I like to do the main quest at least up to the point where you have a fully charged Fus Ro Dah. I kinda like the random dragon attacks, and I can go just that far and no farther in the MQ for a good long time. At that point as well , I have the house in Whiterun as my first base of operations and my first follower. Seems like a good jumping off point for doing everything else BUT the MQ.

Myself I have re-started the game few times by now. I do mq about 1/2 way and wait until I have lvl 30 or so and continue with mq. I use dragon scales and bones to make armor to myself and the companion. Nice stuffs I say.

Cheers,
-klevs

On my first character I played 50+ hours without doing a single quest. I went 20+ hours on my second character and only did the Companions quests. With my third character I'm doing the main quest for the first time.

I'm like 20 hours in. I've advanced the MQ to where you fight the dragon at Kynesgrove. I think I've fought like 6 dragons. Including one that spawned as I was walking back through Kynesgrove, so they were almost consecutive. Right now, I'm doing a bunch of side quests, bounties and guild tasks.

Honestly, this is probably farther than I've advance Oblivion's questline. I'm at where you're sent to meet Baurus about the cult.

First character, 180 in game days without touching the main quest over 100 hrs of dungeon and mountain exploring fun

all i did was fight first dragon, so i could unlock shouts, then didnt do any main quests after that, spent a good 150 hours and still had stuff left to do its almost endless, and yes if u never go vist the jarl in whiterun you'll never have dragons and you can just go do what ever the hell ya like, still endless stuff to do.

im just a noob, but it seemed to me that dragons r ez. (2 so far ) And leave good loot. Not much hitpoints at all. I had much more difficulties with trolls.


So you say, get Fus ro dah, and leave it at that?

Yes, I've gotten to that point in the MQ and no further, that way, I can still get all the shouts I want and be as powerful as possible before I even touch the rest of the MQ. Of course, that's just the way I do it, YMMV.

Yes, you could easily play the whole game without doing the main quest.