Josh Sawyer: Obsidian has 'Karma Police' to keep RPG skills useful

On the Human Can Opener podcast, Obsidian design director Josh Sawyer explained how the studio balanced Fallout: New Vegas to ensure skill checks and character builds felt meaningful. He said the goal is for players to enjoy the characters they create and to avoid situations where a chosen build is "fundamentally bad." Obsidian often lets unexpected skills affect dialogue and the world—recruiting Primm's new sheriff can be done with Science, Barter, or Speech—and the team has reshaped systems to support different combat approaches.

Sawyer highlighted the removal of a separate Big Guns skill, splitting those weapons into Guns, Energy Weapons, and Explosives so players wouldn’t have to invest in a skill that never gets supported.

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