**This is not a topic about whether or not skyrim has a hardcoe mode...we all know it doesn't.**

This topic is for people who are thinking of taking on the Skyrim Harcore challenge (some people call it the skyrim journal challenge)

Here are the following rules of the hardcoe Challenge.

1. - Obtain a journal, preferably leather bound. Maybe one that is made to look old and authentic. It's up to you.

2. - Create a personal background for your character. Why did he/she trek into Skyrim? Why were they arrested and set for execution? Keep track of your day in the journal with daily entries. Also, be sure to date it. This can include quests you took, people you met, creatures you fought, map entries.

3. - No use of the in game map. You may either draw your own maps of the area, or use the map you receive when buying the game. Making notes in your journal about specific areas may help.

4. - Though the game does not require it, eating food and sleeping regularly may help with the overall immersion effect.

5. - For extra difficulty, if your character dies your story with them ends.

6. - No fast traveling. On foot and horse only. Unless you can somehow RP as to why you fast traveled.

perconally i'm taking on the challenge and obeying all rules apart from the optional rule 5

before i heard about this challenge i was originaly going to get a leather bound journal and have a page dedicated to each plant in skyrim, i played oblivion for somewhere around 320+ hours and about 40-50 hours was spent creating potions...i don't think i can aptly describe how much i loved making potions in oblivion, and now alchemy looks 10x better, i was going to draw the plant (thanks to the new inventory system) and write down the effects the plants have and what they are most effective for potion/poison wise and a few of my prefered recipes, i was then going to give this to a friend of mine who is currently in afghanistan until about mid december (which svcks cause he's about as crazy as TES as i am) and it really tore him up when he found out that he wasnt going to be at home for skyrims release...and even more so that i'm gunna have almost a months head start on him, so this i will be doing for sure, then i found out about the hardcoe challenge and i couldn't resist.

so, anyone else like the sound of this idea? anyone else going to partake?

1&2- I think my girlfriend would just up and leave me right there!
3- As much as i would like to do that, navigating from A to B with no map, the ingame map is so gorgeous i would fail.
4- This i do, all the time, for immersion like you said.
5- Waaay to hardcoe for me, sorry.
6- Again this i do, i hate fast travel unless its via horse+cart, Oblivions warp made no sense and was basically a cheat.

Other then the creating my own journal rather than the ingame one. I'll probably do this eventually- as in dead is dead, no fast travel other than carriages(ill probably do this in all my playthroughs), no map/compass, eating/sleeping regularly.

I honestly admire the dedication to immersion I see in these forums. Personally I was barely able to keep myself from using fast travel in oblivion, so even eating/sleeping regularly is out of the question for me.

I'm doing a blog similar to this (link in sig), though I'm not creating a background for my character; I'm playing as if it's me that's been physically transported into Skyrim and reacting as realistically as I can. My version of rule 5 also has a clause allowing reloads before level 5 so I can get at least a bit of experience under my belt (though if it's REALLY hard to stay alive I may retract it, as I'd like to continue it for at least a while after launch).

I love writing (lists, stories anything really) and think that not only is this a fun way to draw out my 1st playthrough in Skyrim it would be an interesting journal to read back through in years to come.

I think it would be not a big stretch to assume that your in game character would have a map of the area with them. However once you get your bearings both in the wild and as to which exit in a particular city is situated at which compass point (N,S,E or W) it should becomes easier to move around without one.

Normal fighting to survive I can understand (if such a highly unlikely event such as this should occur!) but will you be doing any stealing or assassinations if you are playing entirely as yourself?

So am I! My blog can be found here at http://elderadventurer.blogspot.com/ and its all ready set up for 11.11.11 I will also be including pictures taken of the TV screen as I partake of my adventure.

really glad to see that other people are thinking of taking part in this challenge, i read a post in a forum a while ago where someone said that his son is currently in afghanistan and he's going to write down everything he does each day from a first person account and then mail the collective books to his son so that he has something to read whilst he's out there...its things like this that i don't think any other game on the market place today inspires people to do, i don't know what it is about TES games that capture people imaginations (apart from being the most comprehensive RPG'S)

I'm definitely going to do this, aside from #5 (I tend to die a lot - it would take me years to finish the game!) I think I'm going to avoid using the map until I reach a major city, which might be a while, because I'd like to explore a bit before I go into any town. For additional nerdiness, my PC will always have to carry a quill, ink, and parchment, in order for me to update the journal.

I only play the Character dead = end of story anyway.

Bring a lot of fleeing for your life which is interesting, Especially when FCOM will kick in, vanilla TES games where always quite cheesy and easy to do.

Easy answer from me. It's because you can totally immerse yourself into their created world. You ARE there, waking the streets, doing quests, helping (or otherwise) people who reside in that world. So its easy to write about it as if you are living it because you are.

I am totally going to follow that blog. I loved your idea in your forum post about role playing yourself and can't wait to see how that goes! Maybe you did, but you should mention on that post that you will be logging your adventure.

To the OP:

I love the idea of 1 and 2 but for me I might go with something more online like Aelwulf. 3 I'll skip because like some other poster mentioned the in-game map is way too cool looking. I could have done this with Oblivion but this map looks way too nice. 4 I think I'll try and stick to especially because cooking makes a difference and I like the idea of hunting in-game. 5 is over the top for me. I could end the journal at that point but would still continue my game. 6 I'll do for no other reason than I don't want to miss anything.

Thanks for the ideas!

The lastest gameinformer aricle mentioned a carriage fast travel system in major cities.

No stealing, even if the item is not labelled as owned - if it looks as if it belongs to someone I'm not touching it (unless they did something to annoy me). I'm definitely not murdering anybody.

Bookmarked it, and will be following.



Cheers! Going to amend my OP in that thread with the link now, thanks for reminding me...

1 - Yes. With the addition of an ink well and quill.
2 - Yes. Already a work in progress.
3 - Yes. Already a work in progress.
4 - Yes. Eat, Sleep, Drink, Dump, Pee, six...
5 - Yes. Dead is Dead...the only way to play.
6 - I will entertain the idea, but will not commit.
7 - Play with a room temp, as cold as possible.

Seriously hardcoe.

Good idea i guess, just a bit too hardcoe for me, my day consists of physics and biology A levels so ye..........

I was planning on doing most of this but I didn't think of a journal, I'm not doing dead is dead though. I want to do a backstory but I'm not a lore buff so its a bit hard. I do have a name and rules planned out for not doing certain things though. Basically only getting perks in 5 skills that fit my character style, and only using the weapons and armor that fit. No Magic eventhough it looks awesome, I will use shouts though just not offensive ones. I'm a Bosmer, Archer/Hunter so only using bows and daggers. Turning the navigation markers and HUD off definitely. Only rule I changed is was going to try to not own a house in a major city but they look so good I changed my mind. I'm also not stealing or murdering anyone. I'm only joining the Stormcloaks and The Companions too.

I wish I had time to write a journal... as it is this game will completely svck all the time away from the writing I need to do in real life.

I'd never play 'dead is dead', but I do try to play without saving within a session (although I leave autosaving on sleep, entering doors, etc. on). Unfortunately, after a while these games get too unstable to play like that, travelling for a hour before the game just CTD's. If Skyrim is more stable than previous Bethesda games, I'll give it another go.

Great idea, I think this is something I could do and thoroughly enjoy + may even add it to a blog at the end of each session. Count me in!


1. - A standard notepad & pen will be good enough for me.

2. - Will be doing this

3. - This will be hard but will add to this hardcoe challenge ten-fold. So no map for me.

4. - Will be doing this.

5. - Won't be doing this part.

6. - Fast-travelling should be banned anyway imo.

Ignoring 1 and 2, I already planned on doing those. I do plan on using the Morrowind-style fast travel (carriages).

Hrm, on my end:
1. This sounds like an amazing idea, I'm glad I came to the forums. I be doing this for sure.
2. Always done this.
3. I will probably do this on most characters, but there will have to be one where I use the in-game map just because it's so awesome.
4. This will probably depend on what type of character I'm doing. I'll be doing this on my first character for sure.
5. This is probably not as likely, I have a bad habit of running into the most vicious creature in the game fairly early off. I will make a character that does this a some point.
6. Doing this for sure, though I'll still use carriages. Skyrim is too beautiful to pass up.

It sounds like a cool idea but I wouldn't be able to do it. One is time restraints, and I don't think my pregnant wife would ever look at me the same again. She would probably use that as ammunition for a future argument.

However, I can't wait to read other peoples journals.

Yeah, I'm thinking that I may also keep a blog posting my journal pages and such, but that will depend upon the level of work being thrown at me.