Skyrim Full Run

I’ve been saying it for months: “I’m going to do a ‘full run’ of Skyrim this time.” I’ve been trying to do just that since November (2014). Something always seems to get in the way or I find excuses to re-roll. I’m not saying that these things won’t happen again, but I’m going to give it my best shot with Miranda.

A few days ago, I was watching BananaDongle on Twitch. His stream was entitled “Skyrim Challenge” or something like that. The challenge was to do what I’m about to do – finish a full run of Skyrim. He and a friend sat down and compiled a list of things that must be done for the run to be considered complete. I basically stole this list and tweaked it a bit. Then I put my version on Reddit and asked folks to comment on the content and to give me suggestions to flesh that list out.

That list is below and will act as my guide for my “full run”. I’ve already started this – and I’ve been recording it.

Speaking of recording it.  What I may do is either:

1. Edit the whole thing and upload it as a play through series -OR-
2. Edit the individual pieces and post where I achieved the goal only

I’m off and running on this quest. I’ve got lots of things rolling around in my head and I’m still trying to sort them out.  I hope you drop by from time to time to check on things and give me some encouragement.

Progress:

CURRENT LEVEL: 72
CURRENT QUEST: Thieves Guild Questline

The bold items in the list below are either underway or complete.

Main Quests:

• Main Quest – Underway
• Dawnguard – I intended to play as a vampire, but not certain now
• Dragonborn
• Companions – COMPLETE
• Thieves Guild – Underway
• Dark Brotherhood – Underway
• Civil War (Imperials)
• College of Winterhold – Underway

Side Quests:

• Rebuilding the Blades
• Kyne’s Sacred Trials
• The Blessings of Nature – COMPLETED
• The Book of Love
• The Heart of Dibella
• Aetherium Forge
• No Stones Unturned (Stones of Barenziah) – Underway (10 Stones found)
• Master Level Winterhold Spells – Underway (Illusion done, Restoration and Destruction started)
• Arniel’s Endeavor
• Ebony Warrior
• Litany of Larceny/Upgrade The Thieves Guild
• Forbidden Legend (The Gauldur Amulet) – COMPLETED

Daedric Quests:

• Azura – Azura’s Star – COMPLETED, collected Azura’s Star
• Boethiah – Ebony Mail – COMPLETED
• Clavicus Vile – Mask of Clavicus Vile – COMPLETED, collected the mask.
• Hermaeus Mora – Oghma Infinium
• Hircine – Ring of Kircine/Saviour’s Hide – COMPLETED, collected, the ring, glitched the armor.
• Malacath – Volendrung – COMPLETED.
• Mehrunes Dagon – Mehrune’s Razor – COMPLETED, had to use console to finish.
• Mephala – Ebony Blade – COMPLETED, have not charged the blade.
• Meridia – Dawnbreaker – COMPETED, using the blade.
• Molag Bal – Mace of Molag Bal – COMPLETED, still deciding on the use of the mace.
• Namira – Ring of Namira – COMPLETED, will use the ring after becoming a werewolf.
• Peryite – Spellbreaker – COMPLETED, using the shield.
• Sanguine – Sanguine’s Rose – COMPLETED.
• Sheogorath – Wabbajack
• Vaermina – Skull of Corruption – COMPLETED, collected the skull.

Become Thane:

• Eastmarch
• Falkreath – Complete
• Haafinger
• Hjaalmarch – Complete
• Pale
• Reach
• Rift
• Whiterun – Complete
• Winterhold – Complete

Acquire all player homes:

• Whiterun – Breezehome – Purchased, partially upgraded.
• Solitude – Proudspire Manor
• Windhelm – Hjerim
• Riften – Honeyside
• Markarth – Vlindrel Hall
• Raven Rock – Severin Manor

Purchase and Build all 3 Hearthfire homes:

• Windstad Manor
• Lakeview Manor
• Heljarchen Hall

Additional Items:

• Collect all Dragon Priest Masks
• Collect all Unique Items
• Collect all Shouts, Books and Spells

Suggestions, but not rules for the challenge:

• No fast travel – “The Gopher Method”
• Use iNeed and Frostfall – Being a Vampire will make this useless… (See Note)
• No skipping dialogue unless repeating due to death
• Cannot use god mode unless she dies more than 20 times in a row at the same spot
• Must play at Expert difficulty or harder (With SkyRe, ASIS, OBIS and Immersive Creatures, expert difficulty is impossible for me.  As it is, adept master makes even the most modest of dungeons take a lifetime.)

A couple of explanations and caveats:

• The “Gopher Method” of no fast travel is defined as walking/riding to a place to discover it. Once discovered, one may use a carriage to get to it, if it has a carriage stop. If it doesn’t then one can take a carriage to the closest point and then one must walk/ride to it from there.
• I have always used (and did use) the console to get my characters their starting equipment. To me this sets the stage for role-playing and makes me more comfortable getting going. While this gear is usually a bit better than the gear found from looting low-level bodies, I feel the lack of the ability to improve or enchant the gear for a long makes up for any advantage this might have given.
• I will use the mod “SkyComplete” to keep track of things that I need to do and have done. If I finish everything in that mod, this list will be fulfilled and much, much more.

NOTES:

• Frostfall and iNeed: Today (2015-06-21), during the Vaermina quest, I kept having CTDs.  I know this quest is prone to them, but I really felt that that my mod’s scripts weren’t helping the situation.  In an attempt to alleviate some of these crashes, I’ve decided to disable BOTH iNeed and Frostfall.  To be honest, I’m about to become a vampire which will render them useless anyway and they were only slowing me down.  Thinking about it, I’m probably going to disable Hunterborn too. Since I won’t be forced to eat, I really don’t need to have the meat from hunting.  That’ll reduce the scripts as well.  I re-instated both of these after doing some save cleaning.  Everything seems to be working fine now (2015-06-28).
• Mehrune’s Razor: 2016-06-28, I finished gathering all the pieces of the razor and headed to Dawnstar.  Whenever I entered Silius’ house, he became hostile and attacked me.  I could use “Calm” to get a line of dialog completed, but he became hostile as soon as the dialog finished.  So I progressed the quest by using console commands.  I’m currently still carrying all of the pieces and I can’t drop them.  Not sure if I’m going to simply use the console to remove them or back up in the save, but that will come later.