Exergaming mode

Level up your Skyrim character by exercising in real-life situations.

Sport mode

Exergaming mode modifies Skyrim to improve characters through real-life training. Lift weights to improve your health, do aerobics to improve your stamina; play sports, take fitness classes and stretch to boost your mojo. (Skills can still be improved by practicing through games).

terms and Conditions

Exergaming mode is part of a research project at the University of Auckland's Game Lab. By using this mod, you allow us to use your practice and game data for research purposes. Your participation is voluntary; you can stop at any time. If you do not want your data used, you can email us and we will delete it. If your data is used for scientific publications, it will be de-identified and only aggregated for reporting. If you have any questions about this, please contact us.

Quick start guide

Create an account at exercise.com.

Create an account on the exergaming portal. Click "Register Tracker" and connect to your exercise.com account. (We're having domain name issues. If the above doesn't work, please use this link).

Click the Download (NMM) button to download the mod (or see manual installation below).

Enable the mod on the NMM mod page.

On the NMM plugins page, make sure Exergaming.esp is in the lower half of the list (preferably the last one) and is enabled.

Launch into the sky.

Load a character, or start a new game. If you start a new game, play through the intro until you equip weapons and armor before moving on to the next step.

Go to Settings -> System -> Mod Configuration -> Exergaming Mod -> Settings and select "Turn on Exergame Mod".

Enter the email you use for the exergaming portal.

Exit the menu.

Continue playing as usual.

Record your workouts on exercise.com.

When you open Skyrim, it will import the new training and level up your character accordingly.

If Skyrim doesn't seem to notice that you have logged a workout, go to Settings -> System -> Mod Configuration -> Exergaming Mod -> Settings, select "Check recent workouts", close the menu and give it a minute. Pay attention to the notification in the upper left corner. If it doesn't work, please contact us.

frequently asked questions

Can I still gain experience by competing?

Training skills can improve personal skill levels, but will not affect the player experience or increase the player's level.

Gaining stealth experience, for example, will still allow you to upgrade your stealth skills and allow you to progress through the stealth skill tree, but will not grant experience to the player's level or the player's current experience level.

This means the only way to gain player experience is to exercise and log workout data to a linked exercise.com account.

But what about health, magic and stamina?

Skyrim Exergaming Mod attempts to reflect your personal fitness and real-life athletic results in the game character.

Recording aerobic exercise will produce dragons with great endurance.

Recording movement-based exercises will grant the dragon skill and knowledge in the form of magic.

Recording bodyweight-based workouts will build your dragon's strength to increase maximum fitness.

How is my training distributed as I gain experience and stats?

Distribution is based on previous exercise history. Conversions are developed in a way that rewards players for their considerable efforts in the game for gyms, but still provides linear growth to avoid plateaus of obsolescence.

What else changes with this mod?

In addition to a rework of the leveling and experience systems, skill books now have no impact on player levels, the UI has been changed to allow syncing to exergaming accounts and various notification messages have been implemented.

Do I need to install any other mods?

This mod depends on two other Skyrim mods. C++ requires SKSE to run with Skyrim. SkyUI is required in the game menu.

Manual installation

After downloading the mod, you simply copy the downloaded files into the Sky …