Are There ANY Good "Personality/Expressiveness" Mods?

[Deleted10064660User]

I guess an explanation is warranted. Sometimes a strength is also a crutch, in the case of Skyrim the powerful character creation mechanic was used to create every playable-race NPC in the game. Nothing takes me out of immersion more than seeing NPCs with similar faces reusing the same animations. This uncanny sameness is amplified by the lack of armor customization, very few NPCs have unique outfits. The personality of each NPC is carried on the back of the voice acting and writing alone, which isn't really much of a praise considering many NPCs share voice actors. A handful of characters in Skyrim that have unique outfits and great voice acting like Cicero and Ulfric are iconic and immersive, while the vast majority of Skyrim NPCs feel like lazy filler.

 

I want to see confident characters have a different walking and fighting stance than the weak and feeble, I want to see expressive face designs that aren't scared of being cartoony, asymmetrical, or ugly. I want to see unique characters given unique clothes and weapons that fit their personality. I want to see guards from different holds have different armors not recolors of the same stormcloak drapes. I hope this is enough examples to get my point across, that's the type of mod I want to see more of.

 

I'm looking for ANY functioning mod that gives NPCs, or the game in general, more personality. This can be anything from more armor variation, dialogue based relationships, adding new voiced NPCs, adding cinematic pre-rendered cut scenes to replace story moments, makes faces more expressive, animation mod that has random variations, more unique enemy variants, and I could go on. I'm not looking for realism, nor beauty... I want some personality! This actually applies to monster NPCs too, any mod that makes their animations more expressive or adds more variety I want to see.

 

So, my goal is to make this thread a list of these types of mods, so I can discover hidden gems and help other people find them. Currently the small handful of mods I use for personality are Interesting NPCs, Expressive Facial Animations, Immersive Creatures, Player Head Tracking, and Lucien. Please give your suggestions below, I'm so sick of looking into the lifeless eyes of Skyrim characters, makes me depressed. It seems most character face overhauls make the disgusting NPC faces into plastic barbie faces. I don't want to see those types of mods suggested. Give me the real deal.

 

 

[steamteck]

for the guards https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/22671

[steamteck]

Might try this also. Much smaller than Interesting NPCS but they all interact with each other very nicely. https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/1163

[Anselmp]

I was going to suggest that. Also try Rigmor, although that's harder to incorporate into a general campaign. With Anna's NPCs it sounds like you won't want the extra mod (by someone else) that does them up (nor do I).

[Moksha8088]

I was going to suggest that. Also try Rigmor, although that's harder to incorporate into a general campaign. With Anna's NPCs it sounds like you won't want the extra mod (by someone else) that does them up (nor do I).

Anna's NPCs works well with both Interesting NPCs and Rigmor of Cyrodiil/DragonChild.

 

 

 

Edit - Few mods are as expressive as the companion mod, Lucien. Vilja is pretty expressive as well.

Edited March 23, 2020 by Moksha8088