No, I completely leave Barter. Its all about survival, so I set my Charisma very low so Barter and Speech will take a serious hit. I then focus on skills that keep me alive, like pouring loads of skill points into my primary combat skill, whatever that might be. If something attacks me, I need to kill it as quickly as possible, using as little ammo as I can.

So I'm constantly scraping caps together. I collect misc items (cigarette cartons, fission batteries, sensor modules) and sell them at merchants/caravans etc. I imagine that my character is wearing a backpack to carry small items like this and the remainder of my carry limit can be used to carry as much as possible. Only the weapons have a restriction.

Do you steal any of the items you need or do you rely solely on what you find on bodies/containers?

Cigarette cartons are one of the best (if not THE best) misc. items to sell with relation to value vs weight. Even with a lousy Barter I can sell one for 29 caps and it only weighs 2 lbs. The Fission Battery I can sell for 43 caps, but it weighs 10 lbs.

Do you sell skill books you find or do you use them as you find them?

I agree, cigarette cartons are great items to carry around for this type of playthrough. Selling ammo that you are never going to use is another good way. Also chems like Jet and Psycho will earn a lot if you collect enough, and they weigh nothing.

I sometimes steal if there is something I desperately need. But generally you play it according to the type of character you want to play. Even so, this is all about survival, the need to steal occasionally just to stay alive tends to happen more often than I expected.

I normally read skill books, or store them until I get the Comprehension perk. I don't usually take this perk straight away as there are more useful survival based perks that take priority at the low level stage.

Obviously this is a matter of taste(no pun intended!), but if you have a character with the Cannibal perk you can earn a lot of caps selling your Stimpacks(or at least the majority of them). You may consider this to be cheating (I don't, as they changed the Level it is given in NV), but I use the console to give myself the Cannibal Perk as soon as I leave the Vault. It's not like it gives you a huge advantage having it(as there are a lot of negative aspects to it of course), I just find that it adds to the survival-at-any-cost roleplaying aspect.

I added a little bit of Role-Playing to it. My current character(my only Cannibal character so far), Daphne, wandered the wastes for a while and decided to explore rather than go to Megaton right away. She got lost and severely wounded by Raiders. However, she was able to kill the Raiders but had no place to rest. She was also starving and couldn't go any longer without food. That was the day she "officially" became a Cannibal. These events did happen, I just added the starvation part to it.

I am just surprised that Jericho, even as evil as he is, hasn't made mention of my eating habits. :blush2:

I assume you have set up your player housing at ---->

Nope. I haven't gotten there yet in this playthrough(I am about to enter the Hubris Comics sewer tunnel). My house is in Megaton. The place you mention will be a good vacation place, however.

This thread inspired me to try this style of gameplay. I've adapted most of the rules from this thread, stuck with a SPECIAL provided earlier in the thread (thanks winawer) and added a few rules of my own.
Max 2 outfits in inventory. One armor, one casual/formal. I must eat 2 meals a day, drink 3 bottles of water a day, and sleep for atleast 12 hours every 2 days. I can not skip dialogue (to help immersion) and most of my decisions will be based off of my own survival instinct, not by greed or profit.

Basically to ensure I do not have to start over (if I die, I'm done) I will follow 2 rule of thumbs: 1) Stay outdoors as much as possible and 2) If I am not at full health (even if I'm a few bars short) I heal myself to full health before I do anything else.

So far my first game is going smoothly. I am level 3, with a house in Megaton. I will complete the wasteland survival guide (easy way to level up/ low chance of dying) and then move on to the Bryan Wilks quest.

As far as perks, my first three will be all the stages in the Swift Learner perk. I know most of you think it's a worthless perk since we all eventually reach level 30 but remember, I cannot die. Therefore I will be avoiding a lot of battles and I need all the XP I can get.

I will try to update my progress as it unfolds. I'm really confident I can reach level 30 without dying.

kmelt - I am glad you are enjoying it. I was also confident of completing the game without dying, bit it is far trickier than you think. I've just died again, this time at level 7. I tried to get past the two super mutants on the overpass on the way to Jefferson Memorial/Rivet City, simply to avoid the metros at all cost. Bad idea, one of them had a missile launcher and with me at only 50% health, I was soon dead. I got complacent, it only takes one moment where you let gown your guard and it can all end so suddenly.

I was playing a pure energy weapon build this time, which is probably not the best way. Energy weapons and ammo are quite rare before level 10 and your low EW skill and the condition of the early game weapons doesn't provide the best combinations for critical hits.

Excellent point about Swift Learner, though. My brain is normally set to auto-ignore this perk but in this kind of playthrough it's probably essential.

My example SPECIAL can probably be improved, however. A sneak/sniper probably gives the best chance of survival here, so increased Luck stat would maximise your critical chance. High Luck, Agility and Endurance, average Intelligence and Perception, and low Strength and Charisma.

I die rarely anymore, and I usually only have one gun on hand (but it is usually a minigun or an enclave incinorator), so in a way i follow this but Ipack up on anything that could potentially heal me whenever I open up mypip boy, making the game still increadibly easy even on harder difficulties. So if you are having trouble using the no death penalty, I'd try getting a cafeteria of food in your inventory so you can heal up whenever, although this would make the game very unrealistic

Ah, you see, rarely dying anymore any never dying at all are not the same thing. After all, it only has to happen once and it's all over:)

Which is true. Even though I am not playing this way at the moment, I can see how easy it IS to die. Attempting to cripple a limb for Moira I jumped off of a balcony in Megaton. Well, I crippled a limb all right...actually two limbs. Both of my legs! Unfortunately I also attained lethal damage. That would have been the end of my Level 16 character!

If (when, more than likely) I decide to try out the one death way, I won't be trying that particular action out.

The first quest I am doing is Wasteland survival guide and I too had a close call with the limb damage which would of ended my level 4 character. I have full combat armor and helmet for protection.
Anyway I am level 4 now, I have a sniper rifle (from Arkansas) as my primary weapon, a 10mm pistol and brass knuckles as my backup weapons. My plan is to be at least level 6 by the time I complete wasteland survival guide, then I will start the quest THOSE.

I'm surprised you are still using the 10mm pistol. I find that it loses it's usefulness quite early (I much prefer the 10mm sub-machine gun ).

The 10mm SMG does burn through ammo at an alarming rate, though. But it's a good sidearm to a sniper rifle. Having said that, I tend to keep the 10mm pistol for quite some time when focussing on Small Guns. My ideal guns combo is Chinese assault rifle and scoped Magnum. Ideally you need one outdoor sniper gun and one indoor weapon for close quarters action.

My plan is to eventually replace the pistol with a SMG, once I actually find one.

I was considering using the scoped magnum as my primary weapon instead of the sniper but figured magnum ammo is much more rare than .308 rounds

A scoped Magnum is an excellent alternative to a sniper rifle. Its nit as good, but it gives you the option of using your dual-handed weapon slot for something with a bit more power. A Chinese assault rifle or combat shotgun would do the job. I find it's essential to have a hard hitting main weapon for when you've been spotted or are indoors. If something attacks you and there's no immediate escape route, then you need to be able to kill it quickly.

Level 8 now. I completed Wasteland survival guide, Tenpenny Tower ghoul quest, and Those. I'm thinking of going back to the MQ now.

Took your advice and found a scoped magnum near Tenpenny tower. I'm honestly surprised, it has a lot of stopping power. Now that my scoped weapon is my secondary weapon, I found a Combat Shotgun for my primary weapon which I will use indoors. I also upgraded my brass knuckles to spiked knuckles. My armor is still the standard combat armor.

My small guns skill is maxed out, sneak is reaching 70, and unarmed is 50. I'm going to develop my medicine and lockpick skills next.

But it's not all smiles in my playthrough. I bought Sergent RL 3 when I was lvl 6, but it was caught up in the middle of a brawl with raiders on my way to Arlington library. The massive car explosion left no traces of the poor Sergent. I took my revenge on the raiders but there was nothing else I could do, and after a mere 20 minutes, I lost my 1000 cap investment. Now I'm hesitant to recruit any more companions.

I would think about hiring Charon. He can carry extra loot for you and is a boon in a firefight(his shotgun is excellent). He can also wear any armor and it will never degrade in quality. If you repair it to 100% it will remain that way for good.


If you are an evil character, then Jericho is a good choice as well.

Dogmeat, while free to get, is a little harder to keep alive especially since he likes to rush to melee range( and is in for a world of hurt when it's a Supermutant Overlord!).

Oh yes, companions. The perma-death thing applies to them as well

Companions will keep you alive but also blow your cover. Dogmeat especially. I find I have to curb my natural instinct to protect him when he goes running off looking for enemies. Charon, would be a good one due to this high sneak skill. However, Star Paladin Cross would be my ideal follower in this type of playthrough. High HP, and equally devastating with melee, energy weapons and big guns. A great follower to have around.

Im tring to survive with those rules about carry weapons, with "dead is dead" modality and FWE + MMM + IronSights installed. I died again, but I think is posible. Im new with fallout but I learned to play this way with Oblivion and, somehow, I cant play other way now. My biggest problem seems to be ammunition.

winawer, why do you use "unarmed"? Why not "melee weapons", a knife for exemple? it should be fine with a rifle, a pistol and a knife,for exemple.
For keeping difficulty when you level up, take a look into MMM. it does that very well, adding new monsters to the scene.

Actually, I hate all unarmed and melee combat. I avoid it at all costs. My earlier post regarding unarmed was mainly to be a backup when ammo is low. That is all I see melee and unarmed as useful for, a backup. Certainly, for the perma-death playstyle, anything other than ranged combat is just not an option.

I am doing a play through of that using MMM with low spawn and FWE mods, I am also using the savage wasteland mod which hugly reduces the amount of guns and ammo present in the world.. So every ammo is useful and every gun you find will be like a treasure. Also you meelee skills will be a lot more important and the game world a lot more dangerous. I often find myself avoiding large amount of enemies and actually using some tactics rather than going guns blazing...

Its really awesome, clearing out a building in DC of raiders and going to the next building, keeping Charon on top of a small ledge on the 1st floor near the entrence with his shotgun and keeping Jericho with his sniper rifle on the 3rd floor a little further away with a good view on the entrance then mining the entrance with 1-2 mines(can only afford to use 1 mine most of the time) , then sneaking near a nearby mutant camp and baiting them to you and running the f**k away to the strong hold you created then seeing the carnage unfold.. Just awesome.. I have to use tactics to fight enemies coz i pretty much die with 4-5 hits , there simply just isn't going in guns blazing... its just simply using tactics while clearing out positions...

Though i never have gone for perma death as i die a lot, instead i go for save every every time i sleep and enter a settlement or my home. In that case u fear death coz of the stash/loot and the quests u completed will be lost...

I also avoid melee and unarmed, but I run out of ammo soon and then, I havent the choice. Im thinking in use a knife with rats and dogs and not to cast all my bullets when exploring.

Well, I didnt see anybody that wrote about progressing trough fallout with FWE default configuration and MMM, without VATS and not dying so, maybe is just a nosense. I will try the easiest FWE configuration. This is like vanilla but with some of the features of FWE: Bullet time and a respawn time of 365 days for avoid farming (go 100 times to a knowed location for easy kill and loot). MMM will also be there for make the game harder when leveling. Iron shigts is just a FPS aiming style that I love (that means also no crosshair).

Finally, I will start a new game with these mods and rules:

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Mods:
* FWE, vanilla configuration, no sprint mod and no V.A.T.S. but bullet time instead. Respawn time = 365 days. Ammunition with weight.
* MMM, with low spawn options.
* RH_IronSights.

Rules:
* No fast travel.
* Carry capacity limitation: No more than 1 two-handed weapon and no more than 3 weapons in total. No more than 1 armor / outfit.
* Die once, start again.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

And I will post my progress. :turtle:

EDIT: I failed in my fist try, but wasnt so bad. It is loable. I did the quest "Those". I cleared the supermarket and the school near Megaton. I was in level 5 and coming back to Megaton afther to do that research on mines for the survival guide when a group of riders blowed my head out. :shrug: I will disable primary needs on the next game, cause I managed to play with this without problems, but the experience was to harsh for my taste. You just need to take care every day for fill your empty botles and set them one by one on a little machine that turns dirty water into good water. You allways need some food in your inventory and some beers or vodka bottles for decrease radiations. Easy, not really challenging and a lot of work, so I guess my character can do it byself.

I think I'm going to try this, but instead of having the Charisma at the lowest like you did I'm going to bump it up....let's hope I can smooth talk my way out of bad situations...

Also I'm not going to fast travel anywhere.

This should be interesting. I'm going to need a bodyguard.