I've been wanting to get Morrowind for a while now, and I finally bought it today! I ordered it off Amazon (I like real cd's, not digital copies) and it's should arrive next week or the week after.

I was wondering if there are any tips you Morrowind veterens would like to share with a newbie?

Also it would be great if you could tell us your favorite mod for the game. I'm going to play vanilla the first playthrough, but after that I might try a few.

would depend on which elder scrolls you played before this one. im guessing you have played daggerfall with you avatar though

Yes I've played Daggerfall Oblivion and Skyrim

I agree on vanilla gameplay for a first playthrough but I would still recommend some graphical improvement mods. There is no reason to suffer vanilla graphics except for necessity (x-box). Better heads, better bodies, unofficial patch, and the Code Patch as a minimum.

Ok I'll definitely get those, even though I couldn't care less if the graphics are horrible or not. Heck even daggerfall's graphics don't bother me.

http://lovkullen.net/Emma/kids.htm by Emma.

Aside from a face/hair mod for the player character I never use any graphics mods. For faces I would go with one of Westly's or Illuminiel's face mods. Illy's faces are the best I have ever seen in a video game, some of them are startlingly photorealistic.

I feel all one needs is the Unoffoicial Patch, the Code Patch and one face/hair mod your character. Those are the essentials for me. A character leveling mod (such as Balor's or nGCD) can be handy also. There's not much else Morrowind really needs.

Learn to save a lot, if it's not already a habit from playing the other ES games. There's a huge city called Vivec that's especially buggy. Be mindful of it.

My favorite mod isn't finished yet, but there's a handful that I highly recommend:

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=9189
http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=119915&id=6068
http://morrowind.nexusmods.com/mods/42125 (there's a http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1345249-relz-mrmdngdr-patch/page__hl__mrm to make this compatible with GDR)
http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=9122

Click on the Morrowind videos link in my signature, cheats, hints spoilers ,mod ideas, tutorials , it's all there plus more.

Also take a look at the Mod recommendations for new players link in my signature which will give you all the info you need regarding bug fixes utilities etc,.

I agree. No reason not to start with some basic improvements that don't alter the quests or structure of the game, but do fix things.

The best and easiest way to do this, imo, is with the http://morrowindoverhaul.rpgitalia.net/news/mirrors-mirrors-mirrors. It combines all the patches and graphical improvements you need into one package. The site links to a youtube guide on installing it. Do note that you want to avoid the default install path in your "program files" folder, as the security on your computer may cause trouble with the install; something like C:/TesIII. (I know some will say they had no trouble, but why take that chance when it's just as easy to make a new install path at the beginning?)

See my profile for some of my favorite MW mods. Good luck!

Thanks to all for the recommendations. Now I just have to wait.

^ http://morrowindoverhaul.rpgitalia.net/mgso-release

A little late, but make sure to get both of the DLCs ( Bloodmoon and Tribunal) Also after some gameplay, the Morrowind Patch Project fixes a lot of bugs

Horse armor is DLC. Bloodmoon and Tribunal are expansion packs.

Alright. If you love to finish the main storyline, you may want to get to it. Morrowind will tell you if you kill someone that is vital to the story with a pop-up script. But, there is a dark elf later in the game that cares for people that have been changed by the dust from Red Mountain and if you kill one of them, there will be no pop-up but it will bite you in the butt later on. Trust me on this.