I wanted to try something different with Skyrim as most of my playthroughs play pretty much identically. Start a new life, start sneaking and using a bow exclusively, explore, join the thieves guild, download too many house mods, get part way through Legacy of the Dragonborn and ….stop.
So this time, I have downloaded Real Estate and I am intending to live the life of a civilian. I am going to make money, initially by crafting (Alchemy) and then by buying up Skyrim and raking in the rent. I’ll tag my posts #skyrimlandlord
I will follow these rules:
- No Fast Travel (Carts are allowed)
- No combat or quests involving combat
- No stealing
- No bow (I think I have to go cold turkey with this!)
- I will have to defend myself at times, so allowed to use a dagger and light/medium armour.
- Only put points into non combat skills e.g. speechcraft, alchemy.
- I may hire a follower when I have the means and if I can work out a payment system.
- I need to eat and sleep at ‘normal’ times, make camp by 5pm or use an inn room.
- Not exploit the merchants (I can’t sell, buy ingredients, make potions, sell, buy etc)
I have the following mods:
- SKSE, SkyUI, Alternate Start
- Obsidian weathers / Wet and Cold / True Storms / Darker nights (check for patches)
- Frostfall, camping, ineed (check for patches)
- Total character overhaul / Immersive Armours
- Levelled walking speed, Apachii Divine Elegance, A Quality World Map
- Clock mod, follower mod, perk mod, Tentapalooza
- Fellkreath Cottage and/or White River Farm, improved Meeko, Better dogs – silence
End Goal:
I’m not currently sure as I haven’t played the mod before. First goal, let’s say 1 million Gold in cash (not including the value of properties owned etc). I’ll change that, if necessary, once I have a good understanding of the mod.
The rules above are slightly subject to change. If any of them prove unplayable or completely unenjoyable – I’ll tweak them. I will stick to the spirit of the rules though.
One potential problem: how do I get a house to live in if I’m not questing – if I can’t find a fix, I’ll mod in a house (I might start with a shack and upgrade via mods as income grows).
25 May: Updated the rules slightly, included a few more mods. I increased the difficulty of the game to Master as combat was far too easy and I didn’t feel like a helpless merchant 
I also realised that making money would be ridiculously easy if bought and resold over and over again. I’m also actually walking everywhere and the levelled walking speed mod, is making that feel a bit better – I’m honestly really enjoying it. I also realised that I may not have enough perk points if I’m only levelling speechcraft and alchemy… Hopefully, 3 extra perk points per level will be enough, I might have to level something else (perhaps smithing and/or enchanting) in order to actually level up a bit.
Regarding a follower: I’ve modded in Tannick as he’s better looking than the standard NPC followers, but he doesn’t have any new dialogue or quest lines as far as I’m aware. I haven’t hired him yet. I don’t really need a follower at the moment, although I am not going off the roads at the moment, but some exploration for ingredients might be fun later. Obviously once she is rich, she’ll need a handsome bodyguard 
It is strange not getting distracted and exploring dungeons and caves…
I have now also met Meeko. Obviously he can’t die – that would be the worst… added a couple of dog mods.
Also found a Build Your Own House (Fellkreath Cottage), costs 3500 gold which seems in line with the costs of the Landlord mod and obviously will need to build it. Looks like it can start off small and cottage-y and I can add more rooms etc as I gain wealth. I also found a buildable farm just outside Whiterun (White River Farm), this is possibly a better start as I’m not using fast travel and Fellkreath is very out of the way.
Why did I call it “Journal of Elfa”? It doesn’t sound right now, oh well…