You begin as a child, just as your village is raided and your family murdered. Rescued by a wizard, you are accepted at the Heroes' Guild, where you'll learn melee combat, archery and magic. These are tied to three stats – Strength, Skill and Will, respectively – which are the core of Fable's character system.

Every enemy you kill or quest you complete wields XP, but you'll also gain extra points for how you act. Using magic wields Will Experience, which can only be used to improve Will-related skills. Thus, by casting spells you'll learn new ones and become a better mage, and the game will reflect that visually.

You'll exit the guild as a weak, skinny teenager, but your appearance will change as you play. You'll grow larger as you raise your Strength, taller as you raise your Skill and, if you focus on Will, arcane signs will appear over your body and begin to glow. Even more, you can grow fat by eating too much food, gain scars as you get injured, get a tattoo, cut your hair and beard, and even grow horns if you become too evil.

These details are where Fable excels. The game's simulation is in fact a collection of countless small systems that, while shallow and unimpressive on their own, bundled together create an immersive illusion. For example, you can marry almost any NPC in the game, by flirting with them, taking them to a house you purchased and gifting a wedding ring. You can even get divorced afterwards, and other NPCs in the street will comment on how unfortunate that is.

It all sounds very impressive, but looking closely you'll see the obvious limitations of the system. You can only interact with NPCs by choosing a limited set of expressions, such as “Flirt” or “Sexy Hero Pose”, getting married serves no purpose, buying houses is almost useless and NPCs have just one or two lines to say for every important action you perform.