Challenge Idea "Vow of Poverty"

[mauvecloud]

Background: Recently, I tried searching for Skyrim challenges, and I came across this one:

 

Try giong through the game without looting any bodies (even animals) or chests, earn all your money buy working for it, i.e. chopping wood, mining ore, selling items you make, getting payed for quests, that sort of thing. Purchase or create the items/materials you need.

That doesn't seem like much of a challenge to me, since those are some of the standard ways to make money (and buying alchemy shop supplies and selling potions is a very easy way to make money, to the point that it often forces me to travel between towns to sell off all the potions if I'm not using a mod that gives extra/unlimited gold to merchants). It seems like the opposite would be more of a challenge (no buying or selling anything, or even deliberate transfer of money between the player and npcs (e.g. bribery, investing, donating to beggars), I'll find or craft what I need), and then I figured I could take it a step further and try to almost always carry 0 septims (any cash I get as a quest reward or such will go into a container the first chance I get, and I'd try to avoid things like bounty quests where the money reward is the main point of the quest - favor quests that improve an NPC's disposition toward me and faction quests are acceptable).

 

I can already think of two quests that this will make uncompletable: 1. "Taking Care of Business" for the Thieves Guild (although joining the TG would not fit well with this challenge anyway) and 2. "The Book of Love" for the Temple of Mara.

 

Now I have two questions:

1. Has anyone else already tried a challenge like this?

2. What other quests will be impossible to complete with this challenge?

 

 

[DoctorKaizeld]

 

2. What other quests will be impossible to complete with this challenge?

no quests will break because of it. just take the quest item and nothing else and you will still be following the rules

[mauvecloud]

 

 

2. What other quests will be impossible to complete with this challenge?

no quests will break because of it. just take the quest item and nothing else and you will still be following the rules

 

Sorry, perhaps I wasn't entirely clear - I'm not asking about quests broken by the challenge I found, but about quests broken by the "vow of poverty" challenge I came up with as a sort-of-opposite. In other words, what quests specifically require the use of money to complete? (aside from the two I already mentioned, which btw would not be much affected by the other challenge afaik)

[DoctorKaizeld]

 

 

 

2. What other quests will be impossible to complete with this challenge?

no quests will break because of it. just take the quest item and nothing else and you will still be following the rules

 

Sorry, perhaps I wasn't entirely clear - I'm not asking about quests broken by the challenge I found, but about quests broken by the "vow of poverty" challenge I came up with as a sort-of-opposite. In other words, what quests specifically require the use of money to complete? (aside from the two I already mentioned, which btw would not be much affected by the other challenge afaik)

 

yes, and I was replying based off of what was said. neither challenge would stop you from doing any quest

[raidislamy]

 

 

 

 

2. What other quests will be impossible to complete with this challenge?

no quests will break because of it. just take the quest item and nothing else and you will still be following the rules

 

Sorry, perhaps I wasn't entirely clear - I'm not asking about quests broken by the challenge I found, but about quests broken by the "vow of poverty" challenge I came up with as a sort-of-opposite. In other words, what quests specifically require the use of money to complete? (aside from the two I already mentioned, which btw would not be much affected by the other challenge afaik)

 

yes, and I was replying based off of what was said. neither challenge would stop you from doing any quest

 

unless you finish quest like pay sedri debt to saphire at riften. well you can pay other way depend on the mods if vanilla non pay failed.

[mauvecloud]

From what I can find in the wikis, Shadr's debt can be cleared with persuasion instead of money even without mods. (though I haven't found one that specifies what skill level is required)

"Taking Care of Business" (the Thieves Guild membership quest) is borderline - since the NPCs are really paying back debts to the TG and the player is just acting as a middleman, it's unclear whether carrying the money should be considered a violation of the vow of poverty.

One part of "The Book of Love" requires buying a poem from an NPC, so I don't see a way to complete it within the rules of the challenge.

I also remembered one other quest, "Unearthed" from the Dragonborn DLC (which is automatically included in SSE), which requires a total of 11000 gold to be donated/invested for the excavation. I'm pretty sure that one's out.

 

Also, I haven't started the challenge yet, but I discovered that putting gold into a container that somebody else owns (i.e. that shows "steal from" in the HUD when I approach it) is considered a crime, albeit only worth 1 gold of bounty, and this doesn't seem to be mentioned in any of the wiki pages about crime in Skyrim.

 

Edit: I went ahead and started the challenge last night, and this morning I got to the Markarth section of "The Book of Love" quest. I looked around for alternate ways to complete the objective, such as getting a poem from Ogmund instead (the resident bard at the inn), or telling Calcelmo about Faleen's love of poetry after finding out from Yngvar, but there were no such dialogue options. Also, since I passed Old Hroldan on the way to Markarth, it reminded me that there was a quest there that involves sleeping at that inn, which afaik strictly requires money. If I come across others, I'll add them.

 

Edit 2: I thought of a few more: 1. No Stone Unturned - by default, one of the stones requires buying a house (the most expensive house in the game, in fact), though I saw a mod that changes that. 2. Buy Dwarven Artifact - if I don't buy anything from merchants, presumably Calcelmo will never send me the letter offering to buy a dwarven artifact from me. 3. Thane of Eastmarch/Haafingar/the Reach/the Rift/Whiterun - these holds have major cities, and one of the requirements for thaneship in each is to buy a house in the corresponding city. 4. Betting with certain NPCs that I can take them in a brawl (obviously I need the money to bet with first)

 

Edit 3: Here's one that isn't exactly blocked, but is much more difficult than normal with this challenge - joining the College of Winterhold - since the challenge precludes buying spells, either from Faralda at the entrance or from other merchants, I have to find a tome of the spell she asks for, which in most cases means random loot (two of the spells she can ask for can be found in pre-determined locations, but those are gated behind other quests)

 

Edit 4: I found this page: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Speech#Persuasion_Options which covers the Speech skill needed in Shadr's quest, even though the quest page doesn't mention it (maybe because paying off the debt is so easy for players who are not using a self-imposed challenge such as this that precludes that option?) I'm using SPERG, which allows me to get a perk for reducing persuasion difficulty by 30% at a Speech skill of 10, so after I had gotten my skill up with some of those other options, I used that plus the Masque of Clavicus Vile, an Amulet of Dibella, and the Blessing of Dibella, and I was able to persuade Faralda to let me in without demonstrating the spell she asked for (in case anyone is curious, in this playthrough, she asked me to cast Magelight, and even after clearing a bunch of warlock lairs and doing other quests, I never came across that tome in random loot).

 

I looked through the quests listed on the UESP wiki, and came across a few others, which can be grouped together: rejoining factions - if I get kicked out of the Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood, or College of Winterhold, I would have to pay to get back in. I don't see a corresponding quest for the Companions, so presumably either membership is permanent or expulsion is, not sure which. I think that's it.