Still, I wondered -- if so much of the game is played from an FPS perspective, how could the game's interactions be truly based on White Wolf's intricate system of character statistics and combat rules? After all, if I have a gun, and I'm a pretty good Half-Life player, wouldn't I be able to blow everything out of the way, regardless of what my skill statistics said? Boyarsky and Jason Anderson, Troika's system designer, have tried to anticipate this.

"We can't tell you everything," Boyarsky said, "but your capabilities with firearms are based on your Ranged Combat much more than your twitch-based ability as a player. Brawl and Melee affect your unarmed combat ability in much the same way."

Anderson went on to tell me that while there are certain stats and skills that won't be translated to the game because they don't make sense in a CRPG setting, statistics will definitely be important. A character's Strength score, for example, should determine what objects in the game he can and cannot lift.