Five Tips For The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind Beginners

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind is something of a golden oldie, having earned its place in the hearts and minds of many a gamer; however, for new players, it isn't a particularly easy game to just pick up and play. Its overall design, at least by today's standards, is obtuse, and it lacks much of the quality-of-life features that make modern RPGs so approachable. Because of this, I've knocked up a little guide for my fellow Morrowind noobs, one that I hope is able to grant you some basic understanding of how this game's strange cogs turn.

1. The Gameplay Loop

Leaning more towards the retro side of RPGs, Morrowind expects certain things from its players — the main one being preparation. Modern RPGs typically downplay this aspect, often allowing players to go about their business in a more carefree manner, but Morrowind is not so forgiving. The island of Vvardenfell — from its dank swamps to its smouldering ash fields — is a harsh place, and its alien fauna and blood-thirsty bandits are eager to cut your life short. Simply put: you'll die pretty damn quick if you are blasé!

As such, in between quests and encounters, you must take the time to properly prepare your next move. This means resting up in unowned beds to restore your health, fatigue, and magicka; repairing your weapons and armour; and making sure that your pockets are stuffed full of the relevant tools and potions. Only then will you be ready to head out into the wastes.

2. Disposition

Disposition is a mechanic that comes into play when conversing, and it is a measurement of how susceptible a given individual is to your silver tongue. As such, whether you wish to coerce them with Admire or bully them with Intimidate, the recipient must have a high Disposition in order to be convinced. The lower a Disposition score, the more likely you are to fail speech attempts and have an NPC shrug off your words.

Note that if your character lacks a decent Speechcraft score, you can achieve similar results with a costly bit of bribery.

Disposition exists because some items and information are not for sale in the traditional way, yet they must be obtained regardless (often for quest purposes). Sure, you could always just put steel or spell to any information givers, extract the necessary notes from their corpses, and avoid Disposition altogether. But that will summon the guards, so it can prove a risky endeavour.

3. Fast Travel

Another time when conversation comes into play is when you interact with vendors. Most of these are typical shops where goods are bought and sold, but some are special in that they offer fast travel (similarly to the carts in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim).

Note that in Morrowind, however, you cannot click points on the world map and travel directly to them because fast travelling is a restricted service and provided only by the province's denizens. It's a strict mechanic that's integrated tangibly into the living, breathing world of Vvardenfell, and unlike later entries in the series, you are simply not able to travel great distances freely and instantly.

The way it works is that at specific spots, you pay a small fee, and from there, you are whisked away to one of a small handful of destinations. Service providers include: Stilt Strider taxis, which are found in most larger townships; Transport Ships, which are found at most coastal settlements; and the Mages Guild, which can teleport its members between guild halls. Also note that, perhaps due to its sheer size, the city of Vivec has a local gondola service.

Providing that you have appropriately sized magicka reserves and a decent Mysticism skill score, you can even equip some fast travel-esque spells.

4. The Map

If the Stilt Strider doesn't stop at your required destination, then you simply have to walk it. That is where the map comes into play, something often innocuous in modern series entries, but an irreplaceable tool here in Morrowind.

You'll see that there are two types of maps: Local and World. They can be swapped between at will, and they fill out as you explore; this is standard fare for large, open fantasy worlds, and even Skyrim retains this feature, so nothing noteworthy here.

However, what you probably weren't expecting is just how much you have to rely on your map. As you may have seen, Morrowind has a complete lack of quest markers (panic stations, modern gamers!), and to find your destinations, you must follow any directions given to you. Even on those rare occasions when quest givers actually mark your world map, you must still bring it up constantly to check that you are headed in the right direction.

5. The Journal

Finally, I just wanted to go over the Journal because, much like the map, it is important that you understand how it works. Failing to do so could cause you some truly vexatious teething problems.

So, the Journal is really what it sounds like: a collection of your character's thoughts. It is a chronological log of events that, at first glance, can seem tricky to understand. This is because noteworthy instances are recorded as and when they occur, and no apparent effort is made to collate these into more useful groups. However, I say “apparent” because there is, in fact, a hidden quest list!

With your Journal open, select Options, and from there, you’ll see that a new Quests tab has appeared. This will bring up all your quests. It is a little primitive compared to today's standards, but from there, you can enter a quest's log and see all relevant information pertaining to it. Then, within a log, clicking on any words or phrases highlighted in blue transports you to a second sub-menu that explains them in more detail.

All in all, it is pretty slick once you get the hang of it. Hell, the alternative is flicking tediously back and forth through the Journal to piece together bits of quest information, something that I wouldn't recommend if you wish to keep your hair attached to your head.

To Conclude

There we have it, five quick tips to help new players understand Morrowind's weird ways. If you're a long-time enjoyer of Morrowind, please pop your own useful tidbits in the comments and help build this guide up. And if you liked this guide, consider checking out my noob's guide to The Elder Scrolls: Arena here, which I wrote a while back.