Playground Games founder Ralph Fulton had confirmed last week that Fable will have a more nuanced take on morality than the franchise has previously attempted. This means that, rather than “good” and “evil” choices, players’ actions will be judged by the game’s NPCs depending on their own personalities. In an interview with GamesRadar, Fulton spoke about the decision to go with nuance, and how it stemmed from there not really being anything in the real world that could be universally seen as good or evil.
“We talked about how it kind of felt like some games had moved on in a more sophisticated way to discuss morality,” Fulton explained. “And certainly, when we looked at the world, there’s no objective good, there’s no objective evil. I think there’s nothing you could do in the world that would unite everybody in the belief that it was good or evil, right? It’s entirely subjective, and I think that’s also really interesting. It’s certainly interesting as a game system, and that’s kind of what we’ve pursued.”
When it comes to nuanced morality systems, games have largely opted for more binary representations of actions that are good or evil. However, there have been some notable exceptions, especially in the RPG genre. BioWare’s Dragon Age series, for instance, has often focused on having its morality system revolve around the thoughts and opinions of your companions.
“We’ve pursued a much more shades of gray approach to morality, where the things you do are the things you do, and if you do them enough, or if enough people see you doing them, you’ll gain a reputation in that particular settlement, that particular area of the world, for doing that thing,” Fulton continued. This reputation-based morality system, he noted, “is more probably representative of how morality exists in the world that we live in today.”
Fulton had previously noted that Fable wouldn’t be using a “sliding scale” for its morality system. Just last week, he described the in-game system as being “anchored around the actions you do.”
“So, if the things you do are seen by one or more people, you’ll start to earn a reputation for that thing. Obviously, we always use the chicken kicking example, because kicking chickens is classic Fable,” he explained. “It’s a more potential-filled system for you to go play with, because you are juggling the things you do, and you’re juggling who sees you do it. You’re deciding whether you’re OK with walking around the town with people thinking that you’re that.”
Fable is being developed for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, and is set for release this year. For more details, here’s how the RPG will feature 1,000 handcrafted NPCs in its world, how that meant the environment art team had to make beds for all of them, and why its world will be smaller than Forza Horizon game. Also check out why the new reputation-based morality system will no longer morph your character’s body, unlike the previous entries in the Fable franchise.