Oh I see. Yea, I'm a former tabletop player also. Back then, there was no such thing as dead is dead as an option, because the idea of a character dying was something naturally incorporated into the game at all times...
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I'm going to post a comical history of gameplay before I directly answer, because this has been an interesting game.

But first, let us go back to Oblivion. I'm late to the 360 party, having only owned it less than a year. I've heard so much about Oblivion, I decided "WTH" and bought it.

Ugh, the controls were horrendous. Wait, go back! No, I don't want to be female and what's with this hair? I know, I'll be an elf, 'cause they're good with bows.

Getting through the prison was a nightmare, having died over and over (trying to deal with the controls, mostly). I didn't know how to equip, and it was near pitch black most of the time. Can't see a rat in the dark.

I finally managed to make it out of the prison before the Blade said, "Good luck out there." WTF? I'm all alone??!! Don't leave me!.

Having no clue what the hell I was doing, I decided to go for a swim to this island with a structure on it. Better than nothing, I suppose. Then a crab, the size of Texas, came and got me. Dead again. Restarting, I try to swim to the island. Death by drowning (it took me forever to figure out how to swim). Again with reloading, I finally made it to the island only to be hacked to death (remember, I'm weaponless) by people who just hated me.

"Screw this game!", I thought. "People are insane to think this game is awesome."

I went online to educate myself, and with the new found knowledge, I deleted my saves, started anew, and went straight for the Khajit because it can see in the dark. Number of times I died after the restart: 0! Yep, the whole game and never died.

So, of course, I'm going to do the same in Skyrim. Khajit: check. Bow: Check. Sneak: Oh, yeah. I'm ready, game! Bring it!

I've lost count the number of times I've died. I figured Bethesda finally said, "No more Mr. Nice Game. You people will earn your skills this time." Ouch. Tough lesson!

I didn't mind, though it was frustrating at times for the reload to finish. "Get me back there, now. WTF? I'm restarting here? Noooo!" (learnd to save again, that's for sure).

Of all my deaths, the two which remain the best come from Lydia. As I step close to an edge to get my bearings (and enjoy the site), she pushed me off the cliff. Awwwwwwwwwwwww hell no!

I still chuckle at the thought.

"How many times have you died?" Hmmm. I think a better question would be "How many WAYS have you died?"

I'm sure most of you are familiar with Robber's Gorge, and the rocks they drop to block the path and/or crush anyone or thing unfortunate enough to be under them when they're loosed. Well, after they're dropped, they're still deadly. Cleared out the enclave with Lydia, went about business as usual, and later I left Lydia at home, bought a horse, and rode over the bridge just before the Gorge and all those rocks.

Well, when we hit the rocks, the horse died... FROM HITTING THE ROCKS. That's right, the rocks blocking the road killed my horse. I fell off (really just standing there like a dumbarse, cuz that's Skyrim for ya) and giant walks up to laugh at me. I get all pissy, bad mood and whatnot, and storm off back the way I'd come. Into the waiting maw of a dragon. Between the two of them, they made short work of me, it's like they didn't even care about each other, "We'll fight after we deal with this idiot". Sheesh, what a stupid way to die.

Now I move the rocks out of the path judiciously, just in case.

To answer the question "How many times?" let's just say "How many times are there?"

I tried a DiD game once. I died trying to get the by a . Never again.

Anyway I've played nearly every day since 11/11/11 (over 600 hours) and die a couple times a day. I'll let you do the math.

DiD game? Google's not helping here.

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1372771-the-skyrim-dead-is-dead-thread-vii/

Ah! Where's my manners. Welcome to the forum and have a complementary fishy stick.http://images.uesp.net/c/c4/Fishystick.jpg

I tried DiD with my new pure mage. The first time I died, there was enough evidence to justify that it wasn't necessarily my fault. The second time, there was no justification though I worked hard to find some and reasonably concluded that it wasn't. The third time, it was obviously due to my slopiness. Then I just admitted that DiD is not for me. I wasn't willing to scrap my mage when I was just tapping into all the wonderful spells and powers at my fingertips (level 25).

My first character, a fighter/paladin build, I played on Master. I must have died at least 20 times (on my way to his current level 52). My worst experience was trying to take on Krosis at level 18... bad move. I think he accounted for 25% of my deaths overall.

It's not for everyone. I use to be a completionist and try to do everything. Get to the FINAL boss fight. But all that changed. I don't play for distance anymore. I play for constant quality. The feeling I used to get form that last big fight, I now get from every fight.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to do it and stick to it... but I admittedly get sloppy and sorta forget that I'm attempting DiD. That's really what bugged me about my last death. I was kicking myself for not pausing the action to drink that health potion when I had the chance. But, I was playing without the HUD at all and didn't know just how bad I had been hit (this was against a Sabre Cat) and I didn't know that Calm stopped working once you attack the calmed creature... duh. I found out the hard way and started kicking myself. Anyway, lesson was learned. I'm playing with the HUD now so that I can know how badly my mage is injured before it's too late and, unfortunately, that means I have to have the cheat compass displayed. Oh well.

Ha! The cheat compass. I love it.
Before I moved to PC, I tried to run no HUD, but could not. Now, I can use a mod that removes the HUD, but displays things as you need them. Like M/H/S bars and names of NPC doors and objects. I am truly happy.

I couldn't imagine playing without having your HPs displayed. I don't want them there all the time, but I must when in combat.

Not many times, I play on Novice (don't hate me).. Even still I died several times earlier on, killed by a Draugr Deathlord once and by a Giant Frostbite Spider, only because I was too conservative with my health potions and ended up leaving it too late to consume one.

A few times though i hate those occasions when you are say lvl 10 and run into a lvl 16 adept ice mage, yeah guess what happens can't flee or pursue just dead.

Yeah I really struggled a couple of times against really high levelled vampires (can't remember what it was called) kept casting really powerful ice spells and moving out of reach. I ended up having to just run like a coward (my Nord ancestors would have been disgusted). Now my shield can block 50% of spell damage though so I'm reasonably indestructible. Not to mention my Nord blood also deflects 50%, so raising my shield I get 100% frost resistance.

^ Exactly, the fact that there some enemies that are much higher lvl than you sometimes and you don't notice it before they catch you makes it quite damn impossible to win especially with ice magic in their arsenal (master difficulty) don't know if these encounter are by choice or if they have forgotten to balance the enemy scaling.

first time i died was by the dragon at the start/tower misson lol since then only a few times by cheapshot 1hit ice mages though i also had one fality on me >.<

Funnily enough I've never had any trouble fighting dragons. Except the one at Shearpoint and that was only because a dragon priest attacked at the exact same time. What bugs me is the dragons keep killing NPC's in small towns and cities. They should obviously just run, a blacksmith can't fight a dragon and he would have to be [censored] to think he could.

Constantly stressed out and worried? Truly doesn't seem "fun". But, as you say - different people find different things fun.


I'm really on the other end of the continuum here - I don't even like to play DiD in games that are designed for it.... I've always backed up my save files in games like Nethack & Angband.

To each, their own.

----

As for the main topic - bunches of times. Between dragons (either pre-defined tougher ones, or when you're around the level that the new tier of dragons is unlocked), bosses at the end of a dungeon that's above my level, Ice mages spamming Ice Spike, and bandit chiefs with two-handers doing "finishers" on me... yeah, died a good number of times.

Ah...where you see stress and worry, I see excitement with an adrenaline level so high I'm breathing like a woman in labor.

Confision say..."Glass with crack make M&M taste like watermelon."

Hmm, when I was a low level, I died often to a dragon priest and an elder dragon at a summit a few times. From there on, a few times when I jump from very high heights.

I have died more times than I can count. Death is usually a result of the land scape of the battle suddenly changing. I play with several mods that add alot of NPCs that are always fighting each other like Warzones and Wars in Skyrim. In addition to that I also use several mods that add NPCs to the environment generally like Adventurers and Travelers and some others I can't think off of the top of my head.

Never. Not once. Nope.
*tries to hide the countless mass of corpses behind himself*
Honest.

Whoa. That's some serious gaming right there! I couldn't imagine getting this far, dying, then having to restart the entire game. In fact, I freak out when I read people suffer from save corruptions (always do two, just in case).

Skyrim's a tougher game, at least to me. For example, last night I head off to do a temple on my own (more on this in a bit). Silverdrift Lair was easy until I get to the end, and two of those things kept Thu'uming me to death... literally! If I had to restart from there... yeesh. My archery's at 100 (perked out) and sneak was at 97 (perked out) and I still had no advantage, even with the best armor I have in the game (Nightingale) progress.

I'm on my own now because I happened to notice Lydia, who's wearing special enchanted ebony armor I created, is kneeling dang near every hit now! Her heath is actually better than mine and she's ... I don't know what's going on with this.

Despite the constant deaths (7 total), I actually got lucky as one of the two burned to death and I took out the other. Hey, whatever helps, right.

Thanks and thanks. I love fishysticks.

*noms

That's the way I used to think about. Now it's in my blood and I can't play any other way. If my character dies, I just feel dirty if I continue. It's like I am playing with a character that someone else created. Or like they are not worthy to be there.

Yes, I don't know why Beth sets them up like that. They should level with the player. I think Mjoll does.


You are welcome, on both accounts.

All followers should level with the player to a point (house carls should go to level 50, along with the leaders of the Companions). No idea why Lydia dies so quickly. But then again, I use Aela as a follower in order to help me with my Saxhleel's biggest downfall, not being able to hit things at range.

I've died way too many times...But I play on master so sue me.