You are viewing a single comment's thread from:
RE: Game Design Principles I Learned from Fallout Part 2: SPECIAL Abilities
SPECIAL is one of my favourite beginning stat systems for a RPG. Like you said, it is easy and intuitive to understand and use.
In many cases, SPECIAL is abstracted out by other layers.
Actually, I think that this is pretty realistic. One can have a natural talent for something, but training and experience will always make you better or at least make up for the deficit!
Abstraction isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it's something to consider when you're looking at a game.
Fallout does a good job of explaining its formulas, but in almost every case where you might use Strength the Strength input is crunched down to a magic number.