What I mean by this, is that when your character dies you start a new character. Has anyone else tried this?

I have four characters that i got to right after becoming a Thane of Whiterun. I figured those are the quests every character has to do, and they are the most tedious. I like the role playing feel of it, but it does get tedious. I have yet to make it to 20th level. What really blows it for me is when the monster gets lucky and crits me.

These are my rules.

1) No fast travel except when the path between the two points has already been explored and cleared out. For instance, I fast travel between Whiterun and Riverwood.

2) If I die, I restart to the point that I became a Thane of Whiterun. Every 10 levels you can make a new starting point. This starts at 20th level, so at 20th, 30th, 40th and etc you can make a new starting point.

3) No farming smithing unless it is with materials I aquired in the wild or in a dungeon. For instance, If I mine a ton of iron from a mine and kill some wolves for leather straps. I see no reason not to make a bunch of iron daggers (comon eating utensel) to make a profit.

4) This is the rule I'm not sure about. should I have a number of allowed deaths to account for lucky critical hits from monsters? This seems a little too much for me, but like I said I haven't even made it to 20th level yet.

Any comments?

On Adept it was nearly impossible for me to NOT die. On Apprentice i only died once against 6 bandits, one using powerful destruction. I did have quite a few other close calls, and decided it was perfect difficulty for me and the skills i liked to use

Try that with a mage.

i got a character to lvl 43 completed both main quest lines and campanions questline.120 hours in before i died jumping off a cliff and the ethereal shout wore off right before i hit the ground

Perhaps you need Thalmor funding?

Check out the http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1339381-skyrim-dead-is-dead-thread-v/page__hl__dead%20is%20dead threads.

Yeah, I've been playing 'dead is dead' since discovering it on these forums. It's great fun. Makes you really pay attention to what's going on and think things through. And sure, I run away a lot.
My current character is 28 on expert. That's hard enough. I've escaped death with a sliver of health remaining several times. Chugging potions as I run.
I don't have any special rules, although I try not to let any crafting skills level faster than my major combat skills (for me, block, one hand and light armor) because if you level up too much on non essential skills then your enemies will be too strong due to the level scaling.

What difficulty are you playing?

There's no shame in turning it down a notch if you're having too hard a time.

Other advice?
Use companions.
Go slow. Listen. Look. Plan.
Make sure u have an escape route and don't be afraid to run away. Or, if you prefer, as my current character likes to say, "fall back to reassess the situation"...
Work your primary combat skills. Don't dump tons of points into crafting skills so u can get better gear. Won't matter if you don't have the skill to use it. As you level up, so do your enemies, and they won't be improving their crafting skills.

As someone above said, check out the DiD threads. Good advice there. And interesting stories too!

man i would lose it if that happened to me

The enemies tend to frequently hit me with their kill cams and the the mages carry a devastating punch. Also a good way not to die, destruction plus impact.

Beat me to it.

It's a tough, tough way to play the game. I haven't done it in awhile. What's great about it though is that you tend to become much more attached to the character. Your play-style has to be a lot more conservative. I think the highest I ever got a DiD character was 17. And it would have been more if Lydia hadn't suddenly bugged out when I went to kill a bandit boss. One minute she was sneaking behind me, so I attacked the boss. When I went to run away so that she could svck up the attack, she wasn't there. And suddenly I was dead. Some might have called it a glitch and reloaded but the character died so...

Some have claimed level 65 on Expert difficulty. I call b.s. on that. There's no way to last very long unless you're playing adept or less. The character above died when I gave into pressure to play said DiD character on Expert.

All I'll say is that if you play DiD, don't cheat and live iwth it. I had a character die jumping out of the tower at Helgen. And that was that. I had to start a new one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgfD-aYf6_A

I got an Orc berserker to about level 13 before a sabre tooth got the jump on him and finished his questing days.

I swear half of your posts are about Thalmor funding.
And why do they still amuse me so...?

I've not tried DiD yet, however this will change when i get home.

I'm going to use the first weapon and armour i come across (once i've left Helgen) for the whole game, use no enchantments nor smith any weapons, armour etc. I'm going to try it on Master just because i know it'll be less frustrating dying early.

It's called dead is dead.

I haven't beaten Skyrim yet because I only play DID, 500 hours played so far, 31 characters all lost. Now they're in Sovngarde.

Someday I'll beat the game......someday.

did it untill my 40+ character died of a mammoth falling from the sky crushing him to a pulp, exactly one hour after stealing chees from some giants

Yes, it's called DiD (Dead-is-Dead).

I'm currently playing on Master difficulty and I would hate to play dead is dead, because I know that me vs dragons...I would lose (at the moment anyway) cause I'm only level 4. And I tend to rush into battles against them with just a dagger (and I have a mod installed which beefs up dragons a LOT!)

I played F3, FNV and have a DID character for Skyrim.... tactical retreats are your friend.... always no your nearest exit before starting a battle, even out in the open.... turning and running off a cliff is a bummer way to die, and not an Honorable Death, either. IMHO

I play this way all the time, and on Master to boot. Caution is definitely the order of the day, especially in the early levels and/or when facing 2H wielders, however once you get high-end equipment the tables turn and they have to be cautious around you. It can be rough getting there, though, especially if, like me, you play 2H melee yourself rather than 1H+Shield, since doing so trades a lot of defense for not so much offense until such time as you have a highly smithed weapon.

It's definitely not for everyone, though, as most folks would be mightily pissed at having to delete a L40+ character they'd invested over 70 hours into; I accept it as the cost for having a greater attachment to my characters and the resultant stronger investment into the decisions they make. It also tends to encourage extreme crafting (although it can be done without), which some folks dislike.

I can't do DiD I get too attached to my characters

Hehe indeed. I play dead is dead with 90% of my characters.

My newest character has so far gone from level 10-56 without dieing ( I don't count falling off a cliff several times because of misjudgement as deaths) or fast traveling to areas I haven't actually explored.

This is the way I'm doing it. I only play DiD. Now that I've read your guys' way of doing it. I'm going to do away with the rules I have and Dead will be Dead. I'm avoiding the major quest with this currently character. She is going to be a spell thief. She is currently level 6 and about the do the Golden Glow job. She had one encounter with a bear that chased almost all the way to Riften from the cave he was in. It was a long way. Two travelers died because they couldn't run fast enough. Lol. I had to jump in the river to get away.

Thanks for the advise, I'm playing on normal difficulty. I haven't even made it to level 20. I see no reason to go any higher. One of the problems I have is when I use power attack, my character ends where I don't want him to be. I think I figured that out though. Sometimes the camera angles make it hard though. I have to say though, it is a blast. Playing DID is the only way to play for me.