The final distinct layer of Fallout's character system are the derived attributes that are found on the character sheet.

These are a variety of things that influence a character's actions, but they tend to differ from the contents of the three other layers in a number of ways.

Before reading this, you should check out Part 1, where I define and explain many of the terms I'm going to use. Once you've read that, you can go through the series in order or appreciate this entry without having any prior knowledge of the other parts.

Miscellaneous Statistics

It's worth noting that I consider this type of layer distinctively different from the scalar layers of SPECIAL and Skills–in which each value has a number within a shared scale–and the Perk and Traits tag layer–in which there are a finite number of individually distinct elements which are not defined primarily by a numerical value.

This is a mixed layer; it contains (in the original Fallout) 13 elements, and in later games the number of derived attributes ranges from many as 18 (in New Vegas, arguably the most mechanically complex game of the series), to as few as 9 (in Fallout 4, arguably the least mechanically complex game of the series).

The distinction here that makes it a mixed layer is that each individual element functions on a different mechanical level; each of the skills has its own distinctive use, but the numbers remain the similar. Each SPECIAL attribute has its own distinctive use, but likewise the numbers remain similar.

In this miscellaneous layer, most elements are dissimilar from each other. Each has its own formula (a list of the derived statistics and their formulas can be found on the Fallout Wiki)

Cognitive Impact

The strength of this layer is that it permits a simple cognitive understanding of a complex set of rules. In theory none of the derived attributes need to be shown to the player, and even their effects could be abstracted out of play entirely. One of the things that I think of when I think of this is a game like Morrowind, which has things like player move speed and jump height that are abstracted from the player; they may know that their Speed or Agility has increased, but they don't have a transparent value for the player to reference.

In Fallout, these pieces are made directly visible to the player, and grouped together. This has two important features, and they're each worth discussing at length.

Visibility vs. Invisibility

One of the odd things about game design is that a lot of the work that goes into making mechanics work can be hidden. This is more common in video games than in tabletop roleplaying games, like those that defined Fallout, so I think that a lot of the decision to have these miscellaneous attributes clearly displayed is a result of that heritage, but there are a lot of more deliberate reasons to clearly communicate most elements of a game.

Obviously in competitive play, more data means more ability to compete. This is not necessarily a desired effect; in a lightly competitive game that is intended to have a low skill floor, you may choose to have some uncertainty to level the playing field, though expert players will come up with a good enough estimate of how mechanics are working without having that information provided to them, given enough time and enough consistency.

However, in a single-player game, the number one reason to show or hide particular information comes down to whether or not it assists the player in making informed decisions. In Fallout, the derived attributes include things like Hit Points (important, since when your run out, you die), Carry Weight (important, because you want to know when you'll exceed it), and Sequence (how quickly you move in combat).

It's worth noting that there are games that do hide many of these elements, either on a per-element basis or entirely. Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead, for instance, chooses to make the main character's health only vaguely available to the player unless they have a particular ability.

In Fallout, the derived attributes that are shown to the player are predominantly important in combat, which makes them a quick-reference for surviving one of the most common ways to die (and most of the remaining elements involve survival as well), which is important because without these players have a really hard time making good decisions about risks.

There aren't many hidden values for the player character in Fallout, again, due to its heritage, and this makes for a game that has no surprises for the player. However, there are limits on what the player can perceive in other character's derived attributes.

For instance, by default the player doesn't know an enemy's Hit Points, though they can guess at many of the other values by comparison to their own character: an enemy with a better Armor Class is harder to hit, an enemy who moves before the PC has a higher Sequence.

This, along with the random number system that governs combat success chances, makes the game feel more risky and adds a thrill to combat. It also adds, for instance, the opportunity to have a perk that shows HP of enemies to give the player more information as a reward for developing their character in a certain way.

Another reason to have invisible elements that would reside in this layer or elsewhere as loose mechanics is to reduce the cognitive load of the player. Information based on the elements' impacts in play can still be considered, but it is not flagged as important by design and it is only available as a rough estimate unless players use out-of-game methods to acquire a more exact representation of the element.

Grouping

It is worth noting that it is theoretically possible to consider each of these elements as a layer in its own right, but this is cognitively unhelpful for players. Especially since the derived attributes in Fallout all have a uniform goal–keeping the PC alive–it makes sense to create an intentional association between them so that they can be remembered more easily (storing information in structures assists memory formation).

In addition, the grouping has an additional benefit in game structure; presenting the information to the player is made more simple by keeping it in one place consistently, and agglomerating loose elements makes it easier to consistently place them. In tabletop roleplaying games, this is critical due to the need for every rule to be expressed in print that is also reference-ready, but in video games this still has the benefit of allowing code structuring and UI development that is intuitive for the player.

What Fallout Does Right

• Easily accessible important information.

One of the things about the miscellaneous stats layer in Fallout is that they make it transparent; all the formulas are displayed in-game as well, which is very helpful for players.

• Avoiding needless scale standardization.

For a moment, let's consider the agony that would be every derived statistic being a number from 1-10 because that's how SPECIAL worked. In the early days of computing, it was actually possible that a video game would wind up with formulas that were limited by technical limitations, but I've seen designs that try to keep all the numbers consistent when there's no logical reason to do so (in my own work too, sadly), and it's something that is an easily overlooked pitfall.

• Using distinct elements to power mechanics, rather than calculations.

Theoretically, you could get away with never having any of the derived statistics stored as a value in memory or ever presenting them to the player. Within Fallout's design, everything that feeds into the derived statistics can be calculated in a flash without needing any set and fixed value.

This is, again, something that a less transparent game like Morrowind does with a lot of behind the scenes stuff (which, admittedly, is a concession to its real-time and 3D game universe), but in Fallout having these exposed values is necessary to let the player make educated decisions; they wouldn't necessarily be something that the player can intuit from observation.

What Fallout Does Wrong

I'll just jump to the good part here: I think Fallout handles this sublimely. There are potential issues, but they're avoided.

With that said, there are a few potential pitfalls here:

I've seen people duplicate unaltered information in a derived statistics layer (e.g. one thing goes directly into a derived statistic). Even if you have information from one layer that's altered by another (e.g. a Perk that boosts a SPECIAL attribute), it's generally not necessary to create a duplicate stored element. In video games this is definitely unnecessary, though in tabletop roleplaying games it may be valid to help players remember information: the third edition of Dungeons and Dragons has character sheets available that have tons of boxes for recording different factors in the same calculation, making it easier to calculate and adjust derived statistics as needed.

Another issue can be over-deriving elements. You want at least a few elements in the derived statistics layer if you're going to have one at all, but having too many results in slowed and incomprehensible play. I'm a fan of spreadsheet-based combat systems in video games, where you might have a hundred values that the player can look at to show different types of elemental damage and whatnot, but if your players aren't into the intricacies of game design you can ostracize them very quickly with over-mechanized play.

Wrapping Up

Fallout stores important information in a miscellaneous statistics layer that allows it to be presented to the player.

Although many of these mechanics are parallel between PC and NPC elements in the game system, the player mainly gets to see the derived statistics relevant to their own character.

This layer provides a key part of the game's cognitive layout in the player's mind, which is a necessary part of presenting information in a way that permits agency and decision making.

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You can find Part 2 of this series through this link, Part 3 through this one, and Part 4 here.