--MOSTLY A hardcoe MODE WITH SOME IMMERSION ELEMENTS, EXCUSE ME FOR MY BAD CHOICE OF WORDS IN THE TITLE--


Alright so after a few days enjoying this way of playing, I thought I'd share it with you guys. It's mostly a mix of 3-4 challenges on the forum, but it's definitely an awesome way to play the game

So whether you are an immersionnist, a roleplayer, or simply someone who likes trying things, I definitely think you should try this

So basically, here are the rules. (There are a lot, so if you're not gonna read them, please don't post a TL;DR. Just move on instead)

DIFFICULTY
-Master

OPTIONS
-HUD off

BEHAVIORS
-You need to eat something at least once a day
-You need to drink something at least once a day
--You can only eat in places where it would be logical to sit down and eat. Camps are in that category. The top of a mountain during a snowstorm... not so much

-You need to sleep AT LEAST 6 hours a day, ALTHOUGH you can skip a day, which means that the next day you will need 4 more hours of sleep. On the 3rd day, you have 6 hours to get some sleep or you "die" instantly.

-During a snowstorm, you can only last 1 hour outside if you aren't wearing something warm (like a fur "armor"). Make that 4 hours if you are properly dressed. More than that and your character freezes to death
--When I say snowstorm, I really mean a blizzard. Light snow doesn't count in this

-No running during travels, unless a quest has a valid reason for you to do so. Even so, no more than 5 minutes in a row. Divide that time in half if you go uphill/sprint, and divide it in 6 if you do both.
--There is no restriction on that part during a fight though, as the adrenaline should keep you from being exhausted for a moment. You can decide to apply the same rules to fights though.

-NO fast-traveling, AT ANY TIME WHATSOEVER.

-During combat, you cannot drink any potions if you are already engaging an enemy.
--You can however, drink a potion once you've just finished an enemy and haven't engaged the next one yet
--(being "engaged" is basically having started to trade blows/arrows/spells)

-During travels, you cannot use the map, AT ALL
--The only time you could use it is when you're in a place where it would be logical to have a map, where there ACTUALLY is one, OR when you meet a hunter (afterall they usually know their spot very well)
--For extra challenge, remove the hunters from the above rule

-No taking notes on paper IRL, UNLESS you character has a roll of paper in their inventory. If he/she does, that roll of paper has 3 uses before becoming unusable
--For extra challenge, To that roll of paper, you can also add the need for something to write on it. anything that could write will do

-You CAN use ANY crafting skill, but no grinding, AT ALL. You only craft what you need and stop it there.

-In a town, you need to take off your helmet/hood, UNLESS you are wearing something that would fit in the city (hooded monk robes are ok, same for thalmor robes)

-If possible, wear clothing in cities, instead of armor

-There is really no, NO constantly hitting the "wait" button to see if enemies are near. Hell, with this gameplay, that button should completely go untouched anyways

INVENTORY
-You can only carry 1 set of armor at any time, plus one set of clothes. No more. If you find a new, better piece, you must first drop the old piece, THEN put on the new one

-You can carry: 2 one-handed weapons, one shield, and one two-handed weapon (including a bow). If you use a bow, replace the shield by one quiver (ONLY one). The same rule above applies for finding new ones

-You can carry an unlimited amount of potions.

-You can only carry around about 10 articles of food

-You can only carry 10 ores, OR 5 ingots. if you carry both, your total must not go over 10 (ingots count for 2)

POSSIBLE CHARACTERS FOR THIS CHALLENGE

-You can pick any race, but your character must be one of these classes

-WARRIOR
-1-handed/2-handed/both, armor skill,blocking, archery

-BARBARIAN
-2-handed, blocking

-SPELLSWORD
-1-handed, destruction, alteration, restoration, illusion

-SPELLBLADE
-1-handed, armor skill, destruction, alteration, restoration

-BATTLEMAGE
-armor skill, destruction, conjuration, restoration, block

-SHADOWSPELL
-Sneak, lockpicking, destruction, illusion, alteration

-ASSASSIN/THIEF
-sneak, lockpicking, 1-handed, archery, pickpocket



OPTIONAL

-Only save where your character sleeps

-Dead is dead (but you can restart just outside Helgen)

-Set the potion limit to 10 (even 5 if you're hardcoe)

-NEVER go out of 1st person view



So far this is what I got, feel free to make changes if you wish.
Also, feel free to tell how your adventures went. Mine were pretty crazy using this ruleset. This is the only character I had where making it back to Riverwood after Bleak Falls Barrow, was actually harder than going through Bleak Falls Barrow (and cooler too)

...and both hands tied behind your back.

Good luck. You're made of sterner stuff than I. I am interested in hearing how this goes.

It's actually not that tough.
Also, the optional stuff is not what I use lol. just stuff I thought could add to it

Also, if you're used to the controller, the "hands tied behind back" part isn't even a challenge lol

This is not so much Immersive but instead it's more hardcoe. It is still a good way to play if you like the restrictions and the challenges they bring.

I like it.

Why unlimited potions though?

Ive thought of doing one of these rulesets before, if I ever do though I think Ill set the day's to between 3 and 24 hours real time, so I eat when I eat, chill at the tavern when Im taking breaks IRL and sleep when I sleep

Because the potions aren't of much use anyways.

But if you want, you can set a limit for yourself. say... 10 potions?

I'd add in never to change perspective. Crawling through the woods in 1st person during night hearing your enemies and not being able to actually see them yet is immersive.

Will add it to optionnal stuff. I mostly play it 3rd person so...

fixed

fixed? I was just sharing my way to play!

And basically, you just took the "I'm lost" out of "I'm lost". This takes half of the fun away!

You lost me at master difficulty for immersion.

That's agreeable. To make it as real as possible it's unlikely that a bandit wont die instantly after 3 arrows to the face and vice versa, so too hard and too easy ruin it. Might be a good idea changing the difficulty as your character levels and gets stronger/better perks. Starting around normal difficulty perhaps.

I have a couple of issues with this idea. Constructive criticism, if you will.

If I'm hungry in a snowstorm, there's no reason I couldn't (or wouldn't) pull an apple out of my pocket and eat it.

Any conditioned persson (and running around the countryside all the time will get you conditioned in a hurry) can jog for extended periods of time. This seems restrictive just to be restrictive, imo. Maybe if you want to start out not running much (though that would be tedious for me, personally) by a few weeks in you should have the stamina to jog for awhile. Running 2 miles at an easy pace will eat up 20 minutes.

This would be feasible if the quests actually gave you directions to follow. They don't. If you have no HUD, you have no quest arrows to follow either, and no indication of what direction you should be going.

Might make some people motion sick with this one.

This games does not allow for this method of play... but man it would be sweet if it did.
I mean whats the point in pretending that these things make a diffrence in the game, should the game it self not offer this for you.
By the way I'm gonna be outside pretending I'm dragonborn, gonna slay me a dragon aka a bus.

You lost me at no map during travel.

Any adventurer worth his salt would be able to acquire at least basic geography of the area.

Its impossible to play the game like that

EXACTLY. You look at the map before starting your journey, pick a few landmarks/basic geagraphy lines, and then go.



On another note, maybe I really SHOULD have said hardcoe instead of immersion. There's no way to change the title now is there?

difficulty should not be master. Hitting a person 10 times in the head with a steel battleaxe doesn't kill them but a sword thrust kills you?

Yeah, total immersion bro

Yeah I've corrected my choice of words as best I could.

If the time in the game was akin to real life, like one hour of play time = one hour of game time, this would be fun.

i dont feel like this would be fun, mainly because its really not what the game was designed to be

I turn my heater off and open my windows when I'm traveling through Skyrim. And I make sure to say BRRRR IT'S COLD once every 5 minutes.

Setting anything past Adept is just [censored]. Doesn't make the game harder, just more annoying and more reason to exploit fights. If AI was smarter and damage was doubled for both you and your enemies, then it would be interesting.

So if I wanted to be an Archer build I'd have to pick the Warrior build? I don't have any use for 1/2 handed weapons, and I usually only wear either fur "armour" or a belted tunic (in the wilderness, in towns and cities I change into more proper attire).