- 379
- Posts
- 10
- Years
- Age 34
- Seen May 25, 2023
Not sure if i should be labeling this as a challenge per se, but I've been wanting to get back into Skyrim but am not wanting to play the same character that almost everyone has already played (joins the Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood, Mage's College, Companions, etc.; super high levels in almost all skills; carrying hundreds of pounds of items and running like it's no problem; collecting every weapon and armor piece you find and selling it to become a millionaire). I've scoured the internets for other people's solutions to this problem, but none have felt like I would be completely happy using them; either they are too simple of a change, or too extravagant that I wouldn't be able to keep everything straight. So I decided to combine several things that I liked and have a potential idea.
*Note* before anyone suggests downloading mods, I am playing on my PS3. So basically everything I'm doing is self-imposed.
I guess this thread can serve 2 purposes. 1) I will list my Frankenstein's-monster-of-a-gameplay so that anyone who wants to try it out as a challenge can as well, and 2) anyone can suggest changes/improvements, or discuss ways that they played to help make Skyrim more fun after it's been played to death. So let's get to it. Here's how I will be making my newest character.
Character Creation
One thing that I'm terrible at is role playing; and I know this would be a million times easier if I was good at it, but alas, I'm not. So the first part of my build will be Character Creation. I personally have always started out TES games as a sneak/archer type character, but end up becoming powerful in most of the skills. So to break out of my usual mold I am implementing a random skill selection. I got the idea from Nelaf's Random Skill Generator but didn't like how it was essentially all 20 skills thrown in a pot and you choose 4~6 skills. So my modification to this is as Follows:
JaDe's Random 4 Skill Skyrim Character Generator
1. Race: Using something like random.org, randomly generate a number between 1 and 10 for your race (Altmer, Argonian, Bosmer, Breton, Dunmer, Imperial, Khajiit, Nord, Orsimer, Redguard).
2. Gender: Either flip a coin, or randomly generate a number between 1 and 2 for your gender (Female, Male) duh!
3. Offense: Here I let you choose if you want to be armed with a weapon, or go unarmed. Choosing unarmed allows you to have a 3rd Additional Skill later on. If you choose to have an Offense type, randomly generate a number between 1 and 4 for your Offense (Archery, Destruction, One-Handed, Two-Handed)
4. Defense: Now blocking in Skyrim only works if you are wielding a One-Handed or Two-Handed weapon. So if your Offense type is one of these, randomly generate a number between 1 and 4 (Alteration, Block, Heavy, Light); if your Offense type is Archery, Destruction or Unarmed, randomly generate a number between 1 and 3 (Alteration, Heavy, Light).
5. Additional Skills: Depending on if you chose to be Armed or Unarmed, you will get 2 or 3 Additional Skills, respectively. Randomly generate a number between 1 and 10 for your Additional Skills either twice or three times (Alchemy, Conjuration, Enchanting, Illusion, Lockpicking, Pickpocket, Restoration, Smithing, Sneak, Speech). If randomly generate the same Additional Skill, do a reroll.
At this point, you will either have an Offense style, Defense style, and 2 Additional Skills, or be Unarmed, and have a Defense style and 3 Additional Skills (either way, a total of 4 unique skills assigned). At this point, you may reroll ONE (1) and only 1 of these skills for a different skill in the same category. After rolling again, you can decide if you want to replace the old skill with the new skill. You may NOT reroll your race or gender. You were born that way and that can't be changed, but your interests are more flexible. If you want to change your Offense style and this causes an issue with the Defense style, then Defense will have to be rerolled as well. (e.g. I was a One-Handed, Block character, rerolled Offense and got Destruction. Now I can't use Block without wielding a Light/Heavy Armored shield, but since I didn't roll Light/Heavy Armor and since I can't block with Destruction, I will need to reroll my Defense style as well. Similarly, notice that although the Light/Heavy Armor skills have shields available, they cannot be used to block if Block is not the chosen Defense style).
Now that you have the 4 skills that your character can use, NONE of the remaining skills can be used. The only exceptions to this are Lockpicking if you absolutely need to (e.g. you can only continue if you pick the lock that is blocking your path forward), Sneak if you need it for another skill (such as Pickpocketing, or I guess to do sneak attacks), and Speech to sell items to merchants and such, or any other action required for a quest (Pickpocket the key from some person, shoot a specific arrow at a person, etc.). These 3 skills are Free to Use, but only the original 4 randomly generated skills can have perks added to their Perk Tree.
This is the time where it would be especially helpful to stop and look at your character's skills and use whatever RPing knowledge you possess to come up with a bit of a background story for your character. What was their reason for entering into Skyrim when they were caught by the Imperials? What would your character do on a regular basic with the skills you have? Making up a little backstory will help you determine what you should do from day to day. Are you the Dragonborn fulfilling your destiny, or just some random character who will be traveling across Skyrim trying to improve on one of your Additional Skills? If you have Alchemy as an Additional Skill you'll want to explore the wilderness looking for different potion ingredients, and perhaps sell the potions to make money.
Additonal Restrictions
This is where being on the PS3 comes into play. Since I don't have access to mods that require me to eat and sleep for example, I will be watching the in-game time and eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner, as well as sleeping at night. I have combined parts of rules from here, here, and here into what I feel are reasonable but not mind-numbingly boring restrictions. Any player can freely pick and choose which of these Restictions (if any) that they would want to implement in their play.
- Settings
....• HUD set to 0%.
....• All Auto-saving turned off. Saving is only done after sleeping.
- Inventory/Offense/Defense
....• Can only carry 30% of what game allows.
........o Worn armor counts as half towards weight.
....• Can only carry 10 lockpicks. If Lockpicking is one of the Additional Skills, can carry up to 40.
....• Can only carry weapons that are your Offense style, and only 1 additional to the weapon you currently use (a swordsperson would have no use picking up arrows, etc.). 1 Additional dagger is acceptable, for skinning animals and other actions you would not use a great sword for.
........o One-Handed can have their main weapon as well as one additional One-Handed weapon. If dual wielding, can have at most 3 One-Handed items in inventory.
........o Two-Handed can have their main weapon as well as one additional Two-Handed weapon.
........o Archery/Marksman can have their main bow as well as one additional bow. Can only carry 40 total arrows.
........o Destruction can carry at most 2 staves.
....• Can only carry the set of armor you will be wearing, plus one additional piece IF it is the Defense style you use (a Heavy armor wearer would have no use picking up a fur helm, etc.) and want to use it in your armor*
....o*If you loot a piece of armor from an enemy, it must be taken to a blacksmith and "resized" to fit you properly. Buy something from them so that they were paid for their work (you can sell it back to them at the lower price). If Smithing is one of the Additional Skills, you can "resize" it yourself at an anvil/workshop for no cost.
- Behaviors
....• Walk (as in not running) to your destination. The NPCs don't sprint through town, and neither will you. We aren't Olympic Long Distance Runners, so slow down and take your time.
....• Must fully sheath weapon to use a potion (the toppers are on really tight and it requires both hands to open).
....• Must not move around crouched for unreasonable amounts of time.
....• May not harvest unreasonable items (if a dead elk has a garnet don't take it).
....• Must sleep for at least 6-7 hours every day (allowed to make rare exceptions).
........o May only use manual saves after sleeping.
....• Must eat 3 meals a day (allowed to make rare exceptions) and have a drink along with it (mead, wine, water from a safe moving source, etc.).
........o Cannot eat raw meat or ingredients. Must be a normally edible food item (bread, fruit, vegetable, cheese, etc.), or a cooked meal.
........o Breakfast: 6-9 A.M. must be 2 food items.
........o Lunch: 12-3 P.M. must be a cooked meal and 1 food item.
........o Dinner: 6-9 P.M. must be a cooked meal and 2 food items.
........o Wait an hour after each meal for preparation and eating time.
....• Must always carry clothing (worn under armor). If Alteration is the Defense style you use, any mage robes or enchanted clothing counts as your regular clothes.
....• May not use in-game map other than to get initial bearings at the start of a quest.
....• May not fast travel (except by cart).
....• May not use exploits.
....• If chopping wood for money, it must be at a saw mill. Must first run the saw mill before going over to a chopping block, split 1 log, wait an hour, then repeat.
........o If other simple recurring jobs are found, try to keep hourly wages under 10 coins per hour (picking vegetables for a farmer, etc.).
I apologize if there's threads like this already out there. I'm sure I'm not the first to come up with these exact game parameters, but I couldn't find anything like it online so this is what I came up with with what I could find. Please let me know if you have any suggestions for me, or if you want to make a new character using these guidelines! Now that everything is written out and I see all of the restrictions, I'm not sure what my end-goal will be with the character I create...
*Note* before anyone suggests downloading mods, I am playing on my PS3. So basically everything I'm doing is self-imposed.
I guess this thread can serve 2 purposes. 1) I will list my Frankenstein's-monster-of-a-gameplay so that anyone who wants to try it out as a challenge can as well, and 2) anyone can suggest changes/improvements, or discuss ways that they played to help make Skyrim more fun after it's been played to death. So let's get to it. Here's how I will be making my newest character.
Character Creation
One thing that I'm terrible at is role playing; and I know this would be a million times easier if I was good at it, but alas, I'm not. So the first part of my build will be Character Creation. I personally have always started out TES games as a sneak/archer type character, but end up becoming powerful in most of the skills. So to break out of my usual mold I am implementing a random skill selection. I got the idea from Nelaf's Random Skill Generator but didn't like how it was essentially all 20 skills thrown in a pot and you choose 4~6 skills. So my modification to this is as Follows:
JaDe's Random 4 Skill Skyrim Character Generator
1. Race: Using something like random.org, randomly generate a number between 1 and 10 for your race (Altmer, Argonian, Bosmer, Breton, Dunmer, Imperial, Khajiit, Nord, Orsimer, Redguard).
2. Gender: Either flip a coin, or randomly generate a number between 1 and 2 for your gender (Female, Male) duh!
3. Offense: Here I let you choose if you want to be armed with a weapon, or go unarmed. Choosing unarmed allows you to have a 3rd Additional Skill later on. If you choose to have an Offense type, randomly generate a number between 1 and 4 for your Offense (Archery, Destruction, One-Handed, Two-Handed)
4. Defense: Now blocking in Skyrim only works if you are wielding a One-Handed or Two-Handed weapon. So if your Offense type is one of these, randomly generate a number between 1 and 4 (Alteration, Block, Heavy, Light); if your Offense type is Archery, Destruction or Unarmed, randomly generate a number between 1 and 3 (Alteration, Heavy, Light).
5. Additional Skills: Depending on if you chose to be Armed or Unarmed, you will get 2 or 3 Additional Skills, respectively. Randomly generate a number between 1 and 10 for your Additional Skills either twice or three times (Alchemy, Conjuration, Enchanting, Illusion, Lockpicking, Pickpocket, Restoration, Smithing, Sneak, Speech). If randomly generate the same Additional Skill, do a reroll.
At this point, you will either have an Offense style, Defense style, and 2 Additional Skills, or be Unarmed, and have a Defense style and 3 Additional Skills (either way, a total of 4 unique skills assigned). At this point, you may reroll ONE (1) and only 1 of these skills for a different skill in the same category. After rolling again, you can decide if you want to replace the old skill with the new skill. You may NOT reroll your race or gender. You were born that way and that can't be changed, but your interests are more flexible. If you want to change your Offense style and this causes an issue with the Defense style, then Defense will have to be rerolled as well. (e.g. I was a One-Handed, Block character, rerolled Offense and got Destruction. Now I can't use Block without wielding a Light/Heavy Armored shield, but since I didn't roll Light/Heavy Armor and since I can't block with Destruction, I will need to reroll my Defense style as well. Similarly, notice that although the Light/Heavy Armor skills have shields available, they cannot be used to block if Block is not the chosen Defense style).
Now that you have the 4 skills that your character can use, NONE of the remaining skills can be used. The only exceptions to this are Lockpicking if you absolutely need to (e.g. you can only continue if you pick the lock that is blocking your path forward), Sneak if you need it for another skill (such as Pickpocketing, or I guess to do sneak attacks), and Speech to sell items to merchants and such, or any other action required for a quest (Pickpocket the key from some person, shoot a specific arrow at a person, etc.). These 3 skills are Free to Use, but only the original 4 randomly generated skills can have perks added to their Perk Tree.
This is the time where it would be especially helpful to stop and look at your character's skills and use whatever RPing knowledge you possess to come up with a bit of a background story for your character. What was their reason for entering into Skyrim when they were caught by the Imperials? What would your character do on a regular basic with the skills you have? Making up a little backstory will help you determine what you should do from day to day. Are you the Dragonborn fulfilling your destiny, or just some random character who will be traveling across Skyrim trying to improve on one of your Additional Skills? If you have Alchemy as an Additional Skill you'll want to explore the wilderness looking for different potion ingredients, and perhaps sell the potions to make money.
Additonal Restrictions
This is where being on the PS3 comes into play. Since I don't have access to mods that require me to eat and sleep for example, I will be watching the in-game time and eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner, as well as sleeping at night. I have combined parts of rules from here, here, and here into what I feel are reasonable but not mind-numbingly boring restrictions. Any player can freely pick and choose which of these Restictions (if any) that they would want to implement in their play.
- Settings
....• HUD set to 0%.
....• All Auto-saving turned off. Saving is only done after sleeping.
- Inventory/Offense/Defense
....• Can only carry 30% of what game allows.
........o Worn armor counts as half towards weight.
....• Can only carry 10 lockpicks. If Lockpicking is one of the Additional Skills, can carry up to 40.
....• Can only carry weapons that are your Offense style, and only 1 additional to the weapon you currently use (a swordsperson would have no use picking up arrows, etc.). 1 Additional dagger is acceptable, for skinning animals and other actions you would not use a great sword for.
........o One-Handed can have their main weapon as well as one additional One-Handed weapon. If dual wielding, can have at most 3 One-Handed items in inventory.
........o Two-Handed can have their main weapon as well as one additional Two-Handed weapon.
........o Archery/Marksman can have their main bow as well as one additional bow. Can only carry 40 total arrows.
........o Destruction can carry at most 2 staves.
....• Can only carry the set of armor you will be wearing, plus one additional piece IF it is the Defense style you use (a Heavy armor wearer would have no use picking up a fur helm, etc.) and want to use it in your armor*
....o*If you loot a piece of armor from an enemy, it must be taken to a blacksmith and "resized" to fit you properly. Buy something from them so that they were paid for their work (you can sell it back to them at the lower price). If Smithing is one of the Additional Skills, you can "resize" it yourself at an anvil/workshop for no cost.
- Behaviors
....• Walk (as in not running) to your destination. The NPCs don't sprint through town, and neither will you. We aren't Olympic Long Distance Runners, so slow down and take your time.
....• Must fully sheath weapon to use a potion (the toppers are on really tight and it requires both hands to open).
....• Must not move around crouched for unreasonable amounts of time.
....• May not harvest unreasonable items (if a dead elk has a garnet don't take it).
....• Must sleep for at least 6-7 hours every day (allowed to make rare exceptions).
........o May only use manual saves after sleeping.
....• Must eat 3 meals a day (allowed to make rare exceptions) and have a drink along with it (mead, wine, water from a safe moving source, etc.).
........o Cannot eat raw meat or ingredients. Must be a normally edible food item (bread, fruit, vegetable, cheese, etc.), or a cooked meal.
........o Breakfast: 6-9 A.M. must be 2 food items.
........o Lunch: 12-3 P.M. must be a cooked meal and 1 food item.
........o Dinner: 6-9 P.M. must be a cooked meal and 2 food items.
........o Wait an hour after each meal for preparation and eating time.
....• Must always carry clothing (worn under armor). If Alteration is the Defense style you use, any mage robes or enchanted clothing counts as your regular clothes.
....• May not use in-game map other than to get initial bearings at the start of a quest.
....• May not fast travel (except by cart).
....• May not use exploits.
....• If chopping wood for money, it must be at a saw mill. Must first run the saw mill before going over to a chopping block, split 1 log, wait an hour, then repeat.
........o If other simple recurring jobs are found, try to keep hourly wages under 10 coins per hour (picking vegetables for a farmer, etc.).
I apologize if there's threads like this already out there. I'm sure I'm not the first to come up with these exact game parameters, but I couldn't find anything like it online so this is what I came up with with what I could find. Please let me know if you have any suggestions for me, or if you want to make a new character using these guidelines! Now that everything is written out and I see all of the restrictions, I'm not sure what my end-goal will be with the character I create...