Would be nice if there were sometimes dialogue options that were just [SILENCE], cutting off the character that was speaking. Think of the hilarity as the bandits screaming at the top of their lungs suddenly became mute. A terrifying dragon's roar becomes a terrifying dragon's showing off his dentures.

I think you're right, actually, because in none of the Elder Scrolls games have spells been shown to involve incantations of any kind. It's just casters waving their hands and particle effects appear and then bam! The spell is cast, and I suppose it's possible that they'll change this in Skyrim, but I doubt it, since they already have abilities similar to magic but seperate which do actually involve words (Namely, dragon shout.) I'd think keeping the approach of not having incantations involved in casting would make more sense as it would serve to further emphasize that dragon shouts and normal spell casting are different. Despite all this, though, even though no incantations are involved in spell casting in the Elder Scrolls games, the spell that prevents spell casting is still called silence and I have no doubt that this is due to the influence of D&D.

Now, back to the subject at hand, it really depends on how silence is supposed to work, if silence in lore actually prevents the target from speaking and thus uttering incantations curiously absent in gameplay, then it should apply to normal dialog as well, if silence works simply by preventing someone from using spells and doesn't actually silence that person, then it should work as before. Though I might suggest that if it's going to be like that, then the name of "silence" be changed to avoid further confusion, or we can even have a seperate spell effect called silene which does what its name implies, keeping the target from speaking, thus preventing him or her from calling for help or reporting your crimes, it should also, logically, prevent the use of dragon shouts.

It's called pressing mousebutton/x/a.

I think it should stop characters(both player, NPC, animals etcetera) from speaking. It would be a tactical spell that could be used to stop someone from calling reinforcement, use magic and use Dragon Shouts. They would have to balance it though, maybe through having a somewhat short duration?
That, or they should rename it.

No. I want other type of magic system. It would be some "defensive" spells, that depending on your willpower would stop opponent′s spell, decrease damage or doing nothing if your opponent is a good mage and you′re a newbie.

It is a good ideia, we can cast a spell on someone,then attack him and guards wont hear his screams,so we can kill him without a bounty. :ninja:

Yeah, good idea.

In lore, it actually silences people, renders them unable to speak. Such can be read in the book 'silence'.

I think for gameplay reasons in the games it simply removes the ability to cast spells.

Silenced... cool idea. I say "yes" to this.

Agreed. Next thread.