I think that a husband or wife that is a flat character (not fleshed out with a back story and personality) makes for a poor spouse. If said spouse is to be selected from a limited number of candidates as indicated by discussions on this forum then those candidates need to be interesting. By interesting I mean that they have to have personality, style, and a background. Whats the point of another Fable spouse in a different game - one doesnt matter from another, they are all rather dull.

What Im saying is this: a feisty and dubious ample briasted barmaid would be a great wife. But after 10 minutes of real time the novelty wears off. But what if she were a spy for the bards college keeping tabs on you and you had no idea. What happens if she raises your child then her loyalties are called into question and is ordered to assassinate you. What happens when you find out and must choose to slay or spare your spouse. What if you could send her to her death to prove her love for you. What if she appeared to love you but in the end chose to try to kill you. What betrayal! What drama! What a great spouse she was, eh? Better than a flat character. Such intrigue would make her a round character, that is a spouse with depth.

What do you think?

Kudos for, in the first paragraph of your post, at least trying to acknowledge that some players may have female characters looking to bag a husband. But... not so well reflected in your poll, eh ?

I agree with your idea. Indeed, I think that marriage should (in an epic fantasy story) only be an incident in a fairly long and complex romance story arc.

I'll come back and vote when the poll options are a bit less... erm, how to put this... a bit less Conan the Barbarian in tone .

Most of the options don't have a lot to do with adding character, really. You've got several options for people to select if they don't want much of a personality in their spouse, and then different motives for a spouse's marriage to them.
Background and motive are part of what makes a character but what's more important is their personality traits which only a few of the options vaguely deal with.

Well, I would preffer a loving and supporting spouse. Should I need to chose one from your pool, I would choose celibate.

I've said this before and I'll say it again.

The way to make marriage interesting is to add a few quests to the pot through the radiant story system, maybe 2, 3, or 4 written template quests, and 3 or 4 generic repetitive 'tasks.' If the spouse himself/herself is not unique enough, then a few 'marital' quests can help flesh it out a bit. I'm talkin' stuff like, 'darlin, my heirloom was stolen, think you could track it down,' OR 'your wife has been kidnapped by the black brigade, pay the ransom or you'll never hear or see her again.' And somethin' as small as, 'honey, I need some eggs and lavender, think you could get them?'. Or perhaps she/he is an alchemist and needs much more exotic ingredients."

If Betheseda can pull off making spouses themselves unique, then I'll be glad. If not, then the way I have outlined is the way to go. Even better: Combine both.

I want an interesting, lovable, quirky spouse that can take the place of my girlfriend when she dumps me for playing Skyrim too much.

I didnt think anyone would admit to wanting to bag a husband. Whatever floats your boat. I still think its more sinister and interesting when the fairer six have depth.

But I will make amendments just for you.

Don't get your hopes up. I guarantee it won't be anything special.

?

How about no spouse at all, sense they will all likely be shallow and uninteresting.

If it's like Todd or whomever said that there is infact only a limited pool of characters to choose from. I hope it works somewhat like in Mass Effect (should they follow you around) and chime in with there opinions during conversation and providing insight from there perspective.

Can you imagine a husband telling you off for putting yourself in danger? Or a wife freaking out because she has blood on her dress? Or a husband getting picked up and dropped from up high by a dragon? Or a wife switching sides to fight with the bandits because you're outnumbered and she thinks you're the losing side?

Id say yes myself. Mass Effect characters were too... black and white. I loved the game. But I want something more like an RPG soap opera or Oprah Winfrey.

I am not expecting much, honestly. Elder Scrolls have never had especially great characters. If, however, I were given the choice between a handful of romance options with actual personalities and being able to marry any generic buxom Nord woman, I'd choose the former. And still be unimpressed, probably.

Spend the day out hunting and 'grabbing' fish, return home to my better half with my meat on display, I'm sure she'd be delighted, spend the rest of the night admiring my hunting skills while she ate my meat. Who need's quests?

If it's like Mass Effect, it's definitely worth having.

What if your buxom wife encourage you to commit treason? To betray allies so you could upgrade the house? To accept bribes? It would be shocking, but it would make it interesting. You might say, this is not the woman I wanted for a wife - but then you cant deny your game just got so much more interesting.

I'd like to be able to clad my spouse in armor so s/he can join me on quests.

Also my own characters alignment (good/evil, which guilds I belong to etc) and my spouses alignment should determine whether they decide to betray me, help me, cheat on me, or even marry me in the first place.

Unfortunately I fully expect them to have little depth; initially they will have fresh dialogue apart from other NPC, but once that dries up it'll be the same one liners over and over and over...

I just want a meat shield.

Gonna go through spouses like candy.

Ah, now you I identify as a survivor!

I doubt spouses will be so Fable. Limited candidates alludes to detailed scripting and perhaps plot involvement around your spouse - you only get one right? In Skyrim, one spouse opens up a myriad of possibilities to make the game immersive. Its not the Sims after all.

I actually look forward to marriage, but I'm hoping it is better implemented than "pick a random NPC" like in Fable, and it actually comes with some fun gameplay. i.e -- I don't really want my husband to just go sit in my house and then bark out "Hi."-style generic dialogue whenever I go back. Maybe some spouses could even double as [censored]-kicking companions? Killing dragons together! The romance! I also hope that it provides an option for everyone. I for one don't really want to play a khajiit marrying a dunmer, but someone else might.

Disturbing.


You make a valid point. Will the candidates for marriage be altered by your choice of race. A Khajit would marry a Khajit after all right? Your suggestion that you have options in what role your spouse plays would add dynamic-ism to game play - the player could tell his/her wife/husband to accompany him or to stay at home where it was safe etc.

I don't mind if my spouse eventually gains depth, I will love her for who she is no matter what, but as long as she does her best to stay fit and firm for as long as possible I'll be happy.

NPCs will need an insane amount of dialogue in Skyrim to even make marriages worthwhile for me. Far more dialogue than we've seen in any previous TES game.

If you are rich and your spouse lives a lavish lifestyle and you can be either skinny or fat... if you can change in the game depending on your eating habits - your spouse could get huge. That would be interesting. Or you could steal all the food in your house and make your spouse starve until the desired build is achieve - that would mean spouse diet management. That could cater for all manner of tastes.

I hope after marriage my wife wears a moo moo, keeps curlers in her hair an dbeats me with a rolling pin every time I come home late from my adventures.

Beware, murdering spouses is a sin.

Unless they are Bosmer, killing Bosmer is the way to heaven.