My suggestions for someone starting new (Subject to change as updates come along): 4 unofficial patches: unofficial oblivion patch v32, unofficial oblivion patch update v324, unofficial Shivering patch v140, unofficial Official mods patch v15 BOSS, OBMM (self installer) plus upgrade over it with OBMMex, obse20 or higher, Archive Invalidation, Wrye Base v291 (beta stand a lone version), Tweak Oblivion exe (this removes borders, music, waving grass and kitchen sinks etc) And, to stop all those crashes: Oblivion Crash Prevention System for OBSE (weOCPS), Fast Exit, Oblivion Stutter Remover, For 'saves': StreamLined. And 'Silent Voice' if you're a slow reader. TES4LODGen so you can see things in the distance. There's a few things for you to look up--mostly under 'utilities'. Should you do them all right now? Sooner or later you'll need them or most of them--but I slowly added them over the years :wallbash: as I figured out why my game wouldn't play. I also hear that checkers can be a lot of fun to play...hope that helps. PS: Some things don't work with Steam I've heard--have the disks myself. (Someone else might be able to add to that point to save you a headache.) Most of all--just have fun. :thumbsup: