What makes a great sex quest mod?

[Tenner]

Hello, I have a bit of an odd question to ask anyone who has a minute to chip in.

 

I've lately been looking through Skyrim quest mods that focuses on sex, and I've been somewhat trying to understand what makes a good mod and what makes a bad mod, and I would love if someone could chip in with their favorite mods, least favorite mods and what has put them in those two categories for you. I care about as much or as little as you wish to offer, so don't worry about detail if you don't want to go into too much, or if you fear going into too much!

 

Have a wonderful day.

[Vaelorian]

I'll keep it short:

1. Remember that your player ultimately is the one you're trying to please (NOT the character, the actual human playing the thing). If you're not trying to please them, you might as well not bother uploading at all.

 

2. Remember that your mod is a mod; it shouldn't hijack the game, it shouldn't screw up the balance, it shouldn't break quests, etc.

 

3. You want an adult mod to be good? You have two routes: big narrative mod, smaller randomized pieces mod. Almost all of the most successful adult mods out there - are meant to integrate into the game's sandbox with randomized elements. Why? Because a big narrative mod is both difficult to make, and has no replayability.

 

4. Remember to include safeguards! Anything your mod does that could destroy a save should have a safeguard against; a mechanic disables players attacking or casting spells? Safeguard! A mechanic makes the player permanently take x4 damage? Safeguard! A mechanic makes the player lose all items including quest items? Safeguard! A mechanic makes the player drop their weapon and it might fall through the terrain or get launched into the stratosphere? Safeguard! How you choose to implement these safeguards is up to you, but it can be something as simple as a MCM menu button that fixes the issue and as complex as the mod noticing that the player hasn't managed to reclaim their weapon in X seconds and injecting it into the next end of dungeon chest they open.

[Gristle]

1 hour ago, Vaelorian said:

I'll keep it short:

1. Remember that your player ultimately is the one you're trying to please (NOT the character, the actual human playing the thing). If you're not trying to please them, you might as well not bother uploading at all.

 

2. Remember that your mod is a mod; it shouldn't hijack the game, it shouldn't screw up the balance, it shouldn't break quests, etc.

 

3. You want an adult mod to be good? You have two routes: big narrative mod, smaller randomized pieces mod. Almost all of the most successful adult mods out there - are meant to integrate into the game's sandbox with randomized elements. Why? Because a big narrative mod is both difficult to make, and has no replayability.

 

4. Remember to include safeguards! Anything your mod does that could destroy a save should have a safeguard against; a mechanic disables players attacking or casting spells? Safeguard! A mechanic makes the player permanently take x4 damage? Safeguard! A mechanic makes the player lose all items including quest items? Safeguard! A mechanic makes the player drop their weapon and it might fall through the terrain or get launched into the stratosphere? Safeguard! How you choose to implement these safeguards is up to you, but it can be something as simple as a MCM menu button that fixes the issue and as complex as the mod noticing that the player hasn't managed to reclaim their weapon in X seconds and injecting it into the next end of dungeon chest they open.

This is a good list. For me, I would add: 

 

5. A good adult mod is one that fits well into the Skyrim world in terms of culture and language. Skyrim has a specific quasi-medieval Nordic / fantasy setting with an extensive backstory. Ideally, an adult mod would fit into that setting as well as any vanilla quest -- just with an updated rating from PG-13 to X. As examples, look at mods like The Ancient Profession and Public Whore. No jarring modern language, and both fit well into the Skyrim culture and setting.

[FauxFurry]

Sexlab Solutions/OSolutions hits pretty much all of the above listed criteria, likely a reason why it seems to have caught on as a community favorite these days.

[Count Chocula]

If you want to see a great quest mod that has a lot of sex in it, Nuka Ride for Fallout 4. The worst sex mods generally are just a lot of sex with pretty much zero story. That's boring because simply watching computer game avatars have sex is entertaining for about two minutes. Nuka Ride is a good story mod which happens to have a lot of sex in it.

 

So, to directly answer the question posed by the topic title, makes a great sex mod is the same thing that makes a great non-sex mod: a really good story.

[Tenner]

5 hours ago, chocula said:

If you want to see a great quest mod that has a lot of sex in it, Nuka Ride for Fallout 4. The worst sex mods generally are just a lot of sex with pretty much zero story. That's boring because simply watching computer game avatars have sex is entertaining for about two minutes. Nuka Ride is a good story mod which happens to have a lot of sex in it.

 

So, to directly answer the question posed by the topic title, makes a great sex mod is the same thing that makes a great non-sex mod: a really good story.

I've been thinking about the story aspect too. I don't really plan on playing Fallout 4 anytime soon, but I'll look into Nuka Ride when I do. I do agree that, funnily enough, the story is often the make or break for me, followed closely by dialogue - I often make new characters to check out quest mods.

 

Thank you for the recommendation!

[ghastley]

I beg to differ. Some players want to be told a story, and others want to make up their own. You are going to find it hard to satisfy both with the same mod. The more story you add, the more you restrict the DIY users. 

 

However, if you can create something with a story, that lets you continue down your own path after, you have the best of both.

[Gristle]

26 minutes ago, ghastley said:

I beg to differ. Some players want to be told a story, and others want to make up their own. You are going to find it hard to satisfy both with the same mod. The more story you add, the more you restrict the DIY users. 

 

However, if you can create something with a story, that lets you continue down your own path after, you have the best of both.

I think that goes back to Vaelorian's point 3 -- two types of mods: 1) big narrative mod, or 2) smaller randomized pieces mod that integrates into the game's sandbox. The latter is obviously preferred if you don't want to follow a pre-set quest path. That would be a true "make up your own story" mod.

 

I guess another type of mod (maybe just a subset of 2 above) is a follower mod. These allow the player to "DIY" but the good ones also provide a good backstory, add "color" to quests, and provide at least some follower-related quest elements.

[Count Chocula]

1 hour ago, ghastley said:

I beg to differ. Some players want to be told a story, and others want to make up their own. You are going to find it hard to satisfy both with the same mod. The more story you add, the more you restrict the DIY users. 

 

However, if you can create something with a story, that lets you continue down your own path after, you have the best of both.

A sex mod with no story wears really thin really fast for me. I'm not going to engage in mod bashing by naming them, but there are several I tried for Skyrim and Fallout 4 that I stopped playing quickly because there's almost nothing to them other than progressing from one fuck to the next. If that's what a particular person wants, great for them.

 

It's like playing a tabletop RPG that has almost nothing but combat in it.

[JB.]

Pleasing the player is a horrible, horrible, horrible take unless what you want is to sell a product and burn you in the process. I've noticed that this kind of advice tends to come from people who typically have no idea about creating mods and the time it takes, or have no contribution to the community and only serve to chew up what others are working on. If you are going to create a mod, do it because you enjoy it, it makes you excited, it motivates you to dedicate your time to it. Whether it is “great” will depend on many factors, which varies from player to player, but to start creating a mod to please others is a vomit of an idea that I abhor.

 

I enjoy a complementary experience that suits the sandbox nature of Bethesda, as well as a more linear experience. But I don't consider myself very good at creating sandbox mods and I really envy those who know how to do it, but for me it's too many variables that you have to adapt to. I like to create a more constrained experience because it allows me to focus on what I like: storytelling.

[belegost]

18 minutes ago, JB. said:

I like to create a more constrained experience because it allows me to focus on what I like: storytelling.

And what an experience it was. It's been a couple of years since I last played your mod, but I still am unable to shake it off. That was one of the best gaming experiences I've had in over 3 decades of playing video games. For me it's up there with Betrayal at Krondor, Planescape Torment, and the entire Witcher trilogy.

[Darkpig]

48 minutes ago, JB. said:

But I don't consider myself very good at creating sandbox mods

Don't worry. Bethesda isn't very good at it either.

[raijinkaze]

Buxom Wench Yuriana.

[Myhafaa]

6. Roleplay and world reactions. This is why I think what SLSF comments - "must have" mod. Player need to have his/her playstile and world, or at least an things added in you're mod should react on player's actions 

[noctred]

On 4/14/2025 at 6:41 AM, chocula said:

If you want to see a great quest mod that has a lot of sex in it, Nuka Ride for Fallout 4. The worst sex mods generally are just a lot of sex with pretty much zero story. That's boring because simply watching computer game avatars have sex is entertaining for about two minutes. Nuka Ride is a good story mod which happens to have a lot of sex in it.

 

So, to directly answer the question posed by the topic title, makes a great sex mod is the same thing that makes a great non-sex mod: a really good story.

 

I tend to agree with this.

 

I'm much more of a Skyrim player than a Fallout player but @JB.'s Nuka Ride, and to a lesser degree Commonwealth Slavers, are above and beyond anything that Skyrim has to offer for my tastes. The exploration and discovery are there, the atmosphere is there, the sex is there, the humiliation and transformation of the character are there, the outfits are there, and the narrative experience ties it all together and keeps it from getting boring. On top of that, they're relatively bug free, and have a degree of replayability and tie-in to the rest of the world so they don't feel like a one and done kind of thing. Honestly Nuka Ride is the only reason I haven't permanently uninstalled Fallout 4.

 

On the flipside, you can take something like Slaverun Reloaded. It's conceptually incredible and all respect to the effort put in by the author(s) - but the main questline quickly devolves into nothing but sex, sex, sex everywhere, all the time, with the narrative taking a backseat. The whole thing becomes dull. I used to build my load orders around it; nowadays I don't even look at it.

 

A current Skyrim example of what I'd consider to be a great quest mod would probably be @Gristle's Adventures with Balazar - it has many of the same elements which make JB's mods such standouts for me. Thief and Troubles of Heroine are also pretty good, though the latter sometimes teeters on the edge. Overall though I think Skyrim is pretty lite on these types of mods - Skyrim authors at large seem to be much more interested in creating sandboxes or mods which facilitate emergent gameplay (SL Survival, SLSF Comments, Sexy Adventures, Love Sickness, Devious Interests, Naked Defeat, etc.). Those are fine too though I'm not sure I'd call them "quest" mods. Mods like Public Whore, Lola/DFC, Bimbos of Skyrim, BaboDialogue, and various others are somewhere in-between - providing sandbox features with an underlying narrative.

 

--

 

I'd also disagree with the take that you should make mods to please other players - this sounds like a recipe for burnout. Make something you're passionate about and share it with others who have the same tastes. You'll never please everyone anyways.

Edited May 4, 2025 by noctred

[Count Chocula]

12 hours ago, noctred said:

A current Skyrim example of what I'd consider to be a great quest mod would probably be 's Adventures with Balazar - it has many of the same elements which make JB's mods such standouts for me. Thief and Troubles of Heroine are also pretty good, though the latter sometimes teeters on the edge.

My beef with Troubles of Heroine (when I played it, which was a while ago) is that it's buggy. Which gets pretty frustrating. I don't even know if a mod called A Forsworn Story (or something like that) is still around, but it had a pretty good story, lots of sex, but was incredibly buggy. It got to the point where I was using the console pretty regularly to do stuff like summon NPCs who were not where and when they were supposed to be to talk to in order to advance the story that I said "Fuck this" and gave up. I'm not bad mouthing the mod or the author (or ToH and its author), because it's way more mod than I have ever made.