The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition News

Skyrim Modmapper is a weirdly beautiful way to manage your mods

Mod managers are one of the intangible joys of modding Skyrim. If you're the kind of person who gets a thrill out of watching hundreds of disparate mods fall into place in the load order like Tetris blocks, mediating file conflicts, then breathing a sigh of relief as you start a new game of Skyrim without your PC blue-screening, then you'll love the Skyrim Modmapper...
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Skyrim mod adds Red Dead Redemption 2's sketchbook journal

One of the rather charming things about Red Dead Redemption 2's Arthur Morgan is his habit of sketching some of the places he's been in his journal. Rather than just keeping a dry questlog, Arthur writes down his own story and adds drawings of some of the places he's been and the things he's seen...
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Scientists 'reconstruct' Skyrim skeleton's face, looks like Iggy Pop

Ancestral Whispers is an organisation that, among other projects, specialises in facial reconstructions of prehistoric humans. Its software is based on the pioneering methods of Soviet archaeologist and anthropologist Mikhail Gerasimov, and essentially is able to layer soft tissue over a given cranial structure—and produce a representation of what that human being may have looked like. Its website is full of examples of serious archaeology, genetic and historical maps, and is a fascinating rabbit-hole to get lost in...
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I got loaded on real Skooma absinthe while playing Skyrim and regret nothing

I do not get the sense that skooma makes for a good party. Elder Scrolls lore states that this narcotic beverage is brewed in shadowy alchemy labs and sold for piles of dirty gold by the Khajiit caravans around Skyrim, and the psychoactive effect is akin to going on a particularly bleary Ketamine binge. Or, in other words: a brief period of watery euphoria followed by paralyzing narcolepsy...
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Skyrim is a city builder now

If you've been thinking the land of Skyrim needs to be a bit more civilised, you're in luck: a classic mod that turns Skyrim into a city-building game has finally been updated to work with the Skyrim: Special Edition.

Modder Ripvanwinkle111 first published their 'RTS for Skyrim' mod in 2012, and while it falls short of turning Skyrim into a full-on strategy game, it does let you create functional towns from scratch by constructing buildings and assigning villagers to work in them and defend the settlement. You can also assign villagers to the local militia and have them pull guard shifts and follow patrol routes you designate.

Now the mod has been updated, and there's a version available for Skyrim: Special Edition. The mod lets you place houses, workshops, and stores, and then recruit villagers and merchants to manage them. Villagers will pay taxes and forage for food in the wilderness, and you can even recruit them as followers. The mod allows you to recruit up to 200 of them, so you can build up a truly bustling little city using this mod.

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