I think it comes down to story reasons, i'd bet my shoes that baby shaun is plot important somehow.

Because in Fallout 4 the game starts with the PC being married to the opposite six. Pretty simple to underatand i think. Also no proof that he/she dies.

The numbers aren't exactly correct, but the point is valid. Besides, you can just say your character married to fit in with society, this is the 1950s' version of the future, and the 1950s was not a progressive time.


It was pretty awesome if you were straight, white, though. I wouldn't mind visiting it for a weekend.

Yeah, I just thought of a weird theory. The memory den. Perhaps your wife and son didn't die in the blast, but got locked out of the vault. They eventually found the memory den, and recorded some messages for you. That'd be a potentially sad thing to find.

One word, biology. There is clearly a story requirement for a DNA connection between both potential protagonists and their child, or Bethesda would not have even entertained the idea. The fact that same-six relationships have still been incorporated into the main portion of gameplay shows that the devs are approaching this from as open a perspective as the story will accommodate.

like i always point out, i know Freedom is a goal for Bethesda game, but isnt Freedom of everything, is just Freedom how to go from Point A to point B.

They still telling a story they just give u freedom how to reach the end of it.

Not a different problem as playing someone who is a loner and doesn't wants to gets married.

That's the point with playing a character with a background: part of the story is already written and you just have to deal with it.

He's thinking of TES, in which your character is a 95% blank slate. The only info they give you is "You are in jail in X province" and leave the rest to you.

Fallout, however, often gives you a background. You're a tribal, you're a Vault Dweller, you're a Courier, you're a married everyman(or woman.). As it always has been, as it continues to be. Sorry if that doesn't fit everyone's alternate lifestyle.

To add to my later message, I could probably roleplay my character as someone who was enspelled in one way or another, and who is now very, very angry (cause that's basically like slavery and [censored] together).

Like in, cannibal angry.

And then if the spouse is still alive, I'll kill her and eat her, alive if possible.

That would be my vengeance.

You just need a bit of imagination.

I'm imagining how I would feel if I was forced to play as a gay character at the start of the game I feel... Nothing. I would be perfectly down with that. Being able to go bi after the tutorial would just be icing on the cake. So forgive me for completely missing your point, OP.

Bethesda wanted to tell the story of a protagonist with a biological child, beyond that is entirely up to the player. The simple fact is that presenting the story from a heterosixual relationship POV is the easiest way to do so with out assigning more backstory to the PC. Once you play the game you will have the option to restart from a save point just before exiting the vault, at which point you can reassign your SPECIAL stats to suit the PC you wish to play. Since most of us play these games multiple times, the little backstory they give means little since we all head cannon our own little story for our PC anyway.

It never bothered me in 3 that my PC was supposed to be a 18 or 19 yo kid, in my head he was me, and I am certainly older than that. In NV it was pretty blank, so it was easy to head cannon a story, until you got to one of the DLCs that kind of screwed that up, so I avoided playing that. You know going in this is the story you are given, if you can not play on that framework given to you, then don't buy it. THAT is how you send a message to BGS or any other developer.

so there would just be an option to make spouse same six? then what would happen to the visual generation of your child? it just get's a dice roll to be random since it's adopted?

bethesda is telling the story THEY want to tell

LOL! I am really diggin' these creative backstory workarounds you people come up with. I'm imagining these closeted characters finding freedom in the apocalypse.

"The wasteland surely is deadly, but it is sure as hell isn't as deadly as social condemnation that makes you hate yourself and live in a lie haha. [censored] society, [censored] everything, let's blow everything up and have six in our secluded scrapmetal house."

hell they're letting you RP a gay character with romancing of the same six, that's enough and more than some other RPG's

I may end up RPing a gay or lisbian character just because I love the idea of finding paradise in the apocalypse.

keep in mind fallout's world is a future world frozen in the past due to war and conflict. the fear of new ideas such a being openly gay may still be very taboo. your character may still be gay, but married straight just to conform.

your character may be in an affair with another man\woman, this is not dicussed in the opening hours of the game.

your character could be a russian\chinese (or any other country) spy planted in the US and married to a US army rep as part of his\her cover.

your character may be a young guy\girl forcefully married to a man\woman as part of a deal by his parents to gain inheritance of the family fortune later on.

the RP elements are there, imagination still works on new engines.

Just gave an example some message ago.

Well, it's an extreme, but with a bit a imagination you can easely go around that problem, and play a 100% gay character if you wants to.

Maybe it's the alien's fault (kick their butt if you find them!).

Fallout has never been about 100% creative freedom when it comes to character design.

In Fallout 3, I'd say 95% percent of the characters I played I didn't want to have the Vault backstory for. So I had to ignore that entire part of the narrative to make my characters fit with what I was trying to RP.

The situation is very similar here.

given the 50's societal views that stuck around AND protag being military it's pretty obvious why they even couldn't give you the choice. he simply couldn't have been in the profession he was if he were married to a man

IF, notice the big IF, the character were forced to be gay and had no option later in the game to romance opposite six NPCs, I would not buy it. If on the other hand it started as a homosixual relationship and then you could move on and play the character as you see fit, no big deal.

Eh, I'll just be ignoring the tutorial like I always do in these games. Doubt that I'll be touching the main quest anyway this time around.

Only one of my characters in FO3 had the vault backstory, none of my characters in New Vegas had the Courier backstory.

I'm sorry if you got the impression that I'm trolling. But you do make a good point.

I'd argue that it was a bad move in the first place to include such a big character trait a a default for your character, just because of the reasons you stated, it erases the possibility of you being asixual with no kids etc.

Still, many people in this thread have convinced me that it's no big deal to have such a set backstory element. I'd still prefer more freedom, but it's not so bad.

Sadly, when you buy a book you would have to rewrite it to change the story or the way the author wanted it presented. Given the freedom of choice as what companion you chose in the game is up to you. However, you seem to start off with a wife and child in the beginning. This situation does not seem to last long and is pretty much a backstory. While that may change later in the game, it will be up to you how you want to play it.

Why am I a human? I want to select my race.

Why am I tribal? I want to select my origin.

Why am I courier? I want to select my occupation.

This is immersion breaking to me, etc etc.