So just recently in the past few months I've gotten more into PC gaming and with that comes the all important... mods!

They are fantastic, especially in games like Fallout and Elderscrolls. Looking at my Skyrim nexus mod manager I have 35 mods installed, fallout 3 has around 20 something.

Yet most of my friends say that's way to many, you only need about 2 or 3 to fix the bugs and maybe an ENB...

What are y'all's thoughts? Do you prefer just a few mods or do you load up on mods with 20 or 30?

Actually I prefer for Skyrim about 30 to 40,but I notice some people have 2 or 3 hundred mods in Skyrim.Need a good rig for that many..

I always play a game vanilla first. If nothing else I better appreciate the mods. Skyrim was so much better with the UI and magic changes.

When I install video games on my PC that have mod tools support I end up installing hundreds of mods for those video games that support mods and mod tools.

Nexus is so much better than Steam Workshop.

There are more PC versions of video games that have mods on the Nexus web sites than on Steam Workshop, some video games don't have as many mods as Steam Workshop does, but there are more video games on the Nexus mods web sites than Steam Workshop will ever get.

http://www.nexusmods.com/games/about/games/?

same
i prefer to play the game vanilla first before installing mods just to see what the gaem offers on its own
and what the mods change

currently im playing through vampire bloodlines with the 9.0 patch to see what was changed

Vanilla first, then cosmetic mods.
I rarely use gameplay altering mods.
So usually anywhere between five and thirty mods on my additional playthroughs.

Depends on the game. For RPGs I have a lot more many mods, for other games, like Minecraft, I don't really use more than 5~6.

For Skyrim I have....... over 180 mods installed .__.
Mind me, I needed to turn a "fantasy action game with RPG elements" into an actual RPG....

For Morrowind I have around 120 mods. Many of these are part of the overhaul.

For Dragon Age I have around 30 mods.

I usually say: "meh, I don't need mods". Then I discover mods, and end up overloading my game, causing myself massive headaches.....

I generally install 3 types of mods when necessary:
1. Widescreen mods. Black bars be gone!
2. Hud removal mods. Huds be gone!.
3. Gameplay mods. Hello run and gun gameplay (thinking of Far Cry)

I also install source ports for older games to improve compatibiliy.

Tip:

Use JSGME for your mods, it allows easy switching between mods providing a backup of the altered files.

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Others/Miscellaneous/Generic-Mod-Enabler.shtml

I have all the recommended mods on the recommended mods list for Planescape Torment, because those make the game run in a bigger way.
I never installed any mods on any other games

In general the only mods I play with are with Civ 4. There's a mod called Caveman to Cosmos, which is kind of a giant clump of mods all combined into one.

The next time I play Oblivion I'll add a mod that changes the leveling/experience system. I've never completed the game because of its weird mechanics.

I'll run a couple mods at most. Play vanilla first-time through unless I encounter a game-killing bug or some other major issue, and for a second playthrough might later install just a mod or two that get the overall thumbs-up from the community.

I admit I am not much into mods. The only mod I can remember that I used some time ago was a mod for Skyrim that reduced all item weights to zero since I always hated not being able to take everything I want with me :D

Too many on Skyrim, I like immersion and feeling a part of its world. I like things that add to the game. I always liked the food options and felt realistic needs was something to add and Frostfall felt natural. However, on most very few mods installed. I do play Nehrim though on Oblivion and some overhauls as such.

I usually don't mod games that much. Unless we're talking about The Elder Scrolls...
20 or 30 you say? I used to play Skyrim with over 350 mods. I had so many mods I had to merge several of them together in order to be able to run all of them at once.
It was a very time consuming process to fix all the mod conflicts but the end result was an epic experience perfectly tailored to my preferences.