Player Power From Build vs. Items

Defining the Terms

Tim begins by defining the two sources of player power. Character builds are things the player chooses: attributes, skills, perks, abilities, spells, backgrounds — anything selected at character creation or on level-up. Items are things found in the world: weapons, armor, consumables — anything the player puts on, holds, or eats.

He notes there's some overlap between these categories. Some games have items like skill books that permanently raise a stat, or potions that modify ability cooldowns. Tim counts these as items rather than build choices, because you have to find them in the world rather than choosing them at creation or level-up. The key distinction is whether something is a permanent player choice or something discovered externally.

Tim's Preference: Build Over Items

Tim prefers that neither source be overwhelming — meaning neither should account for 80–100% of a character's power. His ideal is a 60/40 split favoring character build, with room to flex 10% in either direction (so anywhere from 50/50 to 70/30 build-to-items).

He acknowledges he's not great at balancing — and isn't overly concerned with it, especially in single-player RPGs. He doesn't mind if a player finds some fun, crazy, out-of-whack way to play. He references his separate video on balancing features (his "stick a pin in it" method) for those interested in the mechanics of balance itself.

Why Build Should Lead

Tim gives several reasons for favoring character build:

The character is you. This is Tim's core argument. He prefers single-player, non-party builds because the character represents you in the game world. You make choices at creation and level-up, and you live with the consequences. If items can massively overwhelm those consequences, the choices you made stop mattering — and that feels bad.

Items introduce randomness the player can't control. Non-handplaced items — those that aren't guaranteed drops from specific bosses — are inherently random. You might kill a random encounter that randomly drops an item perfect for your build... or you might never find it at all. Tim uses the example of making a high-Luck character in Fallout and never finding the Limited Edition Red Ryder BB Gun — arguably the best weapon for that build. When power depends heavily on items, it becomes "too slot machine, too risky."

Items can have properties that don't match your build. Even when you find powerful items, they might weigh too much for a low-strength character in a game with encumbrance, cost prohibitively much in shops, use expensive ammo, have low durability when you skipped repair skills, be restricted to a class or race you're not playing, or require a perk you don't have. This creates frustration — here's something you'd love to use, but your build prevents it.

When Items Should Dominate

Tim isn't dogmatic. He identifies settings where itemization should take the lead:

Post-apocalyptic or scavenging settings. If the world is mostly empty — no teachers, no schools, no trainers — the fiction doesn't support the idea that characters are learning and improving skills. In a game about scavenging, the items you find naturally become more important.

Games without character progression. If there's no leveling up, no character progression mechanics at all, then everything about the character's power has to come from items they acquire.

When design pillars demand it. Tim's universal advice: do what's best for the game you're making. If your design pillars emphasize exploration, scavenging, or equipment crafting, lean into itemization.

The Arcanum Example

Tim highlights Arcanum as a game where this tension was baked into the setting. The magic-versus-technology schism created a natural divide: tech could be mass-produced (guns manufactured in factories, schematics allowing easy crafting), while magic items could not (wands and enchanted gear required individual creation). This meant itemization was inherently more important for tech characters — you could easily make tech items with schematics, mass production made equipment abundant.

As Arcanum's world shifted toward sci-fi, the game reinforced that mass production makes itemization more important. But Tim still wanted the character's build to have a significant effect on how the game was played, even for tech characters.

Design Process Advice

Tim's final advice connects to his broader design philosophy. When deciding where power should come from, follow the process he always recommends:

1. Write your design pillars first — what's super important for this game? Realism? Exploration? Identity?
2. Design setting, then story, then mechanics — by the time you reach mechanics, you already know the world and narrative context
3. Decide the build-vs-items split early — because if you decide items are the primary power source, you need to carefully design where items come from, how they drop, and how they're made available

If players' power changes dramatically based on item quality, and items are relatively random, players will care deeply about itemization — so you'd better pay close attention to how you populate your world with loot.

References

• Tim Cain. YouTube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JczYH1MhrfM