Skyrim Question for the Peanut Gallery

[Thor McOdin Senpai]

Aloha, CF. I'm currently putting together an experiment on Skyrim that I hope to run in a few weeks (pending IRB approval). My participant groups will be asked to play one of four versions of the game: vanilla, "tweaked" mods (more companions and more interesting NPCs), "modded" Skyrim (i.e. Alternate Start), and "total conversion" Skyrim (Enderal). My goal is to see what, if any, difference each version might reveal about perceptions of control in a game like Skyrim.

For anyone who has played recently, what would be a good starting point for two of those mods? Obviously, with Alternate Start and Enderal, the participants will have to play from the beginning. However, what about the other two versions? My gut says right after Helgen, but what do you think?

[Delthazar]

If not Helgen then maybe Riversomething or Whitesomething at the latest. It's been so long since I last played Skyrim I can't even remember the early fantasy-basic town names, so I'm probably not the best person to comment on this I guess, but those three feel like the most natural ways to define a starting point in Skyrim from what I remember: Helgen is the full-context, full tutorial start; Riverthing is pretty much intentionally designed to be the first place most people wander to a la Megaton; Whiteplace is where both central story threads begin in earnest.

[Falcon Critical]

Yeah the first little town is a good place to drop people in, it lets you just kind of set off in whatever direction you want, but you'd also have a quest which leads you to Whiterun where you get to talk to the Jarl and get a bit of the culture and such. Depending how much time they have to play it leads through the first dungeon and comes back to the dragon fight outside Whiterun. It's probably Skyrim at its best.

For the more companions etc perhaps start them with a couple of companions and set them on an interesting quest or dungeon... perhaps the part of the civil war storyline where you go to get the crown - it's like a dungeon delve with fights against draugr, but also you fight against the other faction and have NPC fighters around you to make it a bigger event.

These are both high energy moments though, which will be quite different to alternate start and Enderal which will start slow. Also alt start might start you in the snow naked next to a dragon so be prepared to let them restart if they get a bad draw.

[Flarecake]

Yeah, probably when you get to Riverwood. On the other hand, you might want to start after you meet the Greybeards, so you have access to getting more shouts and whatnot.

[Falcon Critical]

Yeah also at that point in the story dragons can happen at any time which is part of the fun.

[Delthazar]

Especially if you replace those dragons with Macho Man Randy Savage or Thomas the Tank Engine.