I agree with numbers not being the greatest thing since what indeed is the difference between a 4 and a 5 in Strength?
Same goes towards skills, let's use FNV's Speech as an example. It is only used for skill checks which goes in increments of 5 and 10. Meaning that having 24 in speech might as well mean that you got 20 in speech. In my view character skills should not all be handled the same way. Some skills should be up to 100 or maybe even beyond that because they're dealing with dicerolls. Other skills are hard checks and far more limited in the game and should only go up to 10 but each point requires 10 skill points, 10:1.
Now when it comes to primary stats I always think that they should be set in the beginning and then apart from very extreme circumstances (like using high tech machinery to increase your stats by 1 point or spending a perk you get once every third level to increase a stat) that's it, it is set, this is your character going forward. The problem with that is that games have become so incredibly bloated that it takes for fucking ever to finish them so if you make a mistake then it isn't appealing to start over and have to redo maybe 10 hours of gameplay. In my eyes RPG's should be shorter and focus far more on replayability.
As to what the stats mean, in Fallout 1 and 2 when you increase your primary stats you could see your derivative stats in its own box and see the differences it made. Which is why I've always and will always argue for a singular character screen that has a full overview of your character, ESPECIALLY at the start of the game. If you wanna simplify this process then when you increase Strength then you could highlight carryweight in bold green and have it fade out to normal text over 1-2 seconds. Another thing is to make the text for a primary or even derivative statistic change colour depending on how far away it gets from the base value. So if you pick certain stats and traits and perks then your carry weight might start going dark red because of how bad it's getting. A very simple way to inform that player that greeeeeen is gooood, reeeed is baaaad.
However that still doesn't answer what something mean. In a fully dicerolled game where everything is dicrerolled (which I'm fine for for combat but less so for dialogue as you usually only get one chance at dialogue but get multiple chances to attack in combat) then everything counts towards the dicerolls. It would need explanation for how primary stats, derivative stats and skills work together to explain what your chances for a successful roll is still, it works.
In a game that isn't fully dicerolled though that is the question. If the game tells me that 5 is Average, 10 is Maximum potential and 1 is godawful then I know that by putting it at 5 I should be able to pack a normal punch in unarmed combat. I should be able to wield most normal weapons just fine and carry around a decent amount of stuff with me. However, what is the enemy health in the game? How viable is unarmed combat? Why would I care about it when I intend to use firearms? Is there even a STR requirement for wielding weapons? What is the impact on not meeting said STR requirement? Will I get an abundance of perks that will provide me with a convenient perk that lowers STR req for everything? And what about the stuff I can carry with me? What is there in the game to lug around exactly? Will I get fast travel? Will I get access to a car ala Fallout 2 where I can store all my stuff? Do I need to craft things so I need to go back and forth repeatedly?
And that's the problem. You cannot give all of this information to the player right at the start of the game and even if you do, how much can the player trust it? You might say that hacking is very important but it might only be used for fluff terminal entries that give a bit of lore but has no impact on the game itself. You might say that poison is very dangerous but there is only 2 real encounters in the game where poison is ever going to be a danger. (on that note, how does poison work?)
That is why I think that RPG's shouldn't be bloated pieces of shit. They should be relatively fast to complete. Short and concise. 10-20 hours at max. And brimming with replayability. If you screw up your stats and skills you should always be able to complete the game in my eyes, you just might not be able to get the outcomes/endings that you want. So even if the starting character creation screen is intimidating you don't need to worry about it. Play through it once, get a hang of it and then do another character but this time you know what the game is and how it works and create the type of character you want to create.
Simplifying everything isn't better and eventually you'll simplify the RPG out of the series. RPG's unfortunately HAVE TO be intimidating with their character creation screens, ESPECIALLY for a casual audience. But this isn't supposed to cater to a casual audience to begin with. Then again, that's the biggest market innit? If you simplify and streamline something once you WILL do it again until eventually the RPG mechanics are so watered down that they don't mean anything to begin with.
However, you will need to explain what your numbers actually mean. What is the difference between having 17 in Science and 19 in Science? I like how in Arcanum the technical/magic skills go from 1-5 and each rank explains what it gives to you. Same should be said for this. So maybe combat skills go from 1-100 and each point impacts recoil, reload speed, weapon sway etc by 0.5% whereas the other skills go from 1-10 and you can view these ranks to see what each rank unlocks so you know somewhat what to expect from it.
Unfortunately the simplest of answers is this: There isn't a perfect RPG system. If there was one we'd have seen it and everyone and their dog would be emulating it. Every single RPG system I've played has had flaws. And not a single one has prepared me (going in blind) for what the game has in store for me.
That's why I'd argue for shorter games with more replayability. Simplifying and streamlining it will kill RPG's. You won't know what the fuck to expect going into any game, so just wing it, learn it, and replay it with a proper character in mind.
I can't be arsed to proof-read this right now, I don't got time for it so I'll review my post when I get home from work.
TL : DR
Fuck casuals. Stop making RPG's for them.
[edit]
Nah I think I said everything I need to say.
This meme sums it up just fine. Avoid slippery slopes.
