self imposed challenge

[Deleted3897072User]

Here's a summary of the rules, if you want to try it:

 

The No-Skill Challenge

The challenge is to work throught the game without using skills or, more precisely, without doing anything that would results in gaining experience in a skill. This means, of course, that you stay at the bottom of level 1 but it also means that you have to be a lot more creative in how you play the game because there are a whole bunch of things that you suddenly can't do.

You cannot

• wear armor, use a shield, attack with weapons or cast spells
• block, not even with a torch
• use a forge, grindstone, anvil or workbench (except an Atronach Forge)
• use an arcane enchanter or alchemy lab (you cannot even eat alchemy ingredients)
• pick locks
• sneak or pick pockets
• Persuade, Intimdate or Bribe anyone
• give money to beggars
• buy or sell anything
• recharge your followers' enchanted weapons with soul gems

You can

• wear enchanted clothing and jewellery
• use scrolls and staff weapons
• punch with your fists
• use shouts and powers
• benefit from shrines and standing stones
• do smelting, tanning, mining, cooking and baking.

Under these constraints, it is nevertheless possible (though by no means easy) to play through the entire main quest line and defeat Aldiun in Sovngarde. Punching him to death is peculiarly satisfying :D

Advice

Don't play the hero. Let your follower or friendly NPCs do the fighting for you, while you run away and skulk beind a pillar until it's safe to come out. In some places (for example Skuldafn) where you can't take a follower, you may need to reduce the difficulty to 'Novice'. It's okay - after all, your character is a novice, isn't he?

Don't bother collecting alchemy ingredients - you can't use them and you can't sell them. But do collect all the salt piles you can get - you need those for cooking. Since you can't craft potions, food is the next best thing. I recommend potato soup.

Don't bother looting armor or weapons unless your follower needs them. You can't use them, you can't sell them and you can't disenchant them.

Remember - you can't pick locks but you can ask your follower to do it.

Edited May 22, 2018 by OldMansBeard

[cortex56]

OMG!!!! I can't believe you actually accomplished this. I followed you through your messages as you progressed and kept saying he'll never make it.

You did. I am impressed. I can barely get to Helgen to start the main quest due to Bandit explorers attacking me. I get one shot before I can even grab a follower. lol

 

I'll keep trying.

 

Edit: What are the best running shoes in Skyrim? :)

[tomomi1922]

You guys are living a luxury life. You get to play the game. I spent nearly 1 month just "modding" after work. Right now I am working on a migration from NMM to MO2. That being said, when I get to play, I overlook the money part because my play time is so precious that I forgo the financial struggle and use console to give myself some money. But frankly, money is not everything in Skyrim. Even you can buy the most expensive items the shops offer, it's not going to push you over the edge as a walking god either (unless you TGM yourself).

But as for "challenge", I choose to see this single player PRG an interactive immersive movie experience instead. I download mods to make the NPC more immersive (like wearing cold weather gear in a middle of the snow storm). My choice of gear is not about piling the most pieces for the stat like most games. But I immersively limit myself with the narrative I have given a character. Here are a few examples:

- A khajit reluctantly lost in Skyrim unable to afford a way home, rejected and pushed away by most Nord, so his option is rather limited. I presume he would never be granted Thane title therefore having house carl followers is out of the question. Spending time in taverns is very limited. No way to buy house within cities, beside Riften. In Riften anything goes as long as you have money. The early levels are extremely hard because he would have very limited access to the forge and alchemy table. Adrianne Avenicci is a fair person but her kindness would extend to buy/sell but not allowing the player to use the forge, as her student. I would make camp (Campfire mod) with the caravan khajit outside the cities. Inigo would be a great choice of follower. Of course when he gets more established, he would enjoy staying in Skyrim with his own house (Hearthsfire or a player home mod).

- A nord woman in a cult like order. With lack of nutrition she is too flail for physical fights (absolutely NO 2h weapons or bows, light armors only). Her superior within the cult secretly taught her magic that would normally exclusive to much higher ranked members. So, with the combination of being part of a social rejected cult, and having more magic power than she should, it is within her best interest to keep a low profile. That means no fancy outfits. Life is literately close to of a farmhand or a courier. She can have powerful trinkets because those can be hidden. She may switch to more powerful outfit inside dungeons because nobody will live to reveal her secrets. But outside, limited to low level magic and very shabby looking clothes. I can try to enchant them with good enchant (because nobody can see it).

- A minor demi-goddess casted down to Skyrim doomed to live among the mortals for x number of years as punishment. She is still very powerful for mortals. She can jump very high (no problem to get on any roof) and take no damage falling from high places. She feels everyone is beneath her so she likes to talk down at people and unsympathetic to the tragedy of common men: no money for beggars, not blood thirsty but will not take hesitate to deal with insults harshly. Naturally she doesn't give a crap about Stormcloak vs Imperials. The dragons on the other hand is of her great interest, vampires too. One time she got one too many insults from the guards in Solitude she lets them taste her twin blades. Of course it's unwinnable. But in her mind, she is just bored with it and move on from fighting guards. Vampires would make great companions. Naturally she doesn't give a crap about having a house among the mortals. I have to get her a rather elaborate floating island as a home. No carriage (if I can help it), but mean of travel is her wings (and FNIS Flyer mod). She is definitely not evil. But her patience is thin (at least against lowly mortal matters) and never back down from any fight. So even with a supposedly superior character (modded weapons and spells), some fights I had to take on so many powerful enemies because it makes no sense she would retreat in fear. Whereas other characters would see this as a smart thing to "disappear" when situation becomes unfavorable.

The challenge is to stay within the narrative and do my best not to break characters. I have yet to play a character supposedly came from the future. A Tomb Raider like character: resourceful, rational, probably already knows history before it happens. No magic, no savage fighting, love to socialize and engage with the locals (love to be Thane, get involved in history, but doesn't get emotional). Probably just with 1 hand weapon and the bow/crossbow. Hmmm, I can make use of the modern house mods found on Loverslab and some modern clothing (like shorts and Tshirt).

[BaronofHe11]

I'm trying to think of ways to make learning spells more immersive. Maybe only learning spells at the college. I would love to study the spells and practice them. I could pretend to do that but I can't track my progress. Then again how would I pretend to study the book if the book is used up as soon as activate it.

[Fidens9]

i finally beat the main quest while playing with my self imposed rules of limiting my looting. and i have to say it was a rather enriching experience. i figured i may as well elaborate on that.

 

in a normal playthrough of Skyrim it's so easy to get everything. mainly through looting but in other ways it also pretty much just hands you everything. makes it hard to feel like you actually earned anything in this game. my rule that limits my looting doesn't fully fix the problem but certainly helps. most of what i get feels like i earned it.

 

1 time i was suddenly struck with San... um, vampire disease and i panicked. i use a mod that makes it so that shrines don't cure diseases and i had very little gold on hand. i rushed to an alchemist hoping they had a cure disease potion and hoping that i had enough gold to afford it. so much effort only to end up flat broke afterwards, but that's part of the experience. this rush of emotions isn't the kind of thing you'd get from a normal playthrough, you're as likely to get it as much as you'd ever need a cure disease potion.

 

even a simple quest to deliver a note that only earned me 10 gold felt somewhat meaningful since i wasn't exactly making bank. now that isn't to say my work never saw a profit. part of that was because my mods slightly increased my rewards as my level increased, but most of it was the fruits of my labor.

 

i played on expert difficulty, and i used quite a few mods to make the game a bit more challenging (not too many though, i've went overboard in the past so i know how much of a mistake that is). since i couldn't just loot better gear, battles we're not that easy at first. and the paltry sum of gold i was slowly making didn't make it any easier to get better gear, spells, potions, etc. and when i could afford that stuff i had to be selective and make sure i got what would be useful.

 

i had to be more tactical in how i approached battles. when i had to kill bandit leaders i didn't blindly charge in. my main tactic was to fury my target, they'd either die at the hands of their own minions or be weakened enough that i could take them, but even then i still conjured up some help. if my targets were killed by their minions i'd often just leave those minions be and go get my reward. my playstyle made it so that at the beginning i was weaker than even common bandits. but overtime i was able to get better equipment and better spells. becoming strong enough to be considered the hero of Skyrim wasn't just something that came to me naturally, i earned that.

 

the game still had moments when it just handed me rewards so casually but when i earned something i felt it and it made the game a rather enriching experience.

Edited July 24, 2018 by Fidens9