When I started playing Skyrim with my first character, I was all over the place with quests. I'd do a few side missions, work through the main quest line, work a bit on the Companions story line, tackle the civil war quests, go back to doing some side missions, et al. As such, my experience with the game was getting a bit disjointed, and I was starting to lose track of where I was at certain points in the various story lines and quests.

With my second character, I want to create a more immersive experience by structuring the way I take on quests, approaching them as if the quest lines were separate episodes in a fantasy series of books or a tv show. The problem that I have with these open-world, sandbox games is that I tend to get paralyzed with choices and give up because there's almost too much to do, if that makes any sense. So, in an effort to stave that off (because I really do love this friggin' game) I'm wondering if I can (and should) structure it a bit more so that I have goals in place that will help me to fully immerse myself in the game world without making me feel like I'm just running around finishing quests to finish quests.

So here's what I'm thinking: I'd like to start the main quest line until I get to the point where the Greybeards come into play and then perhaps move on to tackle the Companions quest line. I can play under the assumption that my character is reluctant to fully embrace his destiny as the Dragonborn, electing to instead find his way in the world at least up until a point where it becomes too hard to ignore his "calling."

I think I'd also like to run the civil war quests in tandem with the main story line, but I'm not sure at what point I should start. Perhaps between Acts I and II?

The following could be construed as a spoiler so proceed with caution...

I've heard that if the civil war is still raging when you hit a certain point during the main quest, you will have to get the Imperials and the Stormcloaks to form a temporary truce, and you get to chair the peace summit. If you've already finished the civil war, you skip this scene. So, at what point will I need to get the Imperials and the Stormcloaks to form a temporary truce so I can chair the peace summit? I figure then I can go back to the main quest and then finish up the civil war afterward.