It's no secret that The Elder Scrolls series and Fallout games harbor some of the RPG genre's silliest humor, from The Lusty Argonian Maid to the ever-annoying Adoring Fan in Oblivion – but former writer and quest designer Mark Nelson says most of it was sneaked in.
According to Nelson, that's because Bethesda Game Studios director and executive producer Todd Howard – who is best known for his work on the Elder Scrolls series, Fallout games, and more recently, Starfield – instructed developers not to include any humor. Speaking in a new documentary on Morrowind from Filmdeg Miniatures, Nelson reveals as much when recalling how he added The Lusty Argonian Maid to the game.
"I don't even remember why I wrote it," he admits, referencing the now beloved Elder Scrolls book. "It may have been like after a happy hour or something, quite honestly." Nelson says he was "giggling" about it, as "it was just one of those things [added to the game], because no one was paying attention. We could just put anything into the game." That's not what Howard wanted developers to do, though – in fact, his "rule was always, 'humor has no place in games.'"
Nelson continues: "That's Todd's rule. So, of course, that became, 'humor has no place in games… if Todd doesn't catch it.' And that's where things like the Lusty Argonian Maid came in." I, for one, am thrilled that devs took matters into their own hands here and pushed on with their inclusion of some of the Elder Scrolls series' most hilarious moments. It's not just the Lusty Argonian Maid that comes to mind, either.
I'm instantly reminded of the random naked Nordic barbarians in Morrowind claiming that they've been tricked by witches stealing their clothes, and other similarly ridiculous moments – as brief as they may be. They've become a staple of The Elder Scrolls and have lived on to more recent entries like Skyrim. Here's hoping things never change… after all, there's a new RPG coming at some point, right?
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