I've never played Dark Souls, but I was inspired by their catchy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVKfAW1dEbs commercials and the obsession gamers have with hardcoe games. I know Dark Souls isn't a roguelike, but I thought how cool would it be if we turned Skyrim into a http://store.steampowered.com/app/98800/??

Well, I managed to get the basic mechanics down and let me say it's not for the faint of heart--Last night I was playing a new character and spawned right in the middle this gigantic feral bear's stomping grounds. I died before I even saw him coming... IT WAS AWESOME! and then I went back for more punishment by starting a new character with a different class.

For those that don't know what a roguelike is, one of the defining features is permanent death (think of Diablo's hardcoe mode) meaning if you die, you start over. It sounds TERRIBLE, but trust me you'll never play Skyrim the same way again. Once you know that the slightest mistake can permanently wipe out your character it brings a whole new mentality to every action you take. You get an adrenaline rush when you're near death and fighting for your life, you stock extra potions and ammo, you carefully consider whether or not to pickpocket that person, or lockpick that trapped chest because failure means possibly getting killed. Hence the name of this new mod, Fear Death.

Another reason roguelikes are fun is because they encourage you to try new characters and strategies every time you die. See what works, what doesn't and readjust.Now you may be thinking, but Skyrim's the same every time I play it... well that's where this mod complements my http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/21587 which has 200,000+ starting character combinations. My goal is to make every playthrough absolutely unique.

Back to the Fear Death mod: So far I've got Permadeath working nicely, a decent Autosave System, 21 Selectable Classes with semi-random loadouts that still need to be fleshed out, and I'm excited about this last one... Random Alternate Start! Whenever you start a new game, Fear Death will randomly place you in the world at a random time of day with random weather. You could end up starting in peaceful Solitude, high up in the snowy mountains, or IN THE MIDDLE OF A FRIGGIN BEAR CAVE! so far there are 341 unique starting locations.

So what do you guys think? Any features you'd like to be seen implemented? and if you've played Roguelikes, what makes a good roguelike fun to play?