Hello all! I bought Skyrim on day 1 and have played for 325 hours since that time but have never gotten further in the main quest than killing the dragon at Kynesgrove with Delphine and have never gotten higher than about level 12. The reason for this is I always start to feel too rich and powerful and although I know I'm supposed to be an epic superhero (Dragonborn) I also don't want to feel like I'm invincible. I want to imagine I'm a cut above the rest but can still be cleaved in two if I make a mistake. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger often almost gets beaten by the bad guys in his movies, winning by a thread right at the end. Coincidentally all my Nord characters look like Arnie, no matter how much I try to make them not look like him they still do. Anyone else get that? Anyway...

I'm now playing my 34898494'th character; an archer that uses a 1h sword as backup. No magic, no shield. I'm imposing so many house rules on myself to stop me getting too powerful that I have to write them all down and keep them with me while I play so I don't forget them. Such as:

*Only sneaking when it's dark or when I'm in a dark place, such as a cave/ruin/whatever. Sneaking in broad daylight seems really stoopid to me.

*No looting ANYTHING AT ALL (except essential quest items) from resting places of the dead such as Bleak Falls Barrow or the other Nordic ancestor resting places (because I'm a Nord, it's a respect thing for my ancestors)

*No keeping more than 3 health potions on me at any time. If I find more powerful health potions I have to drop one of the lesser ones to make room for it. Those potions look really clumsy and my armour doesn't look like it has pockets so where the hell would my guy be keeping all those potions?

*No upgrading my weapons/armour just because I found better stuff. Maybe my guy has gotten used to this basic longbow, kinda like how you get used to your ancient cell phone and don't want a modern one. I will upgrade eventually though.

*No fast travel, I use a horse and run everywhere.

*No smithing. enchanting or alchemy. I pay money for those services, kinda like how in real life I'm not a farmer so if I want bread I pay money for someone to make it for me. I'm an adventurer, I do adventuring, not smithing.

*No carrying an inventory full of weapons and armour. I can roleplay carrying a few different types of weapons such as a sword, a mace, an axe and a bow because the bow can be stored on my guy's back and the three weapons tucked in to his belt where he would grab whichever one he needs at the time.

*No putting all my skill points in to just bows, swords and sneak. An adventuerer also needs to be able to have a conversation with people from time to time to find out information and sell lots of junk, so speech and barter too and any others I can find a RP reason to put my points in.

Can anybody think of any more? You may say I'm destroying a lot of enjoyment potential by limiting myself in this way but my enjoyment of Skyrim doesn't come from having an inventory full of goodies, it comes from exploring, talking to people, doing quests, reading books and learning the lore and stuff like that.

Maybe give a dead-is-dead playthrough a try?

I see you've tried SkyRe, what about http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/19281/??

I don't know about SkyRe's difficulty but Requiem is fairly difficult (at least for me it is). I can't imagine playing without Requiem anymore because it just makes the game so challenging.

Edit: Aside from limiting how many potions you carry, it seems as though Requiem would be exactly what you're looking for.

The rules you outlined make the game probably more like a chore and a drag instead of making it more fun. If you're roleplaying like it's a real person you would do everything to stay alive, including enchating, smithing, carrying dozens of potions, etc.

I would up the difficulty to expert, I find this is the most realistic damage setting. You could wear a robe or some other clothing items so you can still be powerful but die easily because you lack armor