Sometimes I just want to come home, turn my brain off and relax. There are some games, and features inside of games that make the game in question more complicated than it needs to be. Skyrim is no exception.


I've started this thread if anyone has any ideas on how to keep my Skyrim game as simple as possible. I play on console, by the way, so convenience mods aren't going to help me. I also have access to Hearthfire, Dawnguard and Dragonborn DLCs.


An example of something too simple could be just living the simple life. Get married, have kids, live with them, etc, but that might get boring after a while.


An example of something that is too complicated that I'm looking for would be, let's say a Mage character, specializing in all of the spells and enchanting trees, managing a huge favorites list due to spells, picking plants everywhere I go and switching enchanted outfits as needed.


All I'd like to do is run around and kill stuff, do quests/side quests/bounties, explore and have fun. I don't want to get caught up in the constant mini-games such as lock picking, picking flowers, etc. I just want to keep going with little-to-no downtime. I really don't even want to have to switch between weapons.

Grab a Shield, Grab a Sword, Put on some Heavy Armor and swing your way to glory!

Go barbarian. Light Armor (fur or forsworn) with a two-handed sword. Use any pelts to increase your Smithing so you can improve your armor/weapon.

Use found potions only and minimize looting from enemies.

One thing I do is try to level up at every chance you get. Look for people that train and quests such as Discerning The Transmundane plus other minor skill boost quests like the three in Bard's College to fill up the levelling gauge more quicker.


I'm also doing things now to level quicker that I never did when I first got the game like archery and sneaking. The Dark Brotherhood questline is ideal for these skills.

I love that in Skyrim you can ignore crafting, ignore quests, and simply go your own way. Pick your favorite gear out of what you find on your kills and what’s in the boss chest. You don’t even have to loot much or open locked chests, since the world supplies level-appropriate items. Lots of potions are just sitting out on shelves. If you do a lot of archery you’ll need to loot or buy arrows, but that’s not terribly time consuming.

I find that pared-down looting adds a lot of fun. If you don’t take much heavy stuff, you don’t “have to” find vendors to unload your crap in the middle of an adventure.

Here's my idea of simple...

Pick a melee type... 1h & shield or 2h

Pick your armor... or mix and match

grab a bow ( for ranged, you may find it useful)

Put above on favorites...

set your difficulty to Novice or Apprentice... this way crafting is not nessessary .

When you run across an item that is better than what you have... use that. You really don't have to smith, enchant or make potions... it does make it easier if you do one, but you don't have to. You can be an adventurer, Thane of the Hold, that does his/her rounds to keep the bandit's and other "baddies" away... etc...

Console just mean's you don't have to mess around with mod's...so you can really keep it simple.

Pretty much this, or if you want to keep it really simple, play Khajiit and never enter cities. Just live the life of a hunter and wandering rogue. If you don't enter cities, you have nothing to sell or buy, so no need to loot anything you don't want to keep for yourself.

The game's not that hard, so there is no need to buy and sell stuff, unless you want to. You could easily play this way on lower or even default difficulty. It's only the higher difficulties where crafting becomes difficult to live without.

My Bosmer hunter/ explorer never entered a "walled" city, only ever crafted leather and hide. After about lvl 10 the only thing's she ever picked up in her exploration was gold, gem's, jewelry and any weapon's she might use... she wore fur... from the bikini top and skirt to the outfit with pant's and long sleeve's, depended on the weather. Very simple

^^ This is my vote for the play style your looking for ^^

With just two or three perks in the Restoration tree you can easily heal yourself as well even with only 100 magicka.

And if you don't want to do the lock picking mini game you can always have a follower do it for you, no lock picks needed. At least I think that part is vanilla, I've had the same mod set up for so long I sometimes forget what is modded and what is vanilla.

Not sure if this was what you had in mind, but my clutter-free game would be:

Find your main weapon early on, and stick with that.

Find someone to train your smithing, and keep refining it.

So basically, no carting around numerous different weapons to try out. You've got a sword (or whatever), that's basically it.

Don't bother picking up things on quests. Just go for the financial reward and any gold enemies drop. No clutter in the inventory.

One or two outfits for yourself. Enough to get through dungeons.

Then do the random quests from Jarls and at inns to your heart's content.

Sword and board dungeon-diver/contractor. Make your fortune selling loot and completing contracts. Don't get distracted by quest lines. Don't collect the Dragonstone. Just concentrate on building your own home somewhere (or maybe all three) and buying some properties in the major towns.

There are a lot of great ideas here. I think the simplest way, as others have said, is to ignore crafting. We are currently having a Dead is Dead competition with no crafting allowed and no buying/selling. This makes for a very fast paced and simple play through. Is this loot better than what I am using? Nope, then leave it. It has been a lot of fun.


Also, contrary to what some have said, I don't recommend training as leveling "naturally" through skill use will keep your character strong compared to the game world. The game levels with you, so the benefits of leveling are minimal unless the character uses a lot of skills requiring perks. A simple character with only a few skills, will get all the perks needed without training.