While Dragon Age: The Veilguard romances may not be bear-tier, the game's director promises that they will be appropriately saucy. 'You may or not wake up in coffin.'

It's the new era of RPGs. The days of innocent kisses, and secret hand-holding are gone. Now we roll around with bears, and get nasty with Gith. I kid, ofcourse. Dragon Age: Origins was full of smut in 2009, and if you played the cards right, you could have some group fun with Leliana Zevran and Isabela.

Still, Dragon Age: The Veilguard isn't going to fall behind in this arms race, even if we don't know whether there'll be even a schlong in it, because that's an industry secret-slash-spoiler, apparently.

According to an IGN interview, game director Corinne busche promises a variety of flavours for the eligible consorts: "Some are quite sensual." Busch says that some of them are more sexual, others are more romantic and some are hotter. She then casually adds, "you may or not wake up in coffin."

Who knows? I'd bet that it's the result of a gothic chat with Emmrich Volkarin's resident necromancer at The Veilguard. Lace Harding may have been waiting for Inquisition before letting her freak flag fly. Her return was at least partly motivated by love: "Players fell for her and we heard them."

Busche seems to have chosen the dragon hunter Taash as her favorite romance if she wants a little excitement: "When I saw the finished version, I was hollering." Hollering." Taash being a qunari is not surprising. Iron Bull played a fierce game.

Busche confirms what was revealed in an article on combat and progression. He emphasizes--and assures--that getting to know your partners sensually is not a requirement to get them levels. However, you will still have to resist the urge to be a jerk towards them. "I'm going to help her shape her skills, whether it's romantic or platonic. I'm also going to augment those abilities that really work well with my personal build."

Busche's description of friendships, romances and FWB status is what really catches my attention. I am someone who believes that the best RPG partners are those who get in the way every now and then. "You will develop trust and understanding. It doesn't mean that you will always agree. I think of relationships as not just how much someone likes you, but also how well you know them.

"Every family has its squabbles. But this is about developing your understanding each member of Veilguard and in turn, it's going allow them to work more effectively as a group."

She's saying the right things, but I hope Bioware can pull it off. I'm more interested in the fiddly mechanics that we've seen so far, but I haven’t been drawn in by the dialog. I hope that a few clumsy jokes in the limited gameplay trailers won't interfere with this thoughtful character work Busche promises, because I think too much about RPG romantic dynamics. Ask Gale.