One of my gaming dreams of mine was to play through Skyrim someday not using the Fast Travel System, Map Markers anything like that, just get really immersed in the world. Well years later, I'm married, have a kid, in school and a job so doing this just isn't realistic to do with my time constraints. So has anyone done this type of playthrough for kicks? And what was it like?

I've been thinking that if I were to do anything like this nowadays it would need to be a first playthrough of a game because that is when I'm most interested in that universe. Playing Skyrim over the past few weeks has, if anything, killed any desire to want to do something like that. Not that its bad or anything but just that when I replay a game typically (even years later) I just don't have the patience to do something like that, I usually just want to see the high parts of the story or memorable quests.

EDIT: I know the Mods moved this to the Skyrim forum but I mean have you done this type of thing in any game, Fallout 3, Dragons Dogma, etc. Any game that offers an open world with a fast travel option.

sorta, kinda. did not complete the game since i had already completed the game. and got bored of the game since im a hoarder

first time through skyrim i turned off the hud altogether, so the compass wouldn't interfere with my grasp of the terrain. no fast travel was a given, it was awesome, i'll probably do it again for the next ES.

I went a long time my first playthrough without using fast travel, and to the game's credit there are means of getting around without using that (horses and carriages specifically, but Dawnguard added a teleportation thinger).

Man, I can't even imagine doing that. I was just about to restart the PC version because I never really got into the modding scene, and I definitely intend to fast travel. I just don't have that kind of time. Good for you if you made it through, though.

I tried to not fast travel on my second character playthrough. But just like trying to not sneak, it was too tempting a mechanic to avoid. I do make efforts not to fast travel everywhere but if I have to get from the Mage's College to Calcelmo in Markarth I'm gonna fast travel! I played an archer, where stamina management is directly tied to the aiming mechanic. Playing without a HUD seems like a good way to constantly run out of stamina and miss your enemy.

I am not against using the fast travel system but I generally forget that it's there. I'm not going to say that I didn't beat Skyrim without using fast travel, but I have done more than my fair share of walking in that game.

Outside of Arena and Daggerfall, I don't think I've ever used fast travel in a Bethesda game.

Ain't nobody got time for that!

I never use quest markers or fast travel, and after 2 years of playing the game I still haven't touched 3 of the major quest lines. So yeah, It takes a lot of patience, but as someone who generally finishes games in a few days, I really appreciate having one that seems to never end.

If the world is immersive enough, then I think a non-fast travel playthrough, as you put it, only enhances the experience. Unfortunately, those kind of games are few and far inbetween. I certainly don't consider Skyrim or Oblivion to make the cut, though the expansion for Oblivion, the Shivering Isles, is absolutely brilliant. Also, I feel the need to emphasize this as often as humanly possible, Morrowind has the single best world ever created in games (maybe even altogether). Running through that game was never anything less than mesmerizing. Those long treks from one point to another, unable to rest for the beasts roaming about, became a battle of attrition, and by the time you reached your objective, the relief was palpable. It's the same kind of victory as The Fellowship reaching the far end of Moria, or Sam and Frodo finding the Black Gate in LOTR.

Assuming that the next ES, or other great open world, makes the cut, then yeah, I'll absolutely do one of these playthroughs at some point. I'm personally placing my hopes on The Witcher 3, mind.

@do_the_manta_ray: Since you don't count Skyrim and Oblivion towards worlds where this is feasible could you name some open world rpg's where you've done this and enjoyed it? I'd be very interested in trying this out.

@do_the_manta_ray: Are the Witcher games open world?

I've stopped using fast travel, but I have used the carts outside of major towns to get around as that seems like a reasonable "kayfabe" means of getting from place to place with an actual penalty.

I tried to, but failed. It's the kind of thing that should be a toggle option at the beginning of the game, like Hardcore (was it?) in New Vegas. Before I succumbed to the temptations of fast travel, not doing it made Skyrim so much more immersive. Unlimited free fast travel is certainly something that I would toggle off, if given the choice.

A *Don't Starve* kinda hardcore mode for Elder Scrolls would be amazing. I hope Bethesda does something along the lines of *Hardcore Mode*, just properly designed from front to back, and puts it into their next Elder Scrolls game.

No, I'm not a psychopath!

I mean, it sounds great on paper but it can get really boring, maddening even. Complete game immersion requires losing a part of your humanity, IMO. It's just unrealistic to get that immersed.

Not to mention that I'm no longer a lonely unemployed fat teenager full of angst. Ages 13-18 are the golden years of spending 700 hours a day just sitting and pressing W on the keyboard. Those days are gone!

I guess that would be Morrowind its not something I really thought about at the time, I was so amazed with the game that I just..did it.

While I do enjoy the treks sometimes and it's a good feeling to see a settlement from a distance and close in on it gradually.. I couldn't play the whole game like that.

I only ever used carts so I had a way of reasonably speeding things up. The beauty of those games is a treks through the wild wildernesses uncovering cool little details and stories. You miss a lot if you abuse the fast travel.

That said, it would be quite an achievement never to use any form of fast travel and I probably wouldn't completely recommend it unless you have a lot of time to kill. I put close to 200hours in and I still didn't finish the game, or visit all the major cities. The scope of that game is pretty amazing to think back on.

@slashdance: lmao

@singingmenstrual said:

The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

With Skyrim, totally.

Was simultaneously the best and the worst thing I'd ever done in an Elder Scrolls. On one hand, the game provides a wilderness trek--even despite being couched in a fantasy locale--with fidelity unrivaled by nearly every other open world game.

On the other, Skyrim's mid-to-late-game mission design makes this approach incredibly frustrating. You're usually talking to someone at Point A) to begin a quest that requires you to hike some dozens of miles (and several real-time hours) to Point B), only to fight a mob or two, or to perhaps spelunk a vast and dank troll cave, for the purpose of acquiring an item or activating some plot-switch. Following that, you're asked to make the return excursion back to Point A), but sometimes to Point C) to reconvene with the original person of interest.

It appeared to me like the game's quests were designed with fast travel in mind. Probably fair to point out I had no bones about hitching a ride with a carriage as a "role-play-acceptable" way of fast traveling.

Well, I did fast travel, but not much at all. I found that fast travelling really broke up the flow and kinda made it feel choppy. To address the it getting boring thing, I say this: put in a podcast. If you've already listened to every single episode of Giant Bombcast, then go to this page. Also check out Good Job Brain, Rebel FM, or just re-listen to old Bombcast (as I am doing).

I do it some times, I mean, if I'm not trying to finish the game (only finished it once, on my second character at the moment) then I'll just wander around the world and see what quests pop up or what kind of weird stuff I'll run into (like finding a fire mage fighting an ice mage). There are times where I'll walk to all my quests (not actually walk but you know what I mean) and that is kind of fun; fast travel shrinks the world so running everywhere shows me how big the world actually is.

I believe it was last month, but I ended up doing quests in Solitude (as well as visiting my character's family) and then hoofed it to Riften to do some Thieves' Guild quests, and I have to say, the journey was fun. I would switch between riding a horse and straight up running there but the enemy encounters I ran into made the trip exciting. From dragon encounters, to having to sneak/stealth kill bandits, sneaking past bears and saber cats and running in to vampires at night; I even had a werewolf encounter which resulted in a werewolf battle between that guy and myself, running is totally worth it if you want to see random things.

Honestly though, some times you'll barely encounter anything. Often times you'll just run into the same bandits that occupy certain areas and forts, or you'll run into them on their way to said fort or location which is pretty neat. I'd totally recommend people do it a few times, but only if you have the patience for it.

@nightriff: No, though they both have very large worlds in which you can roam about and do quests at your liberty. The third game will be open world proper, and is said to be 3 times larger than Skyrim and filled to the brim with content. I quite frankly doubt there'll even be fast-travel in that game outside of paying for passage on boats and/or acting as a guard on caravans, etc. You really ought to give it a look, it is drop-dead gorgeous, and the writing in the Witcher series is the best out there since the days of "Planescape: Torment", "Baldur's Gate 2", etc.

@blomakrans: Gladly, mate. First of all, however, let me clarify. Oblivion and Skyrim do everything right on paper, I just think they feel very artificial, though Skyrim far less so than Oblivion.

Games I personally think are better would be; "Morrowind" (and it's expansion Bloodmoon), as already stated, doesn't get any better than this. "The Shivering Isles" expansion for Oblivion is superb. "S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl" is an undeniably weird game as far as RPGs go, but it has incredible atmosphere and great gameplay. It's "sequals" are also very good games. "Fallout: New Vegas" is really solid across the board, though perhaps not greatly imaginative. "Gothic 2" is a classic, go play it. "Zeno Clash 2" is the weirdest game on this list, and just might be the weirdest game you'll ever play, I can't praise it enough.

Finally, I'd recommend you some mods, including this total conversion for Skyrim. It's unfortunately not out yet but will be quite soon, I got to try it out thanks to a friend and thought it did everything right. The same team also released a total conversion for Oblivion which is terrific. Aaand these Neverwinter Nights 2 mods, Path of Evil, Legacy of White Plume, Wulverheim. They're all very worthwhile and silly large. Wulverheim has a good 100 hours of content if you try to see all there is.

I'm sure there's other great games that I just can't remember, but these are pretty solid examples. Anyhow, I've gone on long enough.