Disclaimer right off the bat; I'm just asking your opinion as I've struggled completing the MQ. I played for 200+ hours on xbox but with restarts for character flaws and other OCDness never got past beating the Mages questine and getting to the Thalmor Embassy. After that I decided to throw down 1k and build my own gaming PC.

I know, crazy. Anyways, life got in the way and after building I haven't gotten more than 10+ hours in without having to take a week or two break due to family commitments. I've always started from scratch, or worried over 30+ mods I'm trying to get working perfectly.

I want to do a "canon" playthrough with a sword and shield Nord but keep missing my female Arcane Archer...

Anyways, point of this thread... should I try a "mod'less" run? Sometimes I feel like 30+ mods defeats the original feel of the game, but then I get frustrated with arrows staying on my back when switching to melee...

Ok, flame, hate or provide some sound advice...

Wish I had more free time to immerse myself in the MQ....

I think the first reaction will be what does it matter what we think? I've known a couple people who are modders that don't run with any mods. (weird, eh?) Then you've got those that run with a list longer than I care to count. Do you think it goes against the original intent of the game? Then run without mods. Do you think there are people who can improve upon an already great game? Then get some mods.

I'm going to say no, but do what ever you feel will actually make the game fun for you. If no mods is what makes the game fun just go with that. (It does for me. but that's just me.)

If you want to, try it. If not, don't. I like to use mainly mods that add atmosphere, so I don't get tons of changes to gameplay for the most part. Just how it is for me. I find that mods just add to the experience. Using the unofficial patch is probably not going to do much strange stuff... Not sure if you consider using unofficial patches something that deviates from the vanilla game. Not insulting, just mentioning.

I always try to play the games first without mods. To get a feel for the "original" flavor, etc. Only after that, do I start modding. (and typically, I just add convenience items, new clothes, appearance stuff.... not a lot of gameplay changes).


Of course, if you've played it a bunch already on Xbox..... Not sure what to tell you. In the end, though, it's your choice. Which is the great thing about mods.

It's my opinion, as a PC player and a modder, that Skyrim is less in need of mods to be enjoyable than Oblivion was. I would put it on a par with Morrowind as a game that can be enjoyed just fine without any mods at all. Myself, I am using only about 10 mods, currently: house mods and hair mods and a few minor tweaks.

I had played over 500 hours on the PS3, I think, so I highly doubt I wouldn't know the feel of the game. Unless I was in a weird daze for most of those hours...

Now textures... I don't know what I have against Skyrim's. I can't bring myself to screw around with much of Morrowind's, and doubt I will for Oblivion. Skyrim just has so many problems with the textures on my computer. It apparently hates its own vanilla meshes for some reason, as well. I don't understand this at all... I seriously look for new texture stuff on the Nexus too often.

Keep the difficulty mods to make it more interesting

I've been playing tons of hours on my Xbox. But if I were on PC, I would use mods here and there and everywhere. But of course that would only be because of "Non-PC player syndrome". But it's your choice whether you want to mod or not, honestly, I love Skyrim, and I am on Xbox. I don't need mods to have fun.

I have so many mods installed onto Morrowind, I had to merge some. most are player homes, crafting stuff, and really silly things like collectible cards and toys. And a few races. Tons of book mods(I love in-game books in games in general!). I love the vanilla landscape, but love looking at higher res cliffracers and nix-hounds. Also use mods to make the slave freeing more fun.
Did I mention I like killing creatures with better looking textures? No? I do.

Only have 62 mods as far as Skyrim goes. Don't use five of them. Many of those are just things that add lore friendly stuff or stuff like wild horses and werewolves. I seriously am way too content with Skyrim.

I hope this thread doesn't become another console war thread.

I would say no. At very least you would want the unofficial patches.

I'd say don't worry about it - unless you're running any big mods, overhauls or other game-changers, your game isn't far from vanilla. Small things such as homes, fixes (like the arrow thing) and minor adjustments (making wildlife non-hostile, for example) are simply tweaks to make the game exactly as you'd like it.

So basically, try deactivating any big mods, but hold on to the ones that remove any annoyances

I would suggest one playthrough with just better Textures and Meshes.
I have Beta tested the 1.6 and am using the 1.7 Bethesda Patches without any mods that use an esp, but I always install a Male and Female Body Replacer, and as much of a Stock Clothing and Armor Replacer as I can install for the body mods. I also like having people walking around in cleaner, more detailed clothing. My Mage Robes look like clothing a Mage should wear, not like a pair of Jeans a College student wore for a year straight without washing.

You paid for a PC to use mods, and You should take advantage of the capabilities Modding gives to Bethesda Gamers.
Before going crazy with downloading and installing mods, take a look at the first and last Links in my Signature, Alt3rn1ty has unblocked His Pictorial Guide to Wrye Bash

Well, I don't see any reason to play a mod free play through. It really depends on what mods you typically use, because there are some mods that don't make sense with vanilla Skyrim (such as the death star or Majora's Mask moon replacers.) Then there are mods that slide into Skyrim perfectly as if they were lubed up. It really depends on what YOU want to get out of this. Honestly, I would use the hell out of the mods because it's an advantage you have that console gamers don't.

Amazed and grateful full the responses. So much more helpful than whstiwas expecting. Ok, next free day I'll start anew with some basic mods Thanks.

A handy thing for seeing what the most popular mods are: The Skyrim Nexus's http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/topalltime/?advlt=2.

(for whatever that's worth - just because lots of people like a mod, doesn't mean you will. or that you have to try it )

There are plenty of good mods that reinforce immersion, Bethesda even admits that mods are a big part of TES, hence the support added in Steam. You decide what breaks the immersion for you.

I prefer to play a game through before using mods...but that's just me.

Currently I have the double of mods installed, and I don't feel like the original feel is defeated in the slightest.

Nobody points a gun in your head in order to install any mod. You can freely choose which ones you install or not. And there are tons of lore-friendly mods out there that integrates as seamlessly in the game, as if they were original content.

You could just have the small one's you like that doesn't drastically change things.

I would ordinarily suggest a mod-less run to any PC user for no other reason than to taste the pain of those of us playing on Xbox/PS3, but as you already have that experience, then I'd strongly advise against putting yourself through that hell again.

Un-modded Bethesda game + Player OCD = Trauma.

Actually I played on PC but never touch mod for about five months. I started used mod on May/June. And now I think I've screw up with this junkies, maybe I will try use less mod. But not "no-mod". Just like Klawed's said :