Ha, rest easy, nothing spooky I assure you, but having restarted the game literally hundreds of times You can't help but notice those many little trends that always unfold in the first hour. We look for these small incidents and read into them a good or bad start to the game......mad I know, but here they are......

The first two Stormcloaks you meet under Helgen have to say the two special lines ' Ralof seems to like you ---that's good enough for me' and 'you were with us on the cart weren't you, not your lucky day eh'
Ralof has to point accurately at Bleakfalls Barrow when he first shows you on the road.
Ralof has to raise his arm level from the elbow when he points to the Guardian Stones.
There has to be three wolves on that first attack before Riverwood. That's also important for getting pelts.
After listening in on Sven talking to his mother about the dragon she saw. Faendal has to warn about Sven.
Hod must present himself at the lumber mill platform to say 'I'll be right down'
Heading from The city to Riverwood on Farengar's mission, you must get the wolf attack just over the bridge.---again that's also important for the pelt to make armour with before going up to the Barrow.
Later, back in Riverwood, Camilla shows the way to Bleakfalls. She must not turn around as you follow her.
By the falls while watching the cascade of water, you must get the mudcrab attack. Two is even better!

If those things don't work out, we call it a sub-optimal start, bad omens man. Ha ha, but we don't restart, but it doesn't bode well for a long lived character. I guess you could say its a bit like not treading on the cracks in the pavement/sidewalk.

If you think I'm totally cracked I won't be offended, but does anyone else have certain special kinda lucky incidents you hope for on a regular basis?

Just wondering.......

If a horse screams before the game fades in with the vanilla start, I have to restart...cause that means I got the intro cart glitch and continuing would be pointless. Sometimes it makes it to Helgen but most of the time it goes way off course.

I don't really have many "omens" since I play completely different characters each time. The three wolves didn't show up on the path to Riverwood? Who cares? Not like I needed the pelts, anyways. Camilla's screwing up on her way to BFB? Ditch her. Hadvar hasn't made it to Riverwood? Well, I'm either halfway to Falkreath myself or started out on the other side of the province so who cares?

Can't say anything abou that, since I always followed Hadvar so far. However, I've had it happen once or twice that he would run to that mine instead of walking to the guardian stones with you, which made me reload cause it annoyed me, haha.

Actually, I've most often had two wolves there. It was three wolves once. But I've also had it quite a few times already, that no wolves at all would show up. And maybe when I walked by that spot again, one or two at most would attack me... but not always. Sometimes it stayed with no wolves whatsoever.

I've always thought this quest doesn't activate until you have recovered the dragon stone.

No idea. The first time I talk to him is usually when I bring him some firewood, so he lets me saw the wood for my house myself.

Hmmm... hold on; where is that supposed to be? I never ever was attacked by a wolf near a bridge between Whiterun and Riverwood. Never. There's sometimes a single one on the way from Riverwood to Whiterun, though; but not near the bridge at all.

"She must not turn around as you follow her." Are you kidding me? The first couple of times I've done this quest, I didn't even know that she's supposed to come to the bridge with you. Only by coincidence I've found out that she'll actually follow you (stopping all the time inbetween attempts to close up to you) if you run back and forth often enough. Recently I've seen that there's actually some kind of a patch for the unofficial patch, which fixes this among many other things for those on PC. Didn't install it myself yet, though; cause iirc I didn't find a german version of it, and I could fix the bug which made me find it in the first place (crashing to desktop every single time after the final dialogue with Sanguine) by just stressing it and leaving the dialogue asap. Anyway; drifting off topic here.

Huh; what? Which cascade are you talking about? Even moreso early in the game? With mudcrabs even? I usually see my first mudcrab in the game long after Bleak Falls Burrow. I've even remember having a character or two who saw his/her first mudcrab at lvl 20 or so. xD

Hm, I guess I don't. Most of those you've listed are only rarely or even never happening at all for me. The only thing that really annoyed me so far were those two times I've mentioned above, where Hadvar would run straight to that mine instead of showing me the guardian stones. Which makes me remember... I actually have no idea what he says if you chose Warrior, since I've always chosen one of the other two so far...

I've had both Faendal and Sven approach me about "Did I see you talking to ?" without ever speaking to them as I enter Riverwood

As far as the rest goes, I'm not too superstitious. I'll slog along if I get only 2 wolves on the road to Riverwood. Lately, I have been killing the sleeping bear in the cave before leaving Helgen, so I get its pelt, too

I do get a "good feeling" about my character if certain loot gets found early on, like an item with waterbreathing (my go to enchanting skill component).