Recently someone made a thread asking how far you could last in Skyrim if you were suddenly dropped off in Skyrim.
So, here's a challenge. Start a new game by creating YOURSELF in the creation. Turn off all HUD, play on master difficulty, equip only what you could carry around in real life (300lbs is highly unrealistic even for a bulky meathead), DO NOT level up at all, and only use weapons that you could IRL (if you can't aim with a bow than you shouldnt use a bow duh).
See how far you could last. Just use imagination on how u somehow were dropped off in the land of Skyrim. You probably shouldn't do the MQ since you're not really dragonborn. Oh, and it's a DiD playthrough, so when you're dead you're done buddy.
See if gamers can survive the game they play.

Sounds interesting.

Guess lock picking is out too. Swordplay is an art so most can't do that "right". I'm thinking a mace is the optimal weapon.

It's not really roleplaying if you're playing as yourself.

Also, if we're going as far as to say "you shouldn't do the MQ since you're not really Dragonborn," then you shouldn't use magic either. Or use any of the birthsign stones. As a matter of fact, you're not a being that was once an et'Ada or part of the Hist, so you probably would die immediately because your body is not designed to survive in that type of environment. The magicka from Aetherius might rip you apart, or you'd die from a lack of oxygen, or you'd just seize to exist because you are an anomaly and cannot exist in that universe.

So yeah. Might as well say "use the closest Tamriel-equivalent of you."

I've also done something loosely like this, except I didn't do the carry weight thing, and "do not level up?" Why the hell wouldn't you level up? And if you don't include any limitations like eating and sleeping at least once every other day, then I could just sit there in Whiterun all the time and survive forever.

actually the easiest difficulty would be more realistic. If you smack someone in the skull with a mace odds are they will die on the first hit. Taking 40 whacks from a sword is not realistic.

armchair commandos would eat this challenge for breakfast, until a skeever tore them one

if you were immersed in skyrim you'd learn pretty quickly and you'd either get with bandits of get a job in a city.

And you'd be able to marry more than one person at once, if you got them skills

IRL, I'd get killed by the first mudcrab I encountered.

When you say level up, do you mean any skills or the level up pick a perk part? If you mean pick the perk part (wtf) wouldn't the game be easier because your combat skills get better but your level doesn't? All the enemies would be the low level ones I think.

First oversized rat would be lethal.

Ridiculous. I can't use a bow in real life, but if I were dropped off in "Skyrim" or similar universe I'd make it priority to learn how to handle a weapon. I'm betting though that in reality most of us would become a farmer, clerk, or some other desk job and be utterly boring. So in essence the question you raise will gain false answers of something people would "want to be" rather than what they would actually choose.

And in all honesty, no idiot would take up quests every ff-ing five steps you take from people who are too lazy to do it themselves. You have a bandit problem in your keep? No problem I'll just do the entire ff-ing assault by my ff-ing self.

It gets like that when you want to link RPGs to something realistic. Take the average Japanese RPG. I'd suddenly lose the ability to jump over small obstacles like bebbles and grass and no one would think I'm ff-ing crazy if I just walked up to them and started talking to them out of the blue, and even less people could care if I ransacked their entire house.

You want to play Skyrim like a reality game? Become a farmer and stop your game at Riverwood. It's what 99% of the people would actually do.

Even if i were to play myself the rules of Skyrim are still the rules of Skyrim.

For example, fighting weaker creatures would become a necessity. I'd definitely go hunting which would eventually result in me being better with some sort of weapon.
And if i'm about to chase down some animal every day, i'd definitely develop more stamina as well. So why not level up?

Even if i would completely block out anykind of magic usage, there's absolutely nothing stopping me from getting better at melee fighting, lockpicking, trading etc.

And even if i'd never survive a troll encounter or the likes of it, i could definitely beat the crap out of a wolf or mudcrab or possibly even a random bandit without getting killed in the process.

What do you mean we should level up? People don't sit down and increase their endurance or health in real life. So you shouldn't do that. Simple as that. With this whole Hist thing, you can manage to ignore that....

Lies. Next thing you'll tell me people don't have a health bar in real life either.

would make a nice mod.

Wierdo

If you don't level up it would be so easy, your combat skills would go up but enemies will stay the same. So yeah you would need to level up and you can increase your stamina in real life so if you didn't want to increase health/magika then increase stamina.

You ain't gonna do it by sitting down that's for sure, but if i'm running around and doing all sorts of physical activities my endurance/stamina better be going up

Do you not understand what the point of leveling up is? It's to simulate improvement. Saying we can't level up is saying we can't get better at what we do.

And if you're ignoring a giant chunk of the lore that explains how all life came to be on the planet and how the realm was created, then why call it roleplaying at all? Just throw that out the window and call it a challenge.

this

How can you avoid leveling up, anyway? You'll automatically level up just by using skills over time.

To me, this is basically a naked nord run (I know a little h2h, and very little about lockpicking, but I wouldn't use it for evil). With my own personality, I'd probably let Ralof do all the fighting out of Helgen, then run around doing simple, random tasks to make money and struggle to stay alive

It is impossible to not lvl up I think he meant take the benefits from lvling(sorry for puting words in your mouth if i am wrong) next challenge eat about the amount you would normally and sleep at least 6 hours everyday(failing to both do so for 3 days you die, a week for food and a week and a half for sleep. Only carry 1 armor set and one weapon, wait till after you buy one spell to start using the ones you came with. Maybe only every three lvl take a perk and increase a stat.

Now I'm so glad I actually CAN use a bow in real life!

It reminds me of the Naked Nord Challenge, only we're able to use armor.
I think we should be able to level up - if we run a lot, our endurance/stamina increases; if we practise fencing, we become better fighters. Forbidding leveling is like saying that we never get better at things we do. It's unrealistic, and realism is the whole point of this challenge. Although... When I try to imagine myself IRL being attacked by a bear, realism will be kinda... difficult to emulate in Skyrim

Stop turning this into an argument that will solve nothing. Nobody cares about your opinion.

"Maye I'm the Dragonborn and just don't know it yet."