In 2007, a man named Christopher Livingston decided to play through Bethesda Studios’ Oblivion as an NPC. He spent four years chronicling the non-adventures of the Nord alchemist Nondrick P. Cairk’tir. His goal: survive the land of Cyrodiil, while exploring the possibilities of playing an open world RPG as a non-player character.

Along the way, I hope to answer some questions: Does the economic system in Oblivion really work? Can I find a job, and earn enough money to live comfortably? Can I can scrape together enough to move to the big city, maybe even own a small hovel of my own? Do the other NPCs really lead interesting, multi-faceted lives, or are they just mindless robots following a predetermined path? Will I fit in with them either way? Is it even possible for a player to live as an NPC? How hard is it to avoid getting sucked into the enormous, sprawling adventure the game has planned for me? Will trouble find me even if I’m not looking for it?

In the end, Livingston was largely successful. His long-running commentary on the experiment got me thinking: could the same thing be done in Morrowind? The third Elder Scrolls game is notoriously unforgiving. When I first played the game, in 2004, I spent months barely surviving the game – and that was as a character designed to survive the harsh environment.

Now, after a four year hiatus from the game, I’m going back in. But this time, I’m following Livingston’s footsteps, and leaving questlines and adventures behind. I’ll be following the same core rules that Livingston laid down in his blog, as well:

Avoid quests and adventure whenever possible. No murder or theft, unless survival depends on it, and there are no alternatives. Death is permanent – no reloading saves, no cheating, and no god-mode. No intentional use of bugs, glitches, or exploits for personal gain. Anything that can be found for free is fair game, but I should always attempt to be self-sufficient and honest.

I have a list of mods over there in the sidebar, so you can keep an eye on what I’m doing. So, without further ado:

This is Argus Ieanith.

Argus is a tourist. He is not an adventurer. Nor is he a powerful warrior. He is a man who’s greatest aspiration in life is peace, quiet, and perhaps a little companionship. Unfortunately for Argus, Morrowind is not a game that is particularly friendly to men of low ambition. It’s a world of adventure, intrigue, and fearsome creatures. Why would a peaceful man come to such a place?

He wouldn’t. Not by choice, anyway.

For reasons the game has failed to explain, I have decided to attempt to sail a small wooden dingy through the seas of Tamriel. This trip ended – much as you might expect – with a loud crash. I wake up standing in ankle-deep water, surrounded by wreckage and empty bottles. I desperately begin gathering anything within reach, salvaging 3 empty bottles, and a chitin dagger. I’m using Bluebit’s Alternative Beginnings mod, thus avoiding the main questline, and the combat-heavy adventure it entails.

And now I find myself in need of a quest. We won’t be headed to Balmora, and we certainly won’t be struggling against the growing threat of Dagoth Ur. Fortunately, my stomach rumbles, and a convenient text box pops up to give us our first quest.

We’re playing with Nymeria’s Necessities of Morrowind – a mod that will require me to periodically eat, drink, and sleep. It will also punish me for running too frequently. I have a feeling that bit will get irritating fairly quickly.

I’m on the west coast of the island of Morrowind – in the West Gash region – so I immediately head East, hoping to make it to Gnisis before the hunger pains slow me too much. Not three steps up the beach, the music in my brain picks up, and I’m faced with my first real challenge.

A large cave rat comes bounding toward me, presumably from a cave, though I haven’t seen any. The rat gnaws at my ankles while I flail helplessly in its general direction. In my haste to find food, I neglected to equip that dagger I found in the boat wreckage – it takes about 5 real-world minutes of completely ineffective slapping before I remember how to open my inventory. Dagger in hand, the rat is quickly dispatched. I pull some rat meat from its corpse, but eating it doesn’t seem to do anything for my hunger.

Cresting a hill, I see the hulking form of a silt strider through the distant mist. It’s Gnisis! I’ve made it! Also, there’s a pantsless man standing in the river! The pantsless man is named Hentus Yansurnummu, and he asks if I wouldn’t mind retrieving his pants from Hainab Lasamsi. I casually suggest that he find his own pants. I’m not sure if laundry-retrieval counts as questing, but I’d rather not risk it. Not this early. Instead, I head into town, and start looking for a solution to my food issue. I find a well, filling my empty bottles with fresh water, and stumble upon a food dealer by the main road.

It’s at this point that I realize I have no money. Argus really did not plan for this journey. With little choice, I head off into the wilderness of Morrowind. I know there will be heaps of plants to pick out there, and those seem like a perfectly reasonable way to earn some coin. Sleep-deprived, starving, and completely unprepared, I head east, again.

I hop over a few hills, and yank a few dozen plants out of the ground. Unfortunately, I clumsily crush most of them into useless junk, because my alchemy skill isn’t high enough to make use of most of the materials here. Nearly twenty minutes go by without incident, until I spy a significant threat through the leaves of a corkbulb bush.

Two kagouti are running up a hill nearby, and one of them spots me. These are level four creatures, and they can easily rip me to pieces. I turn tail and run – completely outmatched. I can hear the thing’s heavy footsteps and strange circa-2002 grunts at my rear, but I slowly begin to outpace it. The 25 point speed boost from being born under the Steed constellation is coming in handy. The kagouti (kagoutis?) eventually give up and return to their hill.

I’ve survived, but the sprint has drained my endurance. I’m still starving and exhausted, and now I’m thirsty, too. Checking the map, I can see that I’m miles from Gnisis.

According to my handy copy of The Prophecies of Morrowind, I’m not too far from Ald’Ruhn, so I make that my destination. I head over a rise in the land, and hear someone shouting.

Shit. Really?

Two bandits sprint toward me, one of them pausing to hurl a fireball in my direction. I deftly dodge to the left, and thrust forward with the chitin dagger. The bandit groans in fury as the blade finds purchase in her armor. To the left, I hear the tinkling sound of someone casting magic. I leap back reflexively, confident that I’ve got the pure raw skill necessary to take these bandits down.

Oh.

Next: A Fresh Start