A lot has been done with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim mod wise. There's somewhere near or over 100,000 mods for it between Nexusmods, Steam, and other places online. I've been having a bit of casual fun using my favorites for a long time now, but in consideration of the game's original vision, I'm thinking I'd rather restrict a mod load to lore-friendly content. Characters, some items, some quests, some places. Just things that jive well with the gameworld in a way that doesn't break immersion.

I want to say something about Skyrim that, at first, will sound insulting, yet I mean it in the best, most positive way possible:

As per Skyrim's original vision, it's boring.

Thoughts pertaining to how calling something boring could possibly be a positive are thoughts best left with people who don't find any inherent value in boredom. I admire Skyrim's general world settings, and they're inspirational to me. In a world where most things are boring, things that could be described as extraordinary shine brighter. A lot of people would argue that greater atmosphere resides with something less imposing, believable, or realistic. Realism gives strong atmosphere. It's not a serious detractor to me that you'll often find yourself overly absorbed with downtime in Skyrim, because in the old days of the 80s, that's how most days were, and in many ways people were healthier for it. Our breathing was paced, and our expectations weren't ridiculously lofty.

Skyrim is a fantasy game. Along with sights to be found in a real world setting, you'll always encounter things you wouldn't expect to see or know of in real life. In consideration of how I think it's boring, I always wondered why so many people don't think it is. I suppose that can be attributed to its freedom aspect. Some people simply find it exciting to do random things they couldn't do in reality in a surreal setting. In reality, you can knock a bucket off a balcony. In Skyrim, you can zap a bucket off a balcony by projecting a lightning bolt from the palm of your hand. It's the notion of doing fantastical things in a realistic setting that keeps people coming back, but in my case that's a bonus, while Skyrim's less fantastical facets are also of interest. It's fun to me to simply be a surrealistic character in a thriving world, though the fantasy elements are a huge plus. Contrary to my usual focus on anthropomorphs, I've got no problem enjoying roleplaying as one of the four races of humans in Skyrim either, though I'm more prone to play as a khajiit or argonian, and less so an Orc.

Roleplaying, in its core sense, was always fun to me. Be the persona a pillar of righteousness, a pox on humanity, or a shifty opportunist, it's fun to imagine that I am another entity, and am tasked with what ails them. Literally, fantasy is anything beyond the scope of reality. You might believe the notion of a peasant-turned-savior of a province, but bring things like magic, alien races, and imagined species into the mix, and you have fantasy. The reality of a medieval setting is less fantastical, though in recent times there have been some allusions to such, which are usually followed by fantasy elements. It's a fun form of escapism, and has been popular for several millenia.

It's great to have games of varying scope that do well to keep the spirit of roleplaying alive.