Hey guys, I was gifted Skyrim from a good friend on release day. I'm a huge fan of Oblivion, and I hope Skyrim will be the same. To cut a long story short, I woke up super early in the morning to play Skyrim the second it came out, only to find that the frame-rates were abysmal. After 3 or-so months of refusing to play it at a bad frame-rate, my PC decided to essentially explode; so I upgraded it. I literally got the new components last night, and have tested the top of Whiterun stairs to see if the FPS was suitable. Turns out everything runs beautifully, but I want to start a new game and really soak-in the atmosphere.

I was just wondering what you guys would recommend I do? I know the beauty of the game is to go and explore, but if you have any 'leads' that I could follow, I'd appreciate it. I want to make a Nord warrior character (very original, I know) and I'm tempted to join either the Companions or the Dark Brotherhood. What would you suggest I do? Any directions to head first?

This is what I would do. decide what you want your character to do. IF you want a warrior and to explore alot, then companions might be a way to go to get started. I would do a completely different types of characters for DB,TG and mages.

You could pick a city and do the Jarls quests and explore around that city and then pick another city etc... and skip the companions til another character or later in "this" character.

I fyou explore you'll break quests. The world is open but your actions in it need to be following a script or you will break even more quests. Have fun but be careful.

posts like this make me paranoid

Don't worry so much. Almost anything you break can be fixed relatively easily, especially since you are on PC.

One word of advice for exploring though- don't pick up things that seem to be named (unless you have a quest for it, of course), such as "Pantea's flute". If you do, it can still be remedied when you do finally get the quest (and may even be patched eventually).

I wouldn't worry about it. their are very few quest's that "break" because of going into the area just exploring.

Just try not to pick up "named" items from chests and stuff. Alot of quests can still be finished anyway, when you get to the quest it will give you the option of saying something like "oh you mean this".

I had all the items in one quest before I even started that factions questline... and had not a problem giving them the items and continueing on.

BTW on x-box

Hi Mate..well my 2 nd char is a warrior nord but this time round i was in no hurry to follow the main Quest. instead i through myself into the game ,like you would for real..I mean 1st a home, a trade, dont buy weapons, a companion. (lydia) The armour I make Lydia wears, at the end of every game session i retreat to my home slip into something relaxing and sit by the fire, and plan the next nights adventure. My perks go in to single arm, smithing, light armour. Stamina, 1 perk in magic just to self heal, health no more then 150, and not forgeting archery. This has been so much more fun for me then compleating as a mage, as i now have to get right in there faceto kill, I felt so weak at first has a mage kills from a distance. Take the dragon kills for instance my first kill out side whiterun my man grabed the dragon by the horn swung round and up just like legolas (in LOTR) struggled for balance then with both hands dealt the finale blow ..then jumped off and faced the dieing dragon, from that moment on Ifeel right Hard..lol... and have killed 6 like that.to date iam lvl38 and only followed the quests of the people i deal with, I to joined the companions but theres somthing about them that ifound out I dont like for my chara (spoiler) i DONT WANT TO BECOME ONE.?? but iam freindly with them and the blacksmith serves my purpose As i love swords I wont sell them and store them at my house and only take 1or2 with me for thet mission there is a mission i went on just to get a STAFF i wont go anywhere without it, it means that if the going gets tuff there is 3 of us..my own little gang..lol I play every night have done since the Friday release back in NOV..I hope youenjoy as much as i have..best game ever, and I have played them all since ZX81....yes iam an old git..