What am I supposed to do to get started in this game? I rode in the cart to the town, saw someone get their head chopped off, & followed the guy to the tower. I went up the stairs, the floor collapsed, then am I supposed to escape the area? I'm just running around while the dragon is killing me. What am I supposed to do?
Barb
After the wall gets blown out by the dragon, follow the instructions of the blonde Stormcloak, Ralof. He tells you to jump down through the roof of the damaged inn below.
Once you move forward through the inn, jump down to ground level and exit through the broken wall. There is an Imperial soldier (has a quest marker floating over him if your settings allow it) with a young boy and old man. The big dragon lands, the Soldier tells everyone to stay back as the dragon spews out fire. He'll then tell you, "Stay close to me if you want to stay alive prisoner."
Follow him to the keep, you have to wind through a broken down building that pops you out into the main yard. General Tullious should be there barking out orders, telling Hadvar (that's the Imperial Soldier you're following) to get to the keep. Once you follow him there you'll meet Ralof again. At that point you'll need to make a choice, follow Hadvar the Imperial Soldier or follow Ralof the Stormcloak insurgent. Understand, you can change your alliance at any time up until you actually join one or the other factions.
This video shows you the way to go. In this case the gamer chose to follow Hadvar.
Chapter 1 Skyrim One thing to know about Skyrim, it's a sandbox game. You can go anywhere, do anything, but your actions have a direct impact on how people deal with you. Don't rush through it, the game is huge. Don't try to finish the main quest right away, do some exploring, do some side quests (there are tons.) Don't get discouraged if you get killed now and then, especially in the early part of the game, it can be tough, Dragons aren't exactly push-overs
Myself and other have thousands of hours into the game and still keep going back to it, so have fun.