Want to restart the game again. BUT....I don't want my new game to have that "feel" as IF I'm doing EVERYTHING all over again. How can I avoid this from happening?

Yes I would like dragons in my game. So I take it for that to happen all I would need to do is fight the first dragon with Irileth (not sure I spelled this right) outside of whiterun. Correct?

Where do I go after that? What do I do? What do I avoid?

I really wish I could play this game on a PC. That way I can mod it up and really good. Thus giving me a totally new game to play. And possibly with alternate beginning like a mod I used for Fallout 3.

That is correct about the dragons, yes.

It's easier to say what to avoid if we know what you have done..

With my next character I have to remember not to fight that dragon in whiterun. I'm so sick of the annoying buggers.

Pretty much the main quest up until I meet the Dragon on top of High Hrothgar mountain. And.....most of the College of Winterhold quests (Lame).

After you do the tutorial chapter after going to white run, pick a place on the map (far corner) and just walk to it. Pick up random quests along the way and those will get you other quests.
That is what I have been doing for 40 plus hours of this game and I have barely even touched the main quest. Just let it happen (the main quest) by mistake.

Dont fast travel unless you are selling loot or turning in quests. Its way better if you walk 90% of the time.
Also if you are need to fast travel because a quest is on the other side of the map, then fast travel to a location near it and walk a good chunk of the way.
Doing this will ensure you get good random quests, and also fight random dragons.

The one thing I would suggest is to look up that stone that gives you +100 carrying weight and it get asap. Its really the only stone that is valuable for the whole game.
IMO all the other stones are worthless compared to this one

But NO dragons means so Shouts. Correct?

Um just avoid the quests for awhile.

Cheers

yea

And? 95% of the shouts are crap anyway.

You've still got tons of game left. I've restarted for the 3rd time, this time as a Khajiit thief. She's not going to touch magic (my last character was a mage) and will run the Thieves' guild when I'm done with her.

I took over the mages' guild on my mage, now the Thieves' guild on my Khajiit, I'm gonna make a Nord warrior to do the Stormcloak line and a Breton battlemage will join the empire.

Basically, play out all the stories. Make each character go to a different starting town (obviously my Khajiit will be hitting Riften first). Sure, I'll have to take each of them to Riverwood then Whiterun to start the main quest, but other than that, they will start and stick to a different section of the map and do all the quests there before moving on.

I'm over 100 hours in and there are still towns I haven't completely explored and areas of the map still new. It's easy to get a new play experience out of each character

TIP

Do NOT power level any the crafting skills.
In fact i'd avoid them completely.

make the game so flipping boring. everything you loot is [censored] compaired to your legendary daedric crap

yeah I dont power level anything, and I upgraded my armor and weapons (just the steele) and I never find anything better when I loot.
It gets boring having the same gear for HOURS. I miss going to a new town and it always having better gear for me.

There's plenty possible restarts in this game without having to experience the same thing over and over.
Pick a new combat style, pick a roleplay setting (with certain goals and restrictions if you like), and simply go to a region you haven't been yet and do the quests there for the first couple of hours.

Here's my latest playthrough and it's a totally different (better) experience for me:
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1312052-master-playthrough-40-hp-vampire-assassin/

This. Aura Sphere, Ice Form, Unrelenting Force, Slow Time, Become Ethereal, and Whirlwind Sprint are the only five I've found any good use for. The rest have been meh.

Yeah. Whirlwind Sprint is actually needed in some dungeons to get over big gaps.

So what you're saying is its BETTER to find new stuff like weapons and armor etc etc. Than to make it yourself?

IMO yes its better, because the fun IMO of a RPG is always finding better weapons and armor when you discover a new town or kill a baddy.
But if you take something you find and upgrade it, it seems you will be stuck with that for a long time and everything you loot is not as good.

That to me is not fun. I like using new weapons or armor over the course of a game

That's why they shouldn't have even included smithing in the game. It's the most unrealistic perk. I know this is a fantasy game, but still. You make 500 iron daggers and you're a master smith? Also, the improvements are just silly good and make you way OP.

It depends on your play style. But no, it's actually better to make it yourself, the problem is that if you spam the crap out of those skills you can make some of the best equipment in the game within the first couple of hours, rendering looting and shopping mostly useless for getting better equipment after a certain point. I kind of came up with a natural crafting method for my game, where I would only craft with items I've found while looting, rather than buying it all so I can spam it, but I think in my second run I'll dodge crafting all together and see how that goes.

OP - When you get to Whiterun for the first time you can use the carriage to visit any of the nine holds in Skyrim, and it only cost 50 gold. Anytime you need new quests just go visit one you've never been to and explore. Or visit all nine right away, and you'll end up with an insane list of quests to do.

What about "enchanting"? If I plan on avoiding crafting armors/weapons so i can instead find the better loot. Should I also avoid enchanting?

I think I was using better in a different way than the OP. I like it better when I can find loot that is stronger than what I am carrying.
But yes you can make better items than you will ever loot. I just think its more fun to find stronger items than make them and have an item I crafted at a low level that I would never loot until a higher level.

What is why I wish the weapons had a level cap on them, so you cannot use certain weapons (or make them) until you are at a certain level.
that always balances out the game IMO

I personally am enjoying smithing. Of course, it fits with my character. My parents were trappers and as such, we had to repair and make all of our clothes and armor. I'm digging alchemy as well, for the same reasons. If i decide to play a mage, I'll probably skip smithing altogether. Anyway, develop your history and play the game in context: you might be surprised. I didn't think I'd be an archer/thief when I grew up; my mother was teaching me some basic magic before she and Dad were killed by bandits. I was planning on getting into it, but life keeps steering me away from it. For all the people [censored]ing about how this isn't really a RPG, it can be if you let it be. Be your character and see where it leads you!

First things first... Your first choice is to follow "Hadvar" - Imperials, or to follow the guy from the cart-ride... The storm-cloaks. (When you run through the burning town. You have to enter one fo TWO doors to the keep. One guy is at one door by the far end, another guy at the other door by the tower you run past...)

Beyond that... Once you exit the caves... Head SOUTH first. Since most everyone heads NORTH. The southern areas have a lot of flavor, and let you warm-up to the softer content in the north. (Since I assume you know how to play well enough to survive... you should live long enough to enjoy traveling south.)

If you want more of a challenge, take Hadvar's path at the beginning, and once he unties your hands... beat him up with fire and your swords that you find, never getting the armor in the chest, until you are ready to leave that room. Level-up by fighting him. The world will be more of a challenge when you exit the pre-game tutorial area. (Great way to get sneak up to 100 also, if you sneak and wait six-seconds between hitting Hadvar with swords. You level almost after every hit.) Again, not a beginner thing to do. Since you can level up to 50, just beating him around. Oh forgot that you can shield-bash him to near-death at the part where you see the bear...

The world will be full of things to squish you, from the start.

Want more of a challange... don't level up those things... go right to enchanting, alchemy, smithing, speachcraft, and sneaking... The world will be damn-near impossible, but the biggest challange ever!

My second run through feels nothing like the first. I walked in the first one to winter hold , riften, solitude, second I used carriages. I try to do different quests and when I do same ones, do them way earlier or later. The bandits that pwned my theif were easy as pie at same level with Mage. Gives
Different feel

Good point! But I'm not much of a RP person. I'm more of a WoW player. However! I'm very tired of WoW. That game is too time consuming. But I do LOVE how WoW plays. I really enjoy leveling up, finding loot, finding money, increasing skills etc. Don't care for crafting or story or talking very much.