In-depth race creation can be quite tough to achieve, as you need to know a little about the background to the race you want to create, their base attributes, bonuses (if any), and then you need to know what you want them to look like, and be good enough with a 3D modelling program to project your image into the game.

Basic race creation is a lot more simple, as you eliminate the need for new models in the game (at least for the time being). Providing the race you want to create fits into, or close to the races already present in Morrowind, you can use the models for that race, rather than create the new ones.

Firstly, make sure that you only load the morrowind.esm file in the editor, unless you already have started a mod where you want to create a new race...

Once the data file is all loaded up, go to the Character menu, in the toolbar at the top of the program, and select 'Race...' from the menu:

This should bring up a smallish box with lots of information on on a race that is already present in Morrowind. All the information may look a little daunting at the moment, but its pretty straight forward once you get the hang of it:

Firstly, you have to create the new race. Click on the 'New' button, and enter in the ID for your new race. As you can see for the Argonians, the ID matches the name that will appear in the game, but you don't have to keep to this rule. If you give your race an ID of humanoid_light, and then gave them a name of 'Lightfeet', then you would only see them as Lightfeet in-game. The ID is only used by the editor as a way of referencing the data that you create. This rule applies to everything that you make/edit in the editor.

Now, give your new race a name. As you already know, I called mine 'Lightfeet' but you can use whatever you want.

Now, you have to assign skill bonuses for your new race. Firstly, left click and select the skill that you want your race to have a bonus in, and then add the amount that you want their bonus to be. With the above image, you can see that Athletics has a bonus of 15 for this race. The most useful thing here is the figure at the bottom, which adds up the total bonus points for that race - useful if you are creating more than one, and need to maintain balance between the races.

The base attributes define the player's starting stats when they choose your race at the beginning of the game. You can set the male and female values to be different (although you don't have to). In the above example, you can see that the females have a higher intelligence and willpower, but a lower agility and speed than the males.

The important thing is to make sure that both sexes are equally balanced, so while both sexes have differing levels of attributes, the total for their starting attributes match.

Next, you can set the the height and weight of your race. Again the values for male and and females of the race can differ, but it's not essential.

The height value serves to make the player's model slightly taller (essentially stretching it), which can look a little strange if you set it too high, without modifying the weight value.

The weight value (yes, you guessed it) makes the player's model either podgier or thinner, which not only has an effect on the size of the model in-game, but how high the player can jump, how fast they fall etc.

The next thing that you will see is to do with the inherent spells that the race has. These spells can be abilities, powers or actual spells. Spells are basically spells that the player will start with automatically, no matter what class they choose, Powers are unique spells, that can only be cast once per day. Abilities are those that modify the player's weakness/resistance to anything.

To add spells to the list, go to the main object browser (the one on the left), and click on the 'Spellmaking' tab. Then click on the 'Type' button at the top of its column:

This will now filter the list of spells by the type (ability, power etc.)

To view the effects of the spell, then you can double click on the spell's name in the list, to bring up its properties:

This screen is more confusing than the race creation one, but this we shall leave for another tutorial. For now, just look at the properties of a few spells to get an idea of what they do and how they work etc.

Now, find a spell that you looked at that you liked. Left click, and drag this into the 'Specials' box in the race creation screen.

The description box is where you can enter in a little background info on your race. Have a quick look at the other races to get an idea, and then enter in your own little history :-)

Make sure you tick the Playable button, or you won't be able to play your new race, which isn't all that bad for the moment, as they won't be visible in-game - neither of the sexes within the race have been assigned models.

The Beast Race option is ticked if you have a beast race similar to the Argonians, or the Khajiit.

That's it for the Basic Race Creation tutorial. The next tutorial to do with race creation will be focusing on how to assign models for your new race, by using existing ones in the game.

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