Hey! Just thought I'd make a post about pretty fun way to play Skyrim that I've been doing for my newest character. Being a hunter. You live your life off of the land, make enough to scraqe by, and generally explore and take in the beauty of Skyrim. Here's a few quick guidelines:

1: Always Sneak, everywhere. It's benefits are two-fold. You can usually find animals before they find you, AND your sneak goes up a lot faster in the process.

2: Never, Ever, Ever Fast travel. Ever. It's not allowed. You're a hunter , where the hell do you have to be? The carts are allowed, but no fast travelling!

3: Don't look at your map unless you're in a city / town / shack / somewhere that could have a map. It makes the game more enjoyable and allows you to explore / find areas that you might not have seen before!

4: Don't provoke bandits / NPC's etc. You're just a hunter, you don't go around murdering people for fun. If you get attacked, defend yourself and be on your way.

5: Collect every pelt you can from animals. Use them to your advantage! When you make it to a town or somewhere that has a tanning rack, start making the pelts into leather. (I usually end up with 40+ pelts after every trip). Use those to make new armour, or to just sell for profit.

6: Collect all ingredients / food. Use them. Start doing a bit of alchemy + cooking. I usually like to roleplay a normal person and have a nice bowl of venison soup before heading out for the day!

7: Play realistically. If you're in just leather armour, avoid going into snowy areas, your character would just freeze to death. (I also take it a step further by taking off my armour if I can in the water .. stuff like that). This one is up to you really.

8: NO QUESTS. EVER AT ALL. Start a new game, come out of the cavern thingy and turn off your quest markers and set off. I'm ~lvl 12 already and haven't done a single quest. You're a hunter, not the dragonborn. (Plus you don't get attacked by random dragons either...at least I haven't yet)

9: Set the timescale to 5. 20 is just way to fast. With 5, you can spend a few hours playing for 1 day to pass in game and it really feels like you are playing as the character.

10: Enjoy yourself! Just roam around, explore, take in the landscape. Skyrim is a beautiful game and has such varied and amazing landscapes. From the gentle autumn tones near riften to the harsh winter landscapes up north, there's so much to explore and do in this game, you can always set off a new way for a completely different experience.

That's a video I made kinda outlining what I just said. I'm also going to be doing 10 Minute 30Min+ Videos entitled "The Hunters Journal" where I record myself exploring the game, playing my hunter and the adventures I have.
Just a great way I've learned to play. You don't have to follow my rules, but I immensely enjoy this game now~

Here's all my journals posted so far in a nice playlist: [2:49:21]

//APPARENTLY I CANNOT POST LINKS. You can search for 'Hunter Journals skyrim' on google or youtube to find my videos!


I hope you enjoy!

That sounds like an interesting playstyle. Though in truth I would rather take up hunting myself or take a nice walk to the countryside . . . I find the appeal of games more towards things you can't really do. I'm sure some will enjoy it.

I suppose, but part of the appeal is that you are sitting comfily at home. =P It's also drastically different than how people usually play, sometimes not being 'the chosen one' for everything is enjoyable.

An interesting idea that I've actually played off before. But I'd given myself Lycanthropy and used a mod that -made- me change into a Lycan every other night. That was fun. I played that out as a Dead is Dead run and finally died off once I hit level 25, sadly. I'm thinking about taking that back up now, though, it was fun to play that out.

Rule 1, rule 4, and rule 8 are going to combine to end up with a game where you do nothing but kill harmless animals which IMO will conflict with rule 10.

Once your sneak gets high enough if you avoid enemies all the time you will never see combat, especially when you throw in rule 8.

My idea for a hunter character. Start as a hunter... and change over time. Like the character from hunger games, perfect example. Sneak, excellent with bow, good at gathering ingredients and overall survival. Focus on hunting early on, but have some 'event'(like being the dragonborn/getting entered into the hunger games for instance) that forces your character to live a more exciting life where they have to hunt not just animals... but men, mer, and dragons.

I tried the idea before and I really enjoyed it. Then I wanted to change my hunter into the ultimate predator, a lycan. It was fun for awhile but eventually you get tired of the animal killing and you move on. At least thats what I did.

I don't think they conflict, really. There's nothing wrong with only hunting wildlife, it's the path the character took. If you get bored, you can switch to a different char. =P

I disagree with the 'no fast travel' thing. It's entirely possible to fast travel as a hunter - they don't spend every waking hour hunting, you know. Do teachers teach people everywhere they go?
For me, fast travel is simply an uneventful trip. You climb on your horse and fast travel - its just a boring old trip from x to y, similar to using carriages.

Actually Fast travel is perfectly viable imo, as stated you don't spend every moment hunting, You move by Landmarks/Constellations/Geosynchronous Omni Sat/ and since you said one can use Carts. well hot diggity one can go practically anywhere and move between them as desired no?

That is true. And it's very different from how most people play. I respect that, bro.

Great post I love my hunter and I've been pretty much doing all of that except I cannot make the day's longer

I usually do this for about an hour and then the lure of absolutely everything else in the game distracts me.

You can do it in a game without being morally wrong. In real life you're murdering animals when you do that.

I've spent a good many hours in the game hunting with my bow. I haven't made a pure hunter character but hunting is a very fun activity. Try throwing in some challenges too in order to keep it interesting. Try to get rabbits, they're pretty tough. Foxes are pretty tricky too at times so those are fun to go after too. Spook a deer and then try to hit it while it's on the run. I sometimes go after a deer if I miss and it gets spooked. It's fun trying to chase them down on foot especially early on when my draw speed is slow and I can't move quickly while shooting.

True, but the trip is half the fun! As a hunter you live off of the land. (Well, mine does anyway). I have no 'home'. I set up a camp wherever I can, and only return to the city life to do some smithing and sell my wares. Ti's a simple life!

Of course fast-travelling every time would detract from the game, but every now and then you'll feel the need to travel to another city to sell your wares and the like.
And my hunter character - who I haven't played since January - lived in the Alchemist's shack. He'd return there every few days to store any valuables he's found and make a few potions to sell on his next trip to Riften.