How to begin

[NoobLabber]

Hello, I know this is a very noob question but how should I begin with modded Skyrim?

Let me be more clear:

I have never played Skyrim before nor do I own a copy (yet), my intent would be to play with mods that enhances gameplay in a sexual way (possibly even modifying quests). Having played fallout NV like 15 times I would know what to install, which mods would be best and which ones to avoid. 

Could someone help me save hours of navigating trough the forum? I don't even know what version of the game I should buy :P

[Psalam]

24 minutes ago, NoobLabber said:

I don't even know what version of the game I should buy

That's a critical first question. The last I heard you can't even get Skyrim LE. However, you need to settle on that and which mod manager (Vortex - available from Nexus; Mod Organizer2 - also available on Nexus; or Nexus Mod Manager - not available on Nexus (go figure) and instead found on GitHUB) you want to use. You can mod Skyrim without a mod manager but it isn't easy or intuitive. You could also use Wrye Bash (also found on Nexus) but there are very few people who do it so there will be little available assistance if you hit a snag.

[tygct]

29 minutes ago, NoobLabber said:

Hello, I know this is a very noob question but how should I begin with modded Skyrim?

Let me be more clear:

I have never played Skyrim before nor do I own a copy (yet), my intent would be to play with mods that enhances gameplay in a sexual way (possibly even modifying quests). Having played fallout NV like 15 times I would know what to install, which mods would be best and which ones to avoid. 

Could someone help me save hours of navigating trough the forum? I don't even know what version of the game I should buy

 

There are some good guides to mod whether you install LE or SE version, it depends of what version you wanna go with, at this point it does not really matters (content-wise) since the majority of mods for LE works fine for Skyrim SE, there are still some of them which are a headache to make it work for SE though, whether skyrim version you buy, i recommend you spend some time learning the basics about the mod manager (I personally recommend you to use Mod Organizer 2) and the tools you gonna use (like FNIS, Nemesis, TES5Edit, BodySlide...)

If you buy Skyrim SE you can go with these two threads:

Skyrim SE for Beginners

Skyrim SE Compatibility tracker (recommended to check what mods are fully compatible with SE)

 

If you buy the old Skyrim LE you can go with this blog (pretty much sums up everything important with LE):

LE Conglomerate

 

In my experience I found SE to be waaay more stable than LE, your experience may vary depending of the mods you install, but you can still achieve good stability in both setups.

Edited September 9, 2021 by tygct

[Mister X]

TBH, if you don't even own the game yet, I'd suggest either buying Skyrim SE or wait for the Anniversary Edition (comes 11. Nov 2021) (as this would cost extra, even if you own SE)

All of the essential mods and most of the rest are either already converted or (relatively simply) convertible by yourself.

 

Afterwards, tutorials like STEP can help learning the basics of modding, like how to set up a mod amangement tool (STEP works with MO2, Vortex by Nexusmods could be used, too) or how to install basic mods.

 

In the end, the links provided by tygct are a good source to find nice adult mods for SE. I also created a basic little tutorial about how to set up an adult mod bootstrap which has some basic explanations of tools that aren't covered by STEP, like BodySlide.