Just gave her 1k to make it rain in the market. lulz

loving this DLC, it's the perfect companion for someone that plays like myself in that i haven't even touched the main storyline or the civil war yet, and skyrim for the most part is pretty peaceful save for the random dragon attacks here and again. lessons learned from morrowind... never be in a hurry to "finish" the game. whatever that means.

Many of my characters never do the CW or MQ so I can relate. One thing Skyrim does great is just let you escape in an interactive world.

I do hate that I'm forced to turn Dawnguard off to keep the Master Vampires from slaughtering NPC's in every town. With that DLC there is no such thing as not hurrying or just waiting around.

Eh, I still have it installed and pretty much am still doing the same thing as you guys, although I am gonna finish the MQ this time to get it out the way so I can roleplay as the uber legendary powerful Dovahkiin/shezzarine (with the help of infinite shouts) after I kill Alduin.

I've found that with Dawnguard, waiting in town, and fast traveling directly into cities seems to be what sparks the attacks. I've made it a habit of just fast traveling to the nearest outside point, like a stable, if I fast travel at all.
My character is slightly in retirement right now, taking his time. A civil war...culling a dark dragon...Diverting a Vampiric prophecy...few...A guy just wants to take it easy.

as far as the Dawnguard stuff, i was basically forced to complete the missions, I lost 2 or 3 townspeople in Whiterun because we kept getting attacked. once i finished those i "retired" and now i play it straight, and by that i mean i wake up, eat breakfast, tell the kids to go play outside, get on my horse and gallop off to do a misc. mission, once it's done i gallop back home in time for dinner and now my wifey always goes to bed around 10 or 11 so i get in there and get my "lovers comfort" on the weekends i make my wife follow me to Riverwood to kick it with Alvor & Sigrid, we talk [censored] while drinking mead and making armor lol on sundays me & the missus go to the temple of mara in riften.. and i only accept missions during the week. figure eventually i'll get tired of playing like this and do more, but i find the game is awesome at this pace. 1 mission a day, less time looting nonsense and more time interacting with my neighbors and other characters in the game.

one thing i wish...

more interactions between my kids and their mom. it's like they don't even know each other!

there are advantages to knocking out the main quest early, dragonrend is awesome and everybody knowing you're dragonborn is pretty cool too. still, i'll let that be the last thing i do before something new comes along.

I loved my kids reaction to that "allowance"...

Title of this thread gives off a "creepy" vibe.