As someone who frequently starts new playthroughs, I wanted to improve the starting experience for some of the popular alternate and quickstart options. This was made especially with Live Another Life in mind but will also work with the vanilla start and any other alternate start that still allows access to Helgen Keep.

Starting Equipment

Sometimes your game start of choice doesn't give you the tools you need for your planned character build. To solve this, this mod adds a Rusty Chest full of super-crappy low-level equipment to both Helgen Keep and the Abandoned Prison covering amulets, robes, light and heavy armor, all weapon skills, torches, a pickaxe, and a woodcutting axe.

Starting Spells

This mod incorporates Starting Spell Choice to allow the player quick access to starting spells in every school of magic. Locate the Forgotten Scroll Case in the Abandoned Prison or in the mage's cell in Helgen Keep and use the scrolls you choose to pick your spells. You will also find two Turn Undead scrolls to help you with early undead fighting.

Starting Birthsign

Thanks to Choose Your Sign, you can now select a starting Birthsign by reading a copy of The Firmament for the first time. A copy has been placed in both Helgen Keep and the Abandoned Prison. Upon reading it, you will open a menu to pick a vanilla Doomstone power to start the game with. This power will change any time you use another Doomstone.

Starting Thievery

Burning through lockpicks can be a problem in earlygame, so a cache of them - locked for extra security - has been hidden in both the Abandoned Prison and Helgen Keep. This is especially helpful for opening the Helgen Keep mage's cell for your starter spell scrolls or when choosing the "I want to break out of this cell" start in Live Another Life.

I Messed Up My Face!

Never fear, the Vanity Mirror is here! A new handheld vanity mirror has been placed in the opening room of Helgen Keep and in the depths of the Abandoned Prison. When you equip the item, it opens a limited appearance editor to change your character's features, but not your race or gender. You can also craft the mirror again at a forge if you lose it.

I Play With Alternate Start - Live Another Life

This mod was designed with synergy with Live Another Life in mind, and there are some extra features especially useful to users of that mod. The room itself is better lit for ease of use, there's a journal with hints, a crappy silver sword to fight the prison ghosts with, and you will find a bridge and a temporary horse outside the prison if you break out.

I Play With Vanilla / Some Other Alternate Start

You will still benefit from this mod! The starting cell from Live Another Life will not be available to you, but you can find all the new items in Helgen Keep instead. Heading to the Abandoned Prison, you will still find the silver sword in its depths, a convenient bridge to the entrance spanning the river outside, and an abandoned temporary horse.

Compatibility

This mod should be compatible with virtually everything except the three mods it incorporates.
Character creation overhauls will work, since all the spells and birthsigns are added post-creation via spells and books you pick up.
Standing Stone overhauls are also compatible, since the birthsigns are chosen from among the vanilla Doomstone powers.

If you are using the Mirror Replacer optional file, load it after Abandoned Prison Tweaks to overwrite the main file in priority.

Recommended Mods

• Alternate Start - Live Another Life was the inspiration for this and works great with it.
• Bring Your Silver gives some purpose to the silver sword in the Abandoned Prison.
• Build Your Own Home makes the new Abandoned Prison bridge doubly useful.
• Build Your Own Home Bridge does for BYOH what this does for the Abandoned Prison.
• Death Alternative - Alternate Start Add-On adds Death Alternative - Captured scenarios to LAL.
• Dragons Don't Wait adds dragons at the start, including an ambush outside Abandoned Prison.
• Interesting NPCs adds a helpful NPC to the Abandoned Prison for dealing with ghosts.
• In Your Shadow lets you pick whether or not to be Dragonborn at the start.
• New Beginnings - Live Another Life Extension adds more for LAL users.
• Opening Scene Overhaul is a cool mod to make the vanilla intro more interesting.
• Kaidan 2 adds a custom-voiced follower to the Abandoned Prison to come with you.
• Your pick of a character creation or standing stone overhaul!
  

Credits & Permissions

You are free to use my work for anything you want, just give credit and link to this page. Because this incorporates Choose Your Sign, Starting Spell Choice, and Vanity Mirror, you will want to double-check their pages, but all were open when I made this mod. Finally, anything you make with this cannot use "Live Another Life" anywhere in the title.

• Alternate Start - Live Another Life for the inspiration. Thanks to Arthmoor for clarifying permissions and properly classifying
  this as an add-on instead of a patch.
• Choose Your Sign by Parapets for the birthsign script on The Firmament.
• Starting Spell Choice by AliTheLord for the starting spell scrolls.
• Vanity Mirror by RGMage2 for the appearance changing mirror.
• BernardTP for the SE port. Thanks so much!