Starfield Persuasion System Detailed, Character Traits Can be Removed via Quests

There are still a lot of outstanding questions about Bethesda’s upcoming sci-fi RPG Starfield, including when the game might come out, but in a new “Constellation Questions” video Todd Howard provides a bit more information about the game’s persuasion system, traits, and more. You can check the video out for yourself, below.

We’ve known for a while Starfield would have a new persuasion system somewhat similar to earlier Bethesda RPGs, but we didn’t know exactly how it would work. The new video provides some detail. Once you opt to persuade somebody, you’ll have several dialogue options, with each costing a certain amount of points depending on their brazenness (where these points come from is currently unclear). You also have a certain number of turns to successfully persuade your subject. Here’s what Howard had to say about the new system…

“We’ve done a lot of different dialogue systems. We’ve gone back to kind of a… I’ll call it a classic Bethesda-style dialogue where you’re looking at the character and how they emote, and you have a series of choices there. […] The depth in some of the stuff, with the dialogue… we just passed 250,000 lines, and so that’s a lot of dialogue.

My favorite [is the] speech persuasion system. It feels like it’s part of the dialogue, but you’re spending points to persuade them. It feels natural, not like I’ve entered some other mode where… I’m not doing regular dialogue.”

As you play Starfield, you’ll also pick up various character traits, each of which will have positive and negative impacts. Unlike other RPGs, you’re not stuck with these traits, nor will there be some sort of artificial character re-roll to get rid of them. Rather, there will be in-game events or quests that will allow you to “fix” or remove traits, allowing to shape the character you want without breaking immersion.

Starfield is currently slated to arrive on PC and Xbox Series X/S in the first half of 2023, although there’s reason to believe another delay may be imminent.