Get ready for more adventure with these Skyrim questing mods

Let me start by saying, vanilla Skyrim is a thing of the past. If you’ve been playing for 7 years and you haven’t modded it yet, I first want to applaud you for your dedication. Second, I want to smack you on the back of your head and ask what you’re doing!?

The world of Skyrim mods is huge. It’s amazing. There are (at the time of writing) 57,000 different mods, with 1.2 billion downloads. There are mods for everything, from turning skeleton’s footsteps sounds into the sound of trumpets, to complete makeovers of the entire game. So how can you make your game more fulfilling?

Mod the crap out of it. My 15 favorite mods are all for expanding the game, making it more difficult, and making it more immersive. Buckle up, because here we go!

1. Falskaar

A shot of the Falskaar landscape.

Falskaar is one of the top Skyrim mods for adding new quests. This is one of the largest mods I recommend. It’s a DLC sized addition. It is not connected to Tamriel, and can only be found by finding the secret portal. You become the traveler and are given access to new lands, new holds, new music and new quests. After the first trip, you can sail to and from it. It has new spells, a new shout, and new characters to fill the land. Also, there’s a ship where you can find a GIANT metal ring, and what’s better than that?

2. Realistic Needs and Diseases

The main RND menu.

RND is one of my top immersion mods. One problem I had with Skyrim was that I could walk for miles and not get tired. I wouldn’t get hungry or thirtsty. I can pick up all the food I want, but I don’t need any of it! No more. Now, your character gets hungry, thirsty, and must sleep. All the options are customizable, so you can lessen how fast you get hungry, thirsty, or tired. RND has been updated by a different mod author, so if you would like the additional weight function and other widgets, go for version 2.0. Keep in mind YOU CAN DIE from hunger and thirst, so take care of yourself!

3. Campfire - Complete Camping System

Warm your hands and nap by the fire.

Campfire goes hand in hand with RND. This mod gives you the ability to craft tents, sleep in them, build fires, and renew your energy. You’ll always have a bedroll with you, so you can lie down at any time, in any place. Your tents can be expanded so you can have beds for your followers to rest as well (which you need for some immersive followers mods). The fire building is relatively easy, though it does require you to look around for wood or other items to turn into kindling. It’s a welcome challenge to making Skyrim a survival adventure.

4. Moonpath to Elsweyr

Khajiits are servants to the Thalmor now, and it seems the servants are on strike.

The moonpath to Elsweyr is a previously unheard-of trip into the khajiit homeland. You can find new, all-khajiit characters, a thalmor plot, and a flying ship! It begins by joining a secret travel caravan inside the Falkreath inn. Join a plot to overthrow the Thalmor, meet the Pahmer, the Cathay-raht, and wish you were a better breed of Khajiit.

5. Sofia-The Funny Fully Voiced Follower

Do my boobs look okay to you? Stop looking at me like that.

Sofia is a fully voiced follower. She can be found in the stables of Whiterun, where she wakes up after a drunken night of debauchery and wants to follow you around Tamriel. So does everyone else, so who can fault her? One of Sofia’s best qualities is her sassy commentary. From slightly inappropriate jokes to demanding rude people respect you, Sofia adds to the Skyrim experience. (“I hate all the incest in the temples. It gives me a headache….I meant incense.”)

6. T3nd0’s Perkus Maximus

Level up better with Perkus Maximus.

Perkus Maximus is one of my favorite mods in general. It reworks your skill trees, changes the game mechanics, and honestly makes it feel like a new game. T3nd0 didn’t like the perk system, so he made it better. Enchanting isn’t just about the cost of spells. You can become a better more powerful warrior. Everything you do should be important, and with Perkus Maximus it is. (T3nd0 made the ever popular SkyRe, so you know he does quality work.)

7. Helgen Reborn

Get to work. Now, soldiers!

Have you ever wished there was something you could do for dragon-ravished Helgen? You watched it get torn apart, people burned to a crisp, and then abandoned for the rest of your time in Skyrim. Not anymore. Helgen reborn adds new characters, new stories, new quests, allows you to test new warriors, and more. If you play this storyline through to completion, Helgen comes back to life better than it was before.

8. The Forgotten City

This mod is quite special, and I’m not the only one who thinks so. The Forgotten City won a National Writer’s Guild award for it’s script. That is unheard of. One of the best Skyrim mods in existence, I’m excited to tell you about it here. Add roughly eight hours to your Skyrim time discovering a brand new city. What makes this so special is how detailed it is. Without ruining it for you, the story of The Forgotten City does not have one specific ending. Based on your own choices, it can and a series of different ways. (I ruined it twice, so do better than I did.) I don’t want to spoil it for you, so just go get it. You need this mod.

Looking into the abyss of the past.

9. Summerset Isle

An overhead shot of Summetset Isle

Excited about ESO’s Summerset Isle? Guess what! You can bring it to Skyrim too! The entire Summerset Isle has been created by yourenotsupposedtobeinhere. Complete with player homes, quests, creatures, and its own travel system, Summerset Isle competes with the previously mentioned Falskaar. This mod can only begin once you become Arch-Mage to college of Winterhold. I hate the College, so it took me a while to get there. Summerset involves 10-20 hours of figuring out why people are disappearing and trying to stop it. The entire mod contains about fifty new quests, and seems to be better received than ESO’s Summerset Isle.

10. Beyond Reach

As I’m a huge fan of expanding Skyrim and Tamriel, my next recommended mod makes sense. One more DLC-sized mod, Beyond Reach is a new land in the reach. Another three hold-sized mod, this includes new factions, new homes, new holds, new spells, and everything else you could imagine. Skyrim is an amazing, large game, but after seven years, it’s alright that we want it to be bigger.

Now, before you ask, Beyond Reach is not part of the Beyond Skyrim project.

11. Vortai the Home in the Sky

This is particularly fun. This is a player home in the sky that you can only get if you beat the boss guarding it. Located outside of Riften, a portal takes you up to the house, you fight for it, and (should you win) you gain an expansive house full of portals and all the home amenities you could want. The armory alone is huge. Check it out:

Vortai will destroy the sense of immersion that you’re used to. It contains a beautiful home, a large armory, and a never ending collection of resources. There are safes that contain all the ingots you could imagine, a treasury full of gold bars, and portals to every major Skyrim town. You also find a spell that allows you to transport from anywhere you may be to Vortai. (I used it when I broke Wyrmstooth.) Vortai is more of a place I have because I need to constantly drop my overflow of stolen items. I own Vortai as a novelty, and feel like it’s my duty to tell everyone about this ridiculous home.

12. Enhanced Skyrim Factions – The Companions Guild

This mod aims to correct one of Skyrim’s great wrongs. You, the dovakhiin, at any time and any level, can take over the leadership of the Companions Guild. I call bull, and so did DreamKing. This mod adds new quests, new challenges, and makes it harder to earn your way to the top. It also incorporates more dialogue options to make the conversations flow differently. On top of that, you can set how easy/difficult it is for you to join the guild in the first place. Looks like you’re new blood again.

13. Vigilant of Stendarr Quests

The Vigilants of Stendarr are a faction that you often see traveling around around and can’t do anything with. Now you can join them! They have strict rules for joining, but if you meet them you can use every part of the house and access seven brand new quests.

No longer just an annoying group of people, now they’re an annoying group that can include you.

14. Thieves Guild Requirements

Like the expansion of The Companions, this turns the Thieves Guild into something prestigious that you have to try harder to join. The Thieves’ Guild now accepts only thieves! The menu is also customizable to enhance your Thieves’ Guild experience, making it more difficult. You can also cause the Guild to require you do more of their jobs before you can progress through the story mission to the Nightingale missions.

A peek at the Thieve's Guild Menu

I feel this is a must, because in what world does the most prestigious group of criminals let a single guy who proves he can pickpocket in fifteen minutes? It should not be this one, no matter how poor their luck has been. Right the numerous wrongs. If you finish the Thieves Guild quests, I also recommend downloading Thieves Guild Former Glory Enhancement. As you rebuild the guild their coffers will fill, as they should!

15. Interesting NPCs

Want funny NPC's? Here's how to get them.

I don’t know if you’ve gotten bored of the NPC’s and their same, “I was an adventurer like you once,” but I have. I was so finished with them when I found this mod. Interesting NPC’s adds new characters, new dialogue, and new quests. It changes the entire game and makes it enriching. From a man you can offer to murder his wife, to a Swamp Knight, the world is your oyster and it’s time to crack it open.

There you have it. Fifteen mods that will change your game for the better, making it newer and more exciting. What are your favorite Skyrim mods? New ones are added every day, and I’d love to hear about your favorites!

Want to check out more mods for Skyrim?

• The 76 Best Skyrim Mods and Why You Need Them

• Top 11 Best Skyrim Mods That Will Make Skyrim Super Awesome

• 15 Best Skyrim Graphics Mods You Should be Using Right Now