okay so I play skyrim at my bf's house & use his character when i do, I find the dragon fights really fun but they almost never happen. I heard that dragons attack cities but this never happens when I'm playing. his character is level 30-some & he says he completed the main story. also I do turn the difficulty down to apprentice when I play in case that factors into it. I'm hoping somebody can tell me how I can have the dragons appear more often.

All I seemed to have to do is fast travel a couple times between Whiterun and Riverwood, and I would get attacked by one.

I'm 18, and have I think 11 souls stored up, and unlocked like 8 shouts.

okay I checked & it's level 35 exactly

Look for the dragon heads on the map. They are dragon lairs and respawn every three day to a week. You can easily fast travel to one and you'll easily find one.

Do the main quest and fast travel alot

:D

I'm not sure if anything has to do with his involvement with the main quest line, but I feel I can't travel anywhere that isn't a main city without being attacked by a dragon. I haven't even spoken to the Greybeards, and I'm level 50. Dragons are not too difficult to come by, and I don't think the difficulty level has much to do with it either. Just travel around to towns, and other places that aren't cities, and you should encounter some.

my bf already completed it on the character I usually play

I seem to find a dragon every time I fast travel to another city. I need a house to hide all the bones.

Ok, so here's what I've got- I think the dragons are triggered by at least these two factors: A: a certain amount of in-game time has passed (not real time) and B: a certain amount of instance loading without combat inbetween. This is based on my personal experience, which is as follows: I'm level 34. I've fought 28 dragons and over half of the battles have taken place at the college of winterhold. Its absolutely ridiculous. typically dragon skeletons don't despawn (at least for a very long time) so the poor college is litterally overrun with dragon bodies- skeletons are hanging off the roof, on the open walkway, and there are six skeletons stacked on top of each other in the central courtyard. I believe that the reason this keeps happening is that, every time I go to the college, i instance load at least 4 times- once to enter the hall of elements, once to enter my archmage quarters, once to get back into the hall of elements, and one more to get outside. that + the long fast travel time to get to the college seems to trigger them. so in conclusion, frequent places that require several instance loads. Or you can just start doing the mages guild quests- trust me, the bodies will start stacking up fast.

If you use a shout in a city, you will get a courier that will drop off a note pointing you to a word location. These usually have dragons by them.

You can also ask the Greybeard if he knows where a word wall is located, and he will give you the location.

You can get dragon bounties also, but I seem to get more giant and bandit ones.

I'm not sure if you have to be so far into the quests to see the first 2 though.

Like said above, just fast travel to a location right outside of a city (like stables) outside of a city (or a town in the world cell), and you will see plenty of them.