Journal of Elfa: Paused.

Morndas, 3rd of Sun’s Dusk (Journal)

[OOC] I think this may be a good point to pause, or perhaps, finish this experiment. I have reached the point where all I am doing is buying and selling potions… I have visited all of the main cities, towns and villages, and I can’t think of anything interesting to do that fits within the original aim of the challenge. It has been really, really fun and challenging up until now. I could carry on to reach the original goal of 1 million gold, and it is very doable but I’m not enjoying it any more. I think now that I know it’s just a matter of grinding out the gold, the challenge (and fun) has gone.

Ok, so how did I do?:
The rules (Original Post with Mod Links):

1. No Fast Travel (carts are allowed).
   I stuck to this, and went a bit further – I actually walked rather than jogged! I did jog/sprint if I was being chased or extremely cold. It was a really nice change of pace, I enjoyed looking at the scenery and listening to the soundtrack. The Levelled Walking Speed mod was amazing, as you level up so does your walking speed – I think this is actually what made it bearable.
2. No combat or quests involving combat
   Mostly… sort of, maybe? I defended myself when I could and ran when I couldn’t. Even so, I killed 75 animals (pretty much all wolves, Elfa the Wolf Slayer….) and 11 people Some of these may include npc kills (where I was running away and other people got involved). This was by sticking to the main roads too, I barely went off road – Skyrim is a dangerous place.
3. No stealing
   In spirit, yes. In actuality – I got cross that Anise’s belongings were still marked as stolen even though she was dead… I ‘stole’ 5 items – I think a few herbs and some food…
4. No bow.
   yes! dagger only! first time I have never equipped a bow in Skyrim!
5. Only equip a dagger and light armour
   As above. Plus I mostly wore either my starting Miner’s Gear or, once I’d made some money, a Merchant’s Dress. I only wore Fur Armour in the snowy places.
6. Only put points into non combat skills
   I only put points into the Alchemy and Speech perks. I did level up one-handed, light armour and smithing a little (just through general gameplay). The 3 points per level mod, wasn’t needed and I have a ton of perk points waiting to be added.
7. I may hire a follower, if I can work out a payment system
   I ended up having a modded Meeko as my follower. I figured even though he was essential, he wasn’t OP, he certainly helped though but I didn’t feel as though it made *that* much difference. Slightly cheaty I suppose – I’m sorry!
8. I need to eat, drink and sleep. Either camp by 5pm or an inn room
   I stuck to this. It did make the darker nights mod a little irrelevant but it did make me plan and prepare for my journeys. That, combined with Frostfall, made visiting Winterhold and Dawnstar (no cart) more treacherous and off putting.
9. Not exploit the merchants
   This really slowed it down in a good way. The speechcraft perks really help here, once you can invest in the shops it really helps.

The results:
I didn’t reach my goal of 1 million gold but I do own 5 houses, 2 shops and 1 farm, which gives me a weekly income of around 11,000 gold. From here, it is a very easy step to becoming super-rich and owning all of Skyrim!

She finished at lvl 19, with Speech at lvl 73 and Alchemy at level 81.

I upgraded the Farm to Elysium Estate (see * for v. imp. info!) and she got an appearance upgrade, courtesy of Divine Elegance to reflect her new status.

Further thoughts:
I don’t think I’d try to live the life of a rags-to-riches citizen again, once is enough! I did really enjoy it though. It was surprisingly easy if I’m honest – I think it can be tweaked to the level of difficulty you find acceptable, you could:

• increase the difficulty level itself,
• not allowing crafting aside from alchemy (e.g. it made getting a tent easy),
• don’t allow any followers or have a follower squad to fight for you.
• permadeath,
• finding a way to explore off-road without combat…
• investigate other immersive mods

I would certainly use many of these mods again for a combat playthrough. I really enjoyed writing up my playthrough, if I ever do another challenge I might do this again.

How do you think I did? Would you ever try a challenge like this?

*This was a really bad idea and part of the reason I stopped playing. White River Farm and Elysium Estate occupy the same location and it, unsurprisingly, bugged. It’s entirely my own fault for not reading the mod descriptions properly. It is still playable but the farm plots from the Farm are floating in the Estate garden… It does actually make creep cluster easier to harvest though! Future playthroughs, one or the other!

Update ~ I stopped playing the experiment (as above) but I found I still wanted to play. So I am I added some more mods *ahem* and am using crossbows and longbows again (hahaha). I might write an OOC update as I am still buying up houses