Fallout 4: Elder Maxson

Each Brotherhood Chapter or Division is run by an Elder or set of Elders, depending on the size of the organization.  In the Mojave the Brotherhood of Steel (BoS) had a single Elder though it did have a Senior Paladin and Scribe.  When Elder Maxson shows up he has a retinue of Senior staff, though the old way of accounting for job roles seems to have blurred.

In the BoS there are three organizations or groups: Scribes, Knights and Paladins.

Scribes work to record the information of the old world, take in technical documents, do research into documents and generally decide on what information can be used and what must be withheld to safeguard mankind.  Being a Scribe is not a major combat role, though all members of the BoS are trained in combat.  In FO4 this function continues as it was in prior games.

Knights are the rank that actually produce the weapons, armor, ammunition and consumables for the BoS.  These are the engineers and engineering researchers, and their function goes beyond production to refurbishing and maintaining the infrastructure of the BoS in the way of facilities beyond simple supplies.  Knights take in documents from the Scribes and deliver newly found ones to them, although that is a role all members have it is the Knights that tend to get into the nitty-gritty of discovered sites from the old world.  The Knights are major combatants wearing Power Armor for hazardous exploration and while they are not marksmen they are more than capable of holding their own in combat.

Paladins are the highly trained combatants of the BoS.  Their role is to oversee the training of all individuals, ensure that the logistics needs of the Knights are met, and they are the ones that lead missions and patrols, learning how to utilize the strengths of Knights and Scribes to navigate the horrors of newly discovered emplacements.  Paladins are also the enforcers of order in the BoS and the the Senior Paladin is the one who decides which jobs go to which Paladins and they, in turn, apply to Senior Knights and Scribes to get the proper mix of personnel for new missions.  Simple patrols are normally delegated to those needing more combat experience, but for those missions going to really bad places, the input of the Senior members is sought out to protect the personnel going and the BoS as a whole.

Part of the way the BoS operates is through what is known as The Chains That Bind.  This is a chain of command structure in which the Elder consults with Senior members about what needs to be done, and then delegates responsibilities to them.  These Senior members then go to the next rank down and further delegate roles and missions, which, in turn, can also be delegated if that member is granted the authority to do so.  This is an important point in Fallout: New Vegas (FNV) as a plot line for the BoS Mojave Chapter can turn on this very point.  What has happened is that this methodology has been broken by Elder McNamara in directly ordering patrols to get information for him, and did not consult with Senior staff and gave it as a direct order.  Even if he did consult with Senior staff, it is not the role of an Elder, any Elder, to hand out missions to subordinates further down the chain of command than Senior members.  Elder McNamara can be peacefully replaced for violating this axiom of the BoS by Senior Paladin Hardin.

This is a core and non-negotiable part of the BoS: if the organization is to function properly with safeguards, then Elders do not give missions to subordinates directly as that is the role of Senior members.  Lack of coordination, protection and documentation means that BoS members can get killed by not being properly prepared for a mission.  Running the organization as a whole, making sure it works as a whole and safeguarding it as a whole is the primary job of an Elder in the BoS.

In Fallout 4, every single time the Sole Survivor is ordered to do something directly by Elder Maxson, he is violating the core concept of The Chains That Bind.

In fact I thought this was going to be a major plot line for the BoS, because Elder Maxson has violated so much of the Codex (by what we know of it at least) and the Founder's Axioms (what we know of them) that it isn't funny.  The man cannot be reasoned with by an underling and you cannot send complaints up the chain of command, either.  In fact telling a Paladin, like Paladin Danse, that you are getting orders from Elder Maxson directly should get some major response out of him.  Yet the Sole Survivor isn't given that chance.

To bring the Brotherhood Outcasts and the Lyon's Pride BoS together after the death of the last Lyon's family member, would require giving in something to the Outcasts and they should have sticking by the Axioms and Founder's Principles as their major source of contention with the way things were under Lyons.  That is the reason they LEFT to become the Outcasts, after all.  The Chains That Bind are a core part of how the BoS operates and maintains itself so that all parts of the Brotherhood function properly as an organization.  Many things can be given a hand-waving pass, or negotiated, but this direct ordering by an Elder to someone two, three or more ranks down without going through the proper chain of command is a way to get dismissed by a Senior member.  One suspects that the Outcasts actually tried that and were denied the ability to present their case, and thus they walked as the deviations from the very principles that let the BoS survive were being grossly violated in their view.

To get them back in there would need to be a reaffirmation of The Chains That Bind so that any upper level member of the BoS handing out commands to someone not directly under them and skipping a level or two of command could be called on it and dismissed.  When brought on-board the Prydwen Elder Maxson confirms that PC is under Paladin Danse, and this is something that Danse confirms.  Thus the Chain of Command is from Elder Maxson to a Senior Paladin or Danse if he is the Senior Paladin for this contingent sent from DC, although that would mean that Danse wouldn't personally be overseeing the PC.  Thus there is a link in the chain missing as this is what Danse is instructed to do, and that is NOT the job of a Senior Paladin.  So where is the Senior Paladin under Maxson?  Was this position abolished to give Elder Maxson direct say over the Paladins?

The position of Proctor appears as designating a Senior member of the BoS and it is worth considering each in turn.

Proctor Teagan is the man who runs the store on the Prydwen that keeps the troops supplied with food, weapons, armor, mods and chems.  This is typically the position of a Knight as they are the ones who do the scavenging of sites, repair of equipment and production of new items.  This is an important position for logistics, as well, and that is the purview of the Knights.  His armor is appropriate to that of an engineer, and that is also the realm of Knights in the BoS.

Proctor Ingram is in charge of the maintenance bay for Power Armor on the Prydwen, and has the appearance of being an engineer.  That puts her in the Knights of the BoS as this is the repair and maintenance duties which are in control of the Knights.

Proctor Quinlan is in charge of document gathering, organizing research patrols, cataloging of documents and assisting in research on the Prydwen.  These are all duties of a Scribe and he is the Head Scribe on-board the Prydwen.  While this is a high ranking position it is not one of being a Senior Scribe.

Thus what can be derived from this is that the command structure of the Eastern Division varies from the Western Division, which is due to the changes brought about by Elder Lyons.  The old order of Knights now falls directly in the combat section under the Paladins.  All of the logistics, maintenance and other duties that were typically those of Knights has been shifted to the Scribes, which makes the Scribes the most important group in the Eastern Division as seen on the Prydwen.  In fact this may be a necessity due to lack of space on the Prydwen with the emphasis placed on combat more than logistics.

A new branch, that of Lancer, has been formed and it appears to be a separate one that is charged with duties for the Prydwen and Vertibirds.  Thus there is a set of three branches in the Eastern Division as seen on the Prydwen:  Scribes, Paladins and Lancers.

Within the Paladins there is a hierarchy that has a few missing positions.  Under Elder Maxson there is a vacant slot for a Sentinel, then vacancies for Star Paladin, then Paladin-Commander, Paladin, Knight-Commander, Knight-Captain, Knight-Sergeant, and then Knight.

At the bottom ranks for each of these groups are Initiates who are just getting used to being a member of the BoS and then Aspirants who are trying to earn a full position in their groups.

With all of that taken into consideration, is this power structure something that the ex-Outcasts would put up with even for an expedition as seen in FO4?  This is an expedition with a goal and by the standards of the BoS, a worthy goal.  They carry Liberty Prime's parts to help make this a success.  The concept that the abuse of knowledge must be ended is laudable by those standards.  Yet the sacrifices in power structure, checks on authority and over-reach, and adhering to the Founder's Principles and Axioms are ones that must be incorporated for their relevant purposes.  Those are designed to stop unchecked abuse of power by an Elder, and they have a real and important purpose.  As shown Elder Maxson has done away with these checks to power, and taken with him one of the most powerful artifacts of the pre-war era with him.  As players we do not see who the Senior Paladin is that orders are supposed to go through.  Without a Sentinel, Star-Paladin or Paladin-Commander to put a proper chain of command in place, Elder Maxson is free to abuse his power and directly order underlings even those under the tutelage of Paladins instead of going through the proper chain of command.  These are things the ex-Outcasts would rail against and the argument of 'necessity' is one that has been used in the past to cover power grabs in history.

Even if his leadership as Elder is acknowledged by the Western Division, the differences in organization and accountability would still trouble Outcasts.  Varying so far from the way the Brotherhood operates in the West has its limits, and this wholesale change and direct command style is one of the very reasons the Outcasts left in the first place.

Question posed by CD Projekt Red

It's a simple question that the game developers asked of their community and just about everyone and is more or less: "You fire your gun at a human enemy 10 levels higher than you - headshot."

What happens?

As I've discussed before there are level based games and non-level based games, so this question is presuming a level based game mechanic.  Within level based games there are those that either grant  Hit Points at a level up or require serious investment in stats, abilities, powers, etc. to get more of them or otherwise acquire pieces that can act as some sort of armor (DR, DT, Ablative) to protect the Hit Points you have.  What this question brings up in the first instance is the concept of 'Area Hits' and this requires a look at Hit Points (HP).  Pushing back the time envelope to the days of paper and pencil gaming, the concept of Area Hits came into being after some dissatisfaction with the way HPs were utilized in most RPGs way back when in the early 1970's.

RPGs used HPs as a generalized indicator of how much damage a Player Character (PC), Non-Player Character (NPC), monster or fortification could take before it was killed or destroyed.  In level based games PCs and NPCs had HPs based on their class and level, while monsters had differing amounts of HPs based on what they were and how tough they were (as a general rule).  Fortifications, installations and the like tended to have some form of HPs that required either very high level attacks or siege equipment to damage.  There were also critical hits or 'double damage' hits that could either incapacitate a being in some way, or do far more damage to them based on the specialized form of attack scenario involved.  Beyond that were armor piercing attacks that could negate half or more of the armor resistance in a DR or DT system, or reduce the effectiveness of Ablative Armor by that amount when considering incoming damage which means it took that damage and ablated it, but didn't take twice the damage as this was finding a way to negate effectiveness of Ablative Armor against a certain attack.  Critical hits could stun, knock someone back, blind them, disable a limb, sever a limb (depending on severity of the critical based on weapon type and skill levels) or even decapitate.  What you couldn't do was AIM an attack to do that sort of damage: it was a critical hit based on random chance moderated by skill level, weapon and armor types, and even savings throws added in for fun.

Basically some of the first systems utilized HPs in a way that was understood but rarely talked about in that all those HPs aren't necessarily to a body but to combat effectiveness which included evasion, dodging, and some level of exhaustion.  In level based systems this meant how well the PC, NPC or monster could avoid taking damage and that most of the damage taken was slowly wearing someone down during the course of combat so that they lost HPs and the rare 'critical hit' was actually getting through to the opponent's actual body.  What that meant is the HPs a PC or NPC has from levels are layered on top of their first level of HPs, though very few people ever ran campaigns that had those two separated due to the amount of record keeping involved.  Regaining HPs was classically just resting for a period of time to recover from combat, using spells or potions and then continuing on the journey.  In general the headshot wasn't something in the early days of RPGs and in most subsequent games, either.  Without a good aiming mechanic the idea of being able to hit a particular part of a target, known as an Area Hit, was out of the question.

By the late 1970's and early 1980's this started to change as new sub-genres got added into the RPG fold: science fiction, military, post-apocalypse, horror and mixtures of same.  In particular the military and post-apocalypse games started to address this as pistols and rifles can be used to target body parts, thus Area Hits became a factor based on the game system used.  What this meant was that body armor, which had also been generalized to applying to the whole body, now had to be segmented into areas they covered.  With that segmentation of coverage also came the segmentation of HPs which then had to be balanced against applied damage.  Each game that utilized the Area Hits system would also utilized either a generalized 'hit anywhere on target and get a proportionate role to see where the hit landed' for damage or direct aim with penalties against a specific body part (usually limbs and head, with Center of Mass shots being the randomized application but weighted to the torso).

With segmenting HPs came the proportion of HPs and their distribution which each system would arrange in their own fashion.  Typically the torso had the largest share of HPs and this could range between 35% to 75% of overall HPs.  As an example if each leg gets 10% of overall HPs, that accounts for 20% of the HPs, and if each arm gets 7.5% that is another 15%, then give 5% to the head which totals up to 40% and 60% goes to the torso.  Rounding up is allowed just to simplify things, thus a character with 100 HPs has: 10 HP per leg, 8 HP per arm, 5 HP for the head and (taking off one point for rounding up on the arms) 58 HP for the torso.  Now if your average .22lr round fired out of a pistol does single 6-sided die of damage (or 1d6 in the parlance of dice used for RPGs), then there is a chance that a head shot will instantly kill a person with 100 HPs in a 2 in 6 chance.  Now it is possible to say that at 0 HP to the head the person is rendered unconscious and put in a 'bleeding out' state, perhaps draining the damage amount per round from the torso or remaining HPs to represent blood loss.

While there is little respect for the .22lr as a combat round, it must be understood that a head shot from a pistol using .22lr can kill someone in a single hit to the head by going through soft tissue to the brain or by forms of internal bleeding that will put pressure on the brain leading to death in a short term.  This is a first instance of how Area Hits started to work in RPGs but had incredibly complex mechanics as each body part suffered a penalty for aiming at it based on overall percentage of area represented in a typical silhouette for targeting.  The head is a relatively small target compared to the overall body, so that targeting the head suffered some severe minuses when targeting.

All of this is still in the paper and pencil era of gaming utilizing a round-based system for segmenting combat based on other factors.  Still the concept of firing on the run meant it was penalized but would also restrict opponent's movement from cover unless they wanted to take a savings throw against the suppression fire.  Saving an action and letting an opponent move to get an opportunity shot was also something that could be done, and when done from cover and either prone or in a firing stance, it meant bonuses to aiming.  Toss in skill, sight or scope adjustments and whatever else the system would feature and a good first hit at replicating combat came into being for RPGs.

Thus the question from CDPR gains an added level to it as they are asking if Area Hits are a thing, and if they are what are the consequences?

Now to the other part of the headshot equation which is armor.  What is poorly understood about  head armor, is that it must leave some capacity for an individual to use their primary senses of sight and hearing.  Early examples of historical head armor typically either were on just the crown of the head and didn't try to address the neck and other parts of the face.  Later forms (and this is seen in Bronze Age pieces) would go much further down, feature ear openings and even a piece over the nose or nose and cheeks.  These pieces would not fare well against primary strikes from an opponent with a sword or an arrow in a well placed strike against the head.  It might be somewhat useful against sling stones and be effective at warding of glancing blows that had been deflected either by skill or a shield (or the opponent just barely hitting while dodging an attack). 

Later eras would try to protect nearly everything and leave slits of various forms for eye openings, but then individuals would suffer penalties in situational awareness when there was more than a single opponent in front or near them.  While not a bad thing for mounted combat, in dismounted combat this sort of restriction to sight and hearing could have fatal consequences.  Still battlefields were messy scrums and protecting against errant blows and glancing blows was still desired.  These later helmets can and did offer protection against main attacks from many types of weapons, which is why they were used and that also explains the wide varieties of styles of them which tried to address the type of combat they were made for.

For a time in the era of firearms, head armor became ornamental or absent, right up to the point when shrapnel was introduced by explosive cannon balls, grenades and mines.  WWI started with no real head armor by any side, but the number of men dying or incapacitated due to concussion and shrapnel soon brought back head armor to thwart that.  Some of the best coverage offered protection from the rear and even was formed to have rain drip out to the sides or further away from the neck while protecting the neck.  In the modern era this function hasn't changed much save to move to laminates replacing metal. A helmet's main function is still that for lessening concussion, deflecting or absorbing shrapnel and generally protecting the head from the environment.  A rifle shot will penetrate it, and even a close range pistol shot will do so to most helmets since it is hard to build up enough protection via layers to absorb the kinetic energy of the projectile to cause it to fragment without transmitting that exact, same energy to the head and thus the brain.

So if hitting an individual with that same .22lr for 1d6 of damage and a helmet has a DT  3, then there is a no chance for either bleed out shot or instant kill, but a 50/50 chance of doing damage if the shot hits the helmet.  Shots that hit but not in the helmet have the prior percentages and damage applied.  Also note that this is now sliding into the real world and brings into question game dynamics when associated with real world events.  Are there instances where helmets have actually stopped major damage?  Yes.  There are also instances where individuals have survived headshots by having a round pass through their helmet, through their skull, through their brain, exit out the rear of the skull and punch through the helmet.  Are these instances damned rare?  Yup.  Should you rely on luck to hope that this is what will happen if you are wearing such stuff?  Probably not.

Part of the major problem with segmented body armor in modern games is that the HPs are not also segmented and allow for real world damage to take place.  Take a game like Fallout 4 where you can target a head in VATS with a heavy damage output weapon, say a Gauss Rifle that has been fully upgraded, and each hit is applied to the entire number of HPs of the individual instead of blowing their head clear off.  With fully upgraded skills to back up such a weapon, its overall damage output is in the 500 to 600 range of damage.  If an opponent has, say, 1200 HP (a higher level Deathclaw, say) and only 10% were in the head that would mean they have 120 HP in the head.  Now you won't be doing full damage unless you are lucky or score a critical hit and in either case the opponent does have some DR so that is factored in. But even at 20% damage applied to a max 600 damage output weapon should yield a one hit kill as that is also a load of kinetic damage applied to the braincase.  At lower ranges a double barrel shotgun blast to a relatively low level opponent will not kill them after using both barrels at point blank range.  Thus the enemies in Fallout 4 are damage sponges meant to take many, many rounds even to the most critical part of their body and keep on coming.  Basically area hits only matter against opponents that can lose a limb or a head and die, typically ghouls though they have spongy heads, and some forms of robot that can adjust to missing limbs.

The answer to the question on headshots is: what type of game are you trying to run?

Is it a power fantasy system?  Then, no, the headshot won't kill and you will have spongy enemies.

Are area hits being implemented?  If no then a critical hit system may be implemented to offer a 'lucky' incapacitating or one hit kill shot, but it is all luck.

If area hits are being implemented then are you also implementing segmented damage per area of the body being considered?  If no then see the prior answer.  If yes then in all likelihood a shot from even a relatively low power projectile can kill someone.  Anyone who scoffs at .22lr shots to the head has yet to volunteer to take one and demonstrate the effects of a relatively high velocity but low applied force projectile to their own head across a small surface area.  Why?  Because you would be committing a form of suicide and most people just aren't up for that.  This isn't even in Dirty Harry territory with a .44Mag, just a simple plinking pistol used mostly to shoot tin cans, bottles and varmints of the rodentia variety.

And in level based games, if only a small percentage of HPs are in the head, then a guy 10 levels higher still won't have many HPs in the head, and the actual number garnered per level is important at that point as a game balance issue.  The fragility of the head, however, is paramount in considering damage applied to it as the brain and major sensory organs for sight, hearing, smell and taste are all centralized in the head.  Further the head has openings for nerve bundles from these senses to go into the brain.  Those playing contact sports can attest to the problems of long term damage to the brain, like in boxing where the damage can be enough to knock an individual unconscious, but even barring that the long term number of impacts to the head will have an effect on reasoning and cognition.  An Area Hits system with segmented armor and segmented HPs then is offering a level of 'realism' for 'immersion', and if you want that to be present in the game then a headshot can and indeed should be lethal.  This is circumstantial as such shots rely on type of force applied (piercing, blunt, kinetic projectile, etc.) and the specific type of effect such damage applies.  A headshot with a sword not mitigated by armor can still have negative effects on an individual.  A blunt trauma instrument like a lead pipe may do enough to knock someone out, but also have a chance for internal bleeding. Specialized attacks that are not thwarted by armor typically have a different game mechanic applied to them and are a separate consideration based on the game type with an example being certain mental or disorienting attacks via mystical, magical or technological means.

Should a well placed .22lr shot take out someone 10 levels higher?  There is no simple answer to that as it presumes a level based system with accruing HPs over time.  This is a problem CDPR has had in the Witcher 3 where all those HPs require better combat gear in the way of armor and weapons as the opponents are outputting more damage, as well.  To keep from making a game a scavenger hunt, why not disconnect HPs from levels, and keep levels to things like acquiring skills that can enhance use of weapons but doesn't change the actual physics of the weapons themselves?  Getting a better chance to hit, a faster reload or even being able to control one's emotions to steady their hands and concentrate are sure great things to have when using a firearm or any weapon, come to think about it.  If base HPs are relatively static that means that weapons and armor can also be made static, though the use of them can become very ingenious.  If this sort of thing is implemented then segmented HPs will allow for even low level individuals to take out higher level ones.  That is how Samuel Colt was able to make men equal, and that weapon is still just as lethal today as when it was first designed.  That goes for all arms since no matter how tough people get, they still have the same physiology and physics applied to them as when the weapon was designed.  Physiological differences for things like cyborgs or robots require game mechanics and game balancing, yet the eye must be kept on the physical world for what these changes will actually do: no benefit is accrued without some form of drawback to it.

I don't know exactly what CD Projekt Red is going to do in the way or 'realism' or 'immersion' but if you want something that has a relatively accurate mirror in real life with its consequences, then the entire set of combat mechanics or elements must revolve around what actually happens when a headshot is landed.  Not all blows are lethal and blows meant to stun, like those in boxing, would require an integrated stunning mechanic that factors in recovery and training, while those utilizing physical projectiles would do far less stunning damage and more immediate damage for impairment and possibly sudden death.  A more static HP system and a grounded base of equipment with weapons means not having to search for marginally better equipment to continue going after marginally more spongy foes and puts the ball in the court of RPG game play and mechanics that don't rely on scavenger hunts.  More meaningful quests and less searching for what are minor upgrades means more role playing and tougher decisions, and that requires a very deep set of stories, individuals, society, groups, factions and their reactions to everything that a player is known to be doing.  Move ingenuity on the part of the player to the forefront and create a stable combat set of elements that play well to role playing while not distracting from the actual stories unfolding, which means fewer busy-work quests to just be a little better in combat and concentrate on all that other stuff that makes role playing games unique.

Fallout 4: Singular Lore Problem - Red Workbench

Fallout 4 has a number of lore based problems, which I've covered in summary form elsewhere.  As the title says there is one with the red workbench used to scrap and create materials inside a 'settlement' area.  If you try to write fiction in the Fallout universe it is necessary to explain discrepancies and lore problems to ensure the setting conforms to the game world, and that is particularly difficult for Fallout 4.  As the red workbench is recognized by in game Non-Player Characters (NPC) at a couple of sites, it is necessary to then explain the background of them as they are something that exists in the game world.  The problem is that they didn't exist before the Great War.

Consider that entry scene where you are running out of your house to go to Vault 111, and take a quick look across the street at the house there, particularly its carport, and notice that not only is the red workbench not there, but the other workbenches for power armor, weapons and armor are also absent.  They are present when you arrive over two centuries later, but they aren't there on the day the bombs fell.  This brings up an important question: just when, exactly, were these put in place?

Codsworth, for all the dings and oxidation going on with his outer shell, would surely have noticed a delivery van pulling up right after everyone left.  Now it can be posited that he had some negative effects to the localized EMP of the bomb or bombs dropped south of Boston, and that a restart cycle took some time for him to get up and operational again.  Still his memories of just before the war seem to be relatively intact and the presence of objects that patently weren't there in those last moments would be something he should recognize.  So that is a problem, though a minor one.  Yet that means that the delivery or construction of those workbenches happened in that short period of time: the day that the cars generally became inoperable and the shockwave of the blast(s) were felt even in Sanctuary Hills.  The infrastructure went down, the roads were clogged with wrecks, and the survivors were starting to fight over scraps for survival.  Plus the ghoulification of many people now put an additional threat into the mix, and that would also hamper any attempts to deliver those workbenches.

With regards to lore, there are no indicators as to which company made the workbenches, particularly the magical red workbench.  As a game mechanic the player can just slap down anything that is available to be made from it and it instantly appears.   Even including magic this requires a very high level of material manipulation in the finest of details, particularly for making things like the machinegun turrets.  Machineguns require tempered steel, properly made and tuned barrels, and a set of small springs, mechanical catches, pieces to eject cartridges and, in general, a raft of parts that require forging and machining to fit into place.  This is not to speak of the ammunition that they use, which is also made with them and never needs to be replenished.  This is before the automatic sensing mechanisms and Identify Friend or Foe system for circuitry is put in place, and that is something we can't do today.  Fallout 4 is a strange place in its alternate reality, but it still relies on some basic physical mechanics and principles that don't change just because the time line has.

What this means is that the red workbench comes pre-loaded with diagrams, schematics and internal workings to forge parts, reprogram circuitry, and then assemble a working piece near instantly right before your very eyes.  This isn't an IKEA kit that requires you to unbox it and put it together yourself, but something taken care of by the red workbench.  By doing so and having a system of matter storage that isn't internal (or anywhere come to that) the red workbench becomes the single most sophisticated piece of equipment in the Fallout universe, even including the Zetan ships.  Those aliens can do some dematerialization and rematerialization, but only like the transporter from Star Trek, and it reassembles stuff just as it was.  The red workbench works through some other means as there is no beam coming from it to the materialization site for a finished piece, but it just instantly appears.  Instantaneous appearance at a distance requires quantum mechanics to operate and that is where the red workbench fits, even with magic included in the mix.

This then begs the question: who made it?

Did the Zetans decide to drop a number of these in the Commonwealth for reasons of their own?  Well, if they had that sort of technology they wouldn't need large ships to galavant around the universe but just use quantum mechanics to get where they want to go.  Plus they wouldn't be so backward in other areas of the sciences to keep needing new biiomaterial to study.  If they had this technology there is a good possibility they wouldn't even bother to physically go to other star systems, and thus they are ruled out of the mix.  They don't employ, deploy or use anything like this and if they did it would have all sorts of fun things they require that we don't as their basic construction system.  Plus it obviously has some interactivity with the Pip-Boy, allowing for materials you are carrying as a Player Character (PC) to be instantly moved into the workshop system, and that wouldn't be something the Zetans would ever bother with.  Positing a 'we stole it from them and repurposed it' forgets that the Zetans don't have this technology in the first place, so it is ruled out by that.  So the Zetans get scratched off the list.

How about RobCo, the company that Robert House formed?  Now this brings up possibilities as the Pip-Boy is made by them and must be included in the mix.  Unless a highly sophisticated scanning and sorting routine is applied by the red workbench to the PC to figure out what they are carrying, the only other way to do that is through the system that is already doing that in the way of the Pip-Boy.  It is easier to use that system to hook it into the red workbench rather than posit a scanning system and the general non-use of the workbench by NPCs.  There is no animation for an NPC to use the red workbench and no NPC is ever seen materializing something out of thin air that could only be made by the red workbench.  No one would live on heaps of garbage if there was a means to convert it to useful materials and spare parts as that stuff is just too valuable to leave as litter.  This would make any place that has one tend to be litter and scavenger free since it only takes a few hours to do the clean-up work.  So many settlement sites live with useful materials in the way of garbage just sitting around that it makes no sense that they wouldn't use the workbench if they knew how to use it.  And when the PC is granted license to use one by an NPC for a settlement, it is more in the way of 'good luck if you can get it to work' than anything like a real and sincere grant of power.  The only difference between the PC and NPCs?  The Pip-Boy.

So RobCo gets put into the running as they were the pre-war masters of robotics, engineering and were even getting into space flight.  Plus they provided much in the way of equipment to Vault-Tec that it cannot be ruled out of the equation.  But for all of their prowess, this sort of design really isn't in their ballpark.  A company that begins to fit this bill is General Atomics as they also designed robots and concentrated on long-term power systems for government, commercial and private use.  General Atomics supplied generators to Vaults for Vault-Tec and even had a few Mr. Handy style of robots put in a few of them.  While the original programming basis for the Mr. Handy was designed before RobCo got in the picture, the fact is that the programming interface if not the code itself was moved over to RobCo Termlink Code as Mr. Handy robots can be hacked using the same tools made for RobCo robots.  The Gutsy line of Mr. Handy robots was a first instance of cooperation between the two companies and the Robobrain robot would continue that cooperation.  This joint venture style of production would promote both companies and be profitable to them, which meant a more fluid working environment in Vaults since General Atomics equipment would use RobCo based interfaces.  The power production end of General Atomics would be well suited to making the red workbench seen in FO4 and even provide it with an easy to access interface for anyone with a Pip-Boy.  What is lacking is the matter storage and re-arrangement concept for construction, and that starts to become the singular point in which neither company is demonstrated as having a footing.

After these two powerhouses there are some outliers like Wattz Consumer Electronics, though they tended to be more in the home delivery of goods and construction of plasma weapons as small arms.  Dunwich LLC may have an eldritch link, though that isn't very amenable to being regularized, systematized and put into the form of the red workbench.  House & House tools didn't have this as a specialty and once brought into the RobCo fold there was no massive change to the way RobCo operated.  What other links are there for the red workbench, then?

In the Vault-Tec DLC for FO4 we do get to see that an industrial form of workbench system was delivered to the construction crew at Vault 88.  As Vault 88 didn't get past initial construction phases due to bureaucratic problems, the PC is allowed to find and reactivate the integrated workbench system though they are much larger devices than the ones seen on the surface of FO4.  Here is a direct link with Vault-Tec actually able to get such equipment which was supposed to be used to speed up Vault construction.  If the war hadn't happened then the creation of Vault 88, at least the construction end of it, should go very quickly and it doesn't take long for the player to construct a basic vault in more than a few game days.  Yet nowhere is it hinted that Vault-Tec actually made these devices, and if they had been common pre-war then there is a very good chance that the entire industrial basis for the US economy would have radically altered in just a few years.  Gone would be the large factories as smaller production facilities and even home workbench units would begin to supplant the old industrial sector in the US economy.  That didn't happen, thus what is seen in FO4 in the Vault-Tec DLC is a large scale prototype system, not ready for wider use outside of the Vault.  Still it has all the plans that the exterior workbenches have without having a ready system to transmit nor receive them that means they are stored in a portable system that then gives an interface and structure to the workbenches.  That is the Pip-Boy, and the first time a workbench is used it's local plans synch up with it so that later plans can then be loaded into it.  Each of the DLCs have different post-war construction plans and there are even expanded plans available from the smaller workshop style DLCs.  The workbench is a tool, then, and its guidance system is governed externally outside of hand use of tools that can be seen on the workbench.

Is there anywhere that has similar technology to this?  Matter teleportation is seen being used by The Institute, Zetans and Big MT.  If the first two are ruled out that leaves the last one, the Big Brains at Big MT.  While it is a private concern, it is also one that worked with the government, military and other businesses and there is even a bit of envy towards what Vault-Tec was doing.  That and the spore creatures seen at Big MT show some link with the ones seen in one of the Vaults in Fallout: New Vegas.  So would they create such devices?  Here is an attitude taken by Borous, part of the Think Tank at Big MT: "Whether it was holograms, NEW Auto-Docs, toxins, vending machines... we wound them up, let them go into TINY ISOLATED TOWNS. Then... we OBSERVED!"

Now the Commonwealth is no tiny isolated town, to be sure, but there is the post-war delivery problem to be added into the mix.  As we do not know exactly when they were delivered and have a window of time from the Great War to the Sole Survivor getting out of Vault 111, there is a lot to play with in the way of possibilities.  Big MT was more or less off-line for a time after the Great War and then suffered some internal problems as the outside world started to try and creep into their holdfast crater.  With exposure to the outside world Dr. Mobius then performed a memory wipe on his colleagues, installed some inhibitions and fears, then went to the Forbidden Zone to keep their paranoia up so they would become obsessed with him.  That was before the start of FNV by a year or two, and would overlap the Fallout 3 period.  As the Think Tank didn't realize the outside world survived until after the Courier arrived there and settled matters, that then puts in a time-frame of post-Courier and Sole Survivor leaving the Vault.  FNV starts in 2281 and FO4 starts in 2287, and after putting in a good year to finish FNV for the Courier, that then closes the window to between 2282 and 2287.

Is it possible that Big MT made the workbench system for Vault-Tec?  Yes, it is as part of their outreach to that company.  It would make a lovely opportunity to do some social experiments, so that is a prime consideration.  Offering faster Vault construction technology would be just the ticket to those sorts of experiments.

Did Big MT like to create new things to send out into the world and see what they would do?  Yes, they did.

Does Big MT have a demonstrated system of matter teleportation?  In the way of the transportalponder, yes they do.

Could the Courier get between the Mojave and the Commonwealth in less than 5 years to then have these workbenches delivered to various sites?  That is not impossible.

This then eliminates the Who, What, Where, When and How portions of the problem, and that leaves only the 'Why?' portion.  This is, perhaps, the easiest of the questions having the ability to teleport people and equipment would also mean having the sensory apparatus to see if any similar system is being used.  Such systems utilize a large amount of energy and that use can be tracked down, just like the Brotherhood of Steel was doing in FO4.  Anyone using this sort of technology would be of great interest to Big MT, and finding out if that source were friendly or hostile would be a prime concern.  The Courier could be delivered close to the off-loading zone for Vault 88, which would have been above the surface, and then need to survive some raider attacks to then look around for appropriate spots to place down workbenches.  By the end of Old World Blues the Courier has the technology to shut down and restart robots at close range and should have enough general persuasive ability to get agreement to put down a workbench in some small settlements.  Also for those places that seem deserted it would be very easy to put a workbench down, which would explain why so many of them are in places that aren't inhabited.

The Courier would have left no real, lasting impression on much of anyone as the Commonwealth is far away from the Mojave and the main thing that the Think Tank would desire would be observation of what happened next.  Additionally the red workbenches may have other technology built into them to track where the teleportation signals are coming from to then try and figure out who is using this technology. When the Sole Survivor arrives and starts to utilize the main functional systems of the workbenches, then that would also be tracked as well as what the goodies that were programmed into were used for.  By putting a Pip-Boy interface as a hurdle was a means to limit the use of such technology to those who had some technical background from a Vault, plus would allow the Courier to utilize them on an as-needed basis for creating other goods.  With a final set of known points the Courier could then travel to each workbench site to take stock of its placement and gain an understanding of what was happening there, although that might be very rare as there are a lot of loose ends to tie up in the Mojave.

As there is no lore behind the Red Workbench and its powers, it is left up to the players to figure it out on their lonesome.  Good luck with that, I tellya!

The Witcher 3: The Ugly - Player Agency

What is Player Agency?  In an RPG this is the mechanic that allows the Player Character (PC) to make long-lasting decisions with ramifications not just in speech options but to building out skills, abilities, improving stats and equipment that will then change how NPCs and the game world react to them.  In The Witcher 3 (TW3), there is an illusion of Player Agency in that individual quests or decisions will have some different long-term outcomes, but that is limited to those directly involved in that quest line.  Thus saving the life of someone may get thanks or disdain from a loved one later on, but no word about that spreads beyond that quest.  In other words there is no general reputation system guiding the factions within the game world, no word of mouth that spreads faster than the Witcher can travel and generally nothing that gets larger world recognition within the game based on the decisions made.  There are a couple of exceptions to this, as the main plot centers on this and a sub-plot side-quest to remove the Redanian King both have such ramifications.  The first cannot be failed and the second only fails by not doing it at all, which means little room for actual role-playing is available in that quest.

An example of the lack of choices are seen in the large number of bandits, deserters and pirates that are instantly hostile to Geralt and simply seek to kill him.  There are a few instances where getting rid of these individuals may 'liberate' a site so that those chased off from them will return to it, but that does not go beyond the individual site.  The rulers of that area (or proxy rulers) do not hear of this sort of thing and word doesn't spread to nearby friendly places that indicate that their general feelings for Witchers is being modified for this individual.  A few quests with ramifications is not a framework for changing how factions view the PC and then react to what the PC does.  Rescue a small military unit and word doesn't spread amongst the fellow soldiers about it.  Help out a village with a monster and word doesn't spread about it.  Refuse payment because you are moved by the bad straights of those offering to pay for the quest, and that word doesn't spread, either.

On the flip side it isn't possible to join any of the rogue bands and help them to help themselves.  Consider that most of the game play takes place in a region where the terrain has bogged down proper military operations and a war of attrition has started up, with the diseases and insects of the terrain just as much, if not more of a threat to the two armies than the actual haphazard fighting.  There are many camps of bandits, deserters and pirates that add to the problems of the locals and the military on both sides, thus someone able to demonstrate some base leadership ability and organizational skills could prove more than just a nasty sideshow to an already miserable war theater.  Two armies would just love to get out of this mess in the swamp lands of Velen, but that will require a great logistical build-up now that both sides have exhausted their immediate supplies in the last attempt at a breakout.  In short, this lull and no-man's land affair is ripe for a force for change and that is the usual role of the PC in most games, no matter what the over-arching quest line is about.  Even a moderate reinforcement of local communities could tip the balance of power in this interim period.  Many small decisions of who to help and how to help them could and should have long-lasting effects in terms of the game timeframe.

That is Player Agency at the Theater level of military operations, and while most players will not see Geralt as having a stake in this, his very actions in and of themselves might begin tipping that balance in this Theater of war.  In fact this Theater would actually have a profound impact on the Strategic level of military operations, so changing the tide in the Theater might just change the tide of the overall war OUTSIDE of the main quest line.  Logistics is king in warfare, and the swampy lands of Velen are hell on logistics, supply, maintenance and medical practitioners.

The central city in the game is Novigrad which remains studiously neutral in the war between the Nilfgaardian and Redanian Empires.  It is, in medieval terms, an 'open city' although nominally reinforced by a side, it is not closed to either side and is independent in its operations.  Of course it isn't that simple as such cities tend to be highly prosperous ones that seek to avoid the war as it is bad for trade.  Novigrad has the largest fleet  around and the coffers to outfit 2 complete armies, so it is a capable neutrality that neither side wishes to antagonize.  While nominally in Redanian territory it houses the Church of the Eternal Fire and Witch Hunters, who seek to wipe out mages, sorceresses, herbalists, pellars and anyone even faintly related to magic.  When Geralt arrives this pogrom is in full swing and the start of anti-human sentiment is starting up.  This city offers one hint of a quest line that must have been scotched by the developers as it would require some in-depth RPG mechanics in a game only featuring a few RPG elements.  It is one that is hinted at by the King of Beggars: uniting the criminal factions to remove the Church and its Witch Hunters to attempt to bring some rationality back to the way the city is run.

Hearing this, as a player, brought a smile to my face as, surely, this must be the largest secondary quest in the entire game: swing the city of Novigrad to being completely neutral and even expand its trade by allowing magic users and others to freely practice their trades, which are taxable.  When corruption sets into government then that government starts to operate more as a criminal faction, one powerful enough to get rid of the regular criminals, and that is a threat to those normal crime factions.  The Mafia sided with the Allies against Mussolini in Sicily, a concept which would fit in with what is seen of the Church of the Eternal Fire becoming dealers in addictive drugs, extortion and other assorted criminal enterprises.  This must surely be a tense story line of Geralt serving as go-between so that the criminal faction heads might be brought around to usurping control and restoring standard civil government that enforces laws. 

Why?  Criminals who operate as government have corrupted moral standards and that makes the clear line between what is legal and illegal hazy, and just turns the government into a true criminal enterprise.  With there being no immorality, enforcing laws becomes a secondary concern to taking as much in the way of goods and cash from those under the rulers.  A return to 'sanity' as the King of Beggars puts it, requires there to be a sharp dividing line of morality so that normal criminal operations aren't put out of business by those associated with the government who use the power of government to wipe out the normal criminals.  Having moral standards and increased trade means higher prices can be charged for everything, and that includes criminal operations: a corrupt government is bad for criminals especially when the morals it is pushing are bad for business.

Consider the implications in the main quest line to having Novigrad cleaned up by the criminals so that they can properly operate: all the stuff about getting Dandelion out to learn about Ciri would come at the end of that quest.  Plus with restored civic order, Novigrad could actually start hiring mercenaries and forming up a local militia: it has the cash to do so and there are a lot of disgruntled deserters who would like to operate in a normal environment and not have a price on their heads.  Say, what was that about helping the bandit scum in Velen that neighbors Novigrad, again?  If TW3 was an RPG first, with RPG game mechanics fully working, then a small powerbase in Velen could be grafted to Novigrad and serve as a local counter-balance to the two military organizations.  Neutral trade would expand and both sides could depend on it, so long as they didn't move on it.  Either side might seek to take Novigrad, but that would move the other to aid it, immediately, due to the personal way both Rulers operate.  There is an example of such an influential City State with expanded territory in Kovir, and Novigrad would be set to pull off something similar with a cross-agreement between a semi-unified group of deserters, bandits and pirates willing to fall under rule of a wealthy City State to better arm and protect themselves against the two hostile armies.

Finally there is the conspiracy to remove the Redanian King as he is quite mad and destroying the very infrastructure that allowed Redania to become powerful in the first place.  That conspiracy is led by the ex-head of Intelligence for Redania under its prior ruler, and he is now one of the criminal bosses in Novigrad.  To me this entire concept hinted at by the King of Beggars seems to have been set up with the idea of turning the tide of the entire war just to solve the quest line Geralt is on.  With a mob boss turned Emperor, and the other bosses running Novigrad to bring back sanity and profitability, plus remove government as a competitor, the entire end game of the war is written out there, but lacks a good quest line for it.  This is where Theater level changes can have Strategic importance, and it all starts with one man on a mission that isn't to actually do that.  This would, indeed, be an optional side-quest though it would branch out very quickly to consume a major portion of the game.

If that covers the Theater and Strategic levels of Player Agency, then there is only the Tactical side left.  Here is the stuff of the actual gameplay: the decisions made, the way combat is handled and the general flow of the game.  Combat elements are a way to implement parts of the RPG structure, yet this is sorely lacking in TW3 where combat mechanics take precedence and then the game designers tinker with that to remove some key aspects of Player Agency leading up to combat.  An example of this is going into a house being ransacked by 'creditors' (just plain thieves at that point) and the end of the discussion line gets Geralt thrown into a fistfight.  This is not unusual.  And fistfights are sprung on the PC and many of them operate so as to remove all the player decisions leading up to it on a tactical level.  Take a long-lasting decoction before going into the cutscene and then being thrown into a fistfight?  Sorry, mate, but the game designers wiped that from the slate as they did all the other decisions you made to keep your health up.  The player is repeatedly urged to 'prepare for battle' and then has those preparations wiped out by the whim of the game designers.  That is a slap to the face of the player: sorry, we want this fight to be artificially hard so you can fail it, so just get used to it.  Or, in other words: we lied to you and you believed us, sucker.

Say isn't that steel sword for humans and such?  When someone threatens your life and they have brought fists to a sword wielding Witcher, why is Geralt stuck using his fists?  There is only a code duello in Toussaint, not the dark alleys and bars of Novigrad.  Oh and you can't use any Witcher Signs, either, because, you know, REASONS that game designers refuse to explain to you about what is proper and improper fighting when someone wants to beat you up.  And here I thought that the illiterate cut-throats and thieves didn't operate by such rules.  Silly me.

In fact after any cutscene you had better take a quick moment to see what the designers decided to do to your PC while the cinematics were running, since there are some actual BATTLES where this is done as well.  Yeah, effects that should last for a few hours in the game and do so normally during normal game play get wiped out in a few minutes because, you know, REASONS.  Prepare for battle, sucker, and we'll just wipe those out for you when we want to for 'dramatic tension'.

That is the most base sort of Tactical Player Agency: controlling what your PC does, what is worn, what equipment is used and what other effects that act normally are put in place.  Whenever a game designer decides to overrule the player, then Player Agency is lost.  This happened so many times in TW3 that I lost count, and it left a long and bitter taste in my mouth as a player who is used to game designers in RPG, even those RPGs with only some nominal elements in it, respecting the actions of the player.  Especially when the player is specifically told to prepare ahead of time for combat.  No game designer of a putative RPG should ever do that. And for this alone the classification of 'Action RPG' starts to turn into 'Action Visual Novel with a few RPG elements here and there'.

I can still give The Witcher 3 a recommendation for playing, but it is with the steep proviso that Player Agency isn't respected on designer whimsy.  If the generally linear story with choke-point decisions are a few good RPG elements, not respecting actual player choice on a tactical level indicates a lack of an RPG framework or even just respecting basic, common sense when preparing for a situation.  It is one thing to not prepare properly and live with the consequences, it is another to have the entire set of preparations thrown out and the rules changed without notice due to game design that you get no warning about.  I'll make no bones about The Witcher 3 being a good, if not great experience, but it is not a wholehearted support of the entire player experience.  This didn't have to be done in this manner to get dramatic scenes, and the abuse of this mechanic so frequently is a major negative to the whole experience to myself as a gamer.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - A newcomer's perspective

Up front admission: I am not invested in the Witcher game series or books.  Thus take what criticism as you may, knowing that little nugget at the get-go.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and its Expansions were bought as a low price bundle as I'd spent more on games I didn't end up liking all that much, and as there was so much community talking about it being an RPG (Role Playing Game) field changing entry, I figured that I might as well give it a shot.  That said I also understood that I get to play one main character (with a bit of time spent with another character here and there) and that one role is Geralt of Rivia, a Witcher.  A Witcher is a monster hunter and the game is quite pointed in showing that not all monsters are non-human and not all monsters are horrible.  A truly pleasant change from the norm of gaming, that.

Witchers are mutated humans dealing with creatures after a cosmic Conjunction of the Spheres took place long before the game's setting 500 years ago.  Basically creatures and being from other universes came to invade a world that had existing races of Elves, Dwarves and Halflings, and creatures that were considered natural to that world.  The Conjunction of the Spheres appears to be an event that happens periodically, though not regularly, since you can't set your calendar by it.  This magical event may have brought humans to the world, though no one is particularly clear on that.  This is a world in which magic takes certain forms and people have had to learn these forms as they manifested after the Conjunction.  It is clear that there is some form of power behind magic and that magical abilities can not only be learned but they can manifest in certain blood-lines of families, Places of Power which continually regenerate themselves with a form of pure magic, and that certain places are generally graced with magic somewhat more powerfully than is the norm throughout the rest of the world.  Magic is a manifestation of universal power of some sort, yet it can be tapped not just by conscious will but by devices, items and artifacts as well.  The Conjunction was a magical event, then, that allowed worlds from different universes or dimensions to conjoin with the world of game play, and beings from those different worlds were able to migrate to this world and, presumably, the reverse is also true.

To counter the post-conjunction creatures, mages sought to understand the basis for their general forms and then concoct a type of mutagen that would change a select few humans into beings with a tougher physiology and have some natural magical abilities.  Boys prove to be the ones most able to survive this process, and getting to a success rate of even 30% took decades of trial and error, and it must be noted that those who did not succeed were either died from the ordeal, were crippled or mentally unable to function.  With the way to train boys to withstand this process, the Witcher schools developed as the world had many creatures and little means for even the best of mages to deal with them.  This can be considered a re-ordering of a boy's genes which then express themselves by changing the body, the mind, and to allow access to a few particular Witcher Signs that are natural to use.in the way of magic.  The total body transformation leaves the Witcher human in form, but greatly enhances their strength, reflexes, vision, hearing, and all other internal aspects of their body including widening what can be ingested.  Most obvious and telling to this is the change in eyes to those of a feline, and are a tell-tale of a Witcher.

Witchers and those who practice magic deeply via training are sterile: that is just part of the sacrifice to gaining such power.  While those seeking to use magic faced their own trials did so willingly, few others were willing to send boys to the Witcher schools, although that could happen as a payment for a contract to take out a threat from a creature or creatures, The Law of Surprise could be invoked by the Witcher taking the job and this would tend to yield up a boy who would then go to the Witcher school.  Geralt of Rivia did this once and got a girl of the Elder Blood, part of a lineage of those wielding great innate power and prophesied to have one that will end the Power of the Frost to overtake the world but at her own sacrifice.  Ciri was part of that dying lineage and all Geralt knew how to do was being a Witcher...and so Ciri trained with the few Witchers remaining at the School of the Wolf in Kaer Mohren, the last known Witcher School. Kaer Mohren had succumbed to the hatred, bigotry and fear of others who demolished most of the outer works and killed off all who were there driven to do so with assassins in tow.  Only those on the Path were left, and one of the trainers survived by faking his own death, such is the power of a Witcher over his body.  The world outside had come to feel that the advances in military prowess and weapons would be a match for the post-conjunction creatures, and the day of the Witcher was drawing to a close.

The greater world is one that is on the cusp of firearms, but not there just yet.  In fact for all the greater ability to make better weapons, the need for magic to be part of that process may actually curb the development of such weapons: it may be that the hand bombs or grenade style weapons might be it, though rockets would not be out of the question given the technology around the setting for the game play and their use as fireworks.  Yet there are creatures immune even to these things, and a few that cannot be killed save by their own kind in a permanent fashion.  The few Witchers that returned to the School of the Wolf coalesced to some degree around the old instructor and the young girl who was coming into her own powers far different than those of Witchers.  She also would have training from Geralt's friend and lover, the sorceress Yennefer of Vengerberg and later with the sorceress Triss Merigold of Maribor:  Yennefer took on a figure of a mother while Triss took on that of a big sister, and both were sorceresses capable of creating and retaining youthful beauty for decades if not a century or more, though neither could have children.  Ciri is wanted by many: some to kill her, others to use her for political purposes, others to control her powers for their own ends and the few around her that just want her to have her own life and they will go through everything and anything for that.

The game starts with Ciri missing and Geralt only being informed by a vague letter from Yennefer who wants to meet up with him.  Vesemir  (the one who survived the destruction of the school) is with Geralt as they track down Yennefer and enter the starting play area of White Orchard.  Geralt as a Witcher has his two main weapons, a silver sword for monsters and a steel sword for everyone else, plus some basic armor and a few potions that are toxic even to him and lethal to most humans.  He has basic Witcher Signs that he can cast and they are limited in scope though can gain in power and function with investment of skill points.  Coming in the player has choices to make and must learn the game world and the modest dialogue system: do not expect a rich dialogue system with many choices as the game offers only one character with a known background, limited skill and abilities set, plus some other features like reading books to get background information or purchasing (or finding) crafting diagrams so that smiths can make up new equipment for Geralt.  And there is a handy part of having background information on creatures and people kept in a catalog for the player, so if you need to get some background you just have to pull up those screens while the game auto-pauses.  Need to find out what Sign, bomb or weapon oil is useful on a creature?  Just look it up!  Want to get some background on someone you've met before?  Look it up!  And new people and creatures get new entries...ever so handy.  So after a half-hour reading through those...

A first impression that would stick with me throughout the game is the lack of player agency and too damned many cut-scenes.  And while the game pushes the player to prepare for an upcoming confrontation (usually combat oriented) a timed cut-scene will often interrupt that and may actually remove some or all the preparations the player has made.  Know that long-lasting potion you took just before the cut-scene that you didn't know was coming up to prepare for the encounter just like you were encouraged to do?  So sorry, the game designers figured out that you need to be going in without that and just thrown into the fire because...well no good rationale comes to mind save to 'heighten tension'.  And get you killed.  So the game designers told a bit of a falsehood there: die and learn.  Then this same thing is pulled on simple conversation scenes leading up to combat.

I guess that is groundbreaking in a backwards sort of way.

In White Orchard you have the opportunity to experience the hatred for Witchers up close and personal, along with admiration, fear and some actual love towards them.  Plus respect for the even by those that hate them because they know that Witchers are not to be trifled with.  A big feature of the life of a Witcher is taking on contracts, and I found it a good idea to scoop off every damned notice from a public notice board whenever I got to it, just so the quests for the locale could be found out.  Other quests you can get just by walking around and talking to people.  The world of the Witcher is filled with people, but you can only talk to a select few.  Such is life in the modern hybrid RPG.

With that you get an understanding of the local problems stemming from the invasion of the southern power, Nilfgaard, against the northern power of Redania plus rag-tag hangers-on from other places that Nilfgaard has conquered.  Non-humans aren't liked over much, either, amongst the local humans and the figuring out of just who hates what and why takes a bit of doing.  There are no 'good' decisions to make, save for killing monsters and even that isn't always all that clear-cut.  Still there is money in it, though not much due to this being a place of peasants, and that can make the actual problems with monsters all the more palpable and real.  White Orchard is a microcosm of the larger game world and the place to learn powers, skills, repair equipment, find better equipment and learn how to make potions.  Help the right people at the right time and in the right way, and you can get other rewards and even some freebies...you have to figure out just who those people are.  And there are even a couple of instances where keeping your trap shut may just be the best of all possible solutions.

The strength of the game is that decisions made by the PC have ramifications and effects that are not necessarily immediate.  In a world of moral grey, deciding what to do and why to do it means working with the mess that is around you and figuring out where Geralt's Path goes.  Is he a kindly person who, no matter how bitter and spiteful others are, tends to turn the other cheek or even show generosity, mercy and kindness?  Is he the kick-ass badass that counts corpses and takes their names (not that you can actually do that, of course)?  Is he the hard-bitten man of the world who shows disdain to the world and perhaps even starts to do that to the ones he loves?  Who Geralt becomes is up to the player, and the state of the world begins to reflect these choices, though not much at first, the larger scale ramifications start to reach out and change just what sort of game ending the player will get.

For a first playthrough I went with Traditional Geralt, generally a good guy, sticks by his first love Yennefer, does his best by Ciri but has some clear differences with some decisions she makes and generally isn't bad or spiteful, though he will often give a world weary retort to those who deserve it.  For play style I stuck with the Cat School concept of light armor, fast attacks, and using signs to help bolster defenses.  It is a basic style I modified the second time around with a New Game + and it felt more like being an experienced Witcher coming into a known situation.  In this go-around I went with Triss, was a bit more hard-bitten at times and yet had a soft spot for Ciri.  A total restart playthrough and with that it was Professional Witcher who dearly loved Ciri to prepare her for going on her own but loving her to bits.  Yennefer and Triss got Friend Zoned, and I played all the expansions to get Syanna and Anna Henrietta reconciled.  A contract is a contract, and even once it is paid out, if there is something left undone you damned well DO IT.  You know: professional ethics.  And if you are told that you can keep your money, well, it is exactly what is meant by that and if it is done in a contract setting then it isn't a contract but done from the heart.

Can't say I haven't played the game!  I may hate the in-game card game of Gwent, but there is a mod for that, thankfully.  Too bad there aren't a few mods for actual companions and not just spawned in characters who follow you with little interaction...and yet there are a few people that could actually be justified in wanting to follow along with Geralt and I'm a bit saddened that they didn't have a chance to do so.

This is a game of a generally set series of events with modifications due to player actions, though most of those modifications are upon individuals, not the earth-shattering course of events.  The predestinationism of prophecy seems to be a major thing in this world and the Slavic mythos background that pervades so much of the world.  Geralt isn't a world saver, but he can influence the one who is doing that task as a supporting father (which is what he became due to The Law of Surprise) preparing his daughter for her life.

This is a father/daughter story at its heart and if you are unstinting of being a good father, then there are rewards for it.  It is the depth of the impact on other people, who you help and who you give the cold shoulder to, that has effects though rarely large at start they can snowball over time though within very strict limits.  The larger war can turn based on one quest and how the overall relationship with Ciri went, and those, in turn, will determine the ending credits and narration.  It is a game with an end and then a post-game set of expansions...and they can be integrated and played before completing the main story, too, though that is not the order of intent by the designers. They did take it into consideration and offer some new dialogue here and there if you do an out of order playthrough, but game mechanics and levels are then out of balance for the main part of the game.

If the strength of story and making the limited decision tree turn into something meaningful are what makes the game hold together, it does so but not without problems in other areas.

Combat, in general, is sub-par for a 3rd person free-cam game, and it is often just godawful.  Lets aim a crossbow in 3rd person!  Lets do it with a high precision mouse!  There are times when the game wouldn't change camera position even if I swept my mouse a few inches and other times it would shake like all get out when I was barely moving it at all.  Stuff I could pull off with relative ease, like simply aiming a damned crossbow, in 1st person games became something I finally just turned over to Geralt's auto-aim.  Hell, in swarming combat situations that I would work to pick off outliers so as not to get swarmed in a 1st person game, I had no choice but to wade in, jump around like a scalded cat, and generally just swing with the sword wildly.  Hey, it works, more or less.  I'm sure that if I spent hours trying to get my mouse configured to a T and did all sorts of changes to configuration files this could be worked out...though going to play something else might then be a true PITA as the mouse settings would have to be changed.

Thus this lack of play style meant I had to fall back on a form of regenerative healing, and The Gourmet perk became mandatory so that I wouldn't eat through all my food and be poor just trying to get enough food in me to survive combat...which makes no damned sense at all.  It was either that or potions, and by process of elimination and examining potion toxicity and the skills with them, I figured out that potions would be truly situational affairs.  In general I would take a decoction that had high toxicity, long lasting effects and had a palpable change in either damage output or defenses in general, which then prioritized only a few of them for use.  This is a preferred way to play I have picked up for myself and generally don't use potions unless they are the ONLY form of healing available in the field.  Say what you will, in other games it is something that yields decent amounts of cash...here it meant I didn't have to bother with any of the skills in the potion/decoction/bomb making area.  This means all those ability points go elsewhere, and if I got to swing around fast and wildly, then when I connect I get to do some actual, real damage!

Like other open worlds the main story is vital!  Pressing!  Say could you get my cat out of a tree?  I'll pay you for it!

Once I got to Velen after White Orchard and seeing Yen, I decided it was time to start playing Skyrim ... little did I know that you could get a level 10 or 11 quest for a place and right behind it was a level 30 something monster!  Oh joy!  Oh rapture!  There is a mighty scaling problem in the game and you can be wandering around, happily going through stuff that is generally tough, but something you can handle, and then hit a sudden brick wall of a single creature with that nasty skull as its designator and no matter what you have, you can't move its health bar even a smidgen.  If story and depth of characters are a plus, then the constant chase for levels and better gear is a serious minus for the game, beyond my personal combat problems.  The overall system of weapons, armor and creatures means that the pack of Nekkers you take out can have, just a good 100 feet beyond it, a high level Leshen you can't touch with anything, period and that will one-shot kill you.  This makes no damned sense.  I can see a high level creature  living in its lair that is a fear to all and only the highest level of PC will dare...yeah, there would be lore and stories and stuff about it.  A free-roaming random spawn of low level stuff right next to it?  Huh?  On the plus side, you learn that Geralt can run pretty fast, so there is that.  And on the Professional go-around, I even started to avoid the random packs and other fun random stuff as I didn't have a contract for it and the experience payout was godawful.

On the subject of travel...horseback if you need to get to a generally unexplored area, and then on foot after that seems to work best for me.  In fact, I spent most of my playtime on foot as the janky combat system was NOT improved by being on horseback.  Sure you can get a low percentage chance of a one-shot kill if you are galloping around the battlefield!  Mostly I just swung and missed...yet I learned how to hit people on horseback as they were coming at me pretty well as a ground pounder.  That is even without using Aard to knock them off their mounts.  Still if I had to get there and the distance wasn't that far, I walked, ran, did wind sprints or fast traveled. Too bad you can't raise Geralt's stamina by doing all that running around...the guy would be prepared to fight while running a marathon if he did.  Travel by boat is more or less relaxing and I give great thanks for making the speed of sailing unrealistic so you can get to places by not having to spend a night out on the boat.  None of the small boats are set up for that and seem to be made of rotten boards that the nearest flying monster can tear apart in a few minutes.  Maybe, with all the great metals available, they'll discover metal hulls for boats some day.  Since there isn't a negative for swimming, save for slower travel, that became a decent way to get around between near islands or places close enough so it wasn't a chore.

Now on to that gear chasing bit.  The main part of the game play is chasing after incrementally better gear that is level restricted, so that you must be of at least that level to use it.  See that set of gauntlets that are just a bit better than the ones you are wearing?  You can't figure out how to wear them properly...even if they are of the same type as you have on but just have a higher level designator to them.  Ditto that for swords and the crossbows, plus crossbow bolts.  And yet you need the higher defenses and damage output of those higher level items to be able to deal with higher level creatures, you see?  One set of Hunting Trousers is level 11 and you are wearing their level 8 counterpart, while being at level 9.  Sorry, mate, you just don't know how to wear those better ones!  Of course if you decide to throw them into storage you'll come across something much better by the time you get to level 11.  After awhile I thought the game could have been properly named - The Witcher 3: Treasure Hunt.

The crafting system, outside of the Witcher potions, oils, decoctions and whatnot, is also level determined and there are different skill identifiers for the craftsmen,  A diagram for a mastercrafted Gambeson cannot be made by a mere journeyman, and I'm fine with that.  However, when the game hands me a lower level piece that requires a higher level diagram and higher level craftsman, I begin to scratch my head.  Who, exactly, made this piece which is supposed to have some minimums on level requirement for it?  Again this follows through for the other stuff using diagrams, as well, if it isn't Witcher specific gear.

So while you are out trying to save your daughter by chance with your associations of dubious nature, your actual and real job is to be on a set of scavenger hunts for better gear diagrams for the type of gear you use, or to hope that something better in the way of gear comes out of a chest or someone you knock off.  What is a Witcher's main and actual job?  Well monster contracts get just enough coin in to pay for equipment repairs, but the real stuff you need is done via scavenger hunts, although they are called Treasure Hunts to glorify them a bit.  And that means you explore a lot just to get the diagrams to make the gear that, well, you probably can't use immediately...but you sure do need that experience and something better to take down that very high level monster that is behind that low level encounter zone so you can get to the NEXT important diagram nearby.  Or just run like all get out since most of the monsters are pretty slow, and then have yet another diagram for something you can't use yet.  Really, what is up with this? This makes no damned sense.

The actual story and important decisions that are made are the main reason why the Witcher 3 gets into the RPG category, although it has none of the skill trees, bonuses or anything that is typical of an RPG.  It is a set character RPG, and that means skills that the protagonist doesn't use by their background just aren't there and the skills and abilities are limited to those of the Witcher class.  Geralt, for all his combat skills, doesn't have a real stealth skill: sneaking and hiding in shadows just aren't that much of a thing for the guy and, lets face it, he isn't built for it.  He probably smells of dead necrophages, too.  Taking a bath is reserved for cutscenes and the best way to get rid of the smell is to get better armor...which you are, by god, going to do a lot of in the game.  Basically it is a minimalist RPG with well defined characters, world, back story, and background, which means it is a rich world to play in.  You can eavesdrop on conversations and get some very interesting and often hilarious back and forth between NPCs.  While Geralt can't interact with the vast majority of people in the world, if you start to surreptitiously follow an NPC and they figure it out they might get in a bit of a huff and tell you to sod off.  Otherwise an NPC will generally just give a random piece of dialogue or hum, fart, spit, whistle or even sing to themselves, loudly.  Geralt is picky about who he sleeps with outside of the main romance interests: he prefers brothels to the street walking strumpets, and then there are only three that he would even consider sleeping with in each brothel.  But it is hard to find THAT in a typical RPG so kudos!  Now can we get better animations for those scenes?

And then there is romance.

As a player I have my preferences.

To put it even a bit more succinctly, I found some of the NPCs that are either one-night stands or just able to interact with in a normal way but obviously wanting to spend time on the road with Geralt to be more interesting than the Big Romance Choice he is given.  It's a bit much to ask that he sticks with either A or B since when a good C is found in that he doesn't get to rethink his life a bit at that point.  They might not want to be long-term lovers or such, but they would be a welcome addition for a period of time and, who knows what might happen?  That would be breaking with canon, true, but as I understand it the games already do that on a number of fronts.

In the Hearts of Stone Expansion there is a woman Geralt met up with way back in the first game, Shani, and she is a doctor in Oxenfurt, who gets pressed into medical service for the Redanian army on an as-needed basis.  She can be romanced for a one-night stand and has actual admiration for Geralt but knows their lifestyles will never allow them to get together.  Yet, after doing the Professional run-through without romancing Yen or Triss, but having this lovely estate in Toussaint, it could be argued, and I think quite well, that Toussaint is a place much in need of her services, given how many Knights Errant there are and the situations they get themselves into.  The estate is well situated to serve the city of Beauclaire, the Tourney Grounds and yet is easy to get to for the poor, as well.  Shani is politically neutral and seeks to help her fellow man, no matter what flag they are under, thus moving to Toussaint is not something out of the question.  Also it is a good place for Geralt to get contracts as there is always another wine cellar that has been infested with god knows what to be cleaned out of monsters. If Shani does have to go to the front to serve as a doctor, well, as is pointed out a few times in the game, particularly by the Witcher Eskel: where ever there is a war, there is work for a Witcher. And if Shani wants children, well, there are war orphans to consider...but if she wants to be an actual mother, then that is a tacit admission of not wanting to go to the front for military campaigns at some point in the very near future.  In Toussaint much can be done and a change in life would be available for the charming doctor, Shani.  Too bad Geralt can't bring this up with her if he is unattached.  Shame, really.  They do make a charming couple.

Speaking of Toussaint, if you can get to Syanna surviving the whole thing and probably getting familial pardon or some such while catching up on lost time with her sister, it is noted that she is quite the rough and tumble sort and able to wield a sword decently.  After being a successful bandit leader for a decade or so, the palace life just might start to pale in comparison.  If she is looking for a change of scenery there is always Geralt and his estate...and he does get out and about for Witcher work so her sword can be put to use and maybe even get a hand-me-down silver sword from Geralt.  There is a difference between being a bandit leader and facing, say, a pack of Nekkers or group of Drowners, but it isn't a huge difference and she just needs to improve her combat skills and be properly equipped.  And who just so happens to have a trunk load of good weapons he has leveled beyond?  Hmmm.... even if you hate what Syanna became in her life, if you had enough pity to help her get past the problems then maybe the best way to relieve some of her frustration would be whacking things with a long sharpy stick.  She's pretty good at it!

Who else is good at it?  Jutta An Dimun out in the Skellige Isles.  Very good at it, though no match for a Witcher, she has bested every other single guy who came her way.  And she looks like she wants a real husband, and what better way to find one than to travel with Geralt?  That would have made a wonderful side quest that was unmarked: do enough with her, let her see enough of the wider world and she would then have a much wider suite of men she might consider.  She might get a husband or even might decide that life on the road is what she wants for a few more years.  Give her a hand-me-down silver sword and she should be good to go.

Doing the Professional run after the other two started to get me into thinking about just what Geralt represents beyond being just a Witcher to other people, women in particular.  The fun but ultimately trivial one-night stands do point to women looking for choices in their lives and who Geralt is becomes the primary part of the consideration and his job is just his profession, not necessarily his passion.  Taking down threats from monsters is a job, a profession, and it even earns regular pay because of the problems of the world: he can travel and earn enough to live on or settle down and deal with the deeper problems of a region and keep in good stead.

After guiding Ciri to the end of the main game there are the loose ends and somewhat empty period that the Expansion Packs try to fill, and do a decent job of it...even when they don't offer any larger opportunities to understand just where Geralt is going in life after it or what the ramifications of the main game actions are in the Expansions.  Committing to Yen or Triss is choosing to finally settle down with either of them.  Yet he also knows both pretty well, given the circumstances. The problems between him and either of them start to become apparent in the dialogue choices that are available, especially the negative ones.  They are the conversation paths not taken at that point in time: you choose one and go on to the next.  Yet each of them are valid paths of thought and a few of them will start to crop up over the long haul.  His commentary to Ciri on who he goes with and why is telling at one point in her quest...and even more telling when he isn't asked why he has gone with neither of them.  Ciri not asking that question on the Professional run is telling given her love for both Yen and Triss and just may be a recognition that Geralt realizes that his past history has ultimately decided against them for different reasons.

It is a subtle game point done by a game that makes many of them, over the course of play.  In many ways killing monsters is just a way to get to a cutscene, a narrative scene, a pre-rendered and predetermined scene that has multiple branches coming to it and multiple branches leaving it.  Often the scenes are a choke point for finally driving out results of past decisions.  Battles can be swung based on who your real friends are and if they are willing to support you when YOU need help.  Make friends and you can have support when you come down to a crunch time.  Say good-bye at the docks and a life path is stopped.  Say the magic is gone and then the words about 'be careful what you wish for' become palpable and turns on the very person who spoke them.

How do you tell someone that you love them, but don't particularly like them?  That sort of dialogue isn't available in the game for the romance interests and the only way to do it is to demonstrate kindness, affection and, at the ultimate point, say 'no' to going on or going further.  Yet it doesn't convey what is meant which is sad for a game that plays so much in the in-between areas, this sort of path isn't available as it implies there is some need for reconciliation or telling someone what their faults are but in the gentlest of ways.  You can get argument dialogue, pretty easily in fact, but a heartfelt discussion of mutual understanding of each other's weaknesses and strengths?  Sadly, no.

For the non-romance interests, if you have any want to make sure they survive but know they are not part of the romance of Geralt's life, then telling them what they are doing is just plain nuts is required for a couple of them.  A bit of soft spoken tough love can do wonders here and there, used sparingly.  Let them know that you don't want to see them throw their lives away and that they mean something to Geralt, and it just may be enough to save them.  But that sort of thing is damned easy to screw up, too.

And as for the main love interest, that of the father/daughter relationship, it requires recognizing that Ciri is becoming a woman in full and needs support.  She needs to know how to blow off steam creatively, she needs to know that you trust her to make her own decisions, and when it is apparent that Geralt is not the hero of her story, that he supports her no matter what she decides.  Simple words to describe some of the hardest RPG decisions I have had to make in a game.  All of these are difficult and require on-the-spot character and situation analysis that isn't combat oriented but oriented to back story and background of the game and the people in it.  All the monster slaying and scavenger hunt stuff is to support these critical decisions.  You, as a player, will form decisions based on what path you choose for Geralt.  Who Geralt of Rivia is and what he becomes in the game world is put in your hands as a player and the results will build up over time.

That is why, for all the lacks the game has in abilities, skills, dialogue and the rest of it, it is still one of the deepest and most meaningful RPGs out in the market.  It is not an RPG first, however, and has a bare amount of RPG elements in it.  At this point I would even have problems putting it in the Action RPG categoy, and might put it in the Action Video Novel RPG genre.  For all of its problems it is well worth playing and replaying to find out just what all the hard decisions actually are and what happens when you follow that other path for the White Wolf that is Geralt.  Is it a great RPG?  No.  Does it have a great story? Yes.  Do note that these two things can co-exist and do so very well in The Witcher 3.

Some thoughts on game mechanics

 This piece may be expanded or amended over time.

All games have certain rules and constraints that limit how and what can be presented in them.  Yet across games that feature dialogue, interaction between Player Characters (PC) and Non-Player Characters (NPC), and combat there are certain design considerations that will vary from game to game.  Typically this gains the term of Role Playing Game (RPG) as either a game mechanic or as game elements.  Thus this is an examination of RPG mechanics although it will also, by doing so, cover discrete elements picked up by other genre games so as to add them to games that are not RPGs.

Levels
The idea of a PC or NPC 'level' is that they have a certain amount of power, skill, abilities and hit points that corresponds to their overall capability gained at a new level.  Higher level beings tend to be older, tougher and have more capabilities at their beck and call.  This is a concept that dates back to some of the earliest RPGs, like Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) and levels were put under character classes with each class having its own set of attributes that can be gained as experienced is gained.  Thieves get better at Hiding in Shadows and Lockpicking, Spell Casters were able to cast more spells in a day and get higher level spells, and fighter types generally just got better at hitting things and dealing out damage, plus gained hit points at a faster rate than most non-fighter type classes.  Levels became an integral part of how RPGs are conceived well after that,  and that is an established way of doing things: as the PC progresses they get more skills, more abilities, more hit points and generally require higher level beings as opponents to face a challenge.  This requires that PC level be taken into account when drafting game scenarios and campaigns, and how much experience is gained and level advancement comes into play.  In such games it is typical to have a 'boss fight' that is significantly tougher than anything else in the scenario or campaign, which can present a real and even lethal challenge to the PC.

Are there game systems that are not tightly tied to levels?  Yes, there are.

A game like Call of Cthulhu (CoC) featured a non-level based system in which hit points were not gained but knowledge and skills improved over game play.  What this meant is that the PC was relatively static in their ability to take damage, so that no matter how good the PC got with a weapon (melee and ranged by and large) they were no tougher to kill than the ordinary NPC.  A couple of shots from a pistol could more or less reliably kill someone.  Armor wasn't that well distributed or used in the 1920's to 1930's setting, although some pieces of clothing did offer some resistance to damage, it couldn't be augmented nor changed to a higher value: a woolen trenchcoat was just a woolen trenchcoat.  Some creatures had armor or other resistances to taking damage or were just a bit tougher so as to reflect their different nature from that of normal humans.  This is actually not a bad system as it encourages thoughtful gameplay, research, and when an expedition must set out to delve into the unknown it had best be prepared to do so.  The healing and recovery system may not have been too well implemented, but it worked as a game mechanic.

In theory a game like AD&D actually accounts for all the HPs a character garners via leveling up as the ability to evade damage, evade that killing strike, or otherwise just be better at combat, while the actual HPs were the last few the PC has.  Basically the HPs a PC has at Level 1 are their 'real' HPs and all the rest are just combat ability related damage avoidance.  If all of those extra ones were stripped out, then AD&D would begin to mimic CoC or other games utilizing a similar system from Chaosium Games.  What those Chaosium Games did was reflect how much effort was put into boosting skills and abilities, and only those that the player worked on would advance, thus there was no 'class' for characters and no suite of skills and abilities one would get automatically over time.

A third way of keeping advancement but not utilizing levels started in the Champions game for creating Super Heroes, and was then expanded into the HERO game system.  This is a system where PC stats are not rolled up with dice but designed by the player.  A pool of base points was available to allocate between the PC's personal stats for their body, their skills and their powers, and that skill pool base generally allowed for certain types of PCs to be developed.  An individual with no training, no background and fresh off the streets might have 10 or 15 points to play around with beyond their universal base stats, and given the large number of places to invest those points, any character generated from that would be a normal person off the streets with a bit of training so they could hold down a job, and maybe a couple of decent character stats.  At 20 to 25 points characters start to be 'professional' types of individuals, very good at one skill, having more investment into character stats but generally not being all that notable otherwise.  At 50 points characters get into that range of highly skilled professionals, martial artists, surgeons, etc.  At 75 points characters start to get into the category best known for being inhabited by Super Spies or other top notch combat professionals.  At 75 points there are the first investments into an actual super power, albeit probably not a good one, and that would come with investment of points into that power beyond the skills and base character.  At 100 points comes the range of the third string Super Hero types and that is generally a good place to start a Super Hero game.

The HERO system didn't feature levels but, instead, had a system of direct experience point (XP) expenditure into anything the player wanted for their PC.  Those points could be accumulated over multiple sessions and the rate of gaining them was low.  Points are generally awarded on how well the player actually role played the character, completing a mission objective or showing innovative use of skills and powers during the course of the scenario.  Getting an award of 2 XPs was not unusual and 3 meant extremely good game play on the part of the player.  As the HERO system featured no cap on anything but, instead, utilized an exponential system were any attribute or power that was 5 points better was 2x as good (someone with a maximum human strength of 20 could lift twice as much as someone with 15 that could lift twice as much as someone at 10, and the base of 10 was the universal standard, untrained human lifting capacity) this meant quite a lot.  At 5 points another die for doing damage or with 3 points +1 to a skill roll (after it had gotten to the maximum of 3 dice for a roll using up one point for each die) and these could help other powers and skills.  One other thing that could be done with XP (as a house rule for the times I ran the games) is the burning of an XP to retroactively pass a skill check or take no damage from an attack, though the latter required an immediate reason why from the player within 15 seconds.  That steel cigarette case could only take that bullet if the character smoked, or that belt buckle that they wore somehow deflected that energy blast...and once a piece was used up like that it was marked on the back of the sheet so it could not be repeated.  Once you burned an XP it was gone, forever.  Those invested in a PC, however, could be allowed to undergo changes for good reasons or to set up a scenario a player had requested so they could change their character in a basic fashion.

From that the HERO game system did allow players to create PCs that did advance over time, became demonstrably better at what they did, but only allowed for them to be tougher, stronger, etc. if they invested points into it.  Skills, stats, powers and attributes all played together in a unified system, and no character was unbeatable, though learning how to beat them might take a long, long time.  Add to this the negative traits to get more points (ex. being Unlucky, being Hunted or having a physical problem) meant that players could get points but have a known (or somewhat hidden) deficit to their PC.

Thus the modern reliance of level based systems is more for how well it is known coming from the era of paper and pencil RPGs.  This allows for a certain framework of known level progression to be put in place as well as to make characters harder to damage or take more damage as they level up.  There are other ways of doing this, and in the era of computer based games much of the headache of something like the HERO game system (which typically required the first play session to be solely that of character design) could be reduced or nearly eliminated with a good framework built up around it.  Yet designing interesting and challenging game play that allows for multiple paths through it so that a PC of nearly any design could find their way through it requires a lot of work and it is that deep development investment that may stifle non-level based systems from coming to market.

So whenever a game features a 'level up' system it is doing so to let players know the type of game element or mechanic system that is in play not just for the players but for the entire game.  While a fanfare or bonus at a level up is a form of positive feed-back it is not the only way of doing things.  There is no such thing as a 'perfect' game system, but there are types of systems that suit certain game types in the RPG arena and those used the most tend to be easy to design and build out for a developer, although that can be at the expense of game play.

Play Balance
 How does a game balance difficulty for a player over time?  This is a hard thing to do and depends in large part on the game mechanics being implemented.  Level based mechanics will feature newer and nastier creatures, foes and environment while those with non-level based mechanics will keep start game challenges difficult throughout the game, and yet offer ways a player may adapt to the environment through their PC.  Both systems have strengths and weaknesses in the realms of combat and non-combat choices and interactions with NPCs.

Both level and non-level based game systems can feature skills that improve that are not combat related and will be relatively static throughout the game challenges, in that hard challenges will be presented throughout the game and building skills requires a trade-off between how one expends their PC's experience or level up grants over time.  Addressing one part of the game environment, say sneaking around, may mean not being able to advance as rapidly in other non-combat areas, say crafting or verbal interaction.  And in systems where the choice is broader than that, combat capacity may be in that balance so that deciding on where to expend points to improve skills will change the play type and style for a given PC.

In level based systems gaining skill with weapons, armor or equipment can often be augmented by other skills like negotiating with a gun pointed at someone or being able to combine stealth and combat into more damaging combat.  This sort of augmentation can be direct or indirect in that it may just do a direct increase to damage or defense, or it might give specialized moves or systems of attacks that are not garnered from just the base type.  Both are possible as well as separate types that work with each other, thus the level system must be tuned to acknowledge that the PC will gain skills and capabilities over time and address how foes or situations can remain a challenge without the game becoming a puzzle based one or one that is constantly boosting opponents to make them sponges for damage.  Here is where level based games become a bit unrealistic and can start to break immersive game play: by substituting in higher level opponents in situations that are basically just the base type but take more damage or just have a special attack or defense, the question arises as to why this constant chasing of levels is actually going on?  There are game genres and types where this makes perfect sense, like the further you go into an opponent's personnel roster or base structure, the harder those remaining become.  Out in the field the level based system can be problematical and require some ways to differentiate differences in difficulty without blatantly gating areas to certain PC levels.  This is typically done with tables of encounter types that are level weighted so that they reflect the PC's overall level, which can then garner disparities between hostiles that are in close proximity to each other.

An RPG with some action game elements is workable especially in combat or espionage based genres and they make perfect sense: the enemy has a structure that is either known about ahead of time or learned about through play and how the player adapts to that then guides where they go next.  This can be a subtle way of putting 'gates' into game areas so that players will learn that if they venture into an area too early they will not have a good outcome.  Still in an RPG that allows for multiple ways to approach a scenario, going in with weak combat skills but high skills in stealth, negotiation or speech, or with highly desirable crafting skills to then perform infiltration using what is available as they go are all available just as starters.  Knowing a higher-up or getting to one through bribery, stealth or other means (such as blackmail) are venues to get through areas where the combat may be instantly lethal and yet the PC has information that is too valuable to the enemy to do so.  Good action game elements do not over-rule the base RPG game mechanics and are just a sub-set of skills and abilities that bow to the larger genre.  A good RPG has multiple ways to crack hard nuts beyond brute force, and brute force may often be the last thing a player wants to do, not the first.

Conflict and Combat
 An RPG offers a framework for not just characters to run around in a game world, but has an existential set of conflicts going on in the background that has manifestations in the game world.  Those conflicts need not be military or even combat oriented: a struggle between two or more companies for gaining control of markets can offer just as much game play as one that features armed groups representing Nations, factions or other such large scale organizations.  The role of the PC can vary from that of being a world saving  hero to just an ordinary person trying to figure out just what the hell is going on in their life which has become a microcosm of the larger set of events.  There are many paths to a heroes journey even when the individual doesn't see themselves as a hero or is an actual anti-hero.  The actions taken by the player through the PC is then a reflection of the choices made to the events happening around the PC.

These are not just one-way actions, however, and taking actions will get reactions, though not necessarily equal and opposite.  Planning on the part of the player for the PC to get some expected reactions that then work to further the benefit of the PC's actions is not out of the ordinary in RPG environments: prodding a large organization in just the right way to get them to react in a way that is to their detriment is one way of starting to unravel a larger organization.  Thus conflict can range from a properly timed and sent memo to the destruction of facilities or eliminating key elements of the opposition's infrastructure.  It must also be noted that an opposition to the PC will form as the course of events begin to change, yet not all opponents are, of necessity, enemies and enemies may not even be permanent in all situations: teaming up with someone who you viscerally hate for both to survive an even worse disaster is not out of the question.  Be it a cop and a criminal working to escape a gangland shooting spree or soldiers from opposing armies teaming up to bring down a threat to both armies, the actual context is something that must be recognized as an intrinsic part of the game world.  Moving the world's destruction along to get an enemy to realize that you actually do want their help and are serious about it is something the player must work on as part of an RPG through the limits of their PC.

It is rare that RPGs do not feature a combat component or set of elements and this is something that must fit into the framework of the game, itself.  Skills in combat types and styles will determine and limit just what sort of responses a PC will have to the entire game world.  With that said there are a number of ways to approach how damage is dealt out and how to defend against it.  The types of damage that can be meted out varies by game and game world and can include but are in no way limited to: ballistic, physical (impact via melee weapons typically), energy, magical, radiation, and psionic/mental.  Each of these areas will tend to have specialized defenses that will fall into different categories and they are worth considering on the basis of those that are character based and those that are equipment based (though it is possible to gain some character based defenses from equipment).

Evasion/Avoidance of damage - This is typically a character based defense of just not getting hit and it works pretty well in most game environments.  Enemies have a known set of powers that are utilized in a known set of ways (this can be found out through direct encounter) and just plain not being there when the damage is delivered is a good way to go.  There can be equipment that will do this role as well, such as projecting PC holograms or duplicates, grounding out certain attack types, or even making the attacker clumsy or incapacitate their senses.  These tactics can be bolstered by the PC's abilities to enhance them and can moderate damage taken while avoiding it as well, so that dodging/evading through a combat environment becomes a worthwhile tactic.  Running from cover to cover also does this and utilizes the environment as a means to avoid damage and let the cover absorb it.  Concealment is simple hiding and can be very effective to allow for a surprise attack if the enemy doesn't figure out just where it is the PC is located. Concealment prevents no damage from being taken in and of itself and is a way to get an attack in when no one is expecting it or to avoid being found by searching.

Damage Resistance - Typically this is armor or some other sort of penetrable shield.  DR reduces incoming damage by a certain percentage that is usually capped for a category of damage type.  Damage that is resisted is calculated as a percentage of incoming damage and subtracted from that damage with the rest penetrating and game designers vary in that percentage maximum depending on setting, game design and play balance.  In non-layered defenses it is just that simple.  In layered defenses DR can serve as a primary reduction of incoming damage that is then further reduced by other types of defenses that are different from the DR.  In multi-layer defenses (beyond 2) a second layer of DR can also be added to further reduce the incoming damage after it penetrates the outer layers as a form of final defense, though it is typically relatively low in effect, typically <5%.

Damage Threshold - Typically this is a form of armor or other sort of penetrable shield with a threshold.  DT directly subtracts from incoming damage as a set amount, thus requiring incoming damage to reach the threshold of the DT to penetrate.  DT can be uncapped, but will suffer from armor piercing attacks that reduce the DT by a percentage (typically 50%) so a DT that starts at 10 will be an effective 5 versus a 50% armor piercing attack.  That is for non-layered defenses and is a simple concept to understand.  In a multi-layered defense DT can be put between other layers of defense or serve as an outer and usually relatively high buffer against incoming damage.  Still layering DT as a final layer gives a minimum threshold of exterior damage that must reach it and then surpass that threshold in order to finally get damage beyond the defenses.

Wear and Tear - This is an effect of how well defenses last over time before it is in need of repair.  Multiple penetrations against a defense may reduce its capacity to take damage or even break it entirely so that it is useless.  These effects can be a slow reduction in the defensive value or may offer better chances for a critical hit to bypass the defense entirely.  Additionally skill with precision in combat for weapons may allow for an attacker to penetrate the worn defenses based on a skill roll in combat.  Typically wear and tear is seen as a percentage figure that is then applied to incoming damage to see if the defenses will be applied or if the damage penetrates without defensive benefits.

Ablative Defenses -  This is a particular form of DT that isn't often used but is well worth mentioning.  AD is typically armor or other defense that has a high value beyond what any single attack can normally penetrate but is worn down by the value of the attack, itself.  Thus a high value AD will absorb damage and typically fall off or vaporize, thus reducing the remaining defense by that amount.  Here damage is absorbed, but unlike DT, the wear and tear is direct and immediate, not incremental and percentage.  AD can serve in a multi-layer role, typically behind a low value DT or DR that is used to blunt incoming damage and the rest then is applied to the AD.  The reverse can also be done, so that a DT or DR layer is behind an ablative defense, usually representing a last somewhat durable obstacle to incoming damage.  When AD is incorporated into a gaming environment it is usually a very cheap form of defense either to purchase or otherwise use, with the knowledge that it will go away very quickly and have a maintenance cost to it.  AD lasts until the last point is used up and then it is no longer there.

These are typical of the types of ways to deal with incoming damage across a wide spectrum of attack types, and they can also offer a platform for enhancements that will allow them to deal with other situations or be effective against some types of damage better than other types.  Based on the game environment some of these may be things that characters can do unaided via various skills or powers they have.  Even further some types of attacks may change category of damage so that defenses that would typically be useful against them are then either reduced or by-passed.  An example of this might be a form of telekinetic attack classified as a sonic attack, so that the attack now require another form of shielding that isn't covered by mental powers nor by standard defenses. A simple set of earmuffs used at a construction site may stop this entirely or a modified reflex roll may allow for a character to put their hands over their ears: it can be countered just not via normal combat means.

How damage is meted out isn't as important as what types of things can resist or stop it, thus much of the play style can be dictated by the player for their PC and honed into certain types of character build.  It is the damage consideration at a base level that is important.

There is another type of defense and that is against the environment of the game world, typically seen in 'survival modes' of games as opposed to pure survival games.  In temperate or hot climates this can mean having equipment that is made to slow the effects of water or humidity, or have coverings for the eyes, nose and mouth for desert conditions.  In cold conditions with snow the eye, nose and mouth are also essential for coverage, and a system of layered clothing can help to mitigate the effects of heat loss.  Unfortunately in the alternate mode for games this is usually not taken into consideration, and the resultant use of armor and equipment can feel clumsy at times.

As an example for a cold environment, a base layer of clothing is typically very light and serves to trap air that is warmed by the body.  A second and usually thicker layer is next, and offers some padding and protection against the cold as well as trapping air between it and the first layer.  A final layer is usually the heaviest and most resistant to letting heat out into the environment.  This should have a good first approximation in medieval fantasy systems where layered armor was the rule.  The basic roughspun tunic and pants, possibly with some form of socks served as a base layer to prevent chafing of the other layers.  A layer of padding or padded armor was next to mitigate damage from blunt weapons and generally serve as an intermediary for an outer armor, though padding itself could be used to that, though not by typical members of the military units.  Over that would go a final layer of chain mail, banded mail, scale mail on leather backing, or plate and chain mail, which would be the outer defensive layer that would take damage first and help protect against the lethal nature of attacks.  Outer armor, padding, base layer is the same for cold environments, thus a good RPG that recreates this type of setting will have this as a feature and make a 'survival mode' easy to implement.  Due to the 'fantasy' nature of most RPGs this is not the case.  Nor is it the case that the very same equipment used in a temperate or warm climate will then cause overheating and make dehydration severe.  What is proper survival attire for the arctic to sub-arctic is not the same as what is desired in swamps or desert, though troopers are typically forced to do that as the expense in equipment warrants it being used in all environments.  An integrated survival system will reflect this globally, and will also put the logistics concern of carrying multiple different types of garb for different environments into play balance.

In fact the 3 layer system also can be rendered into a DT, DR, DR formulation with added functionality given to the outer and intermediate layers.  As of yet there is no game that I know about in the computer gaming age that properly renders this.  While so many games focus on piercing or slashing damage, some of the worst damage is done by blunt trauma that can be transmitted through the outer defense and then applied to what is underneath.  Padding under an outer layer of armor, or even padded armor itself, is meant to lessen this impact by compressing while also expanding the area that the incoming force is applied to.  Blunt trauma is the stuff of fracturing bones, bruising muscles, causing bruises and inflicting internal damage to the body via burst blood vessels or trauma to organs.  Slashing vital parts with a sword or other edged weapons will cause damage that is direct penetration and relatively easy to spot: blunt trauma can cause damage that might not kill on direct impact but can still kill a foe in a short period of time. A multi-layer armor system will reflect the strengths of each layer on the defense, so that padding will also absorb some blood and can even be compressed by simply pressing on it to staunch immediate bleeding.

Even modern body armor has this concept in mind, with the wearer having regular clothes on as a base layer and then a multilayer armor that features wear and tear resistant outer cloth shell on multiple layers of resistant cloth, then a plate that suffers wear and tear, spreading the force of a projectile into causing fractures in the plate at the point of impact and deforming with a further layer behind that, all backed up by a final padded layer and resistant cloth.  When the projectile doesn't penetrate it still leaves a nasty bruise under the point of impact.  Due to the force of modern firearm projectiles and their ability to penetrate, suffering blunt trauma instead of piercing trauma is preferred.  This would be a system of DR (outer multiple layers), DT (inner plate and backing), DR (multiple inner layers) and a final low value DR for clothing.  How to change penetrating power of firearm projectiles into a number that makes sense for an armor system requires care and forethought, but can yield a viable system that should also have some ready use outside of that environment.

A good set of game mechanics should reflect the actual damage done in an RPG setting and be relatively easy to comprehend for the player.  Defenses honed to one sort of combat type or style may prove to be inadequate to another form of attack.  Ballistic cloth defenses, as an example, don't do so well against piercing damage typically seen by sword points being thrust through them, while a ballistic plate under it will certainly stop that form of damage.

Modern RPGs that aren't RPGs
When is an RPG not an RPG?  That is simple to answer: are the game mechanics focused on PC stats, skills, abilities and feature a framework of interaction with multiple branches of skills plus abilities for actions taken?  Take out any of those and the functionality of the RPG is then beholden to something else: RPGs use RPG game mechanics first and foremost, and then put a back seat to everything else.  Combat in an RPG isn't the main focus of the game, though it can be a time consuming activity as a part of it.  A multi-branching story with a wide spectrum of opportunities and the widest Player Agency to get out of the game what the player role-plays to put into then yield results determined by just how well that role is played.  What you do is determined by Who you are, and the situations a PC gets into are those that are required by Who they are and what that demands for moving the story forward.

A good RPG has a main story on simmer so that the more activity taken by the PC the more the heat will get raised, and the hotter the main story becomes.  The final results are based on the activities done: who the PC sides with (if anyone), what activities are taken at the direction or suggestion of the PC, weighting the scales of fate by doing as much as possible to get a desired outcome through activities, skills, stats and other bonuses, and then letting the chips fall where they may on this playing field.  Who you are determines what you do, and what you do will have consequences.  Game design requires this as a functional mechanic that tracks these activities and outcomes, and then starts off other events, activities and judgement by others to create a dynamic and interactive experience.

There are other framework elements that can be incorporated into this either as partial instances or merely a few elements so as to bolster the RPG mechanics.  Faction based games tend to rely heavily on interactions between groups and offers a ready method to personalize this form of mechanic or a few elements of it into an RPG.  Typically faction games do not go to much of a tactical level so that generic terms are applied to individuals or groups of individuals.  A leader may get a name, but the people he or she leads are generic: soldiers, thieves, spies, or any other category implemented to suit the faction based game.  Typically when this is lifted and put into an RPG environment the leader of the faction is the one who will be the source of changes for how the entire faction acts, yet all the lower level operatives will have names and back story as this is an RPG, not a faction based game.  Whenever a generic term is given to such an individual (ie. soldier, thief, spy, etc.) by a game it is with the intent of removing them from consideration for interaction...or is merely a way to hide the fact the PC can interact with them and get to know them.

Typically there are no interactive dialogues with the nameless individuals and only a generic per category response is given.  This is done so the game doesn't have to track each and every single individual as an individual as that means more record space, more thinking up of back story and more overhead in general.  Even with that, these non-interactive NPCs tend to be small in number even for organizations that should be quite large, as they are more set dressing than actually partaking of the story.  A good RPG will have a randomized set of backgrounds available in the 'fill in the blank' sort of way and suffer with such overhead to give the feeling there is more going on with an individual than is apparent.  Via interaction with the PC this can be sorted out pretty quickly, though it is a good idea to exhaust all the available background material for such an NPC just in case there is anything worthwhile that actually does pertain to the story.  Set dressing NPCs are used more in the style of game where the RPG elements are a back seat to something else that is the main consideration of the game design.

Here is where role playing is a necessity as the character that the player has set up will have varieties of skills, stats, and bonus abilities to get an idea if someone actually has a worthwhile background to pursue, and when those are lacking the indication that the player is on the right track but not skilled enough can either be given directly via dialogue choices that are indicated to not be available or useful at the moment, or via the way the NPC responds which can be in a leading fashion but to a topic that the PC cannot get to by not having the necessary prerequisites.  Both are valid and a good substitute for body language and other informal indicators used in real life circumstances: even with the best animations and renditions the game world still cannot satisfactorily mimic the real world and some individuals are just blind to such things as people, but understand it in a role-playing sense.

The modern RPG must indicate these things as there is no physical Game Master or other real, living individual to hand out the information: an RPG game must take that role on via its framework and then be designed so as to give out leading information that would typically be done via an individual running a face-to-face RPG.  There is no suitable replacement for a human GM (or person running the world in a non-partisan fashion), thus any RPG must come up with ways to give that information over to the player in a way that is consistent with game play.

There is an element of chance involved with this, and that must be properly reflected by either having skill, state or abilities gated so that information only becomes available with a certain skill level or have random chance take place in the background but with an indicator of a failure to the player, and both routes can be implemented simultaneously.  RPGs didn't start out with incorporating luck as a skill or stat, but offered ways to bias die rolls with equipment or other traits (thus a +1 sword generally gives a 5% better chance to hit with it and does one more hit point in damage, even when wielded by someone unskilled with it).  By the 1980's the concept of luck as being an integral part of how PCs work started to appear, as there are some people in life who are just plain lucky or circumstantially lucky.  Modern RPGs incorporate this to a greater or lesser extent, though they may obfuscate the actual mechanic in some way, of course.  If the game replaces the GM then it must also simulate lucky players of RPGs who would have lucky PCs, and if you have ever encountered such an individual in a face-to-face game setting you will have direct experience of this.  By regularizing and making it a game mechanic, everyone can now experience what such luck is like through their PC.

Modern RPGs that only incorporate one part of the RPG framework, say skills and abilities but not stats, then create a generic formulation of characters.  Stats are an integral reflection of the PC both for how the game world is perceived and how others perceive the PC.  Different forms of personal attractiveness be it charm, charisma, or just plain being likeable, plus the exact opposite of those, will influence other people with setting, personal preferences for the NPC and other factors coming into play for such interactions.  What the modern RPG can do is automate this and do the weighting in the background, yet the player via the PC should get an understanding of this mechanic via playing the game.  An NPC that has important information that they would not normally reveal during their work hours may be more approachable after them, particularly in their favorite venues for entertainment.  Learning that and doing it are integral to Role Playing, and a good game will have that available for every NPC the player can interact with.  In short NPCs are required to have depth of character to them, even those that the player may not like very much.  In fact finding out that NPCs have their own attitudes and might be more willing to help the PC out (although not always in ways the player wants) should form an undercurrent to the entire game world experience.  Very few games do this well or at all, and while one or two NPCs might have a deep back story, the vast majority of others do not.

Another failure for many modern RPGs is the 'it's not what you know, but who you know' network of interpersonal friends, family and other associates that NPCs should and indeed must have.  Most worlds do not feature this as it requires a lot of overhead to keep track of this form of interpersonal relationships between NPCs and for the PC to then become a part of those networks.  Becoming well connected should offer a variety of alternatives in stories, even those that seem to be highly combat oriented, as this network Friend Of A Friend knowledge can move in ways that are oblique to the direct forward driven form of story narrative.  Veering away from direct paths means developing skills and abilities, plus seeking out bonuses to help do that, which means having to work on-the-fly to deal with other, more direct forms of confrontation with antagonists.  These can be roadblocks of traps, surveillance or even other agents working within the FOAF network to find individuals that don't belong.  Via this method individuals who cannot be approached easily, if at all, by direct confrontation can be accessed by learning who their friends are and then following the FOAF network seeking to connect to their network.  This is an underutilized game mechanic and the few times anything like it are used, it is usually a simple one-step away deal of getting a close associate of the NPC that is critical to the story to then get the PC access to them.  That is unrealistic in many ways, although the lonely NPC who feels as if they aren't appreciated might succumb to it, they have probably experienced something like it before and require much more in the way of building trust than a simple meeting at a bar or some such.

Other game mechanics such as stealth, picking locks, breaking and entering, and the such are more easily implemented, though not necessarily well done in modern games.  How perceptive individuals are in a game world is something that must be replicated from the real world, which requires cones of vision, hearing depth of field, changes in vision ability in various lighting conditions, pinpointing sounds and the ability to catch motion at the periphery of the visual cones.  Additionally air currents and smelling should be a part of this, though it will vary based on the game setting, so that in worlds with much more complex and overwhelming smells this ability will prove to be of little use.  In general getting this information to a player and reflecting it in NPCs is difficult, and most games go with a general sensory hemisphere around characters, instead of incorporating the wider dynamics for senses so that there are overlapping zones of very good perception and much wider zones of poor perception.  This is something a GM can determine on the fly and weight almost instantly in a given situation and then say what the player perceives: one quick die roll ought to do it.  This must be done constantly in a computer game of the modern era, and while the processing amount is low, the ability to convey the complexity of responses are limited.  No game does this very well, though Stealth based games give a very good go at it but they are dedicated to the mechanic, and incorporating the full mechanic into an RPG would tend to swamp the game balance towards stealth.  Elements of the mechanic and utilizing basic shadows and camouflage or other means of blending into the scene can be done in a modern RPG though the number of elements will be, of necessity, limited.

From this, when analyzing a game the very first determination is the question of stats, abilities, skills and other character benefits that are available and if these form a reinforcing system so that skills based by good stats for that skill are reinforced, and if other abilities or benefits augment those skills.  A progression system that is intuitive and leaves leeway for the player to increase their abilities via a fine tuned methodology becomes a key point of being an RPG.  Shoving a single skill level point into a skill to alter it dramatically is not the same thing as working on it over time and finding other PC benefits that can then augment it.  Player Agency allows for how this happens, so that if a player desperately needs a single skill to go up quickly they can do so, but if they need a number of skills to go up incrementally they can also assign increases that way.  Anything that restricts Player Agency to bow to another game mechanic means that there are just RPG elements in a game, and it is not an RPG as a general rule with some exceptions.  A game that features combat or action mechanics will typically get the first part of a game genre: Shooter, Action, Stealth, Rogue and so on.  The term of RPG often gets tacked on as an afterthought so that game publishers can try to garner a wider audience for their game which is a disservice to the RPG genre.