Bethesda likes to have as little information in their game. While it’s fun to discover new things, some you just need to know.  I’m going to go through the basic things every Skyrim player should know.  I’ll give very basic advice but the rest is up to you to figure out.

Screen Shots:
I like screen shots…I hope a mod comes out that auto disables the UI but for now there is a console command you can do. I set up a keyboard macro to take screen shots.

1. Press ` in the top left of your keyboard to bring up the console
2. Type “tm” with no quotes and press enter
3. Press ` to disable the console
4. Position your screenshot and hit [PrintScreen]
5. repeat steps 1-3 to enable the UI

Pick up items:
Press and hold the [E] key to re-position an item that’s on the ground.  In Oblivian, we used the Z key.

Shout/Racial Power:
The [Z] key is used for both of these. I wish you could have them on different keys so I would actually use my racial but this is a console game so keys just have multiple functions now.  Sometimes shouting does not work while moving.

Talking with people
You can press [TAB] anytime to stop talking with the person.  I really like this feature!

The Map and Journal:
Press [J] to bring up your journal.  From there you can “track” a quest by clicking it.  Also, you can press [M] to see on the map where the next step is.  As in oblivian, you can fast travel to any location you already visited.  Bethesda said you should no longer be ambushed upon arrival when fast traveling.

Hotkey Items and Spells:
to hotkey things, just press [F] inside the menu system.  Then press [Q] outside of any menus and it will popup a menu in the bottom right.  You can right-click or left-click to change your currently equipped item/spell or hover over an options and press 1-8 to assign a hotkey.  This seems a little more complex than it needs to be.

Difficulty Setting Differences:
I found this table online

I’m not sure if there is an AI difference, probably not.  I’m playing on Expert, next play through will be on Master.

Dual Casting:
Every magic skill tree has a “dual casting” perk.  This do more than just double and the damage and magic cost. Illusion spells are effective against higher level targets, fireballs have bigger blast radius.  You’ll notice that if you don’t have the perk it will actually fire 2 different balls of magic, but with it they are combined. Dual casting requires more than 2x the mana cost.

Dual Wielding:
ya, dual wielding is cool! Just use power attacks wisely because it will drain your stamina so fast.

Resistance:
Resistance is multiplicative. 50% fire resist is greater than 2 25% fire resist items.
Math section…
1 – (1.00 – .50) = 50% fire resist
1 – (1.00-.25) * (1.00-.25)  =1 –  .75 * .75 = 43.75%

The stats – Stamina, Health, Magicka
They changed these up a little bit compared to earlier Elder Scrolls.
Health: regenerates slowly!
Magicka: I think it regenerates quicker compared to Oblivian
Stamina: Jumping, running, normal swinging no longer use stamina.  Only sprinting, power attacking, shield bashing uses stamina.   I rarely power attack and just save all my stamina for shield bashing (interrupting).

Race Selection:
The new character creator has no numbers whatsoever.  Take a look at this wiki page to find the real differences between the races.

Character Building Advice
I won’t say too much because learning how to build a character is part of the fun. I would suggest focusing on as few as skills as possible.  three or four are both good numbers. Also, I suggest choosing one and only one direct damage dealing skill (Destruction, Archery, 1hand, 2hand).  Your damage dealing skill should always be your highest. I could say more but learning those is part of the game.

Very brief overview of a few skills:
Lock Picking: This is one of two noncombat skills.  It is not necessary since you can always open any lock with enough patience and lock picks.

Sneaking: I took this skill for my first build and then started over. Sneak is very powerful but it slows you down. At higher levels, you will need to use sneak to win.  Sneak is still fun, it just changed the game in a way I personally didn’t enjoy.

Illusion: I tried illusion for the first time in Skyrim.  It’s really good and I would encourage people to try it out.  Just get dual casting ASAP to increase the power of your spells.  Dual casting lets fury work on level 12 targets instead of just level 6.