I'm one of those people who can't stand a long list of "pending" quests in the journal, so when there are a certain critical mass of them in there, I have to hammer them out as fast as possible. It bothers me, a lot, that there are things I've been asked to do that are unfinished, even though there's no penalty for taking as long as I damn well please, or even for not doing them at all. I can turn off compass and quest markers with no problems, but even if I don't opt to fast travel for whatever reason, I end up sprinting past most encounters anyway (well, the ones I've already seen before), and never wander off and delve into anything else, except perhaps to discover the place for future fast-traveling. If I let myself just wander around, I'll never get anything done, and I feel bad when I see the NPCs again if I haven't completed their quest. I'll also feel bad when I look at my journal and it scrolls down off the screen because I have too many quests.

Honestly, I'd prefer exploring if there weren't so many random encounters (especially with annoying things attacking you) so I could just enjoy the scenery without worrying about adding things to my quest log or swatting flies (wolves, dragons) for the millionth time.

I also have repetitive stress injuries that make it easier to play with a Xbox 360 controller, even though I'm playing the PC version--walking for RP purposes is more tiring for my hands than running (since it involves holding the stick only partially forward rather than all the way forward), so I just run everywhere unless I'm following someone slow.

If I want to get from one city to another quickly, I take the carriage, but I rarely find myself doing that.

To me, the meat of the game is not what happens at point a and point b, but what happens between a and b. Do I happen across an interesting structure I wish to explore further? Does a dragon suddenly swoop from the clouds hungry for some Dovahkiin flambe? Other times, it is simply me listening to the wind blow through the snowy crags and watching the leaves rustle on the trees as I slowly make my way to where I want to go.

There is a certain magic to this game that you don't get when fast-traveling. To this day, it remains in my eyes the most controversial mechanic Bethesda implemented. They give you this huge world to drink in and savor with every step, but also give you the ability to completely ignore it?

It is rather hard to really appreciate a developer's strong suits when you constantly avoid it.

Once you reach somewhere around level 9 or so where different creatures appear and start leveling up and harder to kill. Its very fun. You get expirience all the time.

I used to walk to a place, then when I have to go back to the same location I fast traveled. No use exploring something I already explored, right?

Contrary to some opinions here, Fast-Travel and exploration are not mutually exclusive, and I have no idea where the notion that they are came from. For one thing, you cannot fast travel to a location you have not yet discovered, which gives plenty of opportunities to explore while trying to reach said destination. Hell, I often start out heading towards a quest destination only to get sidetracked by finding a ruin or camp along the way, and then by another I can see in the distance, to the point where I've ended up going in the opposite direction from the way I was originally heading.

On a more personal note, I could never do a no-FT character due to being terminally addicted to loot; I pick up almost everything in every location I come across, with the result that I often have to FT between multiple towns to sell it all before popping back to the last place I looted and continuing on my way.

I do both....

I'll usually use fast travel on minor errand type quests..... then for the actual real quests I'll adventure cross country.

I have 1 character I've devoted to only using fast travel to drop off loot (use it like town portal... while going cross country I can travel back to town, drop loot, and travel back where I was) or to get in and out of cities to stables and back.

Didn't read the thread.

I don't use fast travel because it ruins immersion since there are no random events that can interrupt it. I think the way Bethesda implemented fast travel in poor fashion. Its almost like using a teleport spell or in Star Trek terms "Beam me up Scottie!". Its not realistic since you avoid any and all possible dangers with it. If there were more random consequences for using fast travel then I would probably be more inclined to use it. I feel the same way about sleeping or waiting, you shouldn't be able to just advance time without some chance of an encounter or someone trying to rob you depending on where you sleep and how secure the place is.

It's called a cart dummy!

It's like you're me.

^ This

I feel ALOT of people are ruining their Skyrim experience, much like in previous TES titles, by fast traveling and Power-Gaming their way through the MQ and Guild Quests without taking the time to explore this magnificently crafted world Bethesda have made for us! You discover so many sights and things by just walking from point A to point B, it really is quite fun not knowing what is around the next corner or over that hill!

I wish there was a disable option for fast travel for console players, sometimes it's just too tempting to fast travel. I try not to fast travel as much as possible, i feel that you miss out on exploration opportunities and level ups, and i think it ruins the game, if anything using fast travel makes the game boring, the only time i ever accept a form of fast travel is with the carriages, it makes sense to be able to travel to any main city on a carriage. I might try and play a save where i don't use the map at all, now that would be interesting.

You're using the wrong single quote! '`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`

Just because you wouldn't enjoy Skyrim with constant fast traveling doesn't mean nobody else does. Like someone else said, fast travel and exploration are not mutually exclusive. Some people are more task oriented than others--I personally get the "get this done and get it out of my journal" feeling a lot (as well as the "not another dragon! I'm already carrying too much!" feeling), and I find the random encounters when exploring to be too repetitive for my liking (after a few hundred hours playing, I seem to see the same ones over and over).

Basically, fast travel, or don't fast travel, it is ultimately just another choice. You're not enjoying the game any more than someone else just because of this one choice. Maybe you wouldn't enjoy the way I play, but odds are I wouldn't enjoy the way you play either. And thanks to fast travel (which nobody is forced to use), I'm not forced to explore if I don't want to.

Though some people may not admit it, it does get boring at some point or another.

But generally, people who don't fast travel love the scenery and the random encounters and such. And if they ever do get bored, they still won't fast travel because it'll ruin the experience for them in some way.

I fast travel less now that I have Shadowmere, but I still do it frequently. To each his own...that's the beauty of TES.

No it's fun.The best part of the game is the adventures during travel.Lot's of interesting stuff can happen during my travels.
For example i might fight a dragon or a mammoth or a giant or maybe find some treasure or i might even meet a headless horsman.The possibilities are endless...

66 hours and no fast travel here. Ill Look at all my quests and see whats close and do those, then when stuff takes me closer to another objective ill do it. Fast travel? how about a teleport spell that is limited to your magika, go so far, let it replenish or svck down some crack and go a TP a lil farther. Fast travel is kinda lame. Killed oblivion for me after 300 hours took me out of the game immersion wise.

It's his calling card... and it stands out from the rest of the herd.

Similar to what a kid we all know says: "I always walk and never fast-travel. It's fun most days, but boring sometimes".


Since I started playing this game, I decided I was going to take it easy, without hurries and most importantly, feeling part of the world. I waited long since Oblivion for this, so I had no intention of playing it fast. From the start I forced myself to never use fast travel, and it's been long since I last used a carriage. At first I used it a couple times to travel from Whiterun to Solitude but one day I realized that I didn't even know the path from one city to another, so I decided to never use the carriage again either. It's a "light" version of Fast-travel, something I don't like for MY gameplay.

Also... 15 minutes from Solitude to Riften? Well, maybe runing, sprinting, etc... I don't consider this an FPS either, and I see myself stupid running from here to there like the ingame kids in towns, so I only run when I want to flee from someone/something. I just walk. It may take 1 real time hour to walk from Solitude to Whiterun, but I don't mind.

About your question about delivering quests. I have a different playstyle. I don't go beating quests all the time, or as soon as I'm asked. I do or deliver only nearby quests, so if I'm asked to go to Riften and I'm in Solitude, that quest could sit there maybe for 80 hours... and no kidding, I'm 200 hours, level 35 and still haven't visited several cities and the whole map area around them.

Extending a bit more this post, this is how I play. I only open the 3D map inside a city, so when I'm at one, I enable all quest markers and check the map for nearby quests. I then mark the ones I want to do on my real-life paper map, and disable the markers again. Then I just adventure outside the city, trying to figure out the places. Depending on the distance I may spend 30 minutes walking, another 60 minutes clearing a sanctuary, and maybe that's all for the day. Then I head for the next quest, and finally return to the city.

Once there I sell stuff, leave other stuff at home, maybe head to the inn, sit enjoy the bards, and finally sleep. Again I open the quest journal. If I have quests on a nearby city and I'm in the mood to go there, I take the road and walk. Else I may go to a city that is even farther. Or maybe I plan a trip that ends up taking several real-life days. For example I plan to travel to a far city, but on the way there I have a couple more with maybe 1 or 2 small quests. This means I first go to a city, clear a quest there, sleep if it's late, and then head for the destination city to complete those 2-3 quests I wanted. This could be several real-life hours, which means several days of gameplay. If I ran or fast-travel, I would complete that in no time, losing immersion and therefore ruining my gameplay

So, is walking boring? Not really for me because I have fun watching the landscape, hearing my footsteps and basically because I do it because I want to, not because I'm forced to. Sometimes it is... specially when having to do a long walk 2 times in a row. But when this happens I have to options. *sigh* and try to enjoy it, or leave it for another day and go somewhere else.

Honestly, I don't know whether it is because of my character speed or unpredicted movement compared to how the developers THINK a person walking down a "safe" corridor would move, but I often trigger traps while jogging and watch them miss me or hear them trigger behind me.


Of course, then I get complacent, and the killed.

Although often that's because of other distractions. Like the pack of 5 bandits currently trying to kill me.


I actually hate the new merchant system. I thought I liked it compared to Oblivions, but on balance Oblivions is way better. I'm not a loot (lady of the night), I tend to keep the really expensive stuff and ignore the rest.

And now my house is literally filled with crap I can't sell, and my companion is carrying some of the more interesting trinkets.

Luckily I'm going to retire this character soon, as he's almost finished the Stormcloak questline.



Anyway - Why so terminally addicted to loot? My character has made 30 GRAND only picking up gold, spell tomes and jewels. To be fair that was in ~80 hours of play time, but there was no crafting in that mix, and very little merchanting.

Forced Radiant AI quests made fast travel a necessity for me. I don't use it often because I like to explore the world. But when you're sent to some random location you've visited a dozen of times to fetch one thing and get back, I'm just aching to get that quest done asap so I can move on and see other things.

Most people just complain that fast travel "breaks immersion"... Well, maybe for you it does. I happen to find it perfectly plausible in a fantasy setting that my character is able to teleport to anywhere she's been before, simply by virtue of having discovered the place once.

Heck, I wish I had this ability in real life.

After lurking my own thread for a day or two I think it's time to defend myself a little here, haha.

It may seem from my original post that all I ever do is fast-travel and do as many quests as possible while never going to any other places. Now I do admit that I often play with quests in mind, but oftentimes I walk around a lot too. On my new character I was forced to walk from Falkreath to a dungeon near Markarth, which ended up as a 2-hour trek because I kept getting side-tracked by nearby camps, forts and dungeons. I have two game-modes, so to say: the Quester, and the Explorer. On my main character I've done quite some quests already, so I decided to just walk around Riften for a while to discover the dungeons. I didn't do a single quest for three hours, but still had a lot of fun.

Not really. If you just run the rods then it will eventually. I've spent three gaming sessions going from Windhelm to Riften for some menial task. It's taken me so long because I'll stop at the hamlets, talk to NPC'S, do small local quests, explore random caves, etc. I've just got to Riften, and it'll likely take me until next week to do the next part of this quest, meanwhile more and more are being added to my journal.

It's about the journey, rather than the destination.

I would usually fast travel if somewhere is far enough but after reading this yesterday I tried walking last night and WOW!!!! What I can miss outside of fast travel was too much. I will still fast travel but if I'm up to it IM WALKING. I would have missed all these giants tending to there mammoths. Not that I can take them yet but its cool to know where a good fight is for later. And when walking back to resolve my quests I noticed how beautiful the scenery and the sky were. Also I got a free 100 gold and I saved a woman from being lost.

i only use the horse courier when it fits my role playing. traveling long distances, sleeping at inns, it's all part of the magic.