After you finished Helgen, what do you do first? Do you just head in one direction and hope for a good ending, or do you always plan what you do?
Tell us!

Skyrim's beginning seems more scripted than MW or OB's to me.

In MW it was not uncommon for me to go ahead and go to Balmora, I would drop the package on the door step, just so I would know where it was, then I would just do whatever I wanted. I wasn't always prompted that there was a problem and that I needed to start the MQ. Many of my characters I retired without ever touching the MQ.

In OB when you left the sewers you were really on your own. It was very easy to never find the person to give the amulet too. In fact the area was kind of out of the way and easy to avoid forever.

In Skyrim, not so much. For whatever reason I feel compeled to go to Whiterun and start the MQ. I always finish at least Act I of the MQ, just to get the shouts and what-not. After that I may or may not actually finish the MQ and if I do it is generally quite some time afterwards. But the beginning, it seems I always at least start the MQ first, then move on to something else.

Typically, I stay away from white run and the main quest for as long as possible. I do Dawnguard almost immediately at level 1 so the vampire attacks won't be present at a higher level. Then I just do whatever.

Like find every location in the game. I like doing this at level 1 so I don't have to deal with too many high level npcs. Usually, I don't level up until I feel i have the skills I want leveled.

I usually become a mercenary/adventurer till level 30 by doing bounty quests, deadra quests, side quests and randomly walking around and going into dungeons (helps to have the dungeon quest awareness mod). Then from 30-50 I generally do guild and dawnguard/vampire quests (never had a problem simply killing vampires). Once I did everything I want to accomplish (I usually only do 1 or 2 guilds per character) I do the main quest. I like the main quest to be challenging and have access to all the top level stuff when I start. After that I do the civil war and call it a game.

Right out of helgen I begin going to taverns and asking about any mercenary work and I dont talk to whiteruns jarl until I have some way of killing dragons consistently. The one exception is if im playing a character with no ranged ability at all then i play through the main quest till I get dragon rend.

Hmm, okay! I also stay away from whiterun and the main quest as long as possible, I always go to the stones, the hunter near that stones, Anise's cabin, riverwood to sell some stuff, and then I just head into one direction and see what's coming!

Varies with the character
Some have gone straight to Whiterun, others just explored or went to another city to start a faction questline.
Although MW had the ideal easy to ignore MQ I do find Skyrims less forced on me than Oblivions. In Oblivion the Emperor himself told you of your destiny, in Skyrim you don't learn it until you've done several parts of the MQ.

Depends on my character, but so far they have followed Hadvar/Ralof to Riverwood, been there for a day or two (selling things, talking to people, getting some rest after the imprisonment, nearly execution, dragon attack and escape, maybe working a little on their crafting skill of preference, getting themselves a follower in Faendal or Sven), and then headed for Whiterun to report to the Jarl (since that's the decent thing to do). After that, it differs very much. I'll probably will play future characters who don't even go to Riverwood.

Random for me. I'm never compelled to do anything.

Was told I should go to Riverwood, shrug, fair enough, good as any place to start I guess and an introduction what a town place is like, but intended to get into exploring right after that and doing my own thing.

Riverwood good idea because I got a freebie place to sleep and dump stuff I got, a friendly married couple somewhere near the Trader's place, and the trader is going to be useful later. The couple gave me stuff as well.

Then I went exploring and up to some greyed-out cave and had fun sorting them out, and some other place, sold my loot then drifted to Whiterun. So exploring and in and out of quests, sometimes even the a bit of the main quest here and there, I had a long list of quests to do if I wanted to do one.

Depends on the character for me.

My Altmer mage was wanting to get back in league with the Thalmor because he of his experience with the chopping block, he wants to work within the Empire to bring it down so he went right into the CW quest and after a brief stay in Whiterun, headed to Solitude. When he heard of the Mages college, he headed there as well.

My Redguard Master Craftsman wanted revenge but wanted to bide his time and fully prep himself as is his meticulous nature (which led him to master all 3 crafting skills). He joined the companions to get combat experience while using the Skyforge to make the best armor and weapons possible. After all his trading and wheeling and dealing, he moved to Windhelm to gain the Jarl's approval and buy a house to dedicate himself to his crafts...

My Khajiit Cryptwalker really doesn't like anybody and prefers his own way. His knack for poisons, archery, the shadows, and the desire to master the dark arts are currently taking him on the road to Riften where he can slip into the seedy underbelly. He heard rumors of the Dark Brotherhood and wishes to seek them out eventually.


My next character is going to be a Ranger type, and I'm thinking of a backstory to him that would lead him to Falkraeth, probably a Bosmer.
The character I'm thinking of is an Orc, but I have no clue how to go with one of these as I've never done an Orc before.