I remember my first playthrough of Oblivion. I was a Wood Elf and I was a fairly personable chap. I helped out merchants in the Imperial City, reunited some brothers, and even saved Kvatch. But then something happened. I got nasty. I killed someone innocent. Didn't mean to, but afterwards I felt a new, dark thrill run through my veins. And the Dark Brotherhood came for me. And I became an evil bastard.

However, I thought that eventually I better sort out this Oblivion crisis and get rid of all these gates cropping up everywhere. They were annoying me. The problem was, my character was a twisted vampire now, and doing so made absolutely no sense whatsoever. So I gave up and started a new game as a goody two shoes. Bah. And I haven't joined the Dark Brotherhood since.

I use the Alternative Start Arrive by Ship mod, and this idea would only make sense if used with such a mod (incidentally, does anyone use any alternative alternative start mods which they prefer - I spotted a couple on nexus by searching for 'start' that look intriguing, especially this one http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=23757). I also recently started playing with Kuertee's Ignoring the Main Quest has Consequences mod, which is great http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=22699. However, it doesn't provide a way to bypass the main quest altogether.

The idea has varying levels of complexity, so I'll layer them up:

Layer 1. The mod checks for time passed (ideally configurable in an ini file) and proceeds the main quest on to varying stages (skipping many, showing only the main ones or ones that would be considered public knowledge) and changes the text so that it reflects that someone else is being heroic and not you (for example, 'news is spreading that a mysterious hero entered the besieged Kvatch and rescued the city from an Oblivion invasion..'). The Black Horse Courier could be integrated to trigger the quest stages, but that's a bit more complicated.

Layer 2. The hero is not a ghost and is an actual npc who you have the chance to meet whilst wandering around. The hero could ask you to help out with a quest if your fame is high enough. Or, if your infamy is high enough, you could be contacted by the Mythic Dawn to try and assassinate the hero... other possibilities abound here. More ideas welcome!

My problem is is that I know nothing about using the CS. The most I've done mod-wise is create some companions for TalkieToaster's share and recruit mod and twiddle around with things in TES4Edit. So this is one of those 'anyone want to take it up?' type threads.

I would be happy to work with someone, follow instructions and help out with writing, ideas and testing. So what do we think?

There is a mod that lets you join the Mythic Dawn afterwards which kind of makes it seem like you only saved the world for riches and respect. Afterwards you were offered more power to reverse what you've done and you went for it. Other than that i have not heard of a mod for this.

I could ask my cousin if he can help but im not to sure.

Are you talking about Servant of the Dawn http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=6855 ? I was going to mention that actually, but haven't played it and I imagine, reading its description, that it's written from the perspective that you've already completed the main questline, which wouldn't work. It's possible a compatability patch for it could be created I guess.

Has your cousin got any mods on nexus?

I really like this idea, it could be a very interesting new roleplaying opportunity. It would be amazing to see the battle of bruma fought by someone else then me

Yes Servant of the Dawn was the one. It is played after the main quest but it sort of makes your character say hes doing it for power.
I don't know if my cousin has mods on Nexus. If you look at my The Forgotten Duty Mod thread then thats what hes working on and im showing but i dont know what he has previously released.

Bah! Saving the world from the Oblivion crisis is something I leave for players of an unmodded game. I'm too busy turning on Ayleid Steps and finding out where all these mimics came from.


gothemasticator

I remember a mod like this for Morrowind; Basically, it had Jiub, from the Ship you started from, having already completed the MQ for you. Good luck with this

I was just thinking about this idea a few days ago. It might be easiest to make a mod that had it so your game started after the oblivion crisis was over. I think it would involve the least work.

I checked out the alternative start mod I mentioned above by Horny Quintus and it's great - it gives you the option to totally avoid the main quest if you want to. I mod which just auto-completes the main quest at the start of the game would be useful in some circumstances, for example if you want to play through mods that begin after the main quest has concluded (although you would presumably get your ass handed to you if you try and take on any non-levelled mobs from those quests). However, it's not really what the idea is behind this mod. I'd like to play in a world where you are not the hero, an NPC is, and you get to somehow interact with that NPC for good or ill depending on your roleplaying preferences.

I think the least work for this idea would be to have timed progression of the quest stages with re-written quest pop-ups. That should be focused on first, released and then used as the basis for the NPC as hero mod.

I think there already is a mod that completes the mainquest......... http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=8495. Somewhat buggy from the comments section though. Didn't investigate too far.