» Sun May 05, 2013 9:44 am Heya all, I need ideas.
I enjoy playing through RPGs with screenshots and keeping a journal. I mostly do this on a larger scale with The Elder Scrolls, and on a single-game basis with Fallout. This is because since 'magic' and methods of immortality, with hurdled its possible to pretend you are playing the same character from Arena all the way to Skyrim. Obviously, this is impossible with the Fallout series. You can also play as a family line in TES, and while not impossible, its difficult to do in Fallout.
However, I really want to do a Legacy playthrough from Fallout to New Vegas, and into whatever Fallout 4 turns out to be.
So, I need help with building ideas up into something I can play, and playstyle ideas.
Intially, I considered a ghoul as a player character, but sadly there are no mods that allow this for FO1 and 2. Plus, I don't fancy the idea. A family line is possible, but the connection may aswell not exist, for all the distance between the characters. I need a solid, common link between the playthroughs beyond the setting and factions. Has anyone got any ideas?
I'm also a little concerned about choosing character ideas i'll stick with. I can't even count how many abandoned/'postsponed' playthroughs of Fallout 2, Fallout 3 and New Vegas I have where i've just lost interest in roleplaying the character. I love the Brotherhood of Steel for example, but playing as a boy/girlscout member is pretty damn dull after days of roleplaying it. I'm all for morally ambigious characters, but slavers have never interested me. The problems differ by game, too, however. i alos find that just starting and letting the character 'find themselves' is rarely a sucess.
Fallout 1 is pretty short, and I have no issue playign standard out-of-his-element Vault Dweller.
Fallout 2 is where I start hitting problems. The isometric view has always given me issues when it comes to roleplaying, and I start falling into the trap of having no actual character behind the characters choices, and I start minmaxing and choosing the most boring and standard choices because they are the most efficent/expected from a gameplay standpoint. For example, all the interesting mature stuff in New Reno? By that point a character is generally somewhat well off, in good armor, with a good weapon, and decent abilities... so there is no drive/motive behind doing something for roleplaying reasons because they no longer fit the character by this point in the game. I also have issues thinking up interesting character concepts, as i'm unsure about what actual choices I have. I know you can joint he Brotherhood, but in one complete playthrough and around eight aborted ones, i've never found any other pleasing options. Such as actually joining the Enclave.
Fallout 3 is where i've had the most success. The problem here is that in over a thousand hours of play time i've exausted a lot of styles. I've been the intelligent young man who becomes the Rothschild to Sarah's Lyons. I've been the slick hitman/agent taken under the wing of Burke. I've been the wasteland doctor taking after his father, just wandering, questing and doing good with a magnum at his hip. That i've not been is the borderline-raider, but i'm not sure how easy it would be to roleplay it, and reckon it would be a challenge... and thus my most solid idea about all this so far. Broken by fleeing the Vault, her fathers death, Amata's betrayal, and then ending up in the Pitt.
New Vegas I actually get spoiled for choice, and bored by the opening stretch. The main quest up until choosing your faction allegiance somehow bores me to tears, even if I skip half of it. And half of the interesting stuff doesn't happen for potentially weeks of playtime with the way I roleplay, due to the way the game is designed. I often start with a character concept in mind but it generics its way away as I arrive on the Strip and realise i'm not enjoying the experiance. I generally get around this by having the character decide the chip isn't important or that chasing your killers is a bad idea. I also have to admit, I find there is a little too much freedom for my liking, in that I like to base my characters motivations around what is happening around them, while acting the every day person.
This... doesn't work in NV because aside from getting shot in the head, which for a normal person is not motivation to try for an encore, there is nothing driving a character to start with. No factions you can easily join, to give them purpose. I found 'find Dad' in FO3 to be a very powerful motivation for doing things. I flounder when dropped in the Mojave and left to it. Also partially because of how orderly the Mojave is. The BoS is a hidden bunker that will turn a sensible character off from joining them immediatly, if they even find them. The NCR is portrayed as corrupt and overextended, and you can't actually become a Veteran Ranger by definition. The Enclave, Isn't. The Legion is never fleshed out, and even if not playing a female, come across as puppy kicking evil. House is a prat and offers no real motive for joining him aside from vague promises and greed. One idea I had was to 'carry over' a FO3 Wanderer whose backstory had been established byt he previous game, sent West to scout by Lyons, his motive being to seek out the Movaje branch of the BoS. But... that would require me to actually get through and find interesting another 'good guy' playthrough of FO3.
I don't generally feel constrained to follow the strict plots of the games, in Bethesda titles. Clever posing, selective ignoring of what certain characters say, and mods/consoles codes allow for very interesting playthroughs. Such as actually joining the Enclave, rather than killing them. Taking over the Pitt as opposed to simply choosing who has Marie. But for a Legacy playthrough I like to keep things in line with the 'story' set out by the writers, so a future game doesn't contradict whats played out previously.
Has anyone actually found a way to play a Legacy playthrough? And has anyone ran into the same hurdles? Wow, this turned out a lot longer than I expected, I must be more frustrated than i expected. I hope I get some reponses, because this took a while to write...
