So the first character has retired.

He started out as, well, nothing special. I'm fine with that and would rather develop my character while I play them than before I play them. My intention for him was to become an axe wielding Nord barbarian, and he perked along fairly well in that regard (light armor, block, one hand, smith, archery). I also planned for him to pursue the main quest pretty much directly. In that he was less successful.

He took an assortment of entertaining sidetracks. He piled up some pretty astounding wealth. He abandoned his nomadic roots. He ended up a Whiterun burgher and retired to play house with Lydia, leaving Skyrim to solve its own problems.

Lessons learned and how to apply them to the next play...

I lack discipline. Some of the side trips I can sort of place blame elsewhere. Quests that grab you just walking by, sort of like Glarthir in Oblivion, are a known weakness of mine and I didn't hold my ground. Can't avoid the mechanism there, so basically I just need to buck up.

I'm a terrible hoarder, and that damages a nomadic character. I could feel boredom setting in, and a huge part of it was from doing the pack mule thing...and there was no reason to be doing the pack mule thing. Rather than set out on a new adventure I was just as likely to set out for a giant pile of cheap scrap that I had abandoned on a previous adventure. So I could sell the cheap scrap for money I had no particular use for. Since I didn't particularly need money the stuff that wasn't cheap scrap became hard to part with and weigh me down. I sell enough to buy a house to hold the rest and my barbarian basically ceases to exist. So he retires to his house full of stuff. Oh well.

Second major problem, I have the tenacity to kill things I probably shouldn't, and at the end of the day that isn't very satisfying. It's a troll. My guy is a novice barbarian at best. This is a terrible mismatch. But with enough reloads he will eventually get lucky. String enough of these reload until he gets lucky 'battles' together and what's the point? Obvious solution here is to play DID...but that's pretty extreme.

So here's the mechanism for my second play that solves those two problems. Shrine saves. If he dies my new character doesn't go back to a save made right before the fight or a handy auto-save. He goes back to the most recent 'shrine save'. To make a shrine save he gives up 100 gold per level at some sort of shrine (and doesn't subsequently steal the coins back).

So far (level 7) it's going well. The money sink is enough to kill even my hoarding instinct, and the distance back to the last save is sufficient to give me a fairly descent respect for my character's life and limb. Of course I'm here commenting because he just died and going all the way back to Windhelm three hours ago is irking me no end, so apparently not enough respect.

"shrine saves" Good idea to keep you focused on the job at hand and incentive not to take on enemies that are too powerful.

My first playthrough, it was a disaster early on. Being completely new to Elder Scrolls, I made some mistakes. I got in trouble in Whiterun for stealing or something, which resulted in guards coming after me and I would fight them; kill them. Then run away. Eventually had something like 20,000+ bounty in Whiterun. I didn't understand the laws and bounties then. I also went to a smaller town, Riverwood I think it was, and broke into someone's house one night and was in a back and forth battle with two of the residents, and it took me quite a few tries to defeat both of them.

I also learned getting money early on in the game is greatly recommended, which I now get by selling things I pick up off enemies. Random weapons, armor pieces, ect. FIrst time through, I didn't do this and I had trouble just getting 5,000 gold to buy Breezehome.

And finally, I learned not to do every quest, every guild with one character. It's better to set a backstory for your character. Set restrictions and only do quests or join guilds that fit that character. Makes things a little more interesting.

Worst thing I ever did was do everything on my first character. Sometimes, when I grew bored. I made a new character, and did everything again. I did that over 10 times before I found these forums.

I can't let go of my characters! I build them, build them...
Can't just abandon them once they're wealthy and powerful.
Dunno if anyone else has this 'problem'?

After four complete ~600-hour playthroughs (I love this game) I now have an order-to-do-things in.
Always go to Riften first - because joining the TG once you're already rich and famous is just fake.
Destroy the DB. Yes I do.
Ignore the CW (because the game acts as if it's still going, even after you settle it).

Sure you can create different characters, who do things in different ways...
But for me, they end up within the same general overall framework.
That's why (thank god) I eventually tired of the game!

Played a guy through New Vegas on hardcoe. Now I'm gonna go S.T.A.L.K. The Zone...
My current level 80 guy (who has not yet done Solstheim, the Companions, CW, DB, or the MQ) will always be waiting.

Well... Since I knew quite a bit before playing Skyrim, I did pretty good on my first character... Though my first character EVER in the Elder Scrolls series is a totally different story...

Speaking about this, my friend played Skyrim on my Xbox for a bit and I remembered he manage to get to like level 6 and thought he could kill a giant... That was amusing to watch.

Since Skyrim was my first ES game, i used my very first character as a sorta guinnee (sp) pig as i had no idea what i was doing. He was a jack of all trades, did every questline and side quest and whatever else he felt like doing, without regaurd if it was morally right or wrong.

Bu the time i got to my next character, i had a much better idea for where i wanted to go with him.

oblivion was my first Elder Scrolls game, five years before Skyrim was released. However, I still made mistakes.

I'll tell you all this now: NEVER KILL THE CHICKENS.

the first character ever i created is the 25 december 2011 on ps3. his first retirement was in august 2012. i was lv 81 n i do everything n explore everything in the game with that character. dlc came out in february 2013 he was out of retirement. when i do everything the 3 dlc have to offer legendary patch came out. so i lv up my character to lv 130. but the last 3 perk i get i dont really need them so i stop lv up.then everything was over so i do the unthinkable i kill pathurnax i recruit 3 peoples n i start my blade clan. that was the last thing i can do with him after killing 5 dragons with my blades friends i get bored n realize that was over. so the character return to his manor in solitude with eala n the 2 kids. will probably never play with this character again. except if by some miracle a new patch came out with new stuff but that will not happen

Still leaves opportunities for being heroic though. If I play DID I find that I miss out on those rewarding 'edgy' choices that define a real hero, like taking the lead battling the first dragon I met instead of hiding while the guards took care of it like I might in a DID game. Overall I think the shrine save will be a standard in my Elder Scrolls games from here on out.

-Big mistake that I did with Kayla on my first playthrough is that I used tgm everywhere and rushed through the questlines. Now, if she dies for whatever reason, it's back to the beginning. That way I can be cautious and actually have a strategy and an escape route.

-Hoarded too many things. Now I only take things that I know that I will sell.

-Tried to do everything without good reason to. Kayla wants the riches of the TG and DB, but she stopped short when she

, so she plains to join the CW so she can get Alteration training. Highly doubt she will be a part of the Companions but only time will tell.

You do realize that as soon as I get back in the game I am going to have to kill a chicken and see what happens, right?

A lesson I learned from Morrowind and have never forgotten: you only get to do things the first time once. If you do them that first time with a 'supercharacter' that has already done a lot of stuff and gotten powerful you have wasted that one time opportunity.

That's why I'm doing the main quest and as close to nothing else as I can manage with this Barbarian character. Next character might be a thief and do the theive's guild and (maybe) the main quest again. Might be some kind of mage and do this College of Winterhold business and (maybe) the main quest again. Might be an Imperial soldier and sort out this civil war business. Eventually I'll do everything, maybe, and maybe I'll even do everything with one character somewhere way down the line, but very little will be done the first time with a character that is too powerful to enjoy it.

The lesson I got from my first character was, "jeez, Nords are boring!"

ha well it is possible to kill a giant/mammoth at level 2 with the right terrain and strategy...I killed both (separate times) with an iron sword, long bow and a handful of iron arrows.

It is funny though when you watch someone make noob mistakes but we were all noobs in TES at some time.

I believe stealing and murder are universal no no's in real life and fantasy settings as well.

Spoken like a true milk-drinker.

I have employed an option similar to "shrine saves" in the past. I had to wean myself off DiD when I started my Dragonborn expansion playthrough on Xbox. The whole point is to experience the expansion, so restarting a character upon death wasn't something I was willing to do. If my character was outmatched and died, I sent her back to the nearest town or inn to recover, instead of reloading endlessly until we finally won. That was enough of a penalty to make it significant, and I didn't lose a lot of gameplay.

I am pretty similar in my play. I keep "trying" to be a wandering Bard (like Talsgar) and fail miserably

Discipline is another problem I struggle with. With each new character I create, I have a plan. Most of the time, that "plan" goes by the wayside as I get a new quest I had not gotten before, I find a new place I have not seen before, or any other number thing within Skyrim that work all too well to sidetrack me

Again, similar here. I am either VERY cheap, or a sub-conscious clean freak (which I highly doubt). If it is on the ground, I feel a compulsion to pick it up. I can not even run along in the wilderness and NOT pick flowers and mushrooms This bad habit forces me to buy a place to put all this crap in for storage.

I am also a collector, which is detrimental to a "wanderer" type of character. Also, by the time I want Dragons to appear, I have a goodly amount of stuff so I take the next step and get Breezehome. There goes the wandering bard idea...

I like your "shrine save" idea. Reminds me of MMOs It also helps with gold accumulation.

I remember on my first TES character, I made a Wood Elf, bought a Claymore at Arille's, attacked the first person I saw, died horribly, uninstalled the game. I can see why Bethesda holds your hand these days.

I'm going through a new experience with my current character, coming back to Skyrim after a while. Currently roleplaying some sort of knight who doesn't steal, loot things that he cannot use (this includes better armor if the enemy was slain by common weapons) or plunder dungeons he's clearing. At level 11, being Thane of Whiterun with Lydia as my squire I still have barely 1000 gold. Being the poor hedge knight and not robbing everyone and everything blind is a welcome change.

I liked the Inn idea.

My first character in Skyrim Tara was a Jack ( or jill) of all trades, but I made her that way. She didn't finish a single questline, but started MQ, CoW, Companions and Bards ( that probably would have been easy to finish). She got to lvl 34 or 37 very quickly, but mainly because I switched back and forth between skills. She tried out light and Heavy armor ( didn't do battle in cloths though). Tried all the melee skills and all the magic schools. All three crafts. She was a mess.

I always save before I go into any ruin, fort or cave if the character gets "killed" to many times, I go back to that save and they leave. They will return and fight another day, but the place won't be set at the lvl she or he was when they entered. After loosing 4 RL play hrs after my TG character was told to Pickpocket Viklas ( who in my game sits in that dang chair as long as you are there) I now go to Honeyside and save then go down and turn in the last job and get new ones. That way I can decline jobs and don't worry about having problems.

The closest I have come to a nomadic character, wasn't nomadic at all, but a hunter type. She lived in The Alchemists Shack and really other than pelts and alchemy ingredients never really saved/horded anything... the fact that she also never entered a "walled" city helped. She never made anything over leather, never actually made any weapon only improved the ones she found. Most of her money was from potions and leather stuff and whatever quality stuff she got off of bandits ( she never attacked first).

I remember my first character, my Dunmer, she actually did pretty well. Aided the Empire, ended the war, saved the college, destroyed the DB, and didn't finish the Companions or TG quest because she scorned Nocturnal and Hircine, but she did do a few other daedric quests because she didn't know better. Married a Nord blacksmith, adopted a Breton. Not to mention completing the main quest.

My Imperial was my second character and my best, because he learned from her.

Kind of a reason I never RP characters that I know I would never enjoy... Nomadic who doesn't hoard things, who doesn't have a home property? Never going to try that. Building a wealth, buying a home, collect all relevant items, rare or common is the fun of RPG and even RP can't rid me of that. So no matter what career my characters may choose, stable glorious big house with wealth and fortune inside is an underlying goal.

The only lesson I learned from my first character was that Imperial Luck was useless.

I'm enjoying nomad 2 quite a lot. Up to level 10 (most recent temple save was just before level up at one of the shrine like things on the way up throat of the world, 900 coins left in a dead wolf, ouch) and progressing happily through the main quest. Still have about 2000 coins and looking forward to arriving at the next blacksmiths shop to unload him and Lydia the Mule, so it's not like he's destitute. I do seem to have a problem with books though...but only about 20 pounds of them so far.

Aye, I am a milk drinker. Milk is good for the bones and makes coffee edible.