After 10 Hours of Gameplay

[MushroomGenius]

Yea im about to make my alt tonight and its funny this thread was up because i was thinking to myself i really didnt want to get involved with all that this time.On my main im at the Elder Knowledge quest and havnt had any motivation to finish it up yet, so with my alt ill keep the greybeards waiting a long ass time and just go around doing whatever lol. Glad to see plenty of others do the same

Yeah, I took the same approach when I was creating/planning out my Altmer "Pure Mage" character... I found it kinda ludicrous and ironic that an Altmer would ever be Dovahkiin. I got to about level 50 before taking on the Western Watchtower....

 

[plopster]

damn i wish i had the time to mess around like this now i only get the weekends and gf takes up most of that

 

[bulbaquil]

On the Stormcloak side, you get stuck when trying to deliver Ulfric's axe to Balgruuf. He gives you dialogue something like "Ulfric will have to wait, I have dragons to deal with!"... you're unable to continue the Stormcloak questline at this point. I don't know about going the Imperial route.

Yep, that's exactly what occurred in my case. I still had "Talk to Gerdur" in my quest log even as I marched triumphantly back to Windhelm from Korvanjund, Jagged Crown in hand. When I went to Whiterun to deliver the axe, I Persuaded the guard to let me in (there was no "Riverwood calls for the Jarl's aid") but in Dragonsreach everyone was acting as if I had been to Riverwood.

Also, I'm pretty sure that some of those required storyline quests actually do count as "helping the people of Whiterun Hold" to reclaim the Thane title in Stormcloak Whiterun; I'm just not sure which - it would make logical sense, though ("Bleak Falls Barrow" could be thought of as assisting Farengar, "Dragon Rising" as assisting Balgruuf who the game still classifies as a Whiterun resident [tested in a finished-Stormcloak-victory game by botching a pickpocket of Balgruuf in the Blue Palace basement; the bounty was added to Whiterun rather than Hjaalmarch, though you can still get caught by the local guards and sent to Castle Dour], and so forth) - and I've never had any problems getting to 5/5 helped even when I hadn't been doing much questing in Whiterun Hold.

 

[MushroomGenius]

... and I've never had any problems getting to 5/5 helped even when I hadn't been doing much questing in Whiterun Hold.

Keep in mind even small stuff like donating 1 gold to beggars counts as a "favor" to the Hold.

 

[bulbaquil]

Keep in mind even small stuff like donating 1 gold to beggars counts as a "favor" to the Hold.

Does it count every time you donate, though? Because in that game, if I recall correctly, the only non-main-quest-or-Stormcloak quests I had done in Whiterun Hold in that game before becoming re-Thaned under Vignar were the Redguard warrior quest, giving coins to Brenuin, and possibly the Honningbrew Meadery Thieves' Guild quest.

 

[MushroomGenius]

Chopping wood, harvesting wheat/cabbage/etc, selling ore, giving a drunk a mead, doing delivery quests, brawling, persuading, retrieving items.... All considered favors also.

I'm pretty sure that you need to complete Dragon Rising to achieve thane status in Whiterun though.

 

[Perkless in Skyrim]

I've reached the point where I avoid doing quests unless the goody at the end furthers my goals or makes my life easier because I have it, such as the Black Star or certain Shouts. I've seen Bleak Falls Barrow way too many times. Also tried avoiding Riverwood altogether and heading straight to Whiterun but no dice. The Story Must Continue. I even blew past my companion as soon as I cleared Helgen but the game still stuck it in my journal even though I was nowhere near him to hear his dialogue.

 

[Rudolf]

im a lvl 52 i have only completed two quests unbound and oghma inifium