One thing that really impressed me with our running RPG of the year, Esoteric Ebb, is how it handles failure and save scumming. We have all been there—abusing a game's save/load feature just to force a desired result. While we all feel a bit guilty about it, the practice risks ruining the stakes of a story and making the player feel invincible.

Esoteric Ebb does a genuinely good job of showing players interesting, cool things when they fail. These are scenes that I wanted to remain part of my story rather than being erased via metagaming intervention. To facilitate this, the game provides an in-game resource called Shards of Jor to reroll failed checks, which is much faster than reloading a save.

A Tutorial on Why You Shouldn't Save Scum

I asked designer Christoffer Bodegård for his thoughts on this design problem following the game's launch. Bodegally believes in allowing players to "design their own experience," even if they are a "bad designer" who flees from consequence.

"I usually go with, 'Just let them go wild,'" Bodegård told me. He noted that if the player is having fun, it isn't a problem. He isn't there to be offended as your dungeon master; if a DM is dealing with a table that won't play by the rules, "maybe that's not the table's fault, necessarily."

In the second room of Esoteric Ebb, players encounter an impossible challenge specifically designed to discourage reloading. A mysterious character presents a DC 33 Wisdom check—a practically impossible feat—to deduce their true agenda.

If you fail, you can retry using a Shard of Jor, and subsequent story revelations will lower the DC. While succeeding leads to a major sidequest, there are other ways to progress.

"It's a tutorial on how to play the game," said Bodegård. "Which is: Don't save scum, just let it happen, and you will be taken care of. I am your DM, trust me. I don't always succeed perfectly, but I do it enough that you should be able to trust me."

Building an Illusion of Agency in Esoteric Ebb

Bodegård also uses early-game roadblocks to ensure players feel progress even through failure. A primary example is the magically sealed tea shop crime scene at the center of the game's mystery. You won't succeed the first time, but the game provides multiple paths to entry:

  • Using a Strength check that becomes easier as you progress.
  • Utilizing spells like Knock or Grease to manipulate the environment.
  • Finding a password from the Coinlord.
  • Using high Intelligence to guess the code.

Bodegård admitted these considerations are "stolen from Fallout, obviously, like all good things." Ultimately, these mechanics work together to build an illusion of agency within his structured narrative.

"The player feels like they can actually do whatever they want," said Bodegård. "I try my best to not break that illusion."