So I tried this today with Sovngrade as my starting point. As soon as the game begin, I got The World-Eater's Eyrie completed and Sovngarde started lol.

Heh. Well, that would seem to indicate that using Sovngarde to start makes the game think you've done everything else?

O.o

I love the look of the Thalmor robes. I hate the Thalmor, but they are very classy dressers... I may just keep goimg West from the Stones, hit the Bandits, loot the dead worshippers and Thalmor, then see what's further West...

Evil always seems to have the best tailors.

I've run the MQ to certian points, depends on were I plan on going. It's mainly because I actually like the dragons attacking. I may at some point decide not to have dragons aground though. Do an explorer/adventurer or hunter.

PS3 console player here. On my second character as the first is suspended due to the Frame Lag cancer. As much as I liked fighting dragons initially, at later points in the game they just became an annoyance, Like has been suggested here, once clearing Riverwood, I ran as far from Whiterun as I could. Ended up in Solitude, and joined the imperial forces. Unfortunately, when delivering a message from General Tullius to the Jarl of Whiterun, I found out the Jarl would not accept it until "the dragon problem" was addressed. Reluctantly I went off and did the initial dragon kill, then returned and finished up the civil war questline, gaining the Jarls praise and his wishes that I settle down in Whiterun. Sorry Jarl, Lydia is still mooching off of your table in Dragons Reach.

NIce thing is dragons are not doing the random spawn thing yet! I can find the stationed ones near dragon walls, or on mountain peaks etc. to claim a soul and develop new shouts. But I think as long as I don't stumble into Kynesgrove and activate that event, I'm gold

Yes, this has been confirmed. Having "A Blade in the Dark" active pauses the random dragons.

I heard it first in WoW. It means "cartoon". Cartoons are of course drawn characters, usually referring to hand-drawn, but with the advance of technology also applies to digital media. Your "toon" is short for "Cartoon character".

I only have one character that I'm Dovahkiin on, my three others are just normal guys who never have killed a dragon.

Little update on the house issue: neither of the two toons I'm currently running under this "option" are able to get the dialog options to buy a house anywhere. This is, as I said earlier, fine with me. For those who think it's okay to line the pockets of one of the Jarls just to get a house, you probably do NOT want to go this direction.

When I did this I just married someone to get a house, when I felt like I needed a house, which took awhile. Sure, having a house in which to store your extra crap is nice, but if you don't have the annoyingly heavy dragon bones/scales to contend with, you can do without a house pretty much indefinitely.

Serethil, I can confirm this. In fact, that's why I checked back on this thread. The jarls will say, "you can buy property, talk to my steward," but there's no option. I've tried resetting the steward's AI, recycling the steward, to no avail. In Whiterun, the quest to buy Breezehome is Favor253. Using ~ getstage favor253 returns 0.00. Even if I use ~ setstage Favor253 10, it still stays at 0.

I cheated and gave myself a key and joined the Breezehome faction, but the ironic thing is that the house is unfurnished except for Lydia's alcove! No option to furnish it from the steward. Oh, about Lydia: After the Jarl told me she was assigned to me, I headed towards the door of Dragonsreach. She was standing near there, and as I approached, I heard, "Hey, troll-bait!" in a woman's voice, but not Lydia's. It had a lot of reverb and sounded distant. Then Lydia addressed me, but not as Thane.

I have a similar problem with Solitude, yet although the steward had no purchase dialog, I did successfully "buy" Proudspire (no money down!) using the console. Jordis is there, yet although the Jarl named me Thane, Jordis just greets me as an amiable dolt, not as Thane. She had some odd dialog at the beginning when I found her there, something like, "I can't thank you enough for this opportunity."

I've had to abandon that character. Too many weird bugs cropping up lately.

I'm confused. Why would you need to use all those console commands when all you have to do is not talk to the Jarl of Whiterun to avoid dragons and the MQ?

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Console#Example_for_using_a_Batch_File_to_create_an_alternative_start is from the UESP. I haven't tried it myself, but it supposedly starts you before the ruination of Helgen. Give the description a read if you're interested.

Edit: Umm, never-mind. After re-reading the OP's instructions, I realize this is essentially the same.

I prefer starting this game after playing the main quest over ten times now. I don't like going through the whole Helgen situation, spending 15-20 minutes getting to Riverwood and then have a quest hanging over my head for the rest of the game. I like starting with a clean slate, no locations discovered, no quests in my journal, no NPCs aware of who I am, and just start with any background I choose to have. I think that's the best form of RPing you can get in Skyrim.

I kind of like ignoring the MQ. I get the impression that Alduin is sitting on a mountain somewhere fuming because I have not paid any attention to him and he cant' do anything about it because the game won't let him.

The only thing that is a downside is not getting the shouts, some are useful to some character builds.

Yes, the shouts are fun. You can always re-activate the MQ through the console, but in the meantime, waltzing up to the dragon lairs is certainly much easier!

I've gone to using the Drelas's House mod, since the main thing I need a house for is somewhere easy for enchanting (well, not to mention storage for stuff until I get ready to smith....)

So far, other than the house issue, I haven't had any bugs. Actually, I haven't had any bugs in the game at all, no matter the toon. I know a lot of people DO have bugs - I'm just very lucky apparently!