Joe Martin plays through classic RPG Fallout 2 with a character of the lowest possible intelligence: "Confidently, I lead Al out of his village, ignoring the hurled insults by the useless NPCs and staying focused on my destination; Klamath. The nearby town is the first stop everyone makes in Fallout 2 and I know it’s where I can learn the valuable Gecko Skinning skill and recruit my first follow. Except I can’t." — Is "min-minning" a thing?

  • HahTse

    Good times.

  • http://plagmada.org Tim H

    People have been doing this with Dwarf Fortress for years, “Okay, I’m starting out with seven dwarves with only one having a skill, Architecture, at minimum level.  They share one pick axe and have no wood… etc”.

  • http://twitter.com/_m4tth3w_ Matthew Wong

    Yes, there are Dark Souls players to do complete runs without increasing their character stats at all. Just to make the game that much harder. 

  • Alex Copeland

    Arcanum, which shares many similarities with Fallout 1 & 2, allows for this. Idiot savant characters are pretty fun, actually.

    • Thad Boyd

       Oh man I LOVED my Half-Ogre/Pit Fight Vet character in Arcanum.

      How did that opening journal entry go?  Something like “Silly nome die and give me ring and say give it to boy. Him silly. And ded.”

  • ZikZak

    Uh?

  • nnguyen

    This has been done in traditional RPGs for decades, the earliest I can recall was trying to complete games like Final Fantasy 7 while keeping levels as low as possible, stealing items and then running away before dying, so you don’t end up “accidentally” gaining levels while still having enough Phoenix Downs to survive mandatory boss fights.

    • zarray

      I’ve seen low score Mario and Kirby videos too. Also a lower score in nethack is more desirable since mass hand genociding and Groundhog Day loop killing of the Wizard is easier than a pacifist run. 

  • nox

    Fallout tells you very quickly and humorously  that a rock-stupid character is a bad idea.  Unfortunately, dialogue lines out of the starting city weren’t well developed for this type of character, so it quickly gets boring.

  • srose278

    I remember Nintendo Power printing a monthly list of people who had beaten The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time with just 3 heart containers and (possibly?) 0 deaths. I never really got into playing games in this fashion, but I can see the playback appeal for a well-played and well-loved game.

  • Laurence Myers

    People are missing the point, this isn’t about challenging yourself with a low-stat run, this is showing just how good the writing was in Fallout 2. Almost every conversation is changed to take into account your poor conversational skills, so it almost feels like a different story, rather than the same story with harder action.

  • JhmL

    I miss my prize fighter pron star lesbian mafioso lover pill popping shot gun wedded friends to slavery selling pack rat. Oh and I miss FO2 as well. :)