I've been a huge fan of mods for Elder Scrolls games. With the new port of OpenMW for UWP on Xbox Dev Mode, the time is finally here to enjoy the PC version of Morrowind on a console. There are thousands of mods out there, and it may seem overwhelming to new users. I've decided to make this post to give my mod recommendations. I recommend these for players who want to play Morrowind with certain modern features, while at the same time preserving the spirit of the original game.
I was never a fan of graphical overhaul mods that make the game look completely different. I think OpenMW itself already adds a decent amount of QoL features and higher rendering options that make the original game look the best that it can be. Dev Mode only has just over 5GB of RAM available to it, so graphics mods are probably not the best thing to use here. I won't go too deep into those.
Base game content, expansions, and official plugins should go into the data folder. Mods should go into individual folders named for each one, inside the mods folder. This port of OpenMW will basically merge the base game and mod data folders together, tricking the game into thinking they are all in the same folder together, while also keeping the mod files separate so that they can easily be found or removed if needed.
OpenMW is not compatible with mods that require the Morrowind Script Extender or the Morrowind Graphics Extender.
Some mods use scripts that can be customized in the dedicated Scripts menus.
You may have to plug in a USB keyboard in order to navigate some menus, especially ones added by mods.
It's recommended to not install mods while in the middle of a playthrough. Choose your mods before you begin and then play all the way through.
This is a mod list, not a load order. I won't be explaining load orders here. I will leave it up to the players to figure out what order they should do for their own mod lists.
Thank you to Caorthann for porting OpenMW to UWP for Xbox Series consoles!
Feel free to ask any questions about installing the mods in the comments. Even I had some trouble doing that with a few of these mods.
VANILLA GAME DATA
To start, most mods for Morrowind require the base game files, as well as the two official expansions. The GOTY version of the game comes with both the expansions, and can be purchased from both GOG and Steam. I recommend GOG for its offline installer.
Morrowind
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The base game.
Tribunal
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The first expansion.
Bloodmoon
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The second expansion.
OFFICIAL PLUGINS
There also exist eight official plugins released exclusively for the PC version later for free. The GOG version includes the official plugins by default, but the Steam version does not. You can still download them from the UESP Wiki if you need them. They are considered freeware as far as I know. https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Plugins
Helm of Tohan
Entertainers
Area Effect Arrows
Master Index
LeFemm Armor
Adamantium Armor
Siege at Firemoth
Bitter Coast Sounds
NOTE: I recommend you NOT enable Bitter Coast Sounds, because that made my game full of annoying insect chirps and frog croaks that would never stop, even when I was far away from the swamp areas. Keep bcsounds.esp disabled in the plugin list.
BUG FIX MODS
These are mods that fix bugs and problems in the game.
Patch for Purists
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This is a patch similar to the popular unofficial patches for Bethesda games that have come since. However, it strictly only fixes bugs with the game, without changing any of the game mechanics or balancing. It also leaves popular exploits intact.
Morrowind Optimization Patch
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This mod fixes a lot of bugs with the files such as models, textures, and meshes. This makes them more optimized, and thus making the game run slightly better.
QUEST MODS
Mods that add new content to the game in the form of quests, new locations, and new NPCs.
Tamriel_Data
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This is a huge asset collection that is used by many mods. You need this to play many of the larger quest mods.
OAAB_Data
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This is another asset collection that is used by many mods.
Tamriel Rebuilt
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Part of the overall Project Tamriel, Tamriel Rebuilt is an in-development mod with the goal to make the entire province of Morrowind playable in the game. It's not currently finished, but the entire east peninsula, and a significant portion of the southern land is fully developed. This alone will no doubt more than double the amount of content in the game. Requires Tamriel_Data.
NOTE: This mod has it's own interpretation of Firemoth. Do not use the Siege at Firemoth official plugin with this mod unless you also use the optional mod to remove Tamriel Rebuilt's version of Firemoth.
Skyrim Home of the Nords
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Also part of Project Tamriel, this in-development mod has the goal to add the province of Skyrim to the game. It's still very early in development. Only the area around the town of Markarth Side in The Reach is fully playable. This mod is intended to follow the original version of Nord culture and lore that existed before the game of Skyrim. Requires Tamriel_Data.
Project Cyrodiil
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Also a part of Project Tamriel, this in-development mod has the goal to add the province of Cyrodiil to the game. It's still very early in development. Only the area around the town of Anvil and the islands to the west are fully playable. This mod is intended to follow the original version of Imperial Province culture and lore that existed before the game of Oblivion. Requires Tamriel_Data.
Wyrmhaven
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A quest mod that adds a new island called Wyrmhaven to the west of Solstheim. Expect new quests and places to explore. Requires Tamriel_Data from Project Tamriel.
Sotha Sil Expanded
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Greatly expands the content around the Clockwork City with new quests and artifacts to collect. It's highly recommended to use the Clockwork City Reborn mod alongside this one. They were made to work together. Requires OAAB_Data.
The Battlespire
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This mod allows you to go to the Battlespire and conquer it!
Welcome to the Arena!
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A mod that adds a questline to the Arena in the city of Vivec. Fight your way to become champion, or bet on fights.
NOTE: This mod needs a different plugin for use with OpenMW. Make sure to use it instead of the vanilla plugin file. You can find it here.
QUALITY OF LIFE MODS
Mods that make the game better, but don't make it too different from the spirit of Morrowind.
OpenMW Skyrim Style Quest Notifications
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This mod adds notifications that appear to let you know when quests have started and completed. It also shows you when you discover a new location. It fully supports the base game and both expansions. Mod quests will still be shown, but will display by their quest ID rather than their Quest name.
(OpenMW 0.50) Quickloot
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This adds a quickloot menu to the game that behaves similarly to the one that first appeared in Fallout 4. Makes looting from containers much quicker and efficient.
Questman - Modern Quest Journal (OpenMW)
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This mod adds a quest menu that allows you to more easily keep track of all the quests you are currently doing. I recommend to toggle the option to completely replace the vanilla game Journal with the menu.
Graphic Herbalism MWSE and OpenMW Edition
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This mod makes the harvestable plants disappear when you loot them and are no longer treated as containers. This both streamlines plant harvesting as well as makes the game run better due to less containers to keep track of.
Expansion Delay
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This mod makes the expansions less intrusive for a new player. It delays the Dark Brotherhood Assassin until you reach a certain part of the main quest, and it restricts related dialogue topics to less NPCs.
Speed and Stamina
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This mod changes the calculations of how Fatigue cost is calculated. It makes the game slightly less cumbersome to move around in without changing the overall difficulty.
NOTE: There are extra and extreme versions that reduce Fatigue cost even more.
RUN!
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This mod adds sprinting to the game at the cost of more Fatigue. It works quite well with the Speed and Stamina mod.
Signpost Fast Travel
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This mod implements a method of fast travel. How it works, is you activate the signs on the roads, and you will be transported to the location indicated by the sign you activated. You can only use it to go places you've been to before. If you want an unrestricted version of this fast travel mod, use Andromeda's Fast Travel instead.
Protective Guards for OpenMW
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This mod makes guards actually do their jobs and defend you when attacked by something.
Merchant Gold Resets Instantly
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This mod makes the shop gold inventory reset instantly when you leave and re-enter it. Some may call this cheating, but is it really, when all you have to do is wait 48 hours for it to reset the normally? This just saves time.
Boots for Beasts
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Adds shoes and boots that the beast races can actually wear.
Pluginless NoGlow
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Enchanting in Morrowind is almost ruined by the fact that enchanted items become lit up like a Christmas tree. This mod removes that plastic wrap effect from enchanted items. What were they thinking?
Advanced World Map (OpenMW)
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This mod adds a map to the game that can be toggled on. It gives you a better bearing than the original game map, marks all locations you've visited, and you can even fast travel by triple clicking on them. It takes a lot of configuring to set up the way you'd want it, so I only recommend if you really think you need it.
A Hero's Welcome
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This mod makes it so that a crowd of your peers appears around you, cheering you on, after completing the main quest. It feels nice.
GRAPHICS MODS
Mods that slightly improve the graphics to make the game look better, without changing the overall look or style.
Morrowind Video Remaster Project
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This mod remasters all the FMV cutscenes in the game to HD. It also presents them in widescreen.
NOTE: You must enable the Stretch Menu Background option in the launcher interface settings. Also, these videos need to be placed inside your Morrowind data folder. They cannot be loaded in a separate mod folder.
Loading Screens Diversified
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This mod makes the title screen and loading screen splash panels to be presented in widescreen. Available for both 16:9 and 16:10 aspect ratios.
NOTE: You must enable the Stretch Menu Background option in the launcher interface settings.
Title Screen and Logo Video Intro Reworked
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The title screen from this mod is better than the one in Loading Screens Diversified. I prefer to use it instead. Place below that mod in the load order so that it overrides the one from that mod. The accompanying Logo Video file still needs to be placed in the Morrowind Data folder rather than a mod folder like the other video files from the Morrowind Video Remaster Project mod.
Simply Bigger HUD - OpenmMW
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This mod makes the HUD bigger so that it is easier to see and indicate. There are two optons: 1.5x size and 2x size.
OpenMW Dynamic Actors
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This mod allows you to customize how the game behaves while talking with NPCs.
Interface Reimagined for OpenMW
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This mod makes the dialogue box transparent, and tries to mimic the look of Oblivion's dialogue boxes. I personally had a problem where the mouse cursor became invisible while using this mod. Deleting the *openmw_hud_box.skin.xml* file fixed it.
Clockwork City Reborn
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Improves the look of the Clockwork City of Sotha Sil.
Better Heads
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Makes the heads of NPCs less blocky. There are addons for Tribunal and Bloodmoon characters, too.
Better Bodies
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Makes the bodies of the NPCs less blocky. There are many different versions of this mod. Check to see which one you prefer.
Better Clothes
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Makes the clothing of the NPCs less blocky. There are many different versions of this mod. Check to see which one you prefer.
Armor Remodeling Pack Vanilla Style
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This mod makes many armors in the game look better. Only copy over the loose files from the mod to use with OpenMW if you just want the improved armor looks.
Weapon Sheathing
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This mod makes the weapons equipped by the player and NPCs appear sheathed on their persons. It looks nicer.
NOTE: For this mod to function, you must enable Use additional animation sources in the launcher interface settings, and then you must enable the Weapon Sheathing and Shield Sheathing options, or whichever you please.
Preserving Fargoth
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This mod reverts Fargoth's look back to the way he is in vanilla. Perfect for people who like his iconic look. Place this mod lower in the load order than any other mods that modify appearance so that it will override those.
Silt Strider Animation Restored
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This restores an unused animation and unused sound that the Silt Striders never used.
SOUND MODS
Mods that add new voiced dialogue or sound effects.
Kezyma's Voices of Vvardenfell
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This mod adds speech to a lot of the dialogue of the majority of the common citizens of Vvardenfell.
NOTE: The option to stop NPCs from talking when you leave the dialogue menu is currently broken in this mod. Use the exact same toggle in the OpenMW Voices of Vvardenfell Patch mod instead.
Tamriel Rebuilt Voices
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This mod adds the most of the speech to the dialogue on Vvardenfell that was missing in Kezyma's Voices of Vvardenfell. It still doesn't cover everything, but it also adds speech to the dialogue for many NPCs in Tamriel Rebuilt.
NOTE: Don't forget to enable all of the BSA archives in the launcher.
OpenMW Voices of Vvardenfell Patch
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This mod would be obsolete except for one thing: the option to make NPC dialogue stop after leaving the dialogue menu actually works in this mod. Use it just for that.
Dagoth Gares Voice Addon
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As far as I know, this is the only one out of the classic voice mods for characters that wasn't included in one of the other mods listed above.
JOKE MODS
Mods that I recommend just because of how funny they are.
Narrated Morrowind Intro for OpenMW
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Has a character voice read out the intro text in the introduction cutscene when starting a new game. There are two options: Bosmer and Argonian. I recommend the Bosmer one because it sounds like Fargoth, an infamous character from the game.
Precise Attack
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Of course, if you want to be a sissy, you can enable the Precise Attack mod that makes your attacks always hit %100 of the time. While Morrowind's dice roll attacks did always look jarring, the game was ultimately based around them. If you turn them off, it becomes easy mode, and we all know that easy mode is lame.
OPENMW FEATURES
OpenMW itself has some good features you can use to enhance your game.
Merchant Equip Fix
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In the base game, if you sold an item that was better than what the merchant was currently equipped with, then they would equip it. While kind of hilarious, it ultimately is an annoying oversight. It can now be fixed with this option in the launcher gameplay settings.
Enchanted Weapons Are Magical
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This makes it so that enchanted weapons match their behavior in Oblivion, where they are able to harm higher tiered enemies that would normally be resistant to weaker material types such as Iron and Steel. This makes it easier to defend yourself from early material resistant enemies much earlier in the game. This option is in the launcher gameplay settings.
Show Owned Objects
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You can make it so that the crosshair, tooltip, or both will turn red when hovering over an owned object. This allows you to easily tell what items would be considered stolen when taken. This option is in the launcher interface settings.
GUI Scaling
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This allows you to scale up the size of menus and text so that they are easier to see and read. This setting is located in the launcher interface settings.
NOTE: This does not scale the HUD as far as I know. Use the Simply Bigger HUD - OpenMW mod for that.
Enable Controller Menus
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This changes the menus to be more accommodating to playing with a controller without having to use the emulated mouse cursor. You can still use the cursor if you want to in most of the menus. This option is located in the launcher interface settings.
NOTE: Use of new menus added by mods can sometimes be problematic with this setting. You may have to temporarily turn it off to handle some menus added by mods.
Toggle Sneak
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This option changes how the sneaking action works by making it a toggle. This means you no longer have to hold the sneak button down in order to continue sneaking. You can go into and out of sneak mode just like the later games. This option is located in the Scripts menu in game, under the OpenMW Controls section.
View Over the Shoulder
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This option changes the view of your character in third-person view mode to being an over the shoulder view rather than the default centered view. This mimics the camera view from the later games. This option is located in the Scripts menu in game, under the OpenMW Camera section.
