before you say "no" read this and then think about the whole thing.

"Here's how it would work

You find a guy/gal that suites your fancy. Do special things for them like talk to them alot fulfill a quest or give them something for free.

This wouldn't be a one or two day process. Eventually you will form a relationship and they move in with you. At this point they are the equivalent of the maid in skingrad. You can come back and they'll always be there.

Eventually (or maybe beforehand) you'll get an option to marry. After some time (for men) your wife will say tell you she's pregnant and then a quest will pop up saying it's 4 years later or 9 months or something. Or they could just go the cheese route and instantly present you with a child. For women you'll say your pregnant and then you'll have the kid and everything works out like above.

YOU WILL NOT HAVE TO BE CHAINED DOWN OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT! Like I said before both the child and your wife / husband will be like the maid at the skingrad house. They'll always be at home or around it. You can leave on a quest or adventure guilt free and then come home to them when you want. You could do activities with them if you want or ask them to follow you.

Your kid would grow up at an accelerated rate like from child to teenager in one game year. I never kept track of time so I don't think this will hurt the immersion at all. The whole point of this is to have someone at home so that your not always on your own.

The only bad thing about TES is that your always the lonely hero. People only really interact with you when your doing a quest and once you finish something the only thing you have left is collecting money and doing random dungeon crawling. I liked the maid in skingrad alot but I always wished there was some kind of interaction. Whether it's making food or as simple as having her adress you in a unique way from other npc's. The wasteland is the most lonely place in any video game but even tamriel can become lonely after awhile. Having some kind of home base that is lively will help this sooooo much"

I mean...sure, but this mechanic is not a priority for me. I like the idea, but as a player I doubt I'd spend time courting an NPC and marrying her, etc. I can think about then once I've, ya know, pushed back Alduin's encroachment on Tamriel.

No, it''s a waste of time. It seems like you have so many of these pointless non fighting ideas suggested on here.

No.

When I play a female character I don't want her to become pregnant... jumping around the world and fighting dragons with a big bouncing baby belly. :/
That's a really horrible image in my mind.

And naturally, most of my male characters are adventurous and therefor stating non-interest in having a classical family... such with wife and kids.

I agree with what mjsstujo is saying. Everyone keeps on saying no because they think it would either keep them from other things or its too much like "insert other game here" It can easily work. Do you honestly think they would give you an annoying nagging wife? Hell no they wouldent, they would give you something that would give more quests and a nice little touch for roleplayers. They wouldent put something in that would keep you from your killing of monsters. The only thing that will keep someone from killing things is themself. If someone wants to do things that dont require killing or just roleplay things.

Romance? Mabey, if it is done right. Kids? No.

Non Fighting? Is that all TES is now? An action-combat game? Not an RPG?

Thank god someone has some sense. +1 man.

Just read the whole thread you'd see the reasons against having a family far outweigh the benefits. For me only one reason matters, there is too much they'd have to add for you to be able to get the family you desire, which takes a lot of man hours which takes away from too many other things. I really don't want this game to be a glitch fest, right now I'm sure they're trying to get everything working as fluidly as possible.

Yes (freedom of choice rulez). If not avaliable in Vanilla, I'm sure some modder will take care of that.

I agree. The "this belongs to Fable" idea omits that we don't want romance to be THE story in Tes, but rather one of the multiple collateral features meant to make the world better for immersion and role playing. Like decorating houses, dare I say. Does decorating houses "belong to The Sims"?

In a perfect world gamesas games would work well. Unfortunately it isn't a perfect world.

As an alternative to, er, making your own babies, I wouldn't mind the option of adopting. Even just one side quest that allows you to rescue a street urchin or two and let them live in your house.

Or perhaps there's an orphanage or priory that looks after abandoned children - you could adopt them from there.

I actually expect this sort of interaction and level of relationship given they've gone into the trouble of putting kids in the game. They aren't just decoration.

Also, a big yes to romantic relationships (if not totally free choice at least a quest letting you court and possibly marry someone). I think it's a good point that, given we have jobs and presumably houses, there should be some aspect of non-lonely domestic life in Skyrim.

Having children yourself is tricky if you're a female player character. I think the tidiest solution is just to skip from "visible" pregancy to the baby being born.

Yes, I agree. Some people forget that Skyrim is going to have non-combative elements elements, such as cooking, mining, blacksmithing, etc. Yes, cooking will probably assist in alchemy, and mining will help you find metals for making your weapons, and blacksmithing will enable you to make your own weapons, BUT, these are also just extra things in the world to add immersion and roleplaying potential, things I think Oblivion should have had without mods.

To look at roleplaying potential, let's look at farming. I know that I will eventually create a character who will live out his days as a farmer. I tried this in Oblivion, but hoes and rakes and stuff like that were useless, forcing me to use my imagination too much.

I think a family would provide the same benefits. They could provide us with quests, but also could provide a dimension for those roleplayers out there, who like to just mess around in the world in different roles.

of course they should have children. i don't see how this can possibly break immersion or lore considering that... everyone in the game...inevitably must have a parent. And why can't you have kids yourself ya know. The relationship system in fable was not bad despite wut some trolls may say on other forums. It does not have to be extremely in depth. all you gotta do is hit on her once in a while. take her to eat if u want. u culd be like in gta and not give a crap...at least i didn't. but i think they shuld need less attention then the girls of gta and be more like fable where if she misses u... u culd just woo her back into ur favor within a minute. or him. w/e the case. i wonder how it wuld work with mixing races tho. its possible to be half orc half human. and the only races i doubt u can breed with are beast races but relationships shuld still be possible. i think it wuld add a nice twist to raise a child but i dont see elder scrolls having time skips like in the first fable. i dont see the child having enough time to grow up.

Wife and kids like Fable? No. It felt so pointless and stupid. But i do enjoy a well written romance like in Mass Effect and Dragon Age.

Realize that the flow of time would mean NPCs will need to go through the same changes as you. Children will have to grow into fully fledged NPCs themselves, the game will need to take into account people who survived and died over the years and tailor the world and their relationships accordingly and a game as gargantuan a TES game as it is plus the dialogues... I don't see it happening.