I know D&D is a much more complex game, but skyrim feels more similar to a tabletop game than Oblivion, hence the idea of comparison.
I have only played 3rd/3.5 edition so I can't express opinions for the others. what do you think?

I guess it'd be closest (IMO) to 3rd, but the GM is a sufferer of ADD and spazzes out when you so much as mention mechanics and dice with the characters and story written by a roomba. Beautiful game, a magestic looking mile wide river... but only to find that it's an inch deep.

It doesn't have much in common with D&D. A better comparision would be with a RPG like Runequest which doesn't have classes or alignments and uses a learning by doing rather than a XP system.

none?

That's actually a darn good comparison character mechanics wise.

How does Skyrim seem like a tabletop game? Does not compute.

Agreed! Skyrim doesn't seem to have much at all in common with D&D.

Now Daggerfall is another story. Building a Daggerfall character is curiously like building a D&D character. Then there are the other features that feel like a tabletop game: rolling for attribute points, combat the apparently works in rounds despite playing in real time (never did figure out how that works), and the flavour text at dungeon entrances.

If you had to stretch it, it would probably be like 3rd edition (only played that a little bit and nothing after that. Did play AD&D many many years ago). Even though there are classes in D&D the feats kind of feel like perks. So you can make a fighter (warrior type in skyrim) and start out just like any other fighter, but differentiate yourself via the feats (perks) you take.

When I play Skyrim, there are some places that really seem to echo - visually - the artwork you can find in the Pathfinder Core Rulebook; especially the scenes at the beginnings of the chapters (done by Wayne Reynolds). Labyrinthian's sprawling surface structure really reminds me of some of the cool-looking dungeons you can see in that book.

Pathfinder is sort of the successor to 3.5 D&D - some have called it 3.75. Off-topic, I made the switch to Pathfinder and haven't regretted missing out on D&D 4th edition.

Statwise, of course, there are big differences - Skyrim is not number-crunchy at all. But Pathfinder did some similar streamlining of 3.5, so I guess there's a comparison there...

I think Skyrim is further from D&D as is possible.

For a start Skyrim doesn`t even have classes and the amount of skills in D&D (especially table top) is vast compared to Skyrim which is truly dumbed down compared. In D&D you could truly pick a class then customise for true roleplay. In Skyrim you`re nothing and have to `imagine` you`re whatever you think you are.

Morrowind is closer to D&D than Skyrim ever will be.

that is true, morrowind is a big RP experience. but Skyrim has a mechanics of the levelling system that, somehow, I prefer from Oblivion, and it is very reminescent of a "simple" tabletop game, you levelup with what you do. then again skyrim got me without reservations thanks to the new magic handling system.

Skyrim system evolves from Fallout series, which they tested an incorporation of it with Oblivion with Fallout 3 and found it works well. Fallout is a lot similar Alternity with its own twist. Alternity was a highly potential awesome sci-fi system that didn't get well receiving from its audience. It's a streamlined twist of AD&D futuristic edition.

So all in all, it's nothing like D&D 3e or beyond.

None, or 4th edition. It's the closest they came to try and simulate an MMO. The closest you could get to Skyrim. What with the absurd levels of powers, lack of skills, and generally more about going into dungeons and killing thing sin encounters. Even then it's not that close at all. The older Elder Scrolls games might be a tad more comparable to 3.5 or Pathfinder, but again not really.

None of them. At all.

D&D characters will be spread sheets by the time you're done with them, where as Skyrim characters will be perk set # 354

Double post.