned into a full sim. Where my character has not only a follower but a full partner, who can behave towards my main character similar to how partners behave, be it small interactions or full romance side-adventures. This allowed me to have a completely fresh experience from a game I previously had put more than 1000 hours in.

Now, having had such experience with Skyrim, I looked at a few other games, more contemporary games, to see if I could get something like that there as well. And turned out, no. I enjoyed Cyberpunk 2077 and consider it to be among the best games I've played, but unfortunately, that level of modification is not possible in it. There are very modest attempts now to add such stuff as "enhanced romances" to Cyberpunk 2077 during the last few months, with modders giving your love interest a schedule for their activities around the apartment or more interaction. But it pales in comparison with what is available in Skyrim. Fallout 4 modding possibilities are similarly prominent, of course.

Never could I imagine that the game which allowed me the best possible romance experience would be not the Mass Effect & Dragon Age trilogies, the Witcher 3, or Cyberpunk 2077. It would be... Skyrim (but with mods, of course).

That's where the extra layer of fun is, with all TES games: modding. Thus, they will live forever.

That's very interesting to hear, especially because it is so unlike my own recent experience with Skyrim.
I had been missing exactly that, more NPC interaction, real conversations with followers, romance, that kind of stuff. And now you say through modding you achieved the best experience you've had with these issues exactly there!

I guess I was simply unlucky with the two mods I tried. I still appreciate Sykrim a lot and I certainly wouldn't want to add tons of mods on my first visit to that world, so I'll probably still stick to the vanilla experience when I pick it up again, but it's great to know that with a bit more patience to search the right mods, experience and skills to combine and tweak them, it is possible to add the very few things in which that game is lacking, at least for my taste.
(Yes, this big fierce Krogan may have two hearts as all of my species do, but they're both equally soft... even a battlemaster who is roleplaying a fierce Bosmer rogue needs some love!)

You're right, it seems, that the easy way to mod this game and the lots of creative community content that exists out there are what keeps Skyrim alive for so long.

 

[Antimatter]

NVIDIA GeForce News

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[Xzarloxara]

I recently decided to continue a run I started in Skyrim a while back and record some of the run here. Not sure how far I will get, but here goes!

My character is an Argonian named Lizard-Doth-Monitor. His name is kind of a pun I made up based on the type of names Argonians usually have in Morrowind.

So far he is mainly a spell caster who specializes in Conjuration and Destruction. I don't know if he will stay this way though, since I did a similar build once before. I don't remember why I started out practicing these skills, really... It was a while ago when I last played this character.

The adventure starts in Riverwood. Lizard had just returned from the Bleak Falls Barrow with the golden claw and returned it to the rightful owners. I don't really remember much of what I did before this, since it was so long ago, but checking active effects I found that Lizard had contracted a Rockjoint disease at some point. Fortunately Lizard knew some stuff about ingredients and used his magic to hunt a Hawk just outside Riverwood to get some hawk feathers. Eating one of these feathers cured him of his disease.

With that done, Lizard recalled he had to go to Whiterun to tell the Jarl about a dragon attack, so he set out on the road. The trip was short and relatively uneventful, except for helping some "Companions" slay a giant on a farm outside Whiterun. After reporting to the Jarl and delivering a tablet to his mage, Lizard was ordered to investigate a dragon sighting at a watchtower. Lizard went there immediately and was quickly involved in a battle against the dragon, from which he emerged victorious. The Nords told him he was a "Dragonborn" and on his way back to Whiterun, he heard a thunderous shout come from the mountains. The Jarl told him this was a group called the "Greybeards" and that they had summoned him. Upon looking at the mountain that the sound came from, however, lizard decided he was not ready to make such a trip, and instead bought a trip to Winterhold, hoping to better his magical skills at a mage college he heard was there.

Arriving at Winterhold, Lizard was quickly admitted to the college and, after attending a class, headed out on a field trip to a ruin called Saarthal. There he discovered a mysterious and obviously magical sphere of some kind.

So far things seem to be going fairly well, with no major difficulties. My main concern at the moment is how I am going to make money for Lizard so he can buy some of the neat stuff he sees in stores...

 

[Xzarloxara]

Lizard has done quite a lot since Saarthal, so I may have to skim over some of it.

After reporting back to the Archmage and gaining the next part of the college questline, I wandered around Winterhold a bit gathering ingredients. Had my first solo fight with a dragon and won without too much trouble, but I think I used my Histkin regenerative powers to get through it. Shortly after that I was killed by a frost wolf of all things, but I reloaded. After looking around a bit more I went shopping at the Winterhold general store. While there, I was able to buy a circlet and necklace of minor alchemy.

Without much else going on in Winterhold, I returned to my stash in Anise's Cabin near Riverwood. There I made some highly expensive potions using salmon roe, which I intended to use as a boost for Lizard's economic situation. I also tried to make some other potions with nice effects, but at my current skill level they were somewhat lackluster. After this I went shopping in Riverwood and got a ring and circlet of minor destruction so that my spells would cost less to cast. I paid for them using my salmon roe potions. Stopped by Whiterun again and was lucky enough to meet Ri'saad the Khajiit caravan merchant. I bought a lot of alchemical ingredients from him, and was also lucky enough that he had some bracers of major alchemy to buy. The salmon roe potions I made were very helpful here too. (I know it sounds like I got some really lucky finds while shopping, but there is a bit more to it than that... Every once in a while I use an exploit that forces the stores to restock.)

After all my shopping I decided to head out East toward the Atronach Standing Stone, because this is probably my favorite one to use. I did a lot of fighting along the way there. One of the fights I got into was against two giants at one of their camps. The giants took a while to defeat with their high health and my low magika reserves, but I was able to outrun and outmaneuver them until I brought them down. In an empty cave behind their camp I was lucky enough to find some apprentice level robes of destruction, which were a nice upgrade from the robes I had before. Next I encountered a bandit toll bridge, and decided to kill the bandits there. Continuing, I encountered an old orc and gave him the glorious death he wanted. Finally I had reached the area that had the craggy area that contained the Atronach Stone. On the way to the stone itself, I was set upon by a small group of three vampires, which I dispatched easily using my fire magic. Now I had reached the stone and just as I activated it I heard the roaring of another dragon. I moved toward the sound and saw that it was fighting a pair of gargoyles. I took advantage of this to slay the dragon while it was distracted and finish of the gargoyles once I had done that.

This is roughly where I left off. I am not sure where I will go next.

 

[Xzarloxara]

Decided to make my next stop Fellglow Keep to recover the books for the College questline. This wasn't too terribly hard; I found the guy who stole the books and helped him get free from the bad guy mages. Then I headed back to Whiterun to unload my loot and, as luck would have it, Ri'saad was there again so I did more shopping and potion making. By now I was running extremely low on the other ingredients for my super expensive potions, namely Garlic and Nordic Barnacles. Because of this I returned to Winterhold to get more barnacles and deliver the books. While I was there I completed the next part of my College questline: Speaking to the Augur of Dunlain. That was pretty straightforward. Next I headed back to my stash to drop off some things.

Not sure what to do next, really... Perhaps it is time to visit the Greybeards though...

 

[Xzarloxara]

Yes, it was finally time for Lizard to head to Ivarstead and visit High Hrothgar! I chose to go by way of the destroyed Helgen, and, while I was there, I cleared the place of some bandits that had moved in. Continuing along that path, I visited Orphan Rock to pick up Nettlebane from a hagraven, when I got quite the surprise! Inside the Hagraven's chest I found the Beacon of Daedric Prince Meridia! She spoke to me and instructed me to take the thing to a certain mountain, but that was a task for later.

Ivarstead was just a sort walk further from there, and the climb up the mountain to visit the Greybeards was relatively uneventful. They taught me some words and gave me a fetch quest as a test. Upon returning to Ivarstead I decided to clear out the barrow in the town. I must say that I hate the swinging gate traps in these places... In any case, this dungeon was easy enough to clear.

 

[Xzarloxara]

I wandered back up to the area around Winterhold with the idea of picking up some Shout words in the area that I didn't get earlier. This led to me fighting my first Blood Dragon. Wasn't too hard really... After this I visited the Shrine of Azura and was given a quest to recover her Star. Since this sounded fairly simple (and conveniently required a trip nearby my stash), I decided to do this right away.

It was indeed fairly simple to recover the star, but the choice ahead of me is not. I want to do the "good" thing and side with Azura. I really, really do... But I have some serious issues with the way her artifact behaves in this game if you side with her. The Black Star on the other hand is a bit more useful, but I don't like the moral aspects of the choice to make it. (I should note that I am playing with a mod that changes the way the Black Star works in the game. Instead of being able to trap ALL souls, like it does in the base game, the Black Star is only able to trap black souls. Basically this means I have to choose between using the star to trap only white souls or only black souls. I could go into a long rant about why I don't like the way the star works in the game, but I think I will spare everyone for now.)

I am not entirely sure what I will do with the star yet. I may wind up using the console in some way though.