Romance in Ashe & SDA: Immersive vs. Sandbox

Little late to the party here, but I have thoughts: 1. Serana is thousands of years old, she's probably seen lots of lovers come and go. I doubt she'll be especially concerned with exclusivity, especially coming from let's just say an "interesting" family where depravity was the norm. She may value honesty and loyalty, but I think at her age she's mature enough to share. 2. If the player convinces Serana to cure herself, that's a different storyline. If she's willing to give up immortality for the player, that should require a level of commitment that goes beyond any poly situation. 3. Ashe and Serana are both highly intelligent, independent and strong-willed women/robots. It would be great writing and character development if they could have an adult conversation where they discuss their stances in front of you, and then put the choice to the player. Self-assured women should be mature enough to have the talk with little to no input from the player, until it's time to make a decision only the player can make.

Your "reality/fantasy" system has my vote too -- everybody wins. In most cases, I eventually run out of new banter with any companion and at this point, I give them one of my homes and move on to another companion. "Can't I have you both?" -Shepard (Mass Effect)

I'll be devils advocate for a poly romance. But only under VERY SPECIFIC circumstances. Serana seems like she hooks up with the player because they are with her from the beginning to end once her coffin opens. Even if you side with clearly evil groups she'll be down. So say you meet Ashe first and she is there when Serana enters the picture right when the tomb opens. And Ashe accompanies us on every Dawnguard quest, she is as ride or die for helping Serana as you are through to the end. Serana may warm up (no pun intended) to Ashe for going the distance helping her. You could add a few brief unique dialoges. Like if they meet in the coffen room there first interactions are a little different, and maybe after some major DG quests they have a brief unique talk. I do think what you planning is the best though. For something like this you have to explained how Ashe is able to enter the Soul Cairn. Serana would need to soul trap or turn both you and Ashe in Vampires for that to work and that's just one instance. Keep up the good work.

Been playing since SDA 1.0! Seeing what it has become is amazing. I think your plan is great. It's tough to choose with such likeable characters. With the right roleplaying you could maybe romance both. Marry Serana, recruit Ashe together, Ashe falls in love with both of you across her storyline. But then this would mean you wouldn't have Ashe for Dawnguard. Either way, with whatever you choose to implement, these mods are going to be beyond amazing, and I thank you for doing this for all of us fans.

I want reality. Character fidelity is everything.

I love this plan. I'm a fan of the "pick one or the other" for the realism (fantasy mode is a nice to have). I like it particularly because of your note about respecting the characters - the trust issues; especially Serana. When testing the original build of Ashe, I had already married Serana and finished Dawnguard, and it kinda felt weird that there was no objection to cheating. Not to mention the whole "cheating" thing felt wrong, but maybe that's just me: I remember complaining to my real-life partner that it felt wrong to do that to Serana lol

I'll just repeat that I think this is the best of both worlds, respecting player agency while minimizing the headaches you have to wrestle with mod-wise. This "reality/fantasy" system definitely has my vote(though I can't ever see myself using the fantasy option, too much of an ardent romantic myself XD).

Honestly this is the best path forward for this, it caters to both sides of the fence without having to make a choice for anyone. Its also nice to see banter being added between them for the immersive version. It would be interesting to see Serana/Ashe have some clear possessive/defense banter with regards to other vanilla women, Aela, Camilla, anyone that could show too much interest for their liking. And of course other followers if the authors do get back to you. Overall seems like a great direction towards handling this, it limits no one, and provides realism for those that want it

I think that split is good. There is the "story" version in which you pick one and stay with her and then there is the more "relaxed" version in which you keep both. Nothing against a third option in which they both acknowledge and accept the player romancing both but even for Ashe, who is more open and inexperienced, it's not something that would fit her character because yeah her directives are to live and experience but she has seen, at least part of, the relationship her parents had through the logs so it makes sense that she would idealize a relationship like that. My opinion of course.

I like the Split approach! Seems good to me!

a lot to unpack here lol

It'd be cool to have a three way relationship with Ashe and Serana within the sandbox mode, but I'd imagine that'd add a lot of extra work and wouldn't be that possible logistics wise. In addition to being untrue to the character(s?). Honestly just do what you feel fits your own creative vision for the mod. We'll play it regardless, I'm sure.

I'd love to see a third option where you can romance both, yet they keep a friendly banter between the three of you. Little ribs or comments in jest about the three of you at either of the other two. However, I'll be the first to admit and acknowledge that something of that scope would probably a massive undertaking. So I'll just be happy with what is in the realms of possibility.

I like how you've laid it out - split approach makes sense to me. Would definitely be a "reality" player myself.

You should call the fantasy mode “Harem mode” lol idk just a thought but it seems pretty good. I myself have a few player characters that are Poly and romance a bunch of characters simultaneously. Modded or otherwise. It gets kinda complicated whenever the author uses the vanilla system because like you mentioned it bars other romances from happening because there’s that spouse check. So it blocks the harem route. I like to look at things kinda lore wise with certain races in the elder scrolls a lot of them have many many spouses. Like I heard Khajiit nobles have more then one wife and then there was Divyath Fyr who cloned himself 4 times to marry himselves I guess lol and then there are the Orcs who have many many wives too lol but that’s just me lol this is your mod and your creation. I’ll love it either way.

Apologies Ashe, Serana will forever and always have my heart Though for the sake of fairness I might give ashe a try for once just to see what it's like

I know you put a lot of work into this, but I want them to both acknowledge it. Harem all the way Lol. I appreciate all of your hard work.