I have Restartitis, a YEAR after the game has been released, and there's still so much for me to do in game! I have yet to do;

The Dark Brotherhood
Dawnguard
Finish The Main Quest
Do ALL the Daedric Quests
Do more than ONE Divine Quest
Do the Civil War Questline
A Variety of Side Quests
Explore all the Dungeons

I originally, on launch had a Bosmer character that lasted me 177 hours, but it just kind of got soured on his character, and a game breaking bug(Remember the the Markarth issues?) prevented e from progressing, so I just kind of quit that character. I toyed around with some Nords, and a Breton(Which I did the Mage's Guild with), and just got off a good 50 hour kick as a Breton Spellsword. He got boring for me soon after I reached Solitude. And I had resolved to make him my main character, so I had literally explored everything I ran across early game. So after getting soured with him, I started with another Bosmer character, and things were going good, but it's becoming increasingly difficult for me to attempt to roleplay the beginning of the game because everything about is so burned into my memory, so I end up eta gaming. I; not exploring everything with my current Bosmer, and I turned the difficulty way up and decided to fo with a companion this time to keep things a little fresh, but I ran across this:

http://theskyrimblog.ning.com/group/character-building/forum/topics/character-build-the-salamander?xg_source=activity

Which is an insanely cool character build, but I feel like if I start over again, I'm just going to get bored with the game because I've done the beginning so many times before and just stop playing. But the character is so cool! Idk how to fix my problem. See y characters need incentive to do everything they do. My character isn't going to not go to Whiterun to report the Dragon attack, in favor of doing something else because that's pretty important and won't be, like, right if done later in the game. And after that, likewise situations are thrust at you fro there. Give ways to keep my gameplay fresh fro a progression standpoint, or other general advice.

If you want to do those things, then conceptualize.

Make a character whose only purpose is finishing the main story. Make a character whose only purpose is to join the dark brotherhood. Make a character who is a daedra worshiper and goes around doing all the daedric quests. Give them all different playstyles. That would keep things fresh and let you finish what you started.

The first time I ever played Skyrim, I went immediately for the Dark Brotherhood. I was thirty hours into the game before I ever stepped foot in Whiterun.

I have restartitis as well, but probably not quite as severe. I've finished much of the game twice.. except I got tired of how those characters looked or ended up being built. So I deleted them. lol.. probably shouldn't have.

I'd suggest to just take a break for awhile. Get it out of your memory, so some of it becomes semi-fresh if you play again. Maybe wait for another expansion.

Been there. I finally had to just OP my character so I could get through the MQ and DG, both elusive. It svcked, but it killed restartitis for me because now, I feel no pressure (or regret) of not finishing anything.

I can't lie: my current game is boring, but at the same time, it's one of my best. Without any goals to do (my quest book only has Unbound completed and I'm to talk to some girl in Riverwood), I just play to play. No pressure. No regret. I just RP as a merchant who tries to restore Skyrim now that the Dragonborn is gone.

But see, that doesn't make sense to me. I cannot rationalize a character blatantly ignoring what happened at Helgen, and then showing up in game weeks later to Whiterun, and only just now are letting the Jarl know about the Dragon, because for some reason no one else told him. And then just showing up in Riverwood one day in game weeks after Helgen and seeing Hadvar or Ralof having just shown up....it's just immersion breaking. Also, if you don;t do those first few quests, Dragons don't show up for you to slay. Which svcks.

Not really. She had other agendas, and didn't care about the dragon attack because she was ignorant of its significance.

Just because you know the significance doesn't mean your character has to as well.

Yeah, I know there's a kind of choice there that'll set the narrative pacing for a lot of things.. Personally, I wish there wasn't a main quest at all, but having one character do it all is a good idea.

But again, you have to factor in how that effects the game world. Not only is it wonky from a progression perspective, it denies you gameplay elements, such as shouting. I can't mod it so Dragon's spawn, being an Xbox player.

I've played more than a dozen characters to over level 30 or so and I'm still finding new stuff. I've never played a Stormcloak, never finished the companions, never played a spellcaster.
I don't RP (except to vaguely justify my frequent looting of the caravan chests) so my main justifications to restart are to reinstate challenge or try a different type of character.
Finding fresh locations and approaches after a year is impressive, though. Good ol' Skyrim.

I guess if shouting is that big a deal to you, then just finish the damned storyline. If you want full dragon spawns, there is no other logical place to stop, except perhaps the search for the Elder Scroll.

There are two things I do in ever game I start regardless of character:

First, I get up to the Elder Scroll part and then go start and complete the Civil War quests (the treaty you can sign later in the main quest ruins the few good quests in the line and replaces them with stupid ones, so its a concession).

Second, I then finish the main quest. After that, my character has the ability to actually relax, as a war isn't tearing the province apart and it's no longer the end of the world.

That means my character is then free to pursue her own agendas without worrying about anything else.

See, I think of it like this. The ending to the Main Quest is essentially the peak of great things your character has done, no adventure can top it, so the the climix of the MQ should be what's done last, and post game gets devoted to Hearthfire, and doing Miscellaneous Objectives to make cash to support your family.

I generally like to stop progression on the MQ after killing the Dragon at Kynesgrove, because Delphine says to meet her back in Riverwood eventually to give her time to figure something out. It;s logical from a Roleplay perspective to not go back for a good long while to give her time.

Make a character and stick with it. To do this, put a rubber band on your wrist when you play and snap it REAL good whenever you feel like making a new character.

At any point in the MQ you can postpone it and your character do other things without having to rationalize it too much I've found. Things my different characters have done are: not go to Riverwood, not go to Whiterun and not go to High Hrothgar.

I must admit, I like that character a lot. It actually makes me want to start up Skyrim again, and that's not something I thought I'd be doing anytime soon. Combining a strong defence wih magic is a nice concept, and two things I liked most about Skyrim. He also looks cool.

But I think your problem stems from wanting to try out many different builds while providing a framework within the game that they can all exist in.

It's also a failing of the game itself in so much as Skyrim fails to recognise the uniqueness of your character in the world itself...so the only way of creating unique content for yourself is to try out different characters, and give them a backstory. When you reach a certain point in the game, it becomes clear that all characters end up doing the same quests in the same way, with no options for individuality outside of combat. So you create a new character again, to add new content for yourself. And so the process repeats.

I think the advice in this thread is good, create a character that just does the civil war, another that does the Dark Brotherhood etc. one character for each thing you haven't yet done. In addition to this, I personally would play all characters up to the end of Dragon Rising. Both from a RP perspective, and a gameplay one. This unlocks dragons, and therefore shouts. After that, each character can go his own way.