Skyrim Confessions: Odd Rules and Lame Restrictions

[Porchdrinker]

I confess, I am a Skyrim tweaker (aka insane RP immersionist). These are my sins:

I once wheeled a cart around a farm, picking cabbages and potatoes at a very slow pace for two hours to "realistically roleplay a farmer."

I devised a fishing system that required insect parts to be thrown into bodies of water before certain fish could be caught.

I forced a warrior character to "exercise" before each quest by chopping wood, running in place on a sawmill water wheel, and practicing sword play for eight in-game hours on a practice dummy.

I created (and strictly adhered to) a semester schedule for the College of Winterhold

I've created a multitude of dice systems and random-number-generator systems to simulate dialogue and to control in-game decision making

I've created intricate systems for which items can be sold in certain holds.

I've created custom questlines for various character archetypes, even though no one asked for them.

I've simulated going to the bathroom by sneaking over a bucket and using a healing spell to deplete a Magicka bar.

I created a ridiculous rule of spamming a forge with a flames spell and hitting an anvil with a pickaxe 10 times before I can smith an item

I've created custom food recipes (like "Horker meat with a snowberry jelly reduction sauce and sautéed giant lichens") to satiate my "foodie" characters

I've created bizarre divine worship rituals that somehow involve skooma, sleeping tree sap, or snorting void salts

I've forced my characters to shower under waterfalls.

HELP ME. (More importantly, save me from the "power build" gamers who are constantly comparing perks and telling me I'm a loser.)

Do you have any RP confessions to make? I can't be alone.

 

[123]

wow

 

[DdraigGwyn]

Bizarre? Excessive? No, no, that all sounds perfectly fine to me. (slowly backs towards door)

 

[Volanere]

I wish i had the time and patience to rp like that.

 

[Daedra'Mc'Bitch]

The most successful RP I've managed is a pacifist mage who forsakes the direct practice of destruction magic, and is forced to fall back on safe illusion spells like calm and fear. I'll only engage in combat if attacked directly, and even then it's in a passive manner, like blocking with a shield and using courage to boost my follower's strength. I haven't come close to the strict rules that you've created such as rolling around a cart filled with cabbage.

It's easy to play the game in an OP manner without restrictions, so I'm quite surprised that anyone would call you a loser for adding those interesting elements to your playthrough. If anything, I give you credit for the creativity.

 

[Zaan]

If that's how you enjoy the game then good for you. If I'm being honest though, I don't see the satisfaction in doing all that.

 

[Wildroses]

Well, I sleep at night. And I took the basic idea of 'people in computer games need to eat' and took it too many steps further.

I must eat three meals of 0.5 and drink one beverage each day. Adopt a child or two? They must eat the same. Got a housecarl or steward? Nobody would agree to take care of your house or fight your battles if they didn't get something in return. They need to be given food and drink as well. Want to get some horses, cows, chickens or dogs? Horses and cows need to be fed 0.5 vegetables per day. Chickens need bread once a day. Dogs need be fed 0.5 meat twice daily. Kid bought a pet home? Rabbits eat two carrots a day, foxes need 0.4 meat a day. Want to go away and have an adventure? Pick a container and leave provisions for however many days you will be leaving in there for your entire household. Want to stay adventuring longer than you left food? Tough. Run home and feed your family, servants and livestock.

Basically in this playthrough you spend your entire life running to food stores, and walking into every inn and alchemist to see if they have any salt and garlic. It used to be leeks as well before Hearthfire and I could start growing my own. But post Hearthfire, I curse the lack of butter in Skyrim.

When I thought about trying to add a carriage driver and bard, I seriously doubted there was enough food in vanilla Skyrim to feed them (I'm scared of mods). Then I had a brainwave: wages! If I want to keep my carriage driver, I must cough up 1000 gold per month. I want to keep my bard, cough up 3000 gold per month.

It's quite difficult playing this way in some ways, although I've stepped it up a notch in my current character. She wants to be important and have huge households (note the plural), and she's also a greedy little spendthrift who has to buy everything pretty or interesting she sees. She basically goes adventuring because she needs the gold something awful. Her inner monologue is something like:

"Did I seriously agree to feed this person forever and let them lounge around my house in return for a few hours work buying animals and hiring people? Why did I agree to let that kid keep the fox? Why am I feeding these chickens that barely lay any eggs? Sorry Jarl, I'd love to be a thane but I can't afford the upkeep of another Housecarl. Payday is soon, I'd better just sell my loot...OH WOW COPPER AND RUBY CIRLET, RING OF EMINENT HEALTH AND GOLD DIAMOND NECKLACE!!! Oh crap, I'm out of money and payday is soon. I guess that puts off joining the Dawnguard. I have personal reasons to know how terrible the vampire menace is, but payday is coming up and we're nearly out of mead and meat. Let's see what quests I'm doing...Rescue Thorald from the Thalmor! Perfect! They'll all be wearing expensive yet lightweight Elven Armor! I'm coming Thorald! Right after I run home and leave three days supply of food and drink for the house. I'm going to be spending the entire evening cooking, I just know it..."

 

[Naginata]

I made a character much like the Youtube series of Olaf and Rags to Riches. I basically wander the wilderness and hunt, fish, all that. My character simply MUST find a place to sleep every night and has to eat three meals a day. He must sleep at least 8 hours. He only wears clothes, never armor, aside from his leather boots and bracers, a necessity for a travelling hunter.

The extent of my RP isn't very far... I mostly don't have the patience. 3 meals a day, 8 hours of sleep every night, sitting in front of a fire for an hour after a journey through the tundra, etc, all make it a realistic and fun experience.

 

[Saozig]

Given that there's no cash reward involved with virtual self-flagellation via RP limitations, and the whole point for me personally for playing the game is to enjoy it, I don't adhere to any RP rules that are going to frustrate me more than when the game gets glitchy or buggy.

I like limitations that challenge me to be more creative or skilled in my gameplay (like having a character that's no magic other than healing spells), or creates a pleasant "rhythm" in the gameplay (like having my character regularly stop for shopping, meals, rest up, get out of armor and wear regular clothes, do a little "honest work" and interact with NPCs, as oppose to kill kill kill quest quest quest level up level up level up) but nothing excessively penalizing.

If you like imposing a lot of limitations or rules on your gameplay, great. Just try not to give a crap about whatever these no-life "power build" gamers think or say. They want other gamers to think they should compare themselves to them and they get off on that kind of creepy control through peer pressure. They're bullies like that. So bleep 'em. They only have any status in the gaming community if you actually pay attention to them, so don't.

 

[Porchdrinker]

If that's how you enjoy the game then good for you. If I'm being honest though, I don't see the satisfaction in doing all that.

All of this is part of a concept I call "paper modding." I play on XBox360, I can't use any mods, so I develop these odd systems.

It feels great to admit to all of that, though, even if I understand that a lot of people would never play that way.

 

[Twiffle]

Do you take paper with you when you go to the bathroom in the bucket. ?

 

[Papzt]

Do you take paper with you when you go to the bathroom in the bucket. ?

What else are the empty paperrolls for?

Sent from my GT-I9300

 

[Lady Imp]

...wow.

My RP usually is just a backstory, a certain fighting style, some kind of serious personal issue, and a daily swim in a stream for a bath. 3 square meals is a necessity, which I will often cook myself, and I always carry something to munch on when I'm on the road. My characters don't eat the meat raw, and whenever I make stew, it gets eaten immediately since I'm sure Tupperware doesn't exist in Skyrim. When doing a certain questline, I will usually wait a few days between quests, in the meantime I'm making friends with the townspeople because friends give you free stuff.

As for visiting the restroom, can't say I've ever had my characters do that...granted, one of them, we'll she's perpetually high, she no doubt wets herself and doesn't even know it.

 

[Papzt]

Nearly the same here. Just 3 meals a day plus drinking. Sleeping every day where I can. No fast travel, just on foot or horse. A serious job always. Wood chopping, hunting and so on.

Sent from my GT-I9300

 

[Shyrith]

For paper for the toilet, you use linen cloth. Just drop it when you are done.



Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk 2

 

[kyleekay]

I confess, I am a Skyrim tweaker (aka insane RP immersionist). These are my sins:

I once wheeled a cart around a farm, picking cabbages and potatoes at a very slow pace for two hours to "realistically roleplay a farmer."

I devised a fishing system that required insect parts to be thrown into bodies of water before certain fish could be caught.

I forced a warrior character to "exercise" before each quest by chopping wood, running in place on a sawmill water wheel, and practicing sword play for eight in-game hours on a practice dummy.

I created (and strictly adhered to) a semester schedule for the College of Winterhold

I've created a multitude of dice systems and random-number-generator systems to simulate dialogue and to control in-game decision making

I've created intricate systems for which items can be sold in certain holds.

I've created custom questlines for various character archetypes, even though no one asked for them.

I've simulated going to the bathroom by sneaking over a bucket and using a healing spell to deplete a Magicka bar.

I created a ridiculous rule of spamming a forge with a flames spell and hitting an anvil with a pickaxe 10 times before I can smith an item

I've created custom food recipes (like "Horker meat with a snowberry jelly reduction sauce and sautéed giant lichens") to satiate my "foodie" characters

I've created bizarre divine worship rituals that somehow involve skooma, sleeping tree sap, or snorting void salts

I've forced my characters to shower under waterfalls.

HELP ME. (More importantly, save me from the "power build" gamers who are constantly comparing perks and telling me I'm a loser.)

Do you have any RP confessions to make? I can't be alone.

That is actually quite impressive, my friend. If I had the time to play as much as I'd like, I'd try a lot of those RP strategies.

I don't do anything out of the norm with my character, really. I'm actually struggling to stay focused on the RP aspect since Dar'Ajira is my first RP character. Kudos to you for being so disciplined.

 

[DdraigGwyn]

Do you take paper with you when you go to the bathroom in the bucket. ?

that's why you collect Hanging Moss.

 

[Neriad13]

My current character just doesn't wear shoes. Ever. She's a tad feral. And a Nord vampire to boot, so the cold would have no effect on her whatsoever. And for some reason, though she's a mage, she seems to have a great fondness for an old handaxe that she picked up in the first dungeon that she ever made it through. But those are probably the absolute oddest, most pointless restrictions that I've ever used.

I like to keep the rest of my roleplay elements simple and should they get tedious, I cease immediately. Anything that should take longer than the second it takes to do it ingame (stripping clothes off a corpse, crafting something, skinning an animal, learning a spell) I compensate for by waiting. I can't skin an animal or pick ingredients if I don't have a knife with me. I'm also currently carrying around several hundred pounds of iron ingots in order to limit my carrying capacity to a more realistic 50 pounds. As for eating, I used to do two meals a day - one before bed and the other upon waking up. I found that it was a lot easier to remember to eat that way, as I'd often get involved in a dungeon or something and entirely miss eating a meal in the middle of the day. But a vampire doesn't have much use for food nowadays, though she does sometimes slaughter a deer and gobble down its still-warm flesh to tide her over until she reaches civilization.