My first character I took to level 30 and played at Adept level. I encountered several random dragons during my wanderings. (Ones not tied to a specific location on the map).

I restarted the game and have a new character. I'm playing at master difficulty, the character is currently level 23, I haven't altered my playing style, yet my character has yet to meet a single randomly spawned dragon. Is this a bug?Or is it a feature of playing at master difficulty - ie, fewer dragon souls and therefore fewer shouts?

Nothing has changed about my game. I was playing with vanilla up until yesterday when I finally patched. The only change that has occured between the two playthroughs is installing a graphisc driver update. I've walked all over the map, from Windhelm to Dawnstar, to Solitude. From RIverwood to KYne's Grove. Nothing. In my first game I met a bunch of random dragons at Rverwood and the western watch tower, so I've been visting both locations repeatedly...to no avail. And by level 23 I'd already killed at least 3 or 4.

It's pretty frustrating because I've got ten shouts, and only two of them unlocked!

ANybody else experienced this? Is this a known bug? Why would it start happening on a second play through? Or is it a product of master difficulty setting?

ANy advice or help appreciated. Thanks.

Random dragons only start to appear once you hace finished the main quest in Whiterun. (Get the Dragonstone and defeat the dragon)

Yes, yes, done that. Did it by level 8 or something - so that's approximately 15 levels of play without a random dragon in sight.....

Any other views?

I think if you go for awhile without progressing in the main quest, the dragons can peter out a bit, depending on where you left it.

If you have the active quest "A Blade in the Dark", no dragons will spawn while this quest is active (by design, for plot reasons).

strangely, I'm at the same place in the MQ at lvl 23, as I was at lvl 30....so if it's not a known bug...i guess I just need to walk around alot more