Fallout Co-Creator Lists the Biggest “Sins” of Modern RPGs

Tim Cain — one of the creators of Fallout and The Outer Worlds — has outlined what he believes are the most common mistakes RPG developers keep making. According to him, most of them come down to poorly written NPCs and clumsy storytelling.

One of his most hated design choices, Cain says, is escort missions where the player must protect a helpless companion who constantly gets stuck or blocks the way forward.

The developer offered a simple solution: give the player control — over a vehicle, a robot, or a mech — so that escort gameplay feels meaningful rather than tedious.

Cain is equally critical of “lecture NPCs” who dump lore in long, unskippable dialogue sequences. Such exposition, he says, makes the story feel heavy-handed and lifeless.

In Cain’s view, these RPG “sins” have persisted for decades, even though the fixes are simple. The key, he says, is to remember that players want to interact — not listen endlessly or babysit a dumb NPC stuck in a wall.