I've been curious about this for a while, and since I recently restarted my game I figured I'd ask how some of you go through the game. By that I mean, after you create your character in Helgen and finish up in Riverwood.. what do you do afterward? Simiarly to how I played Oblivion, I tend to stay in the area of Falkreath Hold/Southern Whiterun Hold until I get myself up in level and I explore the rest of southern Skyrim and slowly progress until I explore the Province. Even after all the exploration I still have tons of quests and things to do though, but for me some are more fun to do when I'm higher level.

I also wait to do the guild quests until they're some of the last things in the game that I haven't done yet, plus they're just more fun for me later on rather than really early. So, in terms of the specifics:

What are some of the things you guys do when you're early in the game?

What about later on when you're far into it?

When do you join the guilds and start doing them?

i will usually explore till about lvl 10 and then do the guild quest line that best suites my character (e.g. thieves guild for a thief, college for a mage) which most of the time brings me up to about lvl 20. i then go around and find every possible questline, side quest, and misc. quest that i can get until my quest list is very long. and then i start kickin ass and taking names in that order

I always sneak around.

I mostly use magic, (I use mighty magic mod), and dagger, and when needed a bow.

I mostly start a fight with Rage branch of spells, then might throw in some conjured/raised minions, and whenever possible I back-stab, and I'm real good at finding the right spot to access a neat back-stab.

I usually roam between Falkreath and Whiterun, picking/stealing ingredients and making potions to gain money, killing odd bandits/monsters to gain loot and experience, until about level 20, then I go to Riften to increase Speech skill to 50, to get the Merchant perk, then I start the game after that.

Goto Winterhold? Stay in Riften? Whiterun?

After that it all depends on the mood, and random encounters, odd quests, and so on...

Never completed the main quests, or any other quest lines other than Mages guild.

Edit, by the way, sometimes to gain extra experience, whenever I kill an opponent, I raise it again and back-stab it again to ashes. = Double sneaking experience.

I almost always get going on some of the guild quests first. It's to weird starting them at a later level after I've done so many great things in the world and are known for some of them. When you begin a guild, such as the Companions or the college, you aren't treated kindly by the members and they act like they don't even know you so it doesn't add up since I'm already a big name in Skyrim and known by every one else. This was worse in Oblivion though..

My first character I did went through the main quest first, so he went to riverwood. The second made a dash straight to Windhelm for the Dark Brotherhood quest.

After Helgen I go to Riverwood, and then by extension Whiterun. If I want to join up with the College, I head to Morthal, then Dawnstar, then take the coast to Winterhold. If I'm an Imperial, I'll stop in Solitude along the way and join with the Legion. If I want to go the Thieves Guild, I'll stop at Windhelm, then to Ivarstead, then trekking to Riften. If I'm an assasin, I bolt straight out of Whiterun of Windhelm. Generally I finish exploring the eastern side of the map first, then, if I haven't, I hit up Solitude and Rorikstead. I head east to Markarth, and then finally I trek southeast to Falkreath. By then I'll have gathered an insane amount of quests. I then start doing quests, bottom of the log to the top, finally finishing with the Misc quests.

I do all the guilds first then the Civil war then the MQ so I have all this good stuff to fight Alduin with.

If I remember correctly, I ventured all the way to Fort Amol which was my first encounter with a necromancer area.

What do I do? Train like crazy.

My char is in level 54, 80+ hours, and I've just finished his paid training...