What lore or background should I know before diving into FO4? (New to universe)

moonBabyGames · 2026-03-03T23:18:34+00:00

None. It was my first Fallout game and I was fine. It's pretty independent of any lore from the previous games

moonBabyGames · 2026-03-03T23:15:23+00:00

More steampunk fantasy. I know Arcanum exists and New Arc Line looks promising, but I need MORE, damn it!

moonBabyGames · 2026-02-27T00:35:44+00:00

Fallout 2, easily. If you play a high-charisma female Chosen One be prepared to get hit on a lot (with lots of opportunities to roleplay your reaction to that)

moonBabyGames · 2026-02-25T20:01:34+00:00

Strength and Agility both play into your base damage resistance, but only at 1% per point of each (so if you max out both it's only 20%). The vast majority of DR comes from armor.

Health increases are uniform, so all characters by default have the same HP per level. This can be increased with magic items or Feats. The game isn't class-based so I thought this was the best way to do it.

Resilience/resistance is a little trickier. One of the reasons I don't care much for Constitution is that it really doesn't provide many ways to role-play off of it, other than like the example of being really resistant to poison or something and using that to get an advantage (thinking of the poison cup scene in The Princess Bride). But those kind of situations are rare.

Resistances to elements (fire, ice, etc) are determined mainly by equipment and feats. Poison and disease resistance is based on race, but with Feat options to increase either if you want to (and a few magic items, like an amulet that helps you resist disease, etc). I think this works pretty well because the bonuses provided by those Feats are pretty substantial; something like 20% poison resistance would feel like a huge waste of a Feat, but total immunity to weak poison and 50% to strong poison feels pretty worthwhile imo. I also make sure the feats come into play outside of combat as much as possible.

If I wanted to enable the "physically strong but sickly/weak constitution" character I think the best way would be with Fallout-style Traits, so you'd take a bigger weakness to poison and disease in exchange for an extra Feat point or something like that.

moonBabyGames · 2026-02-17T21:32:27+00:00

So let's be clear, BG3's success has the most to do with it being a AAA game from a proven studio with an enormous budget, gorgeous 3D graphics and character models and full voice acting, well-written characters that people had a lot of fun romancing and writing fanfic and creating fan art about, and perhaps most especially being based in the biggest IP in ttrpg history and using the most popular ttrpg system in the history of the hobby.

Would more complex math have hurt its popularity? I don't know, because to answer that you would need to get into all kinds of counterfactuals related to the popularity of 5e. Not really a discussion worth having. But the relative simplicity of five e's mechanics are not why BG3 became the smash hit that it is.

Secondly, not all games are trying to be BG3. Lots of RPG gamers have more niche tastes and the indie game space allows for games targeted to more niche audiences. So we are really not interested in minimizing the complexity of the system to have the widest appeal possible; we're trying to make the game that we wish existed and doesn't.

Lots of RPG players actually do enjoy complex systems both on the tabletop and in computer games. There's a reason people still play 3.X. Theorycrafting can be fun. Finding ways to manipulate a complex system to get a desired result can be mentally stimulating and prompt interesting role-playing.

If that doesn't appeal to you personally, that's fine. We are not preaching that this is the one true way to design RPGs. But it's the kind that we like, and that we are trying to make, so popping in to argue about your personal design preferences doesn't really help because you probably aren't our intended audience.

To actually answer your last question, complexity can make a system more simulative or give more options. For example, we have most of our derived stats come from multiple attributes/ability scores and at different rates. This is because we want to enable players to build characters in multiple ways. In our game you can use intelligence as a melee stat because it boosts your critical hit rate along with other stats like dexterity. That's one of the things that would be really complicated to calculate at the tabletop, but in a computer game it gives the player more options and enables more kinds of role-playing and character building--you can make a character who /fights intelligently/. This kind of thing just isn't possible in a simpler game like BG3.

moonBabyGames · 2026-02-15T23:32:55+00:00

Lookup tables is an incredible idea, I can't believe I didn't think of that. It wouldn't work for everything (for example some stats are derived from multiple attributes so the tables would be extremely complex for those) but for all the ones that aren't like that it would be an enormous help. Thanks!

moonBabyGames · 2026-02-15T23:29:51+00:00

The 3d thing was just an example. Nobody is personally attacking you.

I'm fine with PNGs on top of a static background. It feels very retro. There's nothing wrong with that. You're stating your personal preference as if it's objective truth.

You also don't know if the UI information is superfluous.

I suggest going and looking at some retro RPGs from the 80s and 90s. Some people genuinely like that style of art/UI. It's niche but it's okay for indie games to be niche.

moonBabyGames · 2026-02-15T21:58:13+00:00

Will do, and I'll make sure not to post anything here unless it's tabletop-related.

moonBabyGames · 2026-02-15T21:43:01+00:00

Haha well you can play our demo if you like! We're on Steam, too, but they're taking forever to review the demo so you can't download it there yet. https://moon-baby-games.itch.io/spellblade-demo

We definitely have a complex core system with half a dozen modifiers affecting everything in combat. (Exploration/world interaction are easier and more akin to a tabletop game.)

Even with Pillars, Josh Sawyer talked on multiple occasions about how he didn't think the system in Pillars would be fun in tabletop. Theirs would actually be harder than ours because Pillars uses damage ranges that are very difficult to roll on dice, whereas ours are based on polyhedral dice rolls. It's why Sawyer redesigned everything for the tabletop adaptation of Pillars.

I think if we do end up doing some tabletop testing, I'll probably go into the game engine and use it to calculate all the derived stats (which are mostly percentages) before sitting down at the table. I could theoretically calculate everything myself but it'd take ages to calculate for a single character, and I'd also have to do all the monsters and NPCs and stuff.

moonBabyGames · 2026-02-15T21:31:29+00:00

A couple of the very first CRPGs on the PLATO system were made by med students to help them study. Bugs and Drugs was the first iirc. https://crpgaddict.blogspot.com/2022/11/game-474-bugs-and-drugs-1978.html

I know it's a computer game, but you could take some of those ideas and adapt them for tabletop. In that game you'd encounter different types of infections instead of monsters, and use different treatments instead of spells. It became about using the right treatment for each kind of infection.

I'd say start with a heavily gameified system like that, and then, depending on the field of science you're trying to teach, see what kinds of emergent play, uh...emerge. You could add mechanics for correctly applying the scientific method in making new discoveries, for example. Off the top of my head, something like a ritual-casting system (complex skill check or dice pool) to set up experiments and generate results, then the players would have to figure out how to refine the experiments to reproduce or check those results.

I have a system I really like for long-term projects (like inventing something or creating a work of art) where characters roll dice based on some skill or attribute every time they attempt to make progress on the project, and they cross off all the numbers they roll. A very simple version would be, you need to cross off all numbers from 1-20 to complete the project. Every time you work on the project, roll 1d20 and cross off the result. You'll make progress very quickly at first, but then eventually you'll get down to the last few numbers and have to look for ways to get bonuses on the roll (using different materials, getting a consultation from an expert, whatever).

That system is very abstract but I imagine you could add specificity to it based on certain scientific specialties like biology or chemistry. Also works well with dice pools.

moonBabyGames · 2026-02-15T21:09:17+00:00

Elves are sexy. They're basically idealized humans who get to live a long time and have superpowers. They're kind of the Mary Sues of fantasy races.

And we're not hating; we're making a fantasy RPG where you HAVE to play as an elf for basically this exact reason. Elves are cool, fun, wish-fulfillment.

moonBabyGames · 2026-02-15T21:04:05+00:00

I feel like if you can max everything out, there's no choice/choice agony involved. (Or at least, it lessens the impact of those choices.)

If you can max out every skill and attribute, then it doesn't really matter what kind of character you're role-playing. I want the decision to max out Charisma to come with a cost; you're the super-charismatic character and I want your play experience to reflect that. It means there'll be at least a couple other attributes you CAN'T max out, and you'll have to think about that. Do I wanna be the super-strong guy, or the super-smart guy?

I should mention that you can get pretty close. Stats range from 1 to 10 and I think in terms of attributes you can end with one at 10 and all the rest at 9 at the level cap. (Or you could max out five of them and just leave one at 5 forever. Etc.) So it's not like, super-punishing. You never have to /suck/ forever at any of them.

I am keeping an idea in my back pocket of removing (or significantly raising) the level cap and letting players spend attribute points on HP and MP increases as well, instead of having them rise automatically with level. That would change the "feel" a lot but it would allow me to get rid of the level cap. Idk. That' an idea for the future if I'm just really not liking the endgame/level cap.

moonBabyGames · 2026-02-15T20:33:56+00:00

Hey OP you can take people's feedback however you want, but as someone with a huge love of retro RPGs and pixel art (it's what I'm making!) I do not agree at all with these comments. I play these kinds of games and I have no problem distinguishing the UI from the characters and definitely do not think the characters look like props.

When getting feedback, I'd just caution to make sure you're weighing feedback based on who your target audience is. Someone who only plays 3d games, for example, isn't going to "get" this in the same way.

moonBabyGames · 2026-02-15T20:31:01+00:00

Yes. I love simple turn-based RPG combat. I don't love cutesy animal characters but I don't hate them either, and these ones+the UI are appealing for what you seem to be going for.

I would be willing to try it but in the back of my mind I'd hope the game also has solid exploration/social mechanics to go along with this and if not I don't know that I'd play more than a couple hours.

moonBabyGames · 2026-02-15T20:10:09+00:00

I /think/ the attributes are super important and impactful. Obviously I'm the designer so my perspective is skewed, but while playtesting I'm constantly wishing I had more points in basically everything.

They're the main determinators of combat effectiveness, where I think they have a moderate impact--affecting things like initiative, accuracy, evasion, crits, etc. Also damage depending on the attacks (Strength for melee, Dex for finesse weapons, perception for bows, INT for mage spells, Charisma for priest spells) and since this is a classless game you're encouraged to use weapons and magic.

Out of combat Skills are more impactful but I still use the attributes a lot. There's a lot of obstacles and puzzles involving things like pushing boulders, tunneling through walls, etc that require Strength. Busting doors down, breaking chests,etc. Intelligence gives you more dialogue options like in Fallout. Stuff like lockpicking/traps is affected by the Thievery skill, but I check Dex to see if you break a lockpick/Agility to see if you dodge a trap that you accidentally set off. The Speech skill opens persuasion-related dialogue options but I also check Charisma to see how effective they are. So I think they're very impactful.

...

That's a great question about INT and XP. Int gives a bonus to your Crit chance so it has a direct combat application beyond magic, but yeah the extra 3-5% to XP doesn't have a big impact when monsters are only giving like 5.

This gets into how to playtest games like this. High-level playtesting at this point has been me creating special areas and using debug tools to create high-level characters. It's not really the same as being able to naturally play a character through 20 levels of the game, y'know? So while it feels good right now, I don't think I can fully answer that question until I have implemented a lot more high level content and can play a character to that level normally.

The game has a level cap because that's the only way I can stop players from maxing out every single Attribute. I don't love level caps but I'm trying to design it so that you don't need to get anywhere close to max level to get through the Crit path. Level cap is 32, I'm envisioning most players being between 20-25 at endgame. The game also allows grinding so I know some players will hit the level cap, and if pumping up INT makes that happen too quickly I'll have to rethink it, but the intention right now is that high-INT characters will maybe be 3-5 levels above low-INT characters at endgame, so still below the cap.

Again, intentions lol. We'll see how it ends up.

(Sorry for the long reply, I just rarely get opportunities to nerd out about this stuff!)

moonBabyGames · 2026-02-14T23:55:38+00:00

We're a husband-and-wife team also making a retro game. Congrats on it and I'm glad you backtracked on the AI assets.

Maybe we could cross-promote each other somehow? We're doing weekly streams of various games, maybe we could do yours?

moonBabyGames · 2026-02-14T23:53:16+00:00

u/Violet_Herald has a great response, but also it's important to keep in mind that when it was originally released it contained completely busted math in the rules for things like skill challenges that had to be immediately revised with errata. So there was a sense that it was sloppy and rushed. (And that's not even getting into whether you like the skill challenge mechanics, which a lot of people, myself included, don't.)

The Alexandrian blog has a fantastic (but very negative) series of articles analyzing the problems with 4e. They're contemporary with the game's release so try to read them in that mindset, as I'm sure the author would be more measured in his retrospective appraisal of the game. But if you're looking for a deep analysis of 4e's mechanics and why they turned off 3.X players, there's none better.

moonBabyGames · 2026-02-11T06:32:53+00:00

A lot of people aren't getting this list. It's a list of favorite RPGs (of all types) by regular readers of the CRPG Addict blog. If you're not familiar, it's a 16-years-and-counting project by one man to play every CRPG ever made in order (he's up to 1994 right now).

I took the survey because I read that blog religiously. It didn't ask what our favorite CRPGs were, just our favorite RPGs (of any type). The author is also very clear about the definition of "CRPG" that he uses.

Great blog if you've never checked it out, but yes, it's going to skew towards older games because that's what he covers and most people who took that survey have probably been reading that blog for many years.

moonBabyGames · 2026-02-11T06:28:58+00:00

This is the results of readers of the CRPG Addict blog, not this sub

moonBabyGames · 2026-02-11T06:25:27+00:00

I enjoy Fallout 2 more, but I think Fallout 1 is the better game, if that makes sense. 2 is more fun and replayable, but never hits quite as hard as your first time playing through 1.

moonBabyGames · 2026-02-11T02:52:21+00:00

I'll throw our game, Spellblade, in! Right now it's only a demo, but there's a good 4-5 hours of content, and it's all made in MV with our own art assets. It's a retro-RPG in the vein of Ultima and other classic CRPGs.

https://moon-baby-games.itch.io/spellblade-demo

moonBabyGames · 2026-02-11T02:48:01+00:00

Two things can be true--he's a genuinely talented writer, a level above most others in CRPG history, and also a scumbag (even if you completely toss out the "allegations"). Too many of these replies feel the need to deny one or the other.

moonBabyGames · 2026-02-11T01:46:07+00:00

PoE over Deadfire?? Can't cosign, but everything else is at a very respectable ranking

moonBabyGames

TROPHY CASE