Character Build Fairness

tim-cain rpg-design character-builds game-balance player-contract respec qa-testing

Abstract

Problem: Should every character build in a single-player RPG be able to finish the game, and why does it matter?

Approach: Tim Cain explains his design philosophy through personal anecdotes from Fallout, The Outer Worlds, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, and Temple of Elemental Evil, plus QA testing practices.

Findings: There is an implicit pact between designer and player: if the game lets you build a character, that character must be able to complete the main story. This doesn't mean it will be easy — just possible. An unfinishable build is a design bug as severe as a crash bug.

Key insight: If your character creation system allows a build to exist, it's the designer's responsibility to ensure that build can finish the main story arc — anything less is a design bug, not a player failure.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbMAufVe_ds

1. The Designer-Player Pact

Tim believes there is a pact between the RPG designer and the player: "I will give you tools to make any character you want, and if I do that, you should be able to finish the game with whatever character you made using those tools."

This means if character creation lets you make a certain kind of character, you shouldn't discover halfway through the game that the character cannot finish. The key word here is finish — specifically the main story arc, not every side quest or post-game content.

2. What "Finishable" Means (and Doesn't Mean)

Tim is very precise about scope:

  • Main story quests must be completable by any valid build
  • Side quests can be build-gated — it's perfectly reasonable for some side quests to require specific builds, as long as different build types each have side content available to them
  • Finishable does not mean easy — some builds will be incredibly challenging, requiring the player to develop tactical skill, understand game mechanics deeply, or even run away from fights they can't win
  • Player skill matters — the player (not just the character) may need to play carefully, choose positioning, manage healing items, and specialize wisely

3. Examples of Unfair Design

Tim gives concrete examples of what breaks the pact:

  • A required combat encounter on the main story path with no dialogue or stealth alternative, requiring high combat skills
  • A dialogue check required to advance the storyline with a very high skill requirement
  • A locked door with no key and a 100 lockpick requirement — many builds simply cannot pass

Designers often recognize they'd never put an impassable locked door on the critical path, but then do the equivalent with combat or dialogue gates without realizing it.

4. Tim's Stress-Testing Philosophy

Tim personally plays his games with intentionally flawed characters to verify finishability:

  • Fallout: A 1-intelligence character — got very few skill points per level (since skill points were proportional to intelligence), making the endgame extremely difficult but still completable with specialization
  • The Outer Worlds: An all-talk character with zero combat or stealth skills — had to run away from any fight he couldn't talk past. A variant build used only leadership skills, relying entirely on companions for combat
  • Temple of Elemental Evil: An all-bard, all-halfling party — "very very difficult to finish but doable"
  • Bloodlines: Played as Nosferatu, only to discover the shipped game was literally uncompletable for that clan because a map change moved a teleport location after his playthrough — proving why test plans matter

4.1. QA Innovation: Random Character Generator

Tim highlights tester Taylor Swope from The Outer Worlds, who built a random player character generator that would assign QA testers specific attributes, level-up paths, and playstyles to systematically verify the game was finishable across build combinations.

5. On Respec as a Band-Aid

Respeccing (redistributing skill points mid-game) is relatively new in RPG design — largely absent 20-30 years ago. Tim views it as "kind of a Band-Aid" because:

  • Once added, designers stop worrying about whether every build can finish
  • Players come to expect it, reinforcing the cycle
  • If respec exists because the design requires it for some builds to finish, that's a symptom of a deeper design problem
  • If it's added as a convenience feature (like fast travel) and the game is designed for it, that's fine

The distinction: respec as player convenience vs. respec as crutch for bad build design.

6. A Design Bug, Not a Player Failure

Tim's conclusion is unambiguous: an unfinishable character build is a design bug — not a code bug, but equally severe. It's "as bad as any crash bug, as bad as any reduced frame rate bug."

The mantra for his games: "Do whatever you want. The game won't necessarily make it easy on you, and there will be reactions to what you've chosen to do, but you still can do it and you can finish the game."

This is the agreement designers of single-player RPGs should have with their players.

7. References