TheRetroArcade
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Joined: Feb 2026
Joined: Feb 2026
You never know where things will lead.
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It's not overstating things to say Tim Cain is a legend among PC RPG fans. The man's got credits on a roster of games that would make other developers green with envy: Stonekeep, Fallout, Arcanum, ToEE, Pillars of Eternity, and more. And it all began, as he recounted in his most recent video, because he out-nerded the other guy.
Cain played a lot of tabletop RPGs in his early days, which probably comes as no surprise: He developed a love for D&D in his early youth and carried it with him through college and as he pursued a PhD.
"In the evening, I'd often play tabletop RPGs with grad school friends of mine because we didn't have any money, so we couldn't do anything," Cain recounts in his latest video. "So we were kind of stuck in the student housing there. So we played a lot of games, including GURPS, which is where I learned it."
Knowing GURPS "became important later," Cain says in the vid, because GURPS—the Generic Universal Roleplaying System developed by Steve Jackson Games—was originally intended as the underlying ruleset for Fallout, before licensing issues led to the creation of the SPECIAL system. Before all of that, though, a different system proved even more important to Cain's career trajectory.
After deciding to leave grad school, Cain sent his resume to Interplay, apparently because it was to where he lived. He was eventually hired as a contractor, he says, because "they asked me if I knew THAC0," and boy did he ever.
THAC0 is kind of famous as the best-known of the most-derided old-timey D&D rules. It's the number a character has to roll on a D20 to hit an enemy whose armor class is zero, which is adjusted during combat based on an enemy's actual armor class. Here's a quick breakdown if you're curious, but the short version is that it was a cumbersome system, made even more confusing by the fact that a lower armor class was better, and you'd often have cases where characters would have negative ACs, leading to all kinds of math headaches.
The system was dropped in D&D's third edition, but not before one last, great hurrah in the original Baldur's Gate games—and, as it turns out, helping Tim Cain get a job, opening the door to all that followed.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
"They were down to me and another prog...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
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When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
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Every Friday
GamesRadar+
Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them.
Every Thursday
GTA 6 O'clock
Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.
Every Friday
Knowledge
From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.
Every Thursday
The Setup
Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.
Every Wednesday
Switch 2 Spotlight
Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo's new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play.
Every Saturday
The Watchlist
Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we've got you covered.
Once a month
SFX
Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month!
It's not overstating things to say Tim Cain is a legend among PC RPG fans. The man's got credits on a roster of games that would make other developers green with envy: Stonekeep, Fallout, Arcanum, ToEE, Pillars of Eternity, and more. And it all began, as he recounted in his most recent video, because he out-nerded the other guy.
Cain played a lot of tabletop RPGs in his early days, which probably comes as no surprise: He developed a love for D&D in his early youth and carried it with him through college and as he pursued a PhD.
"In the evening, I'd often play tabletop RPGs with grad school friends of mine because we didn't have any money, so we couldn't do anything," Cain recounts in his latest video. "So we were kind of stuck in the student housing there. So we played a lot of games, including GURPS, which is where I learned it."
Knowing GURPS "became important later," Cain says in the vid, because GURPS—the Generic Universal Roleplaying System developed by Steve Jackson Games—was originally intended as the underlying ruleset for Fallout, before licensing issues led to the creation of the SPECIAL system. Before all of that, though, a different system proved even more important to Cain's career trajectory.
After deciding to leave grad school, Cain sent his resume to Interplay, apparently because it was to where he lived. He was eventually hired as a contractor, he says, because "they asked me if I knew THAC0," and boy did he ever.
THAC0 is kind of famous as the best-known of the most-derided old-timey D&D rules. It's the number a character has to roll on a D20 to hit an enemy whose armor class is zero, which is adjusted during combat based on an enemy's actual armor class. Here's a quick breakdown if you're curious, but the short version is that it was a cumbersome system, made even more confusing by the fact that a lower armor class was better, and you'd often have cases where characters would have negative ACs, leading to all kinds of math headaches.
The system was dropped in D&D's third edition, but not before one last, great hurrah in the original Baldur's Gate games—and, as it turns out, helping Tim Cain get a job, opening the door to all that followed.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
"They were down to me and another prog...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?