I had my first contact with the game today after being introduced to TES through Skyrim last year, and I have to say... the characters appearance isn't as bad as I thought.

Sure, most npcs look bad, but I was surprised that it really isn't difficult to create actually good looking characters in the vanilla game. After a little tinkering here and there, you can get satisfying results.

The main problem is that the initial models have very wide faces and big noses, both of which can be taken care of.

On a side note, the lack of snow is such a fresh breath of air for me. Sure, there is Bruma but I love how it illustrates the transition between a province and its bordering neighbor.

A lot of folks here will probably agree with you. My last two near-vanilla games I did not use any face mods. I actually couldn't, with one character. I planned to play Severia Gratius from Bloodmoon as a worn, Moon Sugar ex-addict who sees the Oblivion invasion as her last chance to redeem herself. I auditioned face mod after face mod, looking for one that would give Severia's face age and, more important, an interesting personality. But all of the mods I tried made Severia look like Kim Kardashian. In the end I discovered that Oblivion's vanilla chargen gave me the best results.

Welcome to Cyrodiil, Njordr! I think you will find that Oblivion is a very fun game. And the folks in this forum are very helpful, if you have any questions.