There are four ways to approach Morrowind today:

• You can play 100% vanilla
  
• You can mod the vanilla game
  
• You can install OpenMW[openmw.org] and play it without mods
  
• Or you can use OpenMW and install mods as well

Before I talk about these, my recommendation for a first playthrough is to play OpenMW without mods. That's the TL;DR but I will talk a bit about the pros and cons of the other approaches so you can make a more informed decision.

That being said, you'll want to install the vanilla game first, though, as OpenMW requires that you have the base game installed.

While it is still completely viable to play the game 100% vanilla, and it certainly brings you a better idea of what Bethesda had in mind when they made the game, this approach isn't recommended for total newcomers unless you're heavily experienced with older CPRGs and their complexities. This approach merely requires that you install the game through Steam, and then just play it. Optionally, you can also download and install the official add-ons[en.uesp.net] that Bethesda freely released back in the day, and some of them are definitely worth going for (especially Master Index, for its added fast travel abilities). None of them are required but they're official content so they fit for a vanilla playthrough.

• See the game the way Bethesda intended, jank and all.
  
• Experience a hardcore RPG from before the days when RPGs simplified and streamlined things to appeal to a wider audience.
  
• The shoddy balancing in the game can lead to a lot of fun sandbox gameplay and allows for loads of player agency and creativity.
  
• This is the quickest way to get up and running with the game so if you just want to hit the ground running, this approach works best.

• This approach will have you encountering plenty of bugs.
  
• This version of the game is 32-bit, meaning it can only work with 4GB of your PC's RAM at a time. This leads to frequent crashes and performance issues, and while this is less of an issue with a vanilla playthrough, it's still not an ideal experience.
  
• Morrowind is a great game but without fan patches and tweaks, it can be a very rough and jarring experience overall, even for some who've played older RPGs.
  
• You will get wrecked on a regular basis due to the combat system's RNG basis, especially early on before you've leveled up a bit.
  
• You won't have access to HD resolutions; this means that not only will the game look bad (and not just in the "aging bad" sense), it will also be difficult to read text in the UI. This game is extremely text-heavy, maybe moreso than any other CRPG ever made, so this really can be a deal-breaker.

If you don't want to use OpenMW, you're most likely going to want to play with some mods. I won't give you a full guide on how to mod the game, or a full list of mods to install, because your mod list is personal to your own gaming experience. That said, I will say that there are a few "must haves".

Morrowind Code Patch[www.nexusmods.com] is absolutely crucial in the way that the "unofficial patch" mods for later Bethesda games are. It fixes plenty of bugs and engine issues in the game and offers some options to tweak some things as well.

I'd also consider Accurate Attack[www.nexusmods.com] to be crucial, as it improves the game's combat system subtly: in Morrowind, you can literally be inches from the enemy and still "miss" an attack due to how the system is based on dice rolls. Accurate Attack changes this by making it so that as long as you're close enough, you will always hit the enemy. It might not cause heavy damage but it does eliminate some of the frustrations in the vanilla combat system, especially early on.

Some other really good ones include:

• Morrowind Comes Alive[www.nexusmods.com] offers more NPC immersion & variety
  
• Speed and Stamina[www.nexusmods.com] changes stamina to be more like Oblivion
  
• Morrowind Enhanced Textures[www.nexusmods.com] is a faithful upscaling of vanilla textures, which is recommended for a first time playthrough
  
• Romance[www.nexusmods.com] gives romancing interactions for immersion & roleplaying

However, at the end of the day, what mods you use are entirely up to you and whether you want a close to vanilla experience, or something really wild and updated. I'd recommend starting light on mods, just until you've completed a playthrough, or else you'll end up missing some of the charm and feel of the game. However, when you do decide to start exploring mods, a good rule of thumb is to just check out the "Popular" tab on Nexusmods[www.nexusmods.com] and see if any of them appeal to you.

• Offers a lot of freedom to tweak any of the mechanics that are too challenging or too tedious to deal with.
  
• Allows you to patch and fix game-breaking bugs.
  
• Lets you update graphics, enhance menu textures and fonts, etc.
  
• Gives you the ability to increase the immersion factor in an already stunningly immersive RPG.

• The more mods you add, the more stability and performance become an issue because of the 32-bit engine. Your system can be top-of-the-line but the game will only be able to access up to 4GB of your system's RAM, meaning that a light-handed approach to mods is generally a recommendation if you go this path.
  
• Adding too many mods can detract from a player's first experience of the game, whether those are graphics enhancements that change the aesthetic, or gameplay tweaks that add/change too many things.
  
• It can be difficult to troubleshoot crashes if you have more than a couple mods installed.
  
• Modding is way easier these days than it was "back in my day" thanks to mod managers like Vortex, but it can still have a bit of a learning curve if you're entirely new to modding Bethesda games.

As I mentioned prior, this is the approach I highly recommend for first-time players. The OpenMW project[openmw.org] is a fully open source re-implementation of the game engine. OpenMW has a 64-bit engine and it's intentionally designed to not have many of the issues that NetImmerse (the default engine) had in this game. It also runs natively, without any compatibility issues, on modern Windows and Linux PCs.

OpenMW also gives you tweaks and settings to play around with, and because of the way the OpenMW engine was designed, mods like Morrowind Code Patch aren't necessary in OpenMW.

All you need to do is install Morrowind through Steam and then you can set up OpenMW. I also recommend reading this excellent guide to set up OpenMW so it runs when you hit the play button in Steam.

• Smoothest experience if you want a vanilla playthrough. This is almost objectively the only way you should be playing vanilla Morrowind.
  
• Because of the new engine, even without graphics mods, the game looks noticeably better. From a longer draw distance to better water shaders to an overall higher resolution, it looks great despite its age.
  
• Very low likelihood of crashes or performance issues.

• OpenMW is technically not finished, as it's on version 0.48.0 as of the time of this writing. This means there's still a possibility for oddities and issues to occur.
  
• Some might argue that the low-res, low-detail graphics of standard vanilla are part of the charm (I don't necessarily agree).

This approach is ideal if you've played Morrowind before, or you're okay with not experiencing a completely true-to-form experience. As mentioned above, some mods may not work well with OpenMW but in my experience, most of them work just fine.

My mod recommendations from section 3 are the same here, except for Morrowind Code Patch which isn't necessary for OpenMW.

• All of the pros of the section above are carried over here.
  
• Modding on OpenMW is so much smoother, particularly due to the 64-bit engine which keeps you from most of the crashes and performance issues that happen with vanilla modding.
  
• This approach is basically Morrowind in its ultimate form. It gives you virtually limitless potential to tweak your game to your liking.

• Again, some mods don't work with OpenMW.
  
• Once again, OpenMW isn't at its 1.0 release which means issues might arise and updates to OpenMW do have the potential to break your mods.
  
• You're going to want to manage your load order and enable/disable mods from a mod manager like Vortex, as the OpenMW mod manager is very barebones.

Now, on to the fun stuff! Read all of this and the next section before you go through the process.



Morrowind begins with a quick cutscene where you're having a nightmare. In the dream, you hear a voice that tells you that you have been chosen for some apparent purpose. You're not told what that purpose is, though, and I will not spoil it. This game's main plot is possibly the best story in the entirety of The Elder Scrolls so it's best for you to go in blind and let yourself fall into the adventure.

After you wake up, you find yourself in the hull of a ship and you're told you've reached Morrowind or, more specifically, the massive, volcanic island of Vvardenfel which sits north of mainland Morrowind. After entering in your character name, a guard bids you to follow him and this begins the process of the character creation. Unlike Oblivion and Skyrim, the intro/character creation sequence in Morrowind is really short and to the point.



After you choose your race, gender and appearance from a very barebones character customizer, you'll enter the Census and Excise Office and run into a balding, robed man named Socucius Ergalla. Here, you'll choose your class and birth sign: either answer questions to auto-assign a class (not recommended for your first run), pick a pre-defined class, or create your own class.

---

Morrowind's approach to classes is a lot more old school than what modern RPG fans might be used to. Classes will have a Combat Specialization, Major Skills, Minor Skills and then miscellaneous skills that don't fall under the Major/Minor setup.

When picking a class, you want to pick one that has major skills you plan to use almost constantly. The reason for this is because, not only do those skills start at a higher place, but you can only level up your character by leveling up your major skills. Next, look at the class minor skills and make sure you plan to use at least most of them. These don't affect your character level but they start a little lower than your major skills, and are the ones that you'll want to use as an augmentation to your character build. Any skills not in the major/minor category are still usable but you won't progress them very fast.



My advice is to make sure you have at least one weapon style, one armor style, Athletics and Restoration as your major skills. This way, you're going to be set to fight well, defend well, run better and hold restorative magic (which can be very handy).

However, if you can't find a class that fits your preferred playstyle, you can create your own class. This is probably the best way to go if you're experienced with RPGs but playing Morrowind for the first time, as it lets you define what skills are major/minor. As a bonus roleplaying tip, you can name this custom class and write up a bio for that class. I definitely recommend writing the class bio because it's a fun way to get a mental image of what your character will be like. After all, this is a roleplaying game!


If you're not familiar with Oblivion and the older Elder Scrolls games, you used to be able to pick a birth sign for your character. These signs were a sort of buff/debuff system. Some signs offer solid buffs, others have relatively rough debuffs on top of those buffs. These enable more complex roleplaying and character building.



My recommendation for a first playthrough is to go with a sign that doesn't have any debuffs (denoted by a reddish icon in the description). The Warrior, The Mage, The Tower, The Steed, those are all pretty solid starter ones. The Steed is particularly useful on a vanilla playthrough since the unmodded movement speed is... sluggish, to say the least.


After doing all of this, you'll be given a review of your build choices. This is your final chance to tweak things if you're unhappy with them because after this, you'll learn some very basic mechanics before being unleashed onto the world.

You'll find your way to an Imperial officer named Sellus Gravius, wearing golden armor. He will give you some early hints as to what's going on and where you should go. This part shows you just how important dialog is in Morrowind. Read EVERYTHING. Not only will this increase your immersion and understanding of this fascinating world, but you will also need to rely on both dialog and a reasonably vague quest journal. You're not going to have your hand held through this quest: you're going to need to pay attention, follow directions and do things such as asking for the latest rumors.

Make sure you search all of the containers in the Cencus and Excise Offices and courtyard as you find them. You might find a useful trinket that can help you during your early hours!

If you don't mind exploiting a bug, you can steal two items with no consequences, both of which can give you a quick head start on your gold stack before you leave Seyda Neen. This bug works on both vanilla and OpenMW.


First thing you want to do is, as soon as you receive your papers after talking to Socucius Ergalla, you should finally be able to open up your inventory. If so, look to the right of Socucius at the bookshelf. On display, there's a Limeware Platter. You can steal this and sell it in Arrille's Tradehouse in Seyda Neen for solid gold.

First, position yourself as far from the guard as you can while still being able to pick up the platter. Next, pick it up but as soon as you do, open your inventory. Next, click on the platter in your inventory and then click on the floor below you. You should see it drop. Once the guard scolds you, you're free to pick it back up without consequences.


Next, when you progress to the office of Sellus Gravius, there's a key on his shelf behind him. You can pick this up for very easy access to the Imperial warehouse in Seyda Neen, which has some gear and supplies you can pilfer.

Just a warning, though: this trick is a lot more difficult because Sellus literally just has to turn around to tell you off. You'll want to be super quick here. When you pick up the key, be sure to drop both the key AND the limeware platter before he engages in dialog. Otherwise, he'll take whatever stolen items you still hold.

After you've gotten your bearings and assigned your mission to find Caius Cosades in Balmora, you'll be unleashed into Seyda Neen, the "starter town" of the game. From here, you're free to go wherever you want but I highly recommend wandering in and around this town. It functions somewhat like an optional, extended tutorial in the sense that there are a few quests in the area that can help you get a better understanding of other aspects of the game.

You'll learn how the quest system works, how the trading system works, how to find information and quests in new areas and so forth.

If you picked up the ring in the barrel earlier, do not hand it off to Fargoth the wood elf. It's useful for your early gameplay, especially if you didn't choose Restoration as a major or minor skill. If you want to screw Fargoth over even more (why not?), find Hrisskar Flat-Foot and agree to help him. Might make you feel bad but it's another good way to build up your early cash stack.


Start asking around for the latest rumors, for advice, for secrets. Make sure you pay close attention to all they tell you. It'll help you understand the gameplay a lot better than if you just go in blindly. You're also likely to find quest opportunities, such as one to find the missing tax collector, Processus Vitellius (and I recommend you do that quest early).

Now, what you want to do next will determine my next recommendation. Do you want to continue on the "correct" main quest pathway, or start exploring right away?

---

If you recall what Sellus Gravius told you, you're supposed to seek out Caius Cosades in the town of Balmora. While you can make your way to Balmora on foot, he suggests taking a silt strider. Silt striders are one of a couple methods of fast travel in Morrowind. Unlike later Elder Scrolls games and most modern RPGs, this game's fast travel is very limited and based on logical travel methods.


Silt striders are long-legged beetles who are piloted by a shepherd. These will allow you to travel to all the major cities, though you may need to first travel to another city as a waypoint first before you have the ability to travel further. Other fast travel methods include boats in coastal towns, guild teleports and the aforementioned Master Index official add-on. You can also find spells that allow faster navigation about the game world and there's a good chance you might find one of these if you explore the areas surrounding Seyda Neen (hehehe).

If you decide to go the "correct" path, don't bother buying any gear from Arrille. You can sell off anything you don't need but I'd suggest waiting to buy gear until you find Caius Cosades, particularly if you're taking a silt strider. This is because Caius will offer you some help and advice for what to do next: he flat-out tells you to buy gear, join a guild, train yourself up and familiarize yourself with Vvardenfel.

This game's main quest is paced really differently from many RPGs in that you can't just blaze through it. You have to take time to build up your character, explore, learn the gameplay and the story, try out different guilds, etc.


When you buy gear, be sure to pay close attention to what weapon and armor types you have in your major skills. Buy according to those because not only will the gear be more effective, but hitting/being hit while using that gear will up the appropriate skills and this increases the XP coverage, leading to generally faster leveling. There is no level scaling in this game so the more you level, the easier things will gradually become.



Much like the rest of the series, you're free to approach the game however you want to play it. If you'd rather just set out and explore, discovering whatever you can come across, then you definitely want to buy some starter gear in Seyda Neen. Again, pay attention to weapon/armor major skills.

If you're aiming to just wander and explore, my recommendation is to stick with the Bitter Coast and Ascadian Isles until you've leveled up a bit. In other words, stick to the south and southwest corners of Vvardenfel. While there are still plenty of threats that can easily destroy you, you're also going to run into a lot more low-level quests that can help be a good start toward progressing further in the game.


By the Nine Divines, stay on the roads! Also, pay attention to signposts on the roads. If you veer from paths in this game, it can be somewhat challenging to find your way back and, besides, the signposts help you to keep your bearings. This is useful if you don't want to just fast travel to all the cities via silt strider/boat. I do recommend doing this, particularly after you settle in to the game's controls and basic mechanics, as it can be extremely rewarding and it's a major part of the appeal of this series.

When you start traveling in the open world, you're 100% free to play how you want, but these are just the basic recommendations I give for starting out. Quests will take you places you might be realistically afraid to go, and as you level up, this experience will (realistically) become less and less frightening to undertake.

If you hear annoying chirping but can't see an enemy, look to the skies. There's a good chance you've got a cliff racer on your tail. But despair not! That Dark Elf prisoner who asked you your name earlier? Spoiler alert, but Skyrim confirms that he went on to exterminate the entire population of cliff racers, being canonized as Saint Jiub in the Tribunal temple as a result. How's that for a humorous callback?

So, you're off to fulfill your destiny... what now? How do you get lost in the magic of one of the greatest RPGs ever made?

Well, first off, I wrote a guide for roleplaying in Skyrim and while the gameplay mechanics of Skyrim are significantly different from this game, there are plenty of concepts in that guide that can help you learn to start to "live" in Vvardenfel, in Morrowind. A few ideas to get you started...



... and stick with it. Properly roleplaying in a roleplaying game is far more rewarding than min-maxing or striving for efficiency; this isn't Diablo, an MMO or anything close to them. Instead, if you've ever played a tabletop RPG, approach character building that way. While you're not given in-game systems to come up with a wild backstory, having a general background in mind can help you really run through the game's quests from the character's perspective.

On that note, when creating your character's story, try to summarize their disposition with a classic DnD moral alignment perspective. Making a heroic knight? Lawful good. A mercenary with a code? Lawful neutral. A mage with a keen interest in necromancy and no concern for anyone else? Chaotic evil. Getting a feel for the character's sense of morality makes it easier for you to roleplay that character.


Don't be afraid to allow your character to have some flaws/weaknesses. While you don't want to cause your character any outright crippling weaknesses (particularly in this game), it's alright to not be good at a bunch of skills. Try to stick primarily with your major skills and maybe one or two of the minor skills. This makes it feel more realistic, as though you're earning the gradual progress you make with leveling up. In other words, leveling and completing quests will make you feel like you've worked hard for what you've accomplished, which just makes the entire game feel more realistic and enjoyable.


Don't run everywhere. This is a doubly helpful tip in vanilla Morrowind since stamina drains steadily as long as you're running, but the key reason I encourage this is because if you speed through everywhere, you won't be able to soak in the ambiance, story or environment and it'll feel less like an immersive adventure as a result. You might even miss loot, crucial pieces of a quest, added lore, environmental storytelling, even entirely new areas to explore. Just slow down and check as many nooks and crannies as tickles your fancy. Vvardenfel isn't going anywhere... at least, not for about a decade or so[en.uesp.net]. What, too soon?


Take a break from adventuring to buy and read a book or two, or go around talking to people and exhausting their dialog options. This will help increase your understanding of the lore and game world. Practically-speaking, the books can help boost a skill or two and can even lead to quest opportunities or hints toward potential future quests.


Stop by a tavern after a long journey and, before you turn in for the night, look to see if there are any interesting characters to spend a while chatting with. Look for any of the entertainers added by the "Entertainers" official add-on. If you install mods that add more characters or activities, see if there's anything fun or interesting to talk about before bed!


Again, don't force yourself to take the path of efficiency. Do quests and adventure in a way that you might if you were physically hiking to somewhere. This means taking the long way if the path forward requires you to climb mountains or swim far. This also has a practical benefit, training your Athletics skill, which allows you to run faster and for a longer distance.

Make sure you stay strapped and well-equipped. Carry a surplus of potions and scrolls alongside your standard gear, maybe with a few soul gems, especially if you have enchanted gear or want to make your own enchantments. Filled soul gems allow you to do this, so if you have enchanted gear on you already, keep a few filled gems to recharge your enchantments. Likewise, if you're looking to make some enchanted gear, carry unfilled gems with a Soul Trap spell of some kind, so that you can fill those gems yourself.


Just get into the mindset of someone who is actually traveling the land, because even just a simple mindset change can help immerse you much deeper than just playing for the raw gameplay alone.

• Experiment with gameplay systems outside of basic combat and questing. Try striking out in random directions to look for ingredients so you can make different potions. Learn spells to soul trap and go out with unfilled soul gems so you can start experimenting with enchanting (this part of the game offers absurd levels of freedom). Fool around with spellcrafting (especially if you're a magic-oriented class). The list goes on. Try applying your character's morality to these experiments, especially in your enchantments and spells. If your character is good, focus on restorative and protective spells/enchantments. If your character is evil, make extremely destructive spells with wild effect combinations. The possibilities really are endless.
  
• If there are skills you want to try and they're not among your major skills, consider finding a trainer to help you level those skills up. This costs money, though, so it's mostly advisable throughout the mid and late game experience unless you manage to obtain a reasonable amount of gold and appropriate gear.
  
• Break up the main quests and even guild quests with random side quests that you pick up along the way. Doing this will not only break up monotony but it will also feel a lot more immersive: even the greatest of heroes need some time away from their usual gig and it also ensures you're out exploring the world more.
  
• Avoid joining guilds that don't fit your character's skill set, story or morality. A holy paladin might be likely to join both Fighter's Guild, Mages' Guild and one of the religious orders, but they'd avoid the Thieves' Guild like the plague. This extends to the Great Houses as well.
  
• Speaking of the Great Houses, you can only join one and then you're locked in. If you want to join one of them, learn about all of them and pick the one that aligns most with who your character is. Mages might like to join House Telvanni, while Imperials and characters with a specialty in Mercantile and/or Speechcraft might find it interesting to join House Hlaalu.
  
• On the subject of the Great Houses, it's strongly advised that you don't make enemies of them.

The above are just a few suggestions. When it comes to roleplaying your life in Vvardenfel, use your creativity. Stick to your character's backstory, personality traits and overall goal. This may seem pretty dorky but trust me, carrying out a good roleplay in an Elder Scrolls game is an experience like nothing else. Morrowind may not be as friendly to roleplay as Oblivion and Skyrim are (namely due to the lack of systems such as player housing and the like) but it still presents you a robust toolset to work with and create a really awesome story for your character.

Morrowind has a long list of quests and questlines. This may not be a walkthrough guide but I would like to briefly address what I'd consider to be the "ideal" order of the major questlines. Some of this was briefly touched on in the previous section.



You can freely join and do guild questlines whenever you want, at any stage of your playthrough. I would recommend focusing on one guild at a time, and while it might be tempting to join all of them for the perks and free stuff that guilds give you, that's not ideal if you're taking a proper roleplaying approach to the game. Pay attention to what sort of character archetype you're playing. If you're strictly a warrior, only join the Fighters Guild. If you're more of a hybrid class (examples: Spellsword, Battlemage, Rogue, Monk), then it'd be acceptable to join more than one guild. Just be sure that whatever guild or guilds you join match up with your character class and your character's story.


Outside of guilds, there are the Great Houses. I'd recommend holding off on these until a bit later in the game because they do play a role in the main quest. The reason I recommend holding off is because once you join a Great House, you can't join a different one. You'll want to make your decision carefully on this front.


The Imperial Legion and Imperial Cult questlines are really fun questlines that could work for just about any character class and archetype, provided you're not roleplaying as some sort of rebel against the Empire or something like that. Much like guild questlines, these can work in just about any stage of your playthrough.


When it comes to the main quest of the base game, the best thing I can recommend is to listen to Caius Cosades. When he tells you go out and do some "freelance adventuring", gain a few levels, etc., be sure you do exactly as he's saying. Take those breaks in the main quest as opportunities to explore, do some guild quests, find adventures in regions that seem interesting to you. The reason for this is both practical and figurative. In terms of your roleplaying, those breaks are a chance for you to learn more about the world, develop your character. In a practical sense, the breaks give you time to level up, acquire better gear and (if you're a magic user) discover more spells. Those breaks also help make the main quest feel more like the monumental adventure that it really is.

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Tribunal is a bit more challenging than the main quest of the base game and it also makes the most sense as aftermath of the events of the main quest. Moreover, it takes place within the capital city of Morrowind (the mainland), called Mournhold, so it also isn't exactly the epitome of what most of Morrowind's gameplay loop offers.

As for Bloodmoon, that expansion takes place on the island of Solstheim, the very same location of Skyrim's expansion, Dragonborn. It is the most challenging part of Morrowind and it's more of a self-contained adventure with its own story arc. Much like The Shivering Isles in Oblivion, this expansion feels like the ideal way to cap off your playthrough of Morrowind. That's why I recommend it as the absolute final part of your run. You're still able to explore any of the three world spaces afterward but it just makes sense to let that be the finale of your character's adventure.

As for the other free DLCs that Bethesda released, those can generally be played at any stage of the story as well, but for immersion's sake, I'd recommend avoiding The Master Index until you're a little way into the main quest or, at the very least, a bit into the Mages Guild quest.

Today, roleplaying games tend to have much more streamlined gameplay. I don't have any issue with that, I actually find I tend to prefer it, as allows you to spend more time playing and less time working with stats and stressing over build optimization. However, this does tend to ironically lead to lessened freedom. It's funny because you'd think it'd be the other way around, but it's not.


There's a great video that a Morrowind megafan made where he remarks that this game's RPG mechanics and skill systems allow for organic, player-made storytelling and character building.

The example he uses is an enchanted set of boots called the "Boots of Blinding Speed". These boots are a quest reward and what they do is give you a major speed boost, but at the cost of dimming your vision massively, to the point where you can't really see enough for them to be very playable.

On the surface, you might suspect this item is effectively useless, but not if you know how to work the game's systems. You could get your skills up and enchant a ring that generates light around you, and if you use this ring in conjunction with these boots, you're essentially negating the negative effect while keeping the good effect.

This is a fantastic example of how the deeper RPG mechanics of this game ironically lead you to immense levels of creativity in the way you build, develop and roleplay your character. Entire gameplay systems in this game can be completely changed based on how much you understand the systems and the ways they interact.


My best suggestion is to get comfortable with the idea of creating and roleplaying multiple characters with completely different gameplay styles. The reason I suggest this is because it will allow you to get a really good grasp on the different gameplay systems so that, eventually, you'll be able to build any character type, roleplay that character front-to-back, and use your knowledge of the systems to buff the weaknesses you have.

Also, regarding the systems themselves, don't feel you need to study them until you understand every granular detail, and I highly advise against any sort of ARPG-style min-maxing. The reason I make these two suggestions is because first off, intensely studying the systems' every detail isn't immersive and will really mess with the sense of mystery and adventure the game gives you. Leave room for some surprises.

And as for the min-maxing aspect, you can do it to an extent but if you do, you're going to end up treating this game more like an efficiency grind a la Diablo, rather than a roleplaying adventure. Again, leave room for that sense of mystery. You don't need to obsess over having the most efficient, most powerful character of all time.

Finally, when it comes to training skills, the Elder Scrolls series handles skill systems differently than most RPGs. I briefly mentioned this before, but in this series, you get better at skills by using them (what a unique concept!). While I love this aspect of the TES series, as it makes skills feel way more realistic to get better at the skills you're actively using. On the flip side, this also means there are ways to essentially cheese the leveling system. Areas in Vivec can be used to very quickly grind out training for your Acrobatics skill. Once again: you can do this, but if you do, you're stripping out the sense of adventure, mystery and immersion.

The key to roleplaying is to play as if you ARE your character, and that will make for a much more immersive experience whether you go crazy with the roleplaying aspect or not.

It is absolutely going to take you time to adapt and learn the way that Morrowind plays. Don't feel bad if it doesn't sink in right away, and don't feel bad about feeling overwhelmed. In fact, I'd encourage you to embrace feeling overwhelmed! That's a massive part of the appeal to this game. Bethesda doesn't make mere roleplaying games, they make roleplaying worlds. "A continent on a disc." Even after years, you'll have so many aspects of these games that still feel mysterious. I mean, even after years of exploring your country (large or small), you'd never be able to see or do it all, and that's what explorers and thrillseekers aim to experience. The same is true with Bethesda games, and Morrowind is a fantastic example of that.


I've put hundreds upon hundreds of hours into this game and I know a lot about it, but there are still instances where I discover new things, learn how to better use the gameplay systems and more. Heck, I've put well over a thousand hours into Oblivion (PC disc and Steam versions combined) and playing the recently-released remaster has shown me just how little I actually knew about that game.

If you've never played a Bethesda game before, you really do need to approach these games differently than other RPGs you may have played. I genuinely think this different facet of Bethesda games is part of why the "Bethesda curse" exists: every new Bethesda game gets panned by supposed 'fans' until a decade or two passes and they have new Bethesda games to diss while pretending that they "always loved" the last game. Yes, this even happened with Morrowind back in the day, with fans of the previous release (Daggerfall) complaining about how much smaller the game world was, how many side mechanics were trimmed down/streamlined, and how it completely eliminated procedurally-generated content. You heard that right: what Bethesda is best known for (hand-crafted, highly detailed sandbox RPGs) was a criticism for this game!

But that's a rant for another day. The point I'm trying to make is that if you approach these games like you'd approach any other RPGs out there, you'll inevitably end up being disappointed by the countless ways Bethesda does things differently. The thing is, those differences are what make these games so free-form, so focused on the "live another life in another world" mantra that has been the staple of The Elder Scrolls for pretty much its entire lifespan. These games wouldn't even be half of what they are if Bethesda made them anywhere near what most other RPGs do with their designs.



First off, if you took the time to read this guide, thank you so much for your time. It means the world to me that I get to share my experience and love for these games and help others begin their journeys in the most enjoyable way possible. I truly hope this guide has been helpful to you, whether you're a total Bethesda newcomer, a fan of their newer games, or even someone who has tried Morrowind in the past.

There are plenty of fantastic guides that others have made that can help you better understand different aspects of the game, which is why I didn't make this all-encompassing. At the end of the day, I wanted to give a sort of 'overview' guide to help people really sink their teeth into this game, especially since so many newer fans of The Elder Scrolls have either not tried this one, or they find it too challenging to get into.

If you have questions or further suggestions for this guide (or future guides, perhaps!), feel free to drop your comments. I do my best to read every comment made on my guides, screenshots and other content!

If you want more in-depth guides on how to get started, there are a few ways to do this. Below, I've linked Steam guides, UESP articles and so forth. Some of these will cover the same material as others, and you don't have to read/watch all of them: they're simply there to help you get as much of a head-start on the game as you'd like!

• How to get a decent start in Morrowind
  
• Integrate OpenMW with Steam (the better way)
  
• Morrowind 2024 Essential Modding Guide (some only work with standard Morrowind and not OpenMW)

• Game Manual[en.uesp.net]
  
• Plugins[en.uesp.net] (for all the official free DLCs)
  
• Starting Out[en.uesp.net]
  
• Character Creation[en.uesp.net]
  
• Hints[en.uesp.net]
  
• UESP Quest hub[en.uesp.net] (only use if you absolutely can't figure out a next step in a quest)
  
• General Information[en.uesp.net] (a good hub if you need something specific)
  
• UESP Modding guide[en.uesp.net]

• SorcererDave: not solely a Morrowind channel but lots of great video essays and playthroughs!
  
• Borean Knight: a fantastic, up-and-coming channel primarily dedicated to Elder Scrolls lore and content, with a general focus on Morrowind
  
• Drewmora's Morrowind lore overview is fantastic for getting an idea of just how massive and all-encompassing this game's lore is! Don't watch unless you're okay with spoilers, however. I recommend playing the game before watching it or doing lore deep dives!
  
• Morrowind Tips and Tricks! by Micky D. Some really good starter tips, some of which I cover in this guide! Some minor early game spoilers, however.