Here's a thing about me: I get notions. In RPGs, I get very specific images in my head of who I'm playing and how I'm playing them. It'll be a cold day in hell before you catch me using anything but a revolver and light armour in New Vegas, or dual flintlock pistols (and light armour) in Pillars of Eternity. These are the tools that seem coolest to use, so I stick with them, more or less in perpetuity.
Which is a real drag if you happen to be New Vegas and Pillars of Eternity director (and Obsidian design director) Josh Sawyer, who has spent a decent chunk of his career trying to design armour systems that compel players to make interesting decisions. In a recent video—which is well worth watching in full to get Sawyer's thoughts on, for instance, where Avowed succeeded and failed with its armour system—Sawyer noted that one of the things that makes it hard to design an armour system he thinks is interesting is, well, players like me.
Sawyer cites Darklands, an early-'90s historical RPG, as a touchstone for his armour ponderings. In Darklands, armour works according to a kind of rock-paper-sci...
English (US)