I see a few posts of people who have characters that are 600-1000 hours old. One character. HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE. My oldest character was 150 hours and I had done nearly everything. The only thing left was a few random Misc quests and radiants. It baffles me that someone could spend 600 hours plus on one single character. Unless you spend hours on every single dungeon I can't even see this happening. Do you just spend 100 hours actually playing and 500 hours walking around the woods?

Very easy. I know a guy who plays Skyrim and rushes through everything as fast as possible. He fast travels everywhere, doesn't read any of the books, doesn't take int he scenery or explore, etc. He treats the game like a linear FPS. He has never played the game as far as I am concerned. He played Oblivion the same way, and refers to Merunes Dagon as "that devil guy". He never played Morrowind, thank Azura, or I would have to lock him in a Tevanni tower dungeon with those filthy lizards.

I'll tell you the secret...
It's not about the quests.


It's about the adventure and the satisfaction of gaining experience.

I don't rush at all, I do everything pretty thoroughly. I saw a guys walkthrough on Youtube and he spent roughly seventy 15 minute long episodes and at the end? He was level 16! The kind of dungeon that would take most people 20 minutes took him like an hour and a half because he took it so slowly. SO SLOWLY. And I have no problem with that if you're gaining something, but creeping at the speed of a snail through Pinewatch doesn't give you anything. He found 1 bandit and took about 5 minutes deciding how to engage him. I mean, come on, it's 1 bandit.

So if you were that guy, yeah, 600 hours sounds realistic. But that's not a satisfying way to play, taking 10 minutes to walk from point A to point B and gaining nothing in between.

No no no no no. That's not the point. I'll tell you what, I've probably done what seems like absolutely everything on one character and I'll still play. Finding things, doing new things, is what keeps you playing.

For example: I'm maybe level 40 and I've been playing my new character since a bit after Dawnguard came out.
Now, I'm not one for rushing, and like you said, I take the dungeons slowly. Despite this slow playstyle, I find a lot of time to play. Eventually I'll run to the dead end of my particular playthrough (archer) and I'll start my second playthrough with that same character: an illusion mage (I'll still use the bow). Understand that I don't start this until after I finish all the main quests.

This is my play order: (leveling up throughout)

• Main Quests
  
• DLC Quests
  
• Shouts
  
• Daedric Quests
  
• Main Misc. Quests
  
• Explore

This usually takes a lot of time just to complete! After this, I'll start collecting...
Misc. Quests follow this. I also not only develop my own character, I develop my follower. The crafting skills are very fun to develop throughout the game.

Like all characters, I'll eventually become very powerful. I then stop using powerful weapons and armor and focus on the more subtle details of my game: aesthetics, clothes, etc.

Don't forget to play on Master for the ultimate challenge.

- eschew fast travel


- there are 140+ dungeons in the game so even one hour in each adds up


- exploring the wilderness to find all the unmarked locations can take a lot of time, indeed.

In my current game I'm up to around 200 hours. Level 47, haven't touched the civil war, finished Kynesgrove in the MQ. Very little fast travel, no horse riding, mainly walking or carriage. Exploring some nooks and crannies I'd ignored before (found the chest just outside Whiteruns' walls for the first time).

Recently added the Immersive Armor and Immersive Weapons mods and have spent a *lot* of time checking out (and making) the various goodies now available.

Never using fast travel aside from the carts adds a lot of time, and you also find things that you might never have found.

Role-playing. With TES games the quests and guilds are ok, the world is where it's at. I've had the same attitude towards rpgs since my old D&D days, I don't play Skyrim, Oblivion, Fallout etc. I simply use the game as a tool to play my character, and I can usually find enough to keep them occupied without spending much time on in game quests and such. Played Morrowind like that for many years, had a character well over 2,000 hrs old, and to this day have never finished the MQ.

I don't understand this "never fast travel thing". Sounds good for the first few laps of Skyrim, yeah. And the you're running through the same area, past the same dungeons, with the only variation being a Vampire attack here on an Aspiring Mage there. What's the point? What else do you gain from running past the same areas over and over, time after time?

Never seen the headless horseman I take it.

I have to be honest. I tried it for maybe half a character and couldn't stand looking at the same things over and over again from where I started at the cities. But! It made the places farthest from the cities seem extremely exotic and well worth it.

Edit: I also have these odd moments once in a while where I dedicate hours just to wandering around if that makes sense.

It's called roleplay. It's two-thirds of an RPG. And it's amazing.

Basically, I cease to exist when I get into the game, and instead my character comes to life. My character makes the decisions, and I just push the button to make it happen. They're not always the correct decision - for example, my character decided to break into Clan Battle-Born's house (where I knew everyone would be home and awake) rather than Uthgerd the Unbroken's house (which I knew would be empty). Any knowledge you have of the game ceases to exist - my character doesn't know where to find the best gems, which quests have the best rewards or how to obtain the best armor.

Roleplay is about the story and progression of the character. It's about allowing the character to live, and finding utter joy in the most mundane tasks. I have one character who frequently inspects the Western Watchtower and makes patrols to Rorikstead and Riverwood. Many of my characters spend hours on end in cities - visiting friends, reading books, drinking in the inn. And yes, much joy can be found just wandering through the woods.

I'd suggest you try it some time, OP!

Each to their own.

I'm currently on my 8th character, for the first time largely avoiding fast travel, and I'm enjoying it.

As for 'nothing in between', there are random encounters, along with ingredient collecting, if you're inclined towards alchemy.

And you don't necessarily have to take the same route between two locations.

We have a winner.

I'm an bit on and off here, I uses an mod who adds lots of carriages to minor places so I don't really need fast travel.
As we agree, running to the same location like your hearthfire house get extremely boring.

On the other hand one of my Oblivion characters had an pack horse and portable tent as base so she did not need fast travel.

Season Unending.If you didn't use fast travel, you are using fast travel.In any case, in order to find stuff I still have to wal'm fast travel or no doesn't make that much of a difference, especially if I have to go from Winterhold to Falkreath for a broken star. No thanks. I did find out that Embershard (the very first mine most folks come see on the compass) is a shortcut to pass the dang mountain range, but it doesn't make the journey any better. Mostly because horses are afraid of interiors