Josh Sawyer, the director of Fallout: New Vegas and Pentiment, has outlined a design philosophy that favors restriction and difficult decision-making over the player-empowerment models common in many modern RPGs. As reports circulate regarding his involvement in a new Fallout project at Obsidian Entertainment, these comments offer insight into how he approaches player agency.

Quick Facts

  • Josh Sawyer is reportedly directing a new, unannounced Fallout game at Obsidian.
  • The director argues against design that allows players to "save everyone" or "fix everything."
  • Sawyer previously removed a Fallout: New Vegas quest objective that allowed players to make peace with the Brotherhood of Steel while siding with Mr. House to force a more difficult moral choice.
  • His approach centers on creating "human problems" where players must reconcile with the reality that some outcomes are beyond their control.

The Philosophy of Imperfect Choices

In a recent appearance on The Examined Game, Sawyer addressed the tendency for RPGs to condition players to believe they can influence every outcome in a game world. He finds this lack of friction uninteresting. "I save everyone, I kill everyone. I don't think that's particularly interesting," Sawyer stated. "I don't think that makes players interrogate their values, either their own or the character that they're playing."

Instead, Sawyer prefers scenarios where players are forced to live with their choices, even when those choices feel inadequate. He points to his work on Pentiment as an example, where players must navigate a murder mystery without receiving a concrete answer regarding the true culprit. This design choice forces the player to sit with the ambiguity of their actions.

Applying Restraint to Fallout and Beyond

Sawyer has a history of implementing these constraints to steer player behavior. In Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire, he noted that the team intentionally telegraphed that the god Eothas was beyond the player's physical power to defeat, despite players often expecting to be able to overcome any challenge in an RPG setting.

This design approach also informed the development of Fallout: New Vegas. Sawyer highlighted a specific instance where he removed an objective that would have allowed players to ally with both Mr. House and the Brotherhood of Steel. By forcing the player to destroy the Brotherhood to proceed with House’s path, the game compelled players to weigh the moral cost of their allegiance.

"So many problems are just human problems," Sawyer said. "They're like part of the reality of life, and being a human being, and living on this planet with other people right now. And even in a fantastic world, there are going to be powers that are beyond you and things that you can't overwhelm."

While Sawyer has previously noted that his directorial role on Fallout: New Vegas was a result of "pure luck" at Obsidian, his current focus appears to be on evolving these RPG mechanics to challenge players further in his future projects.