Obsidian's 'Karma Police' ensures varied character builds in Fallout: New Vegas

Josh Sawyer, New Vegas' director, says Obsidian has an informal design team called 'Karma Police' that ensures 'however you built your character, it's not gonna be the same experience.' He adds, 'We're not gonna let you down. We're not gonna leave you out to dry and not give you something to be excited about.' That group 'goes through all the scripts – usually in dialogue, but also everywhere in the game' to check where skills are used.

Sawyer says they ask questions like 'How often is Guns being checked? How often is Charisma being checked? How often is Barter being checked?' Designers aim to keep checks for different skills within a certain threshold so no build is neglected. 'Let's say there's 40 [checks] in Medicine, and there's like, 28 in Science.

Great! Get in the ballpark,' Sawyer says, because the goal is to avoid 'huge stretches of the game' where an invested skill 'never comes up.' A little bit of randomness is good to keep us on our toes, and perhaps more importantly, to encourage replays.

obsidian, josh sawyer, karma police, new vegas, character builds, skill checks, guns, charisma, barter, game design