Skyrim

[garbon]

I have a lot but here are the key ones I like/recommend. Note most of the ones I've added are to make the world feel a bit more immersive(?).

Sky TEST - Realistic Animals and Predators
WARZONES - Civil Unrest (makes it more difficult to wander about)
Inconsequential NPCs
Randomly Generated Generic Townsfolk (though this can make it a bit more difficult to tell who is worth talking to...)
Hot Male Housecarls ()
Project Reality - Climates of Tamriel
Helgen Reborn
World Map - Skyrim Hold Borders
WATER - Water and Terrain Enhancement Redux
Vivid Landscapes - Cliffs and Creeks
Run For Your Lives (makes people try to flee when vampires/dragons, etc. appear)
Towns and Villages Enhanced
Adventurers and Travelers (adds more groups wandering in wilderness)
Wild Horses
Dogs of Skyrim
Dragon Nests (more of 'em)

[garbon]

Do all those mods play nice with one another?

Some do and don't. For the most part yeah but sometimes you have to fiddle with load order.

I think I'd mainly just go for the unofficial patches and then perhaps some of the visual enhancing ones.

[Caliga]

Animated Prostitution
ApachiiSkyHair
ApachiiSkyHair natural Retexture
ApachiiSkyHair NPC Overhaul
Better males - Beautiful nudes and faces - New hairstyles - Faces
Better males - Beautiful nudes and faces - New hairstyles - Nudes
Calientes Female Body Mod Big Bottom Edition -CBBE-
Calientes Vanilla Outfits for CBBE - Calientes Vanilla Armor
CBBEv3M Body Repalacer - CBBEv3M Body Replacer
CHSBHC - BBP - Nude and Jiggly Mod
Enhanced Blood Textures
Enhanced Blood Textures - Dragonborn-Dawnguard Patch
Even Better Quest Objectives
FPS Limiter
Immersive Patrols
Project Reality - Climates Of Tamriel-V3
Realistic Water Two
SkyUI
Static Mesh Improvement Mod
Static Mesh Improvement Mod - SMIM - SMIM Update to 1-61 from 1-56   
The Dance of Death - A Killmove Mod - The Dance of Death 4-0 - Ultimate Edition
Unofficial Dawnguard Patch
Unofficial Dragonborn Patch
Unofficial Hearthfire Patch
Unofficial High Resolution Patch
Unofficial Skyrim Patch

[Caliga]

Also, get NMM and use that for mod management.

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/

There's a utility called BOSS that auto-orders your mods for you.  Get that, too.  I've never had to worry about mod order with that thing.

[katmai]

I missed it if cal had it in post but to use skyui(which I would recommend) you need to have extended scripts installed.
I have 88 running now, will take a look when home but some obvious overlapping with these two.

[Solmyr]

WARZONES - Civil Unrest (makes it more difficult to wander about)

You don't want Warzones. It WILL fuck up your game. I suggest using various other mods that add wandering NPCs, such as the Populated series, Immersive Patrols, or Travelers of Skyrim. Skyrim Immersive Creatures or even Skyrim Monster Mod add various new creatures.

I myself have almost the full complement, well over 200 mods (just the plugins, also many more texture/mesh replacers etc). Some of my essential ones:

SKSE or Skyrim Script Extender (many of the best mods depend on it)
SkyUI (improves interface majorly)
OneTweak (allows you to play in a borderless window and to Alt-Tab back and forth without problems)
Categorized Favorites Menu
EZ2C Dialogue menu
RaceMenu and Chargen Extension
Climates of Tamriel
Enhanced Lights and FX (makes lighting much more realistic and immersive, nights and dungeons are now actually dark)
Convenient Horses (essential if you ever use a horse)
Extensible Follower Framework (if you want more than one follower and want to control them better)
Alternate Start - Live Another Life (lets you pick many more starting locations besides Helgen prison ride... good when you are starting your Nth character)

And two immersion mods that I consider essential, but may not be for everyone:
Frostfall - tracks how warm, cold, or wet you are, depending on local climate and weather. If you want to travel in a heavy blizzard, better wear lots of fur and don't stay outside too long. Also, you cannot swim in ice-cold water for long anymore.
Realistic Needs and Diseases - makes it necessary to eat, drink, and sleep occasionally. Food now sates hunger instead of restoring your health. Very configurable.

[Caliga]

I missed it if cal had it in post but to use skyui(which I would recommend) you need to have extended scripts installed.
I have 88 running now, will take a look when home but some obvious overlapping with these two.

Good point, I should have mentioned that.

[garbon]

WARZONES - Civil Unrest (makes it more difficult to wander about)

You don't want Warzones. It WILL fuck up your game.

[Caliga]

I've heard that too, which is why I switched to Immersive Patrols.  Don't recall why it's supposed to do that, but I can say that when I stumbled upon a battle playing out my computer lagged like hell (and I have a brand new PC).

[Solmyr]

This is a good starting point for picking your mods. The STEP Project people test various mods extensively and make sure they are compatible with each other. STEP only selects mods that do not deviate from the vanilla experience, so if you want something else you'll have to look elsewhere, but on the forums there are also discussions about many other mods and you can usually find out if a particular mod works well or is buggy.

http://wiki.step-project.com/Main_Page

[Octavian]

ClimatesOfTamriel
HighResTexturePack
unofficial skyrim patch.esp=1
Unofficial Dawnguard Patch.esp=1
Unofficial Hearthfire Patch.esp=1
Unofficial Dragonborn Patch.esp=1
Unofficial High Resolution Patch.esp=1
chesko_frostfall
Improved Combat Sounds
Thundering Shouts
StaticMeshImprovementMod
StaticMeshImprovementMod-DragonbornTernFix
auto unequip arrows.esp=1
chesko_lorebasedloadingscreens
DYNAVISION Dynamic Depth of Field
Footprints
Footprints - Ash
skyui
iHUD
hothtrooper44_ArmorCompilation
prvti_heavyarmory
DeadlyDragons
SkyRe_Main
SkyRe_Combat
SkyRe_EncounterZones
SkyRe_EnemyAI
SkyRe_EnemyScaling
SkyRe_StandingStones
SkyRe_Survivalism
Unique Uniques
BetterQuestObjectives
Immersive Weapons
Realistic werewolf speed
dD - Enhanced Blood Main
aMidianborn_Skyforge_Weapons
ClimatesOfTamriel-Sound
EnhancedLightsandFX
ELFX - Exteriors.esp=1
ELFXEnhancer
ImprovedSneakDetection
NoSneakAttackSound
ACE Realistic Fighting
DragonCombatOverhaulDragonborn
Duel - Combat Realism
The Dance of Death - Ultimate Edition
Inconsequential NPCs
3DNPC
RealisticNeedsandDiseases
dd - realistic ragdoll force - realistic
SkyRe_Races
Purewaters
merchantsrevamped
AMatterOfTime
MjollNoChatter
StaticMeshImprovementMod-FurnitureChestSnowFix
BrighterTorchesBiggerMagelight
Convenient Horses
Better Stealth AI for Followers
Daedric Dawnbreaker
Book Covers Skyrim
AOS
Cloaks
SkyHavenTempleEnhanced

Check this guy out: https://www.youtube.com/user/GophersVids

[The Brain]

Realistic werewolf speed

[DontSayBanana]

Just decided to get on the Best Practices Train and move Steam out of my Program Files folder.  In the meantime, would you recommend any of the stuff on Steam Workshop?  Or is all the good stuff Nexus MM?

[katmai]

Can't say for certain that steam has exclusives that nexus doesn't.
Just make sure to use NMM if going that route.

[garbon]

This page is nice though can be a bit daunting.

http://www.skyrimgems.com/