Not enjoying Skyrim at the moment

[JDW]

I have it in my head that I need to roleplay, I'm restarting the game mainly because of character customizations not working out in the end and because I'm not roleplaying well enough or I'm not emerged in the game. I'm trying to see things through the characters perspective and this worked 6 months ago or so before I deleted it because I ended up losing the plot and just completely rushing quests and it ruined the whole experience. So there's so much of Skyrim that I haven't discovered, I only got about 12 hours out of my best guy but now find it impossible to recreate what I had during the early hours of that playthrough.

It's when I watch these let's plays as well, such as Damos if you've seen his on Youtube. He's so good at really getting into the game but because I'm on my like 60th playthrough of the Tutorial and first hour out of the tutorial, I just find it so difficult to get through that part and not just end up thinking whats the point again. Like I said I really love Skyrim its a great game but I'm starting to think I need to re-evaulate my goal with it. Do you think I should stop trying so hard to roleplay or when I don't "feel" like a certain thing or conversation or event went as I wanted it to go, just carry on instead of trying to create some experience from it. if that makes any sense?

Yeah you guys got any experience with roleplaying and having a hard time getting it going?

[crawe1]

I know where you're coming from! I'm a real perfectionist when it comes to Skyrim. I play it so that if i die in the game, that's it - no second chances. I just have to start all over again. Also I don't allow myself to use healing potions in mid-combat and not more than one at a time. Finally, no blacksmithing upgrades (your opponents, after all, can't upgrade their weapons) or enchantments. And I NEVER use the following armor/weapons sets - daedric, ebony, glass, orcish, elven, dwarven. I do use dragon weapons but not the armor. Normally I just run around in ragged trousers (like you find of werewolves), with steel or leather boots & gauntlets. Plus I have the auto leveling up removed - so I could meet a 80 level opponent the moment I step out of Helgen.

Of course, I've also had to buff my character stats, etc. - Otherwise, playing to the above rules at level 1 would result in instantaneous death!

I think I've put in around 1500 hours in the game so far. I've only completed one character campaign - Main Quest, Companions, Mages, Dark Brotherhood, Thieves Guild, Civil War & Dawnguard (that was before Dragonborn came out).

I've just started a new character - will only play the Main Quest, Companions, Civil War, Dawnguard and Dragonborn this time around. It always seemed unbelievable that you could be the leader of the Companions, the Dark Brotherhood, the Thieves Guild and the Mages all at once!

[Ishan]

If you want more immersion then i suggest a mod called Pumping Iron where you start as a skinny character and then begin to develop muscles as you go. Have to sleep and eat etc to maintain it. This might help you somewhat.

[Wulfburk]

What you need are mods: Realistic needs, camping kit, frostfall (and cloaks of skyrim) and specially alternate start mod. Makes your character complete dovahkiin free! The most fun outta skyrim you can get is through roleplaying IMO, and the same goes for Fallout New Vegas/ 3 (im currently playing fallout 3 with all these immersive mods like those i listed)

[TheVerySpecialK]

I only got about 12 hours out of my best guy but now find it impossible to recreate what I had during the early hours of that playthrough.

My recommendation would be to abandon your goal of trying to "recreate" what you had and start with a clean slate: When I started Skyrim I made a few test characters to get the feel of the game and find out what I liked as far as the different combat styles and perks. After that, I made my "real" character and ended up playing through most of the game with him. So yeah, just treat the other characters you made like test characters and your new one as the true Dragonborn (the others were probably just posers anyways).

Do you think I should stop trying so hard to roleplay or when I don't "feel" like a certain thing or conversation or event went as I wanted it to go, just carry on instead of trying to create some experience from it. if that makes any sense?

Makes total sense. Basically, my method of combating this is to pick a personality or "alignment" for my character that I stick with and roleplay for the rest of the game: On my last campaign, my character was generally good but wouldn't allow himself to be insulted or manipulated without raising some hell (if this was AD&D, he would have been Chaotic Good). So whenever I went into an interaction with another NPC, I would try to pick the conversation options that I felt best represented what my Chaotic Good character would choose. If things went awry, I would just shrug and walk away (or fight, if it came to that). In this way, I never really felt I was choosing the "wrong" or incorrect path: Instead, I was being true to my character's personality.

Even if you have a strategy for dealing with stuff like this, chances are you are still going to run into a few situations where you really want to redo or restart from a save. Maybe someone died during a melee that you were trying to keep safe, or maybe you chose a conversation option that ended up with the NPC attacking you when you trying for a peaceful solution. If this happens, reload: It's built into the game, so take advantage of that. Just make sure you find a balence where you're not reloading more than you're actually playing the game.

Yeah you guys got any experience with roleplaying and having a hard time getting it going?

Sure thing. I'm a bit of a perfectionist myself, and I often find myself tempted to reload from saves if things don't go "perfect." When I played Baldur's Gate 1, I restarted my entire campaign after I found out that I missed a minor side-quest. The nice thing about Skyrim, though, is its non-linear approach to time and the fact that it lets you pick and choose exactly when you want to start a quest, which makes it impossible to "miss" them.

[jaycor11]

If you want immersion watch gopher! https://www.youtube.com/user/GophersVids

[LaMuerte]

Another good suggestion is to start out your adventure as a vampire (you can choose that option in the alternate life mod someone already mentioned). Add in the better vampires mod and you're guaranteed to have a completely new and challenging experience.

[Makrell]

I would suggest the alternate start mod, it removes all of the "OMG, this tutorial is boring" stuff. When you later come to helgen you will find a jounral detailing the events, and then you go to whiterun.

[Leonardo]

I would suggest the alternate start mod, it removes all of the "OMG, this tutorial is boring" stuff. When you later come to helgen you will find a jounral detailing the events, and then you go to whiterun.

Agreed.

Most people are using Arthmoor's Live Another Life mod (LAL) myself included and he did a great job with the civil war and the *tutorial* MQ101 Unbound quest, but if you still want to start as you do in vanilla then select the illegally crossing border option when activating the statue of Mara.

Here is all Arthmoor's mods listed on AFK Mods.