Hey guys,
Never played the above 3 games back in the day (i have my own copy of Morrowind - never used) & was wondering for a first time player, what are the recommended setups/mods for the best experience? ( played around with Skyrim and i quite like it for playing with mods - the skyrim thread is pretty useful)

Play Morrowind with MGSO. Don't really bother with anything else until you've played quite a bit.

Don't know anything about mods for the earlier titles. Are there any?

I also don't know about mods for the earlier titles, and I agree with misteryo about MGSO, but I'd also recommend this for Morrowind:
Delayed Dark Brotherhood Attack Add-On

Word of warning if your implementing the Morrowind Overhaul 3.0

There is a game breaking bug that can make the main story of the Tribunal Expansion's main quest unbeatable because a crucial quest item is missing from a chest where its supposed to be. The main story campaign, the fighters guild, and imperial legion quest lines all work from beginning to end. No comment on Bloodmoon or anyother questline

Neither Arena nor Daggerfall had a lot of mods (I know that there were some for Daggerfall, but not a whole lot, and no "no brainer" mods). I would actually recommend that you skip Arena altogether, because it has been surpassed in almost every way by Daggerfall, and it is also extremely buggy. Daggerfall is also really buggy. Make sure that you have the latest patch, and also learn what key you need to press in case you fall through the ground (which you will do). Also, get the mark & recall spells ASAP if you intend to play that game, as otherwise you'll probably end up stuck in some dungeon, not knowing how to get out (always mark the entrance to the dungeon)

As for Morrowind, mods are mostly a matter of taste. I think most people will agree with me that the is a must though. Also, look through the list of the [url=http://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/top/?]most endorsed mods, and pick whichever you think look interesting.

Cooolies thanks a bunch :)

I recommend downloading [url=http://theelderscrolls.wiwiland.net/?title=Daggerfall_:_DaggerfallSetup_EN]this version of Daggerfall[/url]. It has all the most important stuff in one package so you can play the best version available right out of the box.

Note: the site seems to be down at the moment, but I expect it's only temporary. Here is the [url=http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http%3A%2F%2Ftheelderscrolls.wiwiland.net%2F%3Ftitle%3DDaggerfall_%3A_DaggerfallSetup_EN]Google Cache version[/url] of the site.

Morrowind GOTY went from being 900MB (vanilla) to 10GB (modded) when I had it installed. It's ridiculously easy to get caught up downloading mods for this game, so be careful.

Install the patches and mods you plan to use for your first playthrough before you start playing for real. Some of them require/recommend a new game.

I would recommend avoiding user-made expansions and unnecessary game changers for the first playthrough. Go all out on the second, though. Be aware that the more mods you install, the longer the game will take to load (from launch to title screen).

Worth looking into: Tamriel Rebuilt, Book Jackets, Mesh Improvements, Darknut's MW Armor Texures, Darknut's Creature Textures, Potion Scroll Icons and Potion Sort, Better Skulls, Magic Icon Border, Better Books for Morrowind, and Better Bodies.
Gamespy has a Hall of Fame with a list of the highest rated morrowind mods, by the way.

Overall, install the necessary mods and patches--the ones that would improve your experiences in the game without diverting too far from what the developers intended.

If you are ever interested in a very different experience, try the Predator: Hunters and Prey mod.

Wrye Mash is a highly recommended utility.

Fair warning:
As you explore the game world, you will encounter many foes. Their corpses will remain where they fell until you choose to dispose of them. That is, delete the deceased NPC or creature from the game. The more corpses left to rot, the slower the game may run. Though this will not be noticed for some time, it is better to know now than to go on a corpse hunt in order to decrease lag later.
Personally, I did not dispose of noteworthy NPCs (interesting names, quest related, etc). I installed the same version.
Daggerfall's quite the game. My only complaint is how easy it is to get lost in the dungeons (let alone find what I'm looking for). If I could skip the mazegeons and focus on the story, I wouldn't have taken a break from it.

The dungeons in Daggerfall are absolutely ridiculous; huge sizes, deeply complex and randomly generated (no walkthroughs possible). What I do these days is cheat teleport to the main objective part of the dungeon and try to find my way out. It makes it so much better. Of course, if you want to just enjoy the story, you can teleport in and out. Nobody would blame you if you did ;)

It's also boring as fuck.

The game mechanics are absurdly simplistic, and most NPCs have absolutely nothing useful to say. Anything useful that they do have to say is usually repeated by every NPC in the town. Dungeons are repetitive, and combat is dull. It was technically impressive back in its day, but it was never a good game in any sense of the word.

Daggerfall at least went some way to improving this scenario, but the best thing Morrowind ever did was get rid of procedural generation, make the world smaller and actually apply some artistic licence in creating a living, breathing world.

None. Well, skip arena and play Daggerfall from the install linked earlier in the thread, but as for Morrowind, start playing without any mods. Don't even use the overhaul thingy and only install it if you find that the graphical presentation is spoiling the game for you. The vanilla game was designed in a way that it was designed for a reason, and any and all modding tweaks the intended experience. Modding is there to fix what you dislike about the game - so first, launch the game and figure out what that actually happens to be.

BranjoHello

Daggerfall is one of the most ambitious and amazing RPGs ever made, the Spell-Maker alone is worth playing it for

Regarding Morrowind, install the Morrowind Overhaul and Galsiah's Character Development.