So today I learned of a nifty "bug" that disables the battle music when enemies engage in battle with you (whether you see them or not!) without music stopping or starting over. Basically whatever travel/city/dungeon music is playing, it continues uninterrupted. I always felt it was kind of cheating with battle music, but I never liked playing with music turned completely off either. I spent the last hour or two crawling around the sewers in the Imperial City (cells of the game that I know WAY too well) actually strafing corners and moving at a turtles pace. Add to that my character having no use for sneaking, I was surprised (and a little startled) by a few rats and goblins, and even a vampire that caught me in the back. It almost feels as though I am playing an entirely new game as far as the way I am handling dungeon crawling and combat. So that leads me to this topic... What are some ways you bring about newness to your game?
Whether it be mods or a new play style or something completely different, I'm curious. Oblivion will always hold a special place in my heart but I must admit I find it hard to get into a new character or an old save game sometimes due to too much familiarity.
Now to go back to my weary travels with torch in hand and heart beating rapidly in my chest.
What was that... Is there something behind me!?

Also, I'm sure everyone already knows about this trick but just in case here's the link to more about the "bug". It only works on PC though, I think.
http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/10876

Edit: Ok, that is a bug. I know there's an actual mod for this though, hmm...

See? Isn't it much better to be surprised, rather than alerted? Gets your adrenaline pumping, goosebumps too! Right? I've never had music on in my game, so I've been living with surprises and ambushes since Day 1.

So far as you question goes, ... I mean, I could make a very very long list of things that I've experimented with and tried and implemented, etc., in order to figure out new ways to approach the same game. A lot of us regulars could make such lists. For gamers like me and glargg who make multiple characters, a lot of it depends on which character we're with for the evening. Different characters want to try different things.

Today I have a character who wanted to partake of some archery practice, for instance! Never had a character before who wants to be an archer this bad. She dashed around shooing at the targets in Chorrol for hours. ... But it kinda svcked in the end. Turns out, shooting arrows at targets does not level up Marksman.

oh well. Lady Saga and i tried target practice. It was fun, at least.

Being surprised is 100% better than anything, but man... I jump out of my skin occasionaly and just want to run myself into a corner at repeatedly cast light spells.
I love practicing on the targets around Cyrodiil! I was always in awe that the arrow would stick into the target and then you can go and retrieve it (well MOST of the time, anyway). I remember a long time ago I used my horse as target practice just to raise Marksman. After a few years of playing, I can't draw myself to do that again... Poor horsey.

I think it took a lot of time for Bethesda's programmers to get that right....the way arrows stick into certain surfaces but not into others. Know what I mean? They'll get stuck into a barrel, but not into a rock (not without a glitch, that is).

I've always been a "no music" gal myself, in many other games before Oblivion. I think Tomb Raider circa 1999 was the first game that gave me the option of turning music off. I always do that if I can.

I used to get so scared in Cyrodiil, man. Little things like branches creaking would give me major goosebumps! I'm kinda hardened to all that now. Nowadays, I only get goosebumps if an enemy happens to surprise. Or sometimes I'll have a character who's so good at sneaking, she will sneak right up behind an enemy, and I might not even see this enemy. Once I realize the enemy is RIGHT THERE! .....

Yikes!

This sorta stuff happens more in Skyrim nowadays, but Oblivion can still surpsise, too, here and there.

Yes, it's http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/23545. There's http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/26892 that does something similar but uses a very...bizarre.. method. Something about an invisible rat following you around. Apparently they both work great under XP, although the first one is leaner. Unfortunately both rely on an obse plug-in that hasn't been updated in years and has mixed results under newer OS's and OBSE versions.

This "bug" method is new to me, though. I'll admit I enjoy getting blindsided now and then. I've deleted all my battle music and replaced it with silent mp3's, and added tons of silent mp3's to my other music folders. So I normally get periods of silence with an occasional tranquil explore track or creepy dungeon track to help the mood.