Reflections: Skyrim and the Modding Community

The Elder Scrolls games are well-known RPGs. The world is immersive and expansive, which not only allows for so many iterations of games but also really draws players in. The games are open world, allowing you to do whatever you’d like, play however you’d like, and be whoever you’d like. You can install mods to enhance your immersion or break the game: it’s all up to you as the player.

The fact that Skyrim has no classes, unlike previous Elder Scrolls games like Morrowind, allows players to create exactly the character they want through talent trees and, with time, change whenever. Archers, rogues, spellswords, paladins… there are numerous combinations of abilities you can do, allowing you to tailor your character to your playstyle or the story you have in mind. Although there is a main storyline, there are so many other questlines that you don’t have to partake in it and can still experience the game how it was meant to be experienced.

Many players find that Skyrim is lacking in certain areas, but luckily the hugely popular modding community can fix that. That’s the glory of modders: they can expand on your game when you are too busy to do it. Some mods enhance the graphics (if your computer can handle it), some add items, some change mechanics or UI, some add or modify races, and some even add completely new questlines with full voiceovers that are heavily researched so that they fit into the world. With a world as popular as Tamriel, players are one of the greatest resources and gifts developers can have.

I personally have very few mods in my game because I play on a laptop that doesn’t have the greatest specs. While I play with graphics on low, I have mods that add cloaks and weapons and armor that expands on my characters and allows me to customize them further. Most importantly I have an alternate start mod. When you make multiple characters in Skyrim, you have to go through the same starter experience all the time. You are a prisoner sentenced to death because you were in the wrong place at the wrong time, you experience and escape a dragon attack when you’re about to be killed, you become acquainted to either an Imperial or Stormcloak leader, and then you are directed on to Riverwood and later to Whiterun to discover you are dragonborn. But the starting experience gets old, and I don’t always want to play as the dragonborn. If I learn I’m the dragonborn and don’t pursue it, it feels like I’m not being true to my character. However with this alternate start mod, you find yourself in a dungeon where you must answer questions before going to bed and spawning in an appropriate place. You can choose from many places to start, including allegiances to start with (some being limited to certain races). This allows you to skip the starting experience at Helgen and jump into the game wherever you would like to start.

Another mod I find helpful for really customizing your character to create what you would like to play is a character creation overhaul I have. While Skyrim was created so that any character of any race could excel at anything just as well as another race can, that’s not really very logical lore and world-wise. Different races excel at different things, and this mod introduces that and much more. For example, a male Orc will have more starting health and carrying capacity than a female High Elf, but the High Elf will have significantly more magicka. All attributes and stats have been derived from each race and gender’s traditional attributes and then balanced for Skyrim. You also get to choose the standing stone (constellation) that your character was born under like in previous games, which have an effect on your stats and attributes. It introduces the traditional classes of Elder Scrolls, but also allows you to create your own custom classes including specialization, favored attribute, major and minor skills, starting skills, and skill progression rates. With this mod, your race comes more into play than in vanilla Skyrim, which when paired with alternate start and other immersion mods of your choice, you can really tailor the experience and storytelling capabilities of the game however you want, which makes Skyrim a very special game that holds a place in the hearts of many players.

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