{"id":6123,"date":"2019-02-19T11:01:45","date_gmt":"2019-02-19T19:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chocolatehammer.org\/?p=6123"},"modified":"2026-06-15T17:07:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T01:07:22","slug":"skills-in-roleplaying-games-why-fallout-4-was-good-actually","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chocolatehammer.org\/?p=6123","title":{"rendered":"Skills in Roleplaying Games (Why Fallout 4 Was Good Actually)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Short history of skills: lots of early RPGs were solely focused on combat survival, but some wanted to simulate areas outside of combat. This created an effective splinter philosophy between games that think arbitration should fall to a holistic relationship between players and GMs and games that think the mechanics should empower players to drive the story with objective rolls. One thinks rules limit players, the other that it empowers them.<\/p>\n<p>Twist: neither of this has anything to do with how skills work in videogames. Or, rather, how they usually&nbsp;<em>don&#8217;t&nbsp;<\/em>work.<\/p>\n<p>The theory is that videogames would prevent players from&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Short history of skills: lots of early RPGs were solely focused on combat survival, but some wanted to simulate areas outside of combat. This created an effective splinter philosophy between games that think arbitration&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Skills in Roleplaying Games (Why Fallout 4 Was Good Actually) -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.chocolatehammer.org\/?p=6123\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Skills in Roleplaying Games (Why Fallout 4 Was Good Actually) -\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Short history of skills: lots of early RPGs were solely focused on combat survival, but some wanted to simulate areas outside of combat. This created an effective splinter philosophy between games that think arbitration&#046;&#046;&#046;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.chocolatehammer.org\/?p=6123\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-02-19T19:01:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-06-16T01:07:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rutskarn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Rutskarn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Rutskarn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rutskarn\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.chocolatehammer.org\\\/?p=6123#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.chocolatehammer.org\\\/?p=6123\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rutskarn\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.chocolatehammer.org\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e80b3ddb8bafad4b67a860408bbbe2a9\"},\"headline\":\"Skills in Roleplaying Games (Why Fallout 4 Was Good Actually)\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-02-19T19:01:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-06-16T01:07:22+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.chocolatehammer.org\\\/?p=6123\"},\"wordCount\":114,\"commentCount\":0,\"articleSection\":[\"Just Normal Things\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.chocolatehammer.org\\\/?p=6123#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.chocolatehammer.org\\\/?p=6123\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.chocolatehammer.org\\\/?p=6123\",\"name\":\"Skills in Roleplaying Games (Why Fallout 4 Was Good Actually) -\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.chocolatehammer.org\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-02-19T19:01:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-06-16T01:07:22+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.chocolatehammer.org\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e80b3ddb8bafad4b67a860408bbbe2a9\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.chocolatehammer.org\\\/?p=6123#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.chocolatehammer.org\\\/?p=6123\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.chocolatehammer.org\\\/?p=6123#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.chocolatehammer.org\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Skills in Roleplaying Games (Why Fallout 4 Was Good Actually)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.chocolatehammer.org\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.chocolatehammer.org\\\/\",\"name\":\"\",\"description\":\"Games and essays by colonies of mutant rats, for colonies of mutant rats.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.chocolatehammer.org\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.chocolatehammer.org\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e80b3ddb8bafad4b67a860408bbbe2a9\",\"name\":\"Rutskarn\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/98018b1b99db63608152b837781e02e6101b82894a7d4a79128a12777b84825e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/98018b1b99db63608152b837781e02e6101b82894a7d4a79128a12777b84825e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/98018b1b99db63608152b837781e02e6101b82894a7d4a79128a12777b84825e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Rutskarn\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.ChocolateHammer.org\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.chocolatehammer.org\\\/?author=3\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Skills in Roleplaying Games (Why Fallout 4 Was Good Actually) -","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.chocolatehammer.org\/?p=6123","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Skills in Roleplaying Games (Why Fallout 4 Was Good Actually) -","og_description":"Short history of skills: lots of early RPGs were solely focused on combat survival, but some wanted to simulate areas outside of combat. 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