Discuss Relationships, Romance, Marriage and Divorce here:

Today's Q&A responses revealed that you can now enter into romance relationships with NPCs in Skyrim and even get married, according to Bruce Nesmith:

7) Will we be able to have relationships with the NPCs, romantic or otherwise?
Bruce: Absolutely! You make friends with people by doing things for them. Friends in the game will treat you differently. Some of them will even agree to go with you into dungeons and on adventures. You can even get married. If you own a house, your spouse will move in with you.
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Among the flurry of new info released over the past couple of days, there is a bit more that suggests greater complexity in the relationships with NPCs:

1. you can persuade random NPCs to accompany you and they feel like intelligent, interesting companions:

"As we helped a person to receive a letter in this brief quest, we could ask him to follow us, and he became an intelligent and careful fellow companion adventurer. "
Source: http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1217233-another-preview/

2. there is a woman named Sigrid who tells us she is "spoken for"

"When I went back outside I met a woman named Sigrid, whose first words to me were "I'm spoken for, don't get any ideas." She kept on farming while telling me about herself and her daughter. "

Source: http://www.gameinformer.com/games/the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim/b/xbox360/archive/2011/08/05/skyrim-hands-on-impressions.aspx

3. even minor NPCs have much more complexity and depth compared with Oblivion

Source: several of the QuakeCon demo walkthroughs

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What do you think about this new feature?

Will your PC get married?

Divorced?

Will you remain faithful or perhaps flirt with other NPCs behind your spouse's back?

What about if you get thrown in prison, do you think your wife would visit you and bring you a lockpick?

How do you think getting married (or getting divorced) will affect Radiant Story quests?

Do you think your spouse might get kidnapped by The Horme bandits, for example,

Or if you anger your wife, that she might take out a contract on your life?

What will happen if you follow your spouse around for a day?

Will they continue performing the same daily activities and job schedule they had before marriage?

If you marry a baker, or a shopkeeper, would you expect her to behave differently than if you marry a fellow member of the Dark Brotherhood?

• a general in the Rebel army?
  
• a bandit?
  
• the leader of the Whiterun Witches' Coven?
  
• an assistant librarian at the College of Winterhold, who spends all her time cataloging books for the Ysmir Collective?
  
• an aristocrat, Clan Matriarch or even the Jarl of a Clan that rules one of the Nine Holds?

What does everyone think this new feature means for modders?

Many mods added companions and romance features for Oblivion, but now that there is this framework, does it make this easier for creative modders to implement new quests and stories involving NPC friendships or romance?
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Some more interesting questions posed by Verbose:

Verbose, on 06 July 2011 - 12:44 PM, said:

• Will you be able to break a marriage by seducing one (of both) spouse(s), and then get married with the one of your choice?
  
• Will you be able, as an evil character, to kidnap one spouse to force the other to do something for you?
  
• One of the most interesting of these questions, from a gameplay and story-telling viewpoint (but not necessarily from the point of view of role-play) is that ennemies may try to harm the player through his family. Or to kidnap the beloved one to force him doing something. This could lead to long fascinating questlines (and would offer a brilliant application to the radiant story mechanics, since it would be heavily depending on the previous actions of the player)
  
• If marriage is in the game, then divorce surely should be in.
  
• But how do the laws of Skyrim allow it (if they do), to what conditions?
  
• Would it raise many problems related to ownership?
  
• Divorce isn't the only way to make an end to a marital status.
  
• Will repudiation be in the game? Widowhood is an other possible outcome.
  
• How will the inheritance be handled?
  
• Will I be able to play a black widow, chasing for heritage?
  
• Will homosixual relationship be possible? Will they possibly give rise to a wedding?
  
• How will other NPCs react to people involved into homosixual relationships?
  
• how will they react to people involved into interracial relationships?
  
• In addition to official marriage, will there be unofficial romantic kinds of union?
  
• Will we witness marital ceremonies?
  
• Will, for example, magic be involved to seal the oaths in some way?
  
• How do two people worshipping different gods get married? What kind of ceremony will they attend?
  
• Will advltery be possible?
  
• What kind of consequence would it give cause to?
  
• What are the dictates of the different religions regarding faithfulness?
  
• Will some of them tolerate polygamy?
  
• What new crimes will the laws punish? The examples that pop into my mind are conjugal violence, and possibly advltery.
  
• Will it be possible to make or adopt children?
  
• In case of interracial wedding, will it be possible to have hybrid children?
  
• How will it be possible to seduce people, and will your chosen appearance affect the way different people react to your charming attempts?
  
• Will there be forced weddings?
  
• Will a powerful mage be able to cast spells in a permanent enough way to force someone to marry him/her, which could be seen as a form of mental and de facto enslavement?
  
• In a similar context, will I be able to invoke a Mazken or an Aureal, to bind her/him to Nirn and then to marry her/him?
  
• Will my wife/husband be able to follow me into dungeons?
  
• Will my ennemies try to harm me through her/him?
  
• will there be nudity and sixuality in the game? I mean, it would be very strange that spouses wouldn't even know what each other look like.

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Please keep on topic and pay heed to Summer's warning:

"Please just discuss the relationships that may or may not be in the game and steer away from any off topic conversation. We are not discussing real world law or bigotry here, we are discussing what will or will not fit into this game.

In addition I ask that you refrain from expressing your strong opinions about life choices in a way as to offend other members or groups of members of this forum. "

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Also, remember the important forum rule:

"Do not discuss the harming of children and do not quote any such posts made by others."




http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1209050-skyrim-relationships-friendship-romance-marriage-cheating-divorce/

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1207886-skyrim-relationships-friendship-romance-marriage-cheating-divorce/

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1207572-skyrim-npc-relationships-friendships-romance-marriage-divorce/

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1207471-getting-hitched-romance-marriage-divorce/

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1207393-getting-hitched/

first post.

Also I'm rather hesitant about romance in Skyrim

i don't like it and i won't participate in it.

Wow 7th thread. Me want it so we have wedding in the Dark Brotherhood sanctuary where we are attacked by the town guards and it becomes a total bloodbath, then it turns out my wife be a guard and betrayed me and the Dark Brotherhood.

That might make for a very interesting mod, but it seems too complicated to be in the vanilla game.

I doubt I'd be interested in any 'romancy stuff', but the more friends the merrier. ^_^

Well it probably wouldn't be too complicated for vanilla Skyrim to include.

Now your spouse potentially being a snitch/member of an opposing faction might not be the first idea the devs came up with or has decided to implement.

It is however an awesome idea I didn't think about within the bounds of this simple marriage implementation. I would hope BGS thought of it but high doubts.

Definitely something to implement into a quest line. However even through a potenially small pool of people you can marry(Which in itself is prob. due to dialogue contraints. The more people to friend, romance, and/or marry the more lines of recorded dialogue) attaching them to quest lines is hard because it depends on the right factor at the right time. And Bethesda has already said it's in favor of quantity over each person being unique and having a quest line.

However instead of a spouse it could be a companion who's helping you stab your back. But this companion was assigned to you for that mission or you maybe had to work alongside them for a couple of quests.

Really I'm just thinking out loud though lol.

I'm thinking it will either be not deep at all or there will be a handful of NPC's that have thsi ability.

When Sigrid says "I'm spoken for, so don't get any ideas!" - I wonder if that might not lead to a quest to convince her to leave her husband?

If she hadn't said that, probably no one would be getting ideas.

regarding that we have to own a house to marry someone my wallet/medieval purse is going to be empty

Doubt it. Now if she was one of the potential NPCs you can marry and she can divorce perhaps there's a way. But the big bump we keep hitting is are resources used to make a quest around seducing and making someone leave/divorce their spouse.

I say it'll happen fluidly without any quest or objectives based around it.

Of coarse as mechanics are usually eased into I wonder how marriage will be presented if at all.

I'm betting on it being one of the general lines NPCs may speak. Screams a line that a ton of female NPCs will echo and maybe males too.

I think that would be really Fably, like "hey we have 100 Disposition lets get married."

No, I don't think we have to own a house. The fan interview said, 'If' you own a house, your spouse will move in with you.' I think if you marry and have no house, you will move into your spouse's house.

Also interesting to consider whether such a spouse will continue to perform their daily job activities.

If they are a farmer, will they still return to the farm every morning?

A merchant or craftsman/woman?

A guard

A Stormcloak?


I would imagine they can only move in with you if you buy a house in the town where they already reside. Otherwise, if they have to trek from Riften to Solitude every morning to open their shop, for example, it seems like there is a chance they would be killed on the road (not to mention they would have to spend most of the day traveling).

will probably be a bi-sixual character.

BUt i would most likeley like to put my two wives/husbands togethar in one house, lock them up and preform arson(you can do that right)

Perhaps your spouse will either take a job where you moved them to, and someone will take their place in the town the spouse left. OR they'll just be a housewife, sweeping, gardening, cleaning, cooking, and stuff.

With the new "Radiant Story" or whatever they call it, where if one quest giver dies, another family member takes over, I'm thinking they might use that feature if an NPC gets hitched and moves in with the PC. So if you marry a shop owner, a relative of theirs takes it over/ runs it for them?

I imagine the spouse still has daily activities and doesn't simply become a servant in the PC's house.

If so, then the shop owner would probably still travel to their shop every morning. (It might be a bit strange for the PC to buy things from his spouse - would there be a discount?).

Killing your husband is the best part of fable.. so maybe I will participate!! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!! :gun: :rofl:

That wouldn't work if your house was in town A and your spouse worked in town B on the other end of Skyrim.

Hey, as long as it's better than Fable's "romance" and "marriage" systems, I'm good.
I mean, I'm not expecting Bioware levels of character development or anything, but...
Just better than Fable. Please.

The Fable style thing woun't fit the atmosphere of TES so I'm not worried that they'll make it to similar.
And this is an aspect of the game I very much looking forward to

Still wondering if its interspecies, Like breton with argonian.

It'll be everyone with Argonian. They're the village bicycles

I hope <3, I wonder if same six has been confirmed? Sorry for being a idiot its just that I cant find anything about it. :unsure2:
It would be nice to have a massive warrior type Nord or Orc BF/Husband to accompany my Mage and to help pack loot :3

Ooo..I guess this means ill get a Lifts-Her-Tail all of my own at any rate! awesome!!