Building your own Home/Farm/Town/Village/Empire/Ship by Rogdonlp

Building your own Home/Farm/Town/Village/Empire/Ship

- by Rogdonlp -

 

     The Hearthfire DLC, which was released in October 2012 for PC, is the least popular of the three Skyrim DLCs.  Many people thought it was lame – I want to kill something, not build a %?$#@ house.  Some players, however, did love the adventure of finding all of the building materials and then building a home from those hard won building materials.  With the many add-on mods for the Hearthfire homes such as fortifications, bards, guards, vendors, servants, swimming pools, hot tubs, extended basements, attics, heated interior baths, etc., it was possible to customize your Hearthfire home and make it fairly unique.

     With the modest success of the Hearthfire DLC a number of mod authors created their own build-your-own home mods.  Most of these mods used the Hearthfire building system, while a few mods had their own unique system for building.  Some of the mods created tiny shacks while other created entire towns.  There was even one mod that allowed you to build a small seaport village as well as decorate the interior of a ship that fast travelled to all major seaports in Skyrim including Solstheim.

Shown below are the better-known Build-It-Yourself mods listed by Nexus number order:

Legendary Edition

18480  Build Your Own Home – This mod has a few building options, not as many as a Hearthfire home.  Also, the mod was last updated in 2012 – be cautious.

 22330  Tundra Defense – This mod allows you to build a small town surrounded by a wooden palisade.  You can trigger bandit raids to see how well your fortification design withstands an attack.  While the mod was released in 2013 it was updated in 2016.  The latest 2017 version is on SSE.

22791  Home Construction and Decoration – This mod allows you to build a home anywhere using one of 14 different layouts.  The interior is decorated via a mouse-based placement system.  Last updated in 2013.  

   

30948  Pocket Empire Builder – This 2013 mod has its own building system with lots of options to create your own camp, village, town, city or empire with waterfalls, landscaping, etc.  Its unique building system does have a fairly steep learning curve, however.

33674  Caranthir Tower – The 2013 LE version of this mod should only be played if you swear that you will never, ever play Skyrim SSE.  The SSE version has been rewritten with major additions and upgrades to virtually everything.  See SSE mod below.

50992  Heljarchen Farm – This mod allows you to rebuild an abandoned farm which is bordered by Heljerchen Manor on the north and Loreius Farm on the east.  After bringing the farm back into operation you can rent it to a tenant farmer.

57141  Mörskom Estate – This is a mod by Darkfox127 and Elianora.  The mod provides you with the complete shell of the house.  Your task is to locate and place into the home all of the furnishings.  The tasks you have to perform are similar to what you have to do in Hearthfire homes, but not identical.

59558  Tel Nalta II – This mod allows you to grow your own Telvanni home.  It uses the Hearthfire system, but instead of building things you are growing structures.

61483  Silverstead – This mod was created by Ld50365 who authored nine home mods, five of them buildable.  Using the Hearthfire system you buy land and build an entire town in Dwemer style with fortifications, guard barracks, stables, inn, and shops.  The player home is large with all the crafts and is connected to a follower’s barracks with beds for 15.  Silverstead is located in the Reach high on a mountain slope with magnificent views.  If you stretch your neck and look to the west while out on the balcony you can look down on Markarth.

61752  Live Anywhere Constructible Shacks – The construction is free form, but very limited in scope.  It does not take many materials or much time to build a primitive shack.  Still, it keeps the rain out.

65839  Blackthorn – Another mod by Ld50365.  Using the Hearthfire system you build a town just northwest of Heartwood Mill on the south shore of Lake Honrich.  The town includes fortifications, guard barracks, inn, bookstore, shops, a follower’s barracks, a guest house, and a large home with a dock that allows you to travel to your ship, The Scarlett, if you have built it.  See Below.  The home has all crafts and lots of mannequins and display cases.  You collect rents from the people occupying your buildings.

66299  Skyfall Estate – Another Ld50365 mod.  Using the Heathfire system you construct a large house with all crafting, a follower barracks with 24 beds, and an indoor pool.  The house is located just north of Honningbrew Meadery.

68560  Draven Manor – Another Ld50365 mod.  This is a smaller home just outside of Whiterun.  It has a guest house for two of your followers, an external smithing area, and lots of display space for all of your armor, weapons, and loot.

71106  The Scarlett – Another Ld50365 mod.  The Scarlett is a ship that can fast travel between all of the major ports including Solstheim.  Using the ship’s rowboat will allow you to fast travel to Iverstead, Morthal, Riften, Riverwood and your private dock in Blackthorn.  There are two small quests to obtain the ship and you have to build a tavern, a general goods store, an alchemy shop, and a blacksmith shop as well as furnishing the interior of the ship.  Like Blackthorn, you collect rents from your tenants.

73136  Mornfallow Manor – The home site is on a mountainside southwest of Windhelm.  You pass by the site if you are travelling from Windhelm to Raldbthar.  This is a comfortable home with a view down the valley.  No fortifications, guards or servants.  Uses the Hearthfire building system.

74432  The Well – This is a small player home in the mountains of the Rift.  It is actually a large well which you have to clean out and then refurbish.  Smithing, with no smelter, is the only crafting available.

89569  The Hideaway – Abandoned Wolf Den – This is small cave that you must cleanout and then refurbish.  The location of the cave can be found on the original mod’s Nexus website 49723.  Enchanting and alchemy stations are provided.

90739  Build Your Own Township

90777  Build Your Own Breeze Home

These are two new mods that you might want to take a look at.  I am leery of new mods, even by known authors.  I will try these out in a few months.

Special Edition

 These mods are available in Skyrim Special Edition as well as Skyrim Legendary Edition.  See above for details.

  2242  Blackthorn

  2418  Draven Manor

  4108  Heljarchen Farm

    411  Mornfallow Manor

  2397  Silverstead

  2466  Skyfall Estate

15403  Tel Nalta II

10649  The Hideaway – Abandoned Wolf Den

  2434  The Scarlett

  7479  The Well

14310  Tundra Defense SSE

The following mods are only available in Skyrim Special Editions:

1739  Fellkreath Cottage – A 1 or 2 bed cottage with smithing, alchemy, and enchanting stations.  Uses Hearthfire building system.  It is located far from everything but you do get a spell tome for teleporting.

4269  Caranthir Tower – This is a quest mod that allows you to find and restore a long-hidden mage tower.  While you can use the Heathfire building system, you, as the rich and powerful dragonborn, can also purchase all of the items.  However, you cannot do either until you solve certain puzzles, locate certain items, and slay certain opponents.  If you complete both the quests and the restoration you will have a massive mage castle with all crafting stations, large library, servants and your very own dragon to fly you around Skyrim.  Read the mod description for details.  This mod will take you hours of playing time to complete.

7754  Carpathian Inn – This is an interesting mod.  However, the mod would not advance beyond a certain point on several attempted playthroughs.  Maybe you will have better luck.

Enjoy

ROGDONLP