I ask because, at level four, I've been told there's a watchtower under attack by a dragon, & that my help is needed immediately.

Fine.

My question is, can I ignore that and do some side quests 1st?

New to this game, I'm afraid there might be window-closing quests (as in Dead Rising or something) that finish w/o me if I were to choose to go elsewhere.

Thanks!

Yep you can ignore that, but until you do that quest you will not get any random dragons appearing.

"Immediately" doesn't mean anything in Skyrim.

I am not sure about quests which may be unknowingly finished/closed by skipping the main quest line. But yes, you can ignore it. In fact I have found that if you avoid doing the part where you fight the dragon at the watchtower, the various dragon walls (where you learn the Words of Power) won't be guarded by dragons. That's not to say that the walls won't be guarded though. Some are still occupied by dragon priests or other foes.

I actually avoid the main quest completely now, as dragon attacks after its completion gets a tad old.

Thanks folks!

That's good news--but weird, in that it pulls me out of the "reality" of the world, to some extent.

Tough for the designers to balance, I suppose: trying to make an open world as immersive as possible requires allowing perilous plot points to be suspended indefinitely?

... Parallel: I remember playing Batman: Arkham Asylum, being told that someone was about to be killed & that my help was needed immediately, but @ the same time I was compelled to first find all the Riddler trophies in the area I was in. Absurd! "Tell the person being dangled from the rooftop that Batman will be there as soon as he's done platforming around these sewers!"

you can ignore it, but if you don't even report to the jarl in whiterun about riverwood, his annoying huscarl will always chase after you, when you enter dragonsreach.

Lol!

Yeah, one major immersion-breaking thing in TES games can be that you can ignore any quest, no matter how urgent they feel like. I enjoy this freedom of choice more than I would some must-play-hurrily parts, though. Then again, one could roleplay and just go on and play parts that feel urgent. That I always do myself. Those make the majority of Oblivion's and Skyrim's main quests to be rushed through for me, though. There aren't many parts in them that feel like the hero could take breaks.

"Can You Really Ignore The Main Quest Whenever?"

Yes.

"A dragon?! I'd better hurry! Ooo, butterfly..."

*spends the next three days catching butterflies and feeling like he was forgetting something.*

so very very true!

Welcome to Bethesda's games, where "immediatly" means "when you feel like it" and "consequences" is not a reckognised word

Hey, Daggerfall is a TES game too. I am playing it and I failed all my quests because of time limits. I can't even reach my destination in time without failing and that is with using FAST TRAVEL nonetheless(am I using nonetheless correctly?).

Radiant quests are infinite, adding time restrictions on them wouldn't hurt.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TakeYourTime




Personally, I rarely even notice this anymore. But, then, I've been playing RPGs like that for decades.

Just do the quest up til the first dragon, and then forgot about the main quest.

That's if you want dragons too.

Otherwise, you can desert Riverwood after who ever you went with in Helgan is done, and do your own thing for there.