Letters from The North - ToC

• Posted by Yoteden October 22, 2016 - Filed in TSC: ToC - 1,271 views

  Letters from the North - Table of Contents and Introduction

   

  Letters from the North - Prologue

  Letters from the North - Letter #1  A Harsh Land

  Letters from the North - Letter #2  Recovery

   

   

   

  Introduction of the story and the project

   

  I love to take good games and makes stories.  Whether it’s through using something designed to do it, like a RPG tabletop game or something a bit more complicated like the board game Arkham Horror, I love to take random elements and watch a character or a situation come alive.  I’ve been doing this since my childhood.  In addition, being a photographer, I love making screenshots and above all other games I’ve played, Skyrim is great at this too.

  

  Here is my goal – Make a simple character, a normal everyday fellow, and then see how long they can live and survive (and hopefully thrive) in Skyrim.  The goal is to see what the game throws at me and to see how long the character can make it while being a fairly “normal” person.  The final step is to take the gameplay and to create an ongoing story from it.  Quests will be taken if they make sense or if they fit with the character.   The absolute final goal will be to own a nice home, possibly be married and to have significant gold built up.  I’ll be playing with the Alternate Start mod so I will not go through the initial cutscene and, hopefully, come down in a nice, peaceful area to begin play.   I have no idea how long this will go.  It will depend on several different factors and the game itself!

  Here are some of the initial foundations of play I’ll be using.

   

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  Dead is Dead 
  Typically this means there are no save points.  If the character dies, they die.  Kaput.  Over.  Finished.  This is a rough one to swallow but I’ve decided to do it with some small modifications.  For every 10 levels I am allowed one “Get out of Death” card.  One do-over which will force me back to the last known save point.  Any death before 10th level and it’s over.  Any death when I’m out of “Get out of Death” cards and it’s game over.

  I’m expecting a lot of running away.

  This does not apply to deaths that occur due to glitches or general stupidity that the game is sometimes known to do.  At this point I will reset back to the last Autosave point or Saved Game point, whichever is closest timewise.

  Not a Hero
  The character will be acting as a normal, life-fearing, average individual might act in the world.  At least at the beginning.  Depending on how the game goes, the character might grow and might be willing to take larger and bigger chances.  As I start this I do not see this character taking on dragons or battling a draugr lich.  I will be using a mod that randomly places me in Skyrim and avoiding the opening scene, dragons and the entire Dragonborn questline.

  Not Superheroic with Infinite Pockets of Holding
  The character can only carry, MAX, a total of 80 to 100 lbs. of equipment.  Any amount over 50 lbs and the character has to walk everywhere.  No running.  In addition, these can only be items that make sense to carry.   For instance, no individual can carry around 5 swords, a battle axe, a shield, 4 books, and 15 pounds of iron ore and be capable to do anything else but stumble around and occasionally fall over.

  In the World, Of the World
  Immersion.  The character will take actions as they make sense in the world.  Basically, this is a matter of “being in the world.”  Don’t pick up things that don’t make sense, don’t loot dead bodies for everything they have, don’t go for three days without any kind of rest, and for crying out loud, don’t eat food that’s been in an ancient dungeon for a hundred years.  The character will rest as often as possible, eat and move and act as close to reality as possible within the world.

  Liberal Use of the Rest/Wait feature
  If any crafting or action would take much longer than a simple click of a mouse button, I will use the rest feature to simulate the time spent.  For instance, skinning and harvesting items from a deer is a few simple mouse clicks in the game.  For this run, I’ll be advancing the time clock at least 1 hour or more for something like this.  Working as an alchemist or a blacksmith is tougher to sort out but I will be advancing the clock anywhere from 1 to 4 hours, possibly more.

  No Fast Travel
  Fast Travel will only be allowed by carriage or boat where a fee is paid.  If rest is necessary after arriving then the character will find a place to do so immediately.

  I am crossposting this here from my blog Yote's Gametime where I also include OOC commentary at the end of each post. 

  I hope you enjoy my little project and the organic story which will come from it. 

  Thanks for reading!