I have played CRPG's since the days of Ultima IV, through Betrayal at Krondor, Baldur's Gate, Morrowind, Oblivion, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, all the Fallouts and many, many more in between.

Skyrim, in what I have observed of it so far, is the single best CRPG I ever played.

I am playing this on a somewhat old MacBook Pro (bootcamp) with better visuals than what I had for Oblivion and it's very stable. The immersion of the experience is leaps and bounds beyond everything that came before. Straight from the opening, characters are much more fleshed out than any game I have seen so far. (Pay attention to the banter between NPCs, like the family of someone whose life you saved.)

I play on the default difficulty with hardcoe (dead-is-dead) house rules. Additional rules I impose are: NO MUNCHKINING! Example: I smith, but I do not smith iron daggers past first few levels. I like my brand new Steel Armor set, which I had to save money buying ingots for and look forward to making Dwemer armor one day, being sort of a Dwemer scholar myself (as I was also in Morrowind). My paladinesque Nord, in heavy armor and shield, stands for justice, does not steal, helps and rescues the needy - and runs away in fear when nearby a giant or a dragon all by himself. (The only spawned dragon I killed was lured back to a certain Watchtower for help from the militia.)

I had a Breton character die on me earlier by a bandit chief. Now, I know to run away when pressed. For example, it pained me to let go a prisoner taken to questioning by a few Talmoth Justiciars, but could not risk taking on soldiers arrayed in Elven Armor escorted by a mage. One day I will rescue them all from the Empire's yoke.

Of note also is the replay value: not only as different character types, but I noticed -having played the first several hours twice- that some quests spawn with different goals in different towns!

Regarding the concerns of balance, if I ever achieve a demi-God status (which always happens near endgame in Elder Scrolls games) it will be well earned. Consider this:
I clear a damn mine, dropping the final chief bandit while within an inch of my own life, having almost run out of the few health potions I save for emergencies; I loot a few dozen iron ingots and, importantly, I find an alchemy spell for transmuting iron to silver to gold; I craft with the gold and some jewels I found earlier some expensive jewelry and enchant them modestly. Now I have a brief respite from my money problems and have better enchanting and smithing skills. Several hours of investment for modest gains. I will have earned my demigodhood - if I survive that far.


In short: amazing depth; immersive story telling; best experienced as a roleplayer with dead-is-dead, non-munchkin habits.

I thought about taking my time and writing a RP along with my next character.
Not sure if anyone would even want to read it though.

Do it..

I love reading those stories and all of the dead is dead characters. I myself have not tried it, but some of the folks on the boards are GREAT writers.

I have to say, you're tempting me into doing this. It would certainly force me out of certain bad habits that end up making the game too easy for me (hoarding countless health potions). I was already considering rerolling my character because I felt I cheaped through a few things.

I find that potions, in general, are to make up for bad planning. In a dead-is-dead game, if I find myself having to use potions I consider this a sign to "get the hell out of there".

We kept asking for a limit to level scaling: now it is here, and gracefully. As a fledgling character you are very vulnerable if you attack everything.

Yeah the game itself is awsome, playing hardcoe myself as expert level and lucky i didnt get killed by bears and sabrecats at lvl six. So much to do and so little time to play, the game is very addictive btw. Well having alchemy and using potions is straight forward thing to do, if you playing hardcoe and not using any potions, that would be the samnthing casting healing on yourself as well. Get alchemy, its really survival out there if you wanna stay alive. Not sure how far i can get with this build, but i manage so far.

I can't even begin to think of the self-imposed limitations I'd have to create to enjoy this game as a roleplayer. I'm glad you've found a way but I simply couldn't. They've created a fantastic world (maybe even knocking Shivering Isles out of it's place next to Morrowind), but when it comes to the gameplay and it's mechanics, they're some of the worst I've seen and even a step backwards from some of the silly things in Morrowind and Oblivion.

Well I've been easing myself into the concept. While I don't think I will do a full-on Dead is Dead attempt on my first playthrough, I've been limiting my use of potions and forcing myself out of munchkin habits like blacksmithing and hoarding everything I see for money (had 30000 gold lost night).

Instead, my approach is to force myself into a roleplayer mindset. I don't mean the numbers/mechanics roleplayer type, but th story-driven, character-driven roleplay type. For example, I spent a portion of last night hunting around Morthal. Bagged a few deers and mudcraps and then returned to the village to save the pelts. Then rode out to Riverrun to supply the people there in pelts. There's no profit in doing this, pelts sell like ass and I could keep them for my blacksmithing. But its helped increase my enjoyment of the game.

This isnt the only way I'm approaching the game in a more realistic manner.

On my second playthrough with an orc berserker, I will do a full on dead is dead playthrough.

One thing that I find helps immensely with immersion is turning of the compass (via preferences .ini file editing) along with no fast travel. Actually getting lost in a world and having to plan ahead what to carry for an expedition are priceless (as opposed to "On, I can just apparate at my home and grab some more gear if I run short of things).

So, in short, for best effect:
- dead is dead
- no compass
- no fast travel
- no 'skill training' as nauseam

(and if I survive to end game: no recursive skill enhancements, like "I enchant a set of alchemy gear to make uber smithing potions" etc.)

I really wish there was a way to do this on the 360. I am hoping for a patch for it , but I highly doubt this will ever happen (and I don't want to put tape on my tv to cover it up )