One of the beauties of Skyrim is that you aren't confined to a set chain of quests which guide you along a straight (and possibly boring) path leading from start to finish of the game.

I recently read of one guy who's role in Skyrim was a travelling Salesman. Walking, (And yes, WALKING) from town to town, selling his wares in each, only undertaking quests when he reached a town on his trail. During the journey, he'd get attacked by numerous enemies, for example wolves, who's pelts he'd sell or turn into leather.

What alternative ways have you discovered if playing Skyrim?

There's a bunch of different ways to play Skyrim from a roleplaying aspect. Heck I could be a Hunter if I wanted to, hunting game outside of Falkreath and selling the hides to merchants.

I have done the travelling merchant more than once but I always do pure noncombat. No armor, no weapons, no Shouts, no magic, no fighting. I just followed the guy in the tutorial and sold off what gear I could and hired protection when I got to Whiterun. We survive because She protects me and I help her by giving her the best gear possible.

My favorite way is pretending it's not broken and bug free, I actually enjoy it that way.

Hard to RP that way though, you need a delicate state of mind, pretty much as hard as the fish-stick.