This week on the Mod Roundup, I have perhaps predictably rounded up some mods for you. For Skyrim, a mod adds a monster-hunting contract system inspired by The Witcher 3. A mod for Stellaris lets you board enemy ships, capture them, repair them, and add them to your fleet. Finally, a mod for Fallout 4 adds real shrapnel to frag grenades and other explosives.

Here are the most promising mods we've seen this week.

Monster Contracts, for Skyrim

Nexus Mods link

Inspired by The Witcher 3's monster-hunting contracts, this mod brings a similar system into Skyrim. Head to Solitude and join The Protectors, a faction of monster-stalking badasses, and your career as a contracted creature hunter will begin. The mod is recommended for players above level 20, and while there are only a handful of contracts at the moment, there are more planned for the future.

Currently, this mod is only available for the original version of Skyrim, not the special edition. If that changes, we'll let you know.

Board That Ship! for Stellaris

Steam Workshop link

Sometimes destroying your enemies isn't enough. Sometimes you want to take their stuff and make it yours. This mod for Stellaris gives you the opportunity to board and capture some enemy ships once you've weakened them enough during battle. You'll have to repair the damage, naturally, but once you do, you can add them to your fleet.

True Frags, for Fallout 4

Nexus Mods link

We all love using explosives in Fallout 4. We'd love them more if the ones that were supposed to hurl shrapnel around actually did. Thanks to this mod, now shrapnel-based explosive weapons really work as they're supposed to. Instead of just an explosion, your frag grenades and frag mines, MIRV grenades, bottlecap mines, and baseball grenades will send a cloud of projectiles through the air, shredding the hell out of anyone within range. Duck and cover.

Looking for more mods? Check out our list of the best mods for Terraria and the best total conversion mods.

Yesterday we reported on the fact that Skyrim: Special Edition's audio is a significant downgrade from the vanilla version of Bethesda's RPG. Now, a Bethesda staffer has responded on Reddit that the developer is on the case (via Kotaku).

"We're currently testing a fix and hope to have an update out next week," Reddit user Gstaff wrote. Gstaff claims to work for Bethesda, having spoken for the developer in the past. We've contacted Bethesda for an official statement on the issue and will update this article as we receive more information.

The audio issue was originally explained by Reddit user LasurArkinshade, who said the Special Edition's sound assets were "very aggressively compressed."

"The vanilla game has sound assets (other than music and voiceover) in uncompressed .wav format," the post states. "The Special Edition has the sound assets all in (very aggressively compressed) .xwm format, which is a compressed sound format designed for games. This isn't so bad, necessarily it's possible to compress audio to .xwm without significant quality degradation unless you crank the compression way up to insane levels."

Bethesda did exactly that, the post stated. LasurArkinshade compared the original game's audio with the Special Edition, and the difference is quite noticeable through good speakers or headphones. Listen for yourself below.

While Bethesda works on a fix, Reddit user TI36X posted about a solution that could work in the meantime.

"I extracted my original Skyrim Sounds.bsa, packed it with 7zip and installed it with NMM in SSE. Seems to work fine," they wrote. "There are two folders in the bsa. Sound and Music. Just pack them into a archive and install by NMM [Nexus Mod Manager]. Someone just uploaded a bsa extractor on the SSE nexus that works for this."

We haven't tested the bsa extractor ourselves, so practice caution if you try it out.

In 2019, it's safe to say everyone and their grandma has played Skyrim. The base game is a great RPG, but Skyrim console commands let you fine tune the world's rules to your liking. Become a god, summon a specific item, make yourself a giant, fly, walk through walls, level up—pretty much nothing is off limits. The console commands are pretty easy to input, too.

Here's how it's done:

Skyrim console commands

To enable the console, just hit the tilde (`) key and enter the appropriate codes, which are listed below. You can turn on more than one at once, too, so you can become invincible, fly, and teleport all at the same time.

Some of these commands require additional codes, and we've compiled lists of those too. Just grab the desired number from our Skyrim item codes or Skyrim NPC codes posts.

Be warned, some of these console commands may cause glitches, problems, or crashes, so it's definitely worth saving your game first and using the codes with a separate save. You don't want to make some change and get stuck with it.

Console Commands

tgm

Good ol' God Mode means you're completely invulnerable to everything, and pretty damn god-like.

tcl

No clipping lets you walk through walls, ceilings, and mountains like some sort of ghost. Use the code again to return to normal.

unlock

Can't find that vital key? Lockpicking skill too low? Open the console, click on the door or chest you want to unlock, and type "unlock" into the console. If only this worked in real life.

psb

Every single spell in Skyrim is now yours! It's like graduating magic school in under a second.

player.advlevel

Automatically gain one level.

caqs

Automatically complete all the stages of your primary quest. Perfect if you hate playing games.

showracemenu

Unhappy with your blind, inbred-looking Bosmer chap? You can adjust the way your character looks just like you did at the start of Skyrim—but this will reset your level and skills.

player.modav skill X

Where "skill" is the skill you want to modify, and X is the amount you want to modify it by. Skills are inputted via their in-game names without spaces, apart from Archery which is "Marksman", and Speech, which is known as "Speechcraft".

player.additem ITEM ###

Every single item in Skyrim has a code, a bit like an Argos catalogue of fantasy objects. You'll find them in our list of Skyrim item codes. Replace "ITEM" with the item's code, and "###" with the number of items you want. Now your dreams of owning 47 cabbage potato soups can come true.

player.additem 0000000f ###

A simple way to get some free gold. Any number between 001 and 999 will do.

player.additem 0000000a “###”

Running low on lockpicks? Enter the number you require here and they'll magically appear.

addshout

Combine with the codes on this Wikia page to add your selected shout.

tm

Toggles all in-game menus, perfect if you want to take some screenshots to convince elderly relatives that Skyrim is where you went on your holidays. Note that this also hides the console commands menu, meaning you'll have to type it again without being able to see the console.

tmm

Followed by 0 or 1 turns all map markers on or off.

tfc

Not Team Fortress Classic, unfortunately. However, you will be able to access the flycam, essentially leaving your host body behind and sailing through the air. Great for screenshots.

tai

Toggles AI on and off, which means NPCs won't interact with you, or do anything at all.

tcai

Turns combat AI on or off, turning dragons into placid beasts who act like you aren't there. A bit like cats.

tdetect

This one lets you behave like a little rapscallion, as it turns naughty business detection (stealing, murdering, doing a poo in the woods etc) on or off. You'll still get caught if you try pickpocketing, though.

player.setcrimegold ###

Adjust your wanted level with this handy command - setting it to zero resets removes your wanted level completely.

player.setlevel ##

Up or down your player level as you see fit.

player.setav speedmult ###

Want to run like The Flash? Set this number to anything more than 100 to speed up movement.

movetoqt

Go straight to your quest target.

kill

Look at the thing you want to kill, open the console, click on the target, and type this command. They'll fall over in a very dead manner.

help

Lists every single console command. We've put this further down the list because we want you to actually read this article.

resurrect

Target the thing you want to bring back to life, and they'll get up in a very alive manner.

player.modav carryweight #

Tired of getting tired? Up your carryweight and you'll be able to transport more goodies. Toggling god mode (tgm) also lets you carry as much as you like.

player.setav health #

Up your health here.

coc qasmoke

Bethesda's handily included a room with every single in-game item in it—type this command to go straight there. It might take a while to load: there are thousands of items here. Type " coc Riverwood " to return to the game.

qqq

Quit the game without having to go through any of those pesky menus.

removeallitems

Target a character and type this and you'll get all their items—including their clothes. Note: does not work in real life.

sexchange

Change your character's gender.

set timescale to #

This defaults at 20. Up it to experience crazy timelapse-style Skyrim.

Go to page two for NPC spawning, making people fight and becoming a giant.

placeatme

Use this to spawn NPCs and monsters at your location. Just replace actor/object ID with a Base ID (not a Ref ID) from our list of Skyrim NPC codes. This is the command we used to crank out a horde of dragons around Whiterun. Note that this command spawns new creatures, rather than moving old ones, so if you use it on an NPC, you'll clone them.

moveto

Use this to move yourself next to an NPC, useful for Kharjo, the nomadic Khajit, who can be hard to find as he follows the caravans around Skyrim. In this case you replace the words 'actor ID' with the Ref ID (not the Base ID), the opposite of placeatme. You can find the ID in our list of Skyrim NPC codes.

setrelationshiprank

Select two NPCs and set the relationship between them, the values range from 4 (lover) to -4 (archnemesis). Use it to make NPCs fight or do other er... more worrying things.

addtofaction

Click on an NPC and use this command to add them to a faction. It's not just about Stormcloaks and Imperials though. Using 0005C84D will add a character to the follower faction, giving them the necessary dialogue to join you, while 00019809 will add them to the 'potential spouse' faction, allowing you to marry them. This won't work on NPCs with unique voices however, so you won't be able to wed Esbern or General Tullius any time soon.

disable

Also known as the 'I have no mouth and I must scream' command. Disable banishes the selected NPC to some sort of weird coding limbo. They become invisible, have no collisions and AI won't interact with them, but they're still technically there. Horrifying.

enable

Undoes the effects of the Disable command. Disabling and then Enabling your follower will reset them to your current level, which is a handy way of making sure they stay useful in a fight.

setessential

It might be fun putting on god mode and becoming immortal, but don't you get a little lonely knowing that one day all the other characters you love will die? I know I do. Thankfully there's a solution: simply use this console command with a 1 to set characters to 'essential', which means they'll take damage until they fall on their knees, but then get up again. Using it with a 0 will turn essential characters mortal, but be careful with that, Bethesda probably made them immortal for a reason.

setownership

This command sets you as the owner of the targeted item, removing all those annoying 'stolen' tags from your ill gotten gains.

setstage

This allows you to move the quests you're playing back to a prior stage or forward to a new one. Useful if you've somehow broken it by murdering the wrong NPC. Skyrim wiki has a useful list of quests, along with IDs and stages.

setscale

Changes the size of the player or NPC. You start out at level one, which is normal sized, while zero is small. It goes all the way up to an absurdly huge ten.

unequipitem

Click on an NPC and type this to force them to put the item they're holding away. Useful if they're holding a sword you want.

fov

Sets your field of view.

tfow

Turns off the fog of war on your local map, filling it in completely.

player.Drop

Forces the player to drop items, even usually undroppable quest items. Try just 'drop' to drop absolutely everything you're carrying.

dispelallspells

Unsurprisingly, dispells all spells on the target NPC. This won't work on werewolves, as they technically become a different NPC when they transform.

MarkForDelete

Marking an item for deletion sends a contract to the Dark Brotherhood, ensuring it will never been seen or heard from again. It will be removed from the world the next time you load an area. A useful way to get rid of annoying things like ash piles that never seem to go away.

setgs fJumpHeightMin

Sets the player's jump height. A high value means enormous moon hops.

I'm just about to place my head on the chopping block when, all of a sudden, I hear a noise. "You say you don't know where the Macho Man is coming from," it sounds like. My captors ignore it, ordering me to place myself mere inches from the severed heads of those who went before me. That's when I see it. Introduced by a "Macho madness, sky's the limit," the cowboy-hat-and-sunglasses-wearing dragon lands on a nearby tower, sending everyone into a frenzy with a triumphant, "Yeah!" before wreaking havoc on the village of Helgen.

If this sounds familiar, then you've likely seen or used the Macho Dragon mod, which turns all of Skyrim's dragons into a monstrous recreation of late WWE wrestler "Macho Man" Randy Savage. The YouTube video has accrued over four million views, and it's often one of the first things brought up whenever a conversation about video game mods strikes. Its creator, who goes by the alias FancyPants, got his start with mods by turning Will Smith's character from Men in Black: The Game into Ronald McDonald, and he says that he built the Macho Dragon mod simply because it made himself laugh.

"Originally, I was testing some of the tools that had been released for Blender," FancyPants said. "I was doing it just to see if I could get the model exporters to work properly. And in fact, originally, it wasn't going to be Macho Man; it was going to be Tommy Wiseau [from The Room]. But I had the cowboy hat and I thought, 'You know, it would be funny to put in Macho Man's audio and see how that works.' I tried it in game, laughed my ass off, and put it out there... and it kinda blew up.

"It was just a test that kinda spun outta control."

With the popularity of Macho Dragon, he added a similar mod to Fallout 4, which replaced a Death Claw with something that looks a little bit more like Savage. If it wasn't already obvious, FancyPants doesn't need more than a laugh to publish a mod on the internet. He told me that most of the stuff he works on comes from him testing something, thinking it's funny, and uploading it.

"It's really just one long train of thought of weird ideas," he said. "There's nothing particularly serious, to be honest."

Despite his inclination for the wildly goofy, FancyPants has found himself pushed by the community to create mods that are more serious or, at the very least, they can use. He did this with his Crimes Against Nature Skyrim mod, which he says is the project he's spent the most time on. It started out as an assortment of bizarre head parts and outlandish models one of these being a Wiseau horse created only to make himself laugh. But hopeful players encouraged him to turn these unconventional heads into proper playable races. He did just that, allowing people to play as races such as a chair, My Little Pony, or even the Space Core from Portal 2.

"It's goofy, it's obviously not 'lore-friendly,' but people pushed me to set it up a bit more properly, so I did," he said.

The talented modder found himself creating another "serious" mod when he took the faces of Fallout 4 and exaggerated them to ridiculous lengths. The mod, titled Immersive Facial Animations, caused the faces to ignore basic human anatomy, breaking the rules of everything you know about human expression and creating pure, unadulterated nightmare fuel.

"I went in there and started messing with the vanilla files and, you know, see if I could exaggerate it, if I could increase the intensity," he explained. "Once again, I found it hilarious and said, 'Okay, fine. I'll release that.' But afterwards some people were messaging me saying 'Hey, this is really funny, but it would be nice if you could increase the intensity slightly and release that as a serious mod.'"

What he came up with was three different versions of the mod, which turn the dull, sometimes lifeless faces of Fallout 4 into more enthusiastic ones that are full of expression. It's a different kind of project for FancyPants, but he's unlikely to stray too far from the ones that make him laugh, especially his most popular one. When asked if he was going to make sure Macho Dragon worked with Skyrim Special Edition, he surprised me by saying he was actually working on it at the time of our interview. However, he said it won't be exactly how you remember it.

"It's getting a bit of an overhaul," FancyPants said. "When it was first released, it was just a silly joke of the same model for every dragon. I'm hoping to differentiate them a little bit with little outfits.

"I'm looking into adding a crown and cape for Alduin, he'll be the Macho king," he continued. "I'm seeing if I can make Paarthurnax look like Hulk Hogan, but I'm not sure if I can get him to use separate Hulk Hogan audio."

For someone as dedicated to his Skyrim mods as FancyPants, it's perhaps surprising that he still hasn't spent much time actually playing the game.

"It does look like an interesting game," he said. "I should take the time to play it someday."

Laughing, he says that he spends most of his time in Skyrim testing out mods, and by the time he's done, he doesn't want to play it. He tells me this isn't uncommon amongst modders, that it's a bit of a recurring problem in the community.

For what's in his future, FancyPants says he's looking at bringing Macho Man to other games. He briefly mentioned Dragon Ball Xenoverse during our conversation, but he can't commit to the idea of a Macho Man spirit bomb just yet. Nevertheless, he did provide one answer with a little more confidence.

"Whatever Bethesda game comes out next, I'll probably put him in that, too."

I've been messing around with the Skyrim Special Edition this evening, and along with comparing how it looks to the (unmodded) original, I've also got some information on the available settings and how well it performs. (You might also be interested in knowing how the Special Edition works with existing saved games and mods.)

Here's a look at the settings:

You can see there are three options for anti-aliasing: None, FXAA, and TAA. In other words, high, low, or off. There are tickboxes for screen space reflections, ambient occlusion, precipitation occlusion, snow shader, lens flare, and 64-bit render targets.

The in-game settings menu provides sliders for the fade distances of things like NPCs, items, objects, and grass, and there's also a depth of field slider.

One thing that stands out sort of immediately: there's no FOV slider. You can quickly adjust the FOV while playing by opening the console (~) and typing, for example, "FOV 90 90" or "FOV 110 110" (no quotes) but the absence of a slider is a bit perplexing considering the fact that the functionality is already there and has been for years.

As with the original Skyrim, Special Edition has a cap of 60 fps, though I get that 60 fps almost constantly on my GeForce GTX 980. Everywhere I go, whether running through the woods, riding across the plains, and even in Solitude where I started a fight that resulted in about a dozen guards and citizens all whomping on me at once, both indoors and outdoors, I never lost more than a few frames, and then only momentarily. It's been a smooth ride so far.

Which isn't to say this isn't still a Bethesda RPG. While the visuals have been improved, Skyrim is still Skyrim and the bugs and glitches that shipped with the original game are still there. Above, you can see the opening sequence, and how a random horse winds up getting in the way of the actors who are busy trying to execute me.

The horse became such a problem that the sequence stalled before the dragon could show up, so we all just stood around staring and waiting. After several minutes it was clear Mr. Ed wasn't going to be moved, so I had to restart. Skyrim! It hasn't changed much after all.

Finally, let's take a gander at how the Special Edition actually looks.

The images below were taken using the same saved game, first taking a screenshot in the original Skyrim, saving the game there, then transferring the save file to Skyrim Special Edition and loading it. So, what you're seeing is me standing in the same spot at the same time of day with the same weather conditions in both games. The image from classic Skyrim is on the left, and Special Edition is on the right. A handy slider lets you compare them.

This was taken near Riften, and you can see the colors in Special Edition are much richer. The sky is more blue and the yellow of the leaves is brighter. The water looks less greasy and oily as well.

Here's a glance toward Solitude, and in addition to slightly lusher plants and considerably bluer skies, you can see some additional details on the buildings, particularly the windmill in the top left corner. The lighting looks much better as well: it feels much more like actual daytime.

Here's the waterfall near Dragonbridge. Again, the skies are a much deeper blue, trees in the far distance look a trifle less cartoony, and the lighting of the landscape in the background gives more feeling of depth than the original.

Sunrise outside Markarth. Again, improved lighting makes the details of landscape in the distance, as well as the horse and cart, much easier to see. And we can also see some added details here and there, like the foliage along the staircase and cobblestone path.

It appears there haven't been improvements to the character models they're still pretty uggo though they look a bit better under the improved lighting. You can also see a few little bits of added foliage along the road.

Below, the images can be enlarged individually for a closer look.

With Skyrim: Special Edition arriving Thursday, we realized we had a few questions about how it's all going to work in terms of mods, saved games, and most importantly: modded saved games.

Here's what we know so far, and unfortunately it's not all good news. We'll update this post with any additional information we discover.

Skyrim and Skyrim Special Edition are two separate games

You probably know this one, but just in case: if you own Skyrim and its expansions, you'll get Skyrim Special Edition for free, and you don't need to worry about Skyrim SE overwriting or replacing your original copy of Skyrim.

They are two completely separate games. If you have saved games and installed mods for Skyrim, you will still be able to play them with your original copy of Skyrim after the Special Edition appears.

Existing unmodified saved games can be used with Skyrim SE

If you've got saved games from the original Skyrim, you can use them with Skyrim SE. According to an email from Bethesda, it's just a matter of copying and pasting the files:

"Existing save games from the original PC game will work in the PC version of Skyrim Special Edition. Simply copy your old saves from My Games/Skyrim to My Games/Skyrim Special Edition."

So, you'll be able to pick up in the Special Edition right where you left off in the original. This is only for unmodded saved games, though, and here comes the bad news.

Modded saved games most likely won't work at all with Skyrim SE

We haven't had a chance to test this yet (while we have review code for Skyrim SE, we can't play it until the actual launch time), but our understanding is that existing modded saves that is, saved games in which you used mods for the original Skyrim won't work at all with Skyrim SE.

Bethesda tells us this in their email:

"Only use original saves that have never been used with mods. Do not use your original saved game if this error appears when you load it in Skyrim Special Edition: This save relies on content that is no longer present."

I've been speaking with Dave Talamas, Community Manager of Nexus Mods today, and he's also pretty doubtful modded saves will work:

"Unfortunately, we haven't had enough internal testing to give you a definitive answer on modded save file compatibility. According to our community of mod authors however, the general consensus regarding compatibility of modded saves is a resounding 'no.' Though there is a remote chance that very particular save files which only depend on mods which have a SSE equivalent installed may work, this will not be relevant to the vast majority of mod users because their modded files will have one or more dependencies with a currently incompatible mod.

"Our advice for mod users is to expect to start fresh when it comes to playing SSE."

Skyrim SE versions of SkyUI and Skyrim Script Extender may take a while to appear

Skyrim Script Extender is a tool many mods rely on, as it expands both scripting capabilities and functionality for mods. Thing is, SKSE was created for the 32 bit Skyrim, and Skyrim Special Edition is 64 bit, meaning the current version of SKSE won't work with the Special Edition.

SkyUI, one of the best and most popular mods for Skyrim, and a mod that many other mods require for configuration, depends on SKSE to work. So, until there's a version of SKSE for the 64 bit version, there won't be a workable version of SkyUI for Skyrim SE.

I asked Dave if he knew the current status of these two incredibly important mods, and he confirmed that SKSE is being actively worked on to support Skyrim SE, though he doesn't know how long it might take.

"The same can be said for SkyUI as it's dependent on SKSE in its current state," Dave said. "A big loss of not having SkyUI as you may know is the loss of in-game mod configuration. So, mod authors are likely to adapt with more rudimentary schemes to allow for in-game mod configuration (such as activating a book), until both are completed."

Update: Dave clarified things a bit further in regards to SkyUI, saying: "...while the SKSE team have confirmed their interest in continuing their work with SSE, the SkyUI developers on the other-hand have not confirmed, but they have expressed interest in collaborating with others who may carry the torch, so-to-speak."

There are some mods for Skyrim SE already

Since Skyrim and Skyrim SE are two different games, modders who post their Skyrim Mods on Nexus Mods need to essentially create duplicates of their work. Many are busy doing this and Nexus Mods is making this process as easy as possible for them and some modders who had access to the Skyrim SE beta test already have their mods up on the new Special Edition Nexus page.

The Nexus Mods page for Skyrim SE is right here, so you can see what's currently available. Thankfully, prolific modder Arthmoor has a number of his mods ready to go, including an Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch, which like its predecessor, will fix a number of bugs that were present in the original Skyrim and have been carried over to the Special Edition.

Nexus Mod Manager now supports Skyrim SE

Updated: If, like me, you use Nexus Mod Manager, the Nexus Mods tool for managing your mods, it now supports Skyrim Special Edition.

You can download the new version of Nexus Mod Manager here.

We'll update this post with any additional information we come across.

From the skilled hands of master claysmith Lee Hardcastle comes Skyrim Memories, a tribute to some of the most exciting moments of Nord adventure, rendered entirely in claymation. Shanking spiders, clobbering dragons, yelling at guys (as you do when you're the Dovahkiin), and making friends with locals: It's all in a day's work for the world's shoutiest, squishiest fantasy hero.

Hardcastle's work, created in conjunction with Bethesda, marks the forthcoming launch of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition, which will be out on October 27 or 28, depending on which part of the world you call home. It promises numerous enhancements over the original game, including spectacularly upgraded graphics, and if you already own Skyrim and its three DLC releases Dawnguard, Hearthfire, and Dragonborn you'll get it free.

Skyrim Special Edition arrives next week in time for the original game's fifth year anniversary. After announcing its system requirements last week, Bethesda has now revealed exactly when it'll unlock depending on where you are in the world. What's more, the developer has also outlined the prerequisites existing owners will need to ascertain in order to nab the HD remaster for free.

Boasting a range of new features designed to make the fifth Elder Scrolls series entry "feel fresh again", the Special Edition will introduce things like remastered art and effects, volumetric lighting (better known as 'god rays'), and new snow and water shaders, among other aesthetical tweaks. It's universal release is set for October 28 at 12am UTC, which translates to:

• 5pm Pacific Time (October 27)
• 8pm Eastern Time (October 27)
• 1am British Summer Time (October 28)
• 2am Central European Summer Time (October 28)
• 11am Australian Eastern Time Zone (October 28)
• 1pm New Zealand Time (October 28th)
• 2pm Japan (October 28th)

As per this Steam Community update, if you already own Skyrim and all three of its separate DLCs that's Dawnguard, Hearthfire and Dragonborn or the Skyrim Legendary Edition, you'll receive the Special Edition free-of-charge. A disclaimer notes that "if you do not complete your Skyrim [and] all DLC bundle until October 28th, your free upgrade to Skyrim Special Edition may take up to 36 hours to apply to your account."

Skyrim's modding scene is one of the PC's most incredible and diverse. It's a canvas on which artists can paint with their imagination, making everything from total conversion mods to ones that simply add capes. But every once in awhile, a mod comes around possessing such immense artistic vision even its own creator can't comprehend it.

No, seriously, this person has no idea what their mod even does, and they're asking people to figure it out for them.

"Literally, this was by far the worst idea I've ever had," writes its creator, Chocolate Milk. "And trust me, that's really saying something." See, instead of creating a mod that adds some useful functionality to Skyrim, Chocolate Milk made a potion. Not just any potion, however, a potion that has the ability to do something. What, you might ask? Not even Chocolate Milk can answer that."I started creating a potion," they write. "I just started clicking randomly, scrolling, selecting random things, and hoping it would turn out well. And holy crap, that was a disaster. I don't even know what I did. I don't know what it is, but I think it probably has at least 102% alcohol content. See, this potion does some weird crap. At least, I think it does. I don't even really know what it does, honestly. I just clicked randomly and hoped for the best."

Suitably named 'Really F*cking Weird Potion,' those that want to find out can subscribe to the mod on Steam and head over to The Drunken Huntsman in Whiterun. There, Chocolate Milk has placed a new merchant named Peddler that sells the item. Just in case you needed any more reasons to be apprehensive, Chocolate Milk named his creation "Suicide?"

That hasn't stopped players from turning Chocolate Milk's mod into one of the most popular Skyrim mods of recent weeks. Already the comments are filling up with playful notes and speculation, but so far details aren't all that concrete."Sir, as much as I admire your inspiration," writes one player, "I have to say, that this concoction of yours dubiously has any good qualities at all! Although I will admit, the taste is exotic. But in any case, I have to, unfortunately, end my life here, as this potion has consumed my thoughts, and filled my mind with the worst of ideas."

"It turned into a werewolf and put ice shit and explosions everywhere," writes another. This one in particular troubles me as I can't tell if it turned the player or the potion itself into a werewolf. That might be beside the point if there's "ice shit" everywhere whatever that means.

Perhaps it's the mystery of what the potion does, or maybe it's the risk that drinking it could have some serious consequences. Chocolate Milk has no clue, and they've asked anyone who ends up drinking it to let them know. "I have no idea what this thing does," they write. "And if you subscribe to it, I beg you, tell me what the hell this does. I'm curious about what my Frankenstein potion is."

We here at PC Gamer take this kind of thing very seriously, so I decided it was time to discover the truth about Chocolate Milk's mod.

I'm honestly not sure what I expected, but at least we can lay this mystery to rest. The far greater riddle is why this mod is currently trending as one of the most popular on Skyrim's Steam Workshop page. Whatever the truth is, I think this comment by 'MyLittleEmpath' sums my thoughts up perfectly: "This is why I love the modding community." If you're feeling brave, head over to the Steam Workshop page and try the mod yourself. Leave us a comment if you do, so we know what kind of mayhem you caused with it.

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(What? Star Wars is totally fantasy.)

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