So I haven't played Skyrim in a while, got really busy with other things, I decided to go back to it recently and remembered that my old character was bugged so no dragons other than the ones that were hand placed for quests would appear anywhere in the world. I started a new character thinking that maybe that would fix the problem, but still, no dragons, I've been running around like an idiot looking for dragons and the only ones I've come across are the ones that are quest related. What gives?

I've had the most luck finding randoms in unwalled towns...Winterhold, Morthal, Dawnstar, etc.