This is something I've done in Skyrim and Morrowind before, and now I've decided to do it in Oblivion.

The background

When Uriel Septim was assassinated, a certain prisoner was set free and sent to Jauffre to deliver an amulet. But in the chaos, some other prisoners also managed to escape from their cells. How long will they survive? Will they too become important figures in the history of Cyrodiil, for good or for ill? Or will they live unnoticed?

The rules

I'll create a bunch of characters (by letting a generic "Prisoner" do the tutorial dungeon and then save right before the exit), set them free in Cyrodiil and see who survives the longest. When a character levels up, I'll switch to the next. When they die, they are out of the game. The last man or woman standing wins. Updates will be posted, with screenshots (though not as detailed updates as in the "updates" thread). They are not allowed to do the same major questlines. One will do the Main Quest. I'll also try to avoid them doing the same side quests, because the idea is that they live in the same Cyrodiil and escaped at the same time.

(And no, I haven't deleted Aurmindo.)

The reasons

I think it's fun to create characters, and I'm really bad at DiD. My characters die a lot. So it's a challenge for me to see how long they can survive.

The invitation

I also invite others to do their own character survival contest, and post their characters in this thread. It would be more fun if I'm not the only one contributing.

Oooh... I like this! I may try this, too.

Because of my setup, I'd make a change to my "entry." My alternate start mod allows a prison tutorial start, but removes the ability to make a new character edit at the sewer exit. So my alternate "prisoners" would be starting at other locations, to which they would be assumed to have traveled. (This will not affect their level or skills, so they will be starting "equal.")

I may not start immediately. I'm presently involved in a long playthrough of a different game (Gothic II Gold), and the User Interface of that game is so different from Oblivion that I have trouble switching back and forth. I'll try to hurry, though.

Ok, glad that you want to contribute too

I'd sign up, but it'd just be a massacre

i'm all for it. I just finished my knights9 paladin and was going to do a mage DiD anyways

plus, I like the idea of switching to another pc after a level-up.

now, i'm on the 360 and so what I do is during the tutorial I turn the difficulty all the way down and do as very little as possible to level-up ANYTHING and right before the exit I drop anything I might have picked up, turn the difficulty back to normal and then save. I exit with nothing.

as for "major questlines" which ones are you specifically referring too so that we can all be on the same page? I'm thinking main, dark and the 3guilds. possibly, knights9 and shivering isles? arena?

as well, are you just going to go straight into the questlines or spend some time building them up or is it a "do whatever you want" type of thing?

i'm starting my tutorial run now...

I'm thinking the guild quests, DB, arena, MQ, SI and KOTN. But you don't have to do it the same way

I'll try to get them into the questlines in a believable way, because I'll roleplay them.

And turning the difficulty down in the tutorial was a good idea; I'll do that too.