Fallout RPG history and development on YouTube (mostly Black Isle, post links to others)

[Nano]

The first two methods allow re-arrangement with substantially higher scores, the third disallows re-arrangement but has an extremely high score distribution, and the fourth allows the player to select freely from 12 characters created with the original method (thus achieving a substantially higher score, if the character with the highest average is chosen).

Wow, method 3 was actually officially supported? That looks way OP.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Wow, method 3 was actually officially supported? That looks way OP.

Those four methods are directly from the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Masters Guide (1979) written by Gary Gygax, on page 11. In AD&D, the 3d6 method was now intended only for NPCs, with an exception for particularly powerful or notable figures in the setting, where Gary recommended that the DM arbitrarily select high ability scores. For PC ability score generation, Gary recommended the four methods as listed in my first post in this thread. The drawback of Method III, relative to the other three methods, is that the player is stuck with whatever score is rolled for each ability, but it does provide an extraordinarily high average score, almost exactly 2 higher than the 4d6 method. In Unearthed Arcana (1985), Gary presented a Method V with an average score not too much below Method III (13.8 versus 14.2) but with the benefit of a varying number of dice rolled for each ability score in a way that was advantageous for whichever character class the player had selected.

 

[MicoSelva]

Added this video to the list:

 

[MicoSelva]

Added Leonard's Boyarsky's talk at SINFO 24 to the list.

 

[koyota]

Matt Chat is brilliant, he`s a stereotypical 80`s tabletop RPG nerd (Even the look) that has just never changed.
Dude has been doing youtube for 12+ years and makes great content, deserves more views.

 

[MicoSelva]

koyota All videos you posted had already been added to the playlist.

I have added Matt's recent interview with Michael Cranford (Bard's Tale) to the list.



EDIT: and also this interview from a month ago (which I have yet to see so it might not be as relevant).



And if you are interested in Bard's Tale history, I also recommend this GDC talk (obviously, some info overlaps between the videos).

 

[MicoSelva]

Added this video about Van Buren to the list (MCA and JS took part in it).

 

[anvi]

EverQuest channel made by former developer:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFl_3ktLNPYUeicLmhSvB1Q/videos

 

[MicoSelva]

Added this video to the list. A lot of it is repeated stuff, but there is also surprising amount of new information about Leonard Boyarsky's and Tim Cain's early days and Fallout 1 development, including spicy details about Tim Cain's first D&D session.

Tim Cain played D&D first with...

...his mom...

...and...

...a bunch of navy officers.

 

[MicoSelva]

Added inXile's 20th anniversary video to the list.

 

[MicoSelva]

Former Bioware designer Mark Darrah has his own YouTube channel now, and he posts some insights into development of various games from the studio's history. I've added them to the RPG history playlist on YT.

Here's a few examples:

 

[anvi]

That's a lot of expertise and I bet nobody in the industry watches them.

 

[Nazrim Eldrak]

That's a lot of expertise and I bet nobody in the industry watches them.

This could even possibly be true.

I would argue that most programmers and designers are a self-centered bunch who think they are so special in their thoughts and ideas that they don't need advice.

And then there are those who like to make mistakes, like those who use their position in industry to gain their own experience and thus produce redundant mistakes that their colleagues have made in the past.

Ego sucks ass advice unless you're experienced or respect the knowledge of the experienced veterans without having to like them!
That may hurt the developers, but I'll say it. As a customer, I'm not interested in your ego, but whether I enjoy your product.

Edit:
I'm only interested in ego for developers who don't sell their game or mod, in which case the person might be interested in boosting their ego.
And if I like their work, I say so, and if I don't, I criticize with the utmost respect, unless I can tell the person has thick skin and doesn't mind a few nicely meant, harsh words.

 

[Bester]

That's a lot of expertise and I bet nobody in the industry watches them.

I love Baldur's Gate and I'll listen to anything related to this game. And I'm a developer. But this guy really contributes nothing of interest or usefulness in his video on BG1 and now I won't watch others.

Not only that, he misinforms people by rehashing the myth of "Baldur's Gate saved the RPG genre" and how the "RPGs were dead". Conveniently ignoring the existence of Daggerfall, MM VI, Fallout 1 AND 2, all of which came out before BG1.

The only thing I learned from this 23 min video:
- BG1 released in Debug mode, because Release crashed - okay, a single sentence of nice trivia
- They crunched a lot on BG1

Not worth 23 minutes.

 

[Nazrim Eldrak]

Not worth 23 minutes.

It's part of the game's history, which makes the videos worth watching if you're serious about "I love Baldur's Gate and I'll listen to anything related to this game".
I'm glad you watched at least the first video.

 

[MicoSelva]

Added this recently-restored video to the list, with some insights into Planescape: Torment development straight from MCA himself.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

That's a lot of expertise and I bet nobody in the industry watches them.

This could even possibly be true.

I would argue that most programmers and designers are a self-centered bunch who think they are so special in their thoughts and ideas that they don't need advice.

And then there are those who like to make mistakes, like those who use their position in industry to gain their own experience and thus produce redundant mistakes that their colleagues have made in the past.

Ego sucks ass advice unless you're experienced or respect the knowledge of the experienced veterans without having to like them!
That may hurt the developers, but I'll say it. As a customer, I'm not interested in your ego, but whether I enjoy your product.

Edit:
I'm only interested in ego for developers who don't sell their game or mod, in which case the person might be interested in boosting their ego.
And if I like their work, I say so, and if I don't, I criticize with the utmost respect, unless I can tell the person has thick skin and doesn't mind a few nicely meant, harsh words.

Programmers are blue collar workers who do what the PM tells them to do. The PM does what the client tells them to do. And there's one golden rule in software development: the clients are always dumbfuck retards. They do not know anything about any single thing. They just have money and want to make more money because they have their mind in their yearly visit to Thailand rather than what you need or want as a paying customer.

 

[Yosharian]

Added this recently-restored video to the list, with some insights into Planescape: Torment development straight from MCA himself.

Recently restored? You're saying Beamdog took this down then just put it back up?

 

[Yosharian]

MicoSelva it's still unlisted though

 

[MicoSelva]

MicoSelva it's still unlisted though

It was set to "private" until recently. Maybe some day they will move it to public.

Meanwhile, I have added this, also unlisted, Mechajammer video to the list, from back when it was still called Copper Dreams and had a different art style.

 

[Yosharian]

Disgusting behaviour but not surprising from Beamdog, they are fucking wankers

 

[MicoSelva]

I've been adding these new videos from Tim Cain's recently-activated YT channel to the list:

 

[MicoSelva]

I have added this Tim Cain podcast/interview to the list, among a few other videos.