First of all, let me be clear that this thread need not involve spoilers.

So, I recently finished the companions quest line, and was shocked by how short it was -- approximately 8-10 quests. I was led to believe that the companions was a faction anologous to the fighters guild from past TES games. But the fighters guild quest lines in MW and OB were much, much longer than that of the companions.

The thing is, while it lasted, I loved the companions quest line. I had a lot of fun working through it. It was just way too short.

What do you guys think?

It's only short when you compare it to oblivion and morrowind. Skyrim is a different game with much better side quests and also has random quests. So yea it svcks it's short but remember this is a different game and I'd take it over oblivion any day.

I agree. I was disappointed upon finishing the companions quest line. It just felt way too short. It really made me miss the fighters guild. Lobsters.

I wholeheartedly agree. I find if you don't use much fast travel it lengthens out the guilds in a positive way since no journey is the same with random events.

But you'll see recurring theme in the guilds: they aren't AS long, but they are very well written this time around.

I just finished the Companions Quest-line for the second time today, and I do agree with you. The quest-line was short, but personally I thought that the Mage's College was shorter and I was very dissapointed.

Even still, the Companions was a blast!

Best to divide your time between various questlines, imo. It at least helps with the illusion that you've been hanging around for a couple of months.

It's worse than that, believe it or not. The official Companions main quest line is just six quests.

They prefer eating and mead over questing.

I'm not sure I agree with that. First of all, better side quests do not make up for a shortfall in primary questlines like the Companions. Second, with few exceptions, most of the side quests consist of "Fetch object x at random dungeon y" or "kill x at random dungeon y." They tend to be very generic. The Daedric quests are definately an improvement, though.

In practice, you have to perform at least one radiant quest along the way, so once you finish Glory of the Dead your Companion quest ticker will show 7 quests completed.

/nitpick

There are more radiant quests that lead to important developments in the Companions, or so I'm told by the guide. Which is why I'm saving my witch's heads. That makes it effectively longer.

I was alright with the primary questline itself, but I hated how it kept pushing me away from the secondary (radiant) quests. Everytime I finished a quest, I'd go bug one of the other Circle members for work, get one job and then get pointed back to the primary questline without the option to ignore it and just do mundane tasks. I would have prefered being able to choose what work I did.

Well impossible to say without spoilers, but a certain change you character had no option but be forced to go through was a terrible idea by Bethesda. In general that particular 'thing' you had to become is considered a BAD thing, even in Skyrim. Why would an PC want to do this, even if there is a chance that it is a special kind of Thing?

This is dumb, I really can't continue this line of thought without breaking the OP's 'No Spoilers' request. Sorry.