... what kind of origin story would you make?

Anything would honestly be better than being a vault dweller again. Whether your settlement gets ransacked and destroyed by Legion, you have been raised and brainwashed by the Enclave feeding you propaganda since you were a child, you are part of a nomadic tribe of survivors and ghouls constantly wandering the wasteland and looking for suitable shelter. The possibilities are endless, yet we receive essentially the same origin story we had in Fallout 3. As someone mentioned in another thread, it appears BGS is trying to make the "vault dweller origin" anologous to the "prisoner origin" in all TES titles. I suppose it's fine, but they could at least try and shake it up a bit more. Obviously vaults and vault-tec are one of the major themes of Fallout and the connection to the old world versus the new one.

I'd make my character a courier whose wasteland adventure begins when a delivery goes awry.

Ehhh. Vault Dwelling is just a pretty good backstory.

I'm sure they'll be a alternative start mod like on Skyrim...At least on PC more then likely.

Well vault dweller is one of the one good ways to show a glimpse of prewar/postwar side by side. Beth has mentioned they wanted to do this. I honestly thought the randomness of NV waking up after being shot was really weak

The protagonist was eaten by a behemoth at a young age but the behemoth failed to digest the child and so the child lived in its belly for 20 years until it got bored and decided to make its way out. The game starts out in the stomach and you have to crawl your way through the intestine to... Well, the exit. Once you plop down in a bathtub reconstructed to act as a toilet for the beast you are flushed down into the long forgotten sewers and begin the real tutorial where at the end you will become the king of the sentient psyker-rats and invade the top-side world with your rodent army.

Seriously though, the protagonist should just be some guy/gal. Mercenary, courier, scavenger, doesn't matter what it is. Just anything but a vault dweller. It was overdone in Fallout 3 by being the second time rehashing a protagonist origin story and it's far worse by now in Fallout 4.

I understand wanting to get a before and after picture to show why the world is the way it is after the bombs dropped. I just find it hard to believe BGS couldn't have tried to be a bit more original in their approach. I actually didn't mind NV's approach other than it may have been a bit over the top as you literally get shot in the head the moment the game begins. However, NV did provide motive and drive the story forward rather assertively unlike Fallout 3 where I wasn't really motivated to find "dad." My only major gripe is how you receive the pipboy in NV. However, it's much more plausible how you receive in in NV unlike in Fallout 4 (find a working pipboy off a 200 year old skeleton in the vault).

They wouldn't have pipboys...

Oh, I like that. No more Pip-Boys.

Agreed to an extent that it seems somewhat "played out" at this point, however it doesn't look like we'll be spending much actual play time in the vault as someone else posted regarding out XP when coming out and finding the pipboy. We very well could see a "ok hunny, let's hop in these pods and wake up to a better world after this fallout settles" -closes eyes- cue explosion -get out of vault immediately, kind of things. I may not LOVE the idea of being a vault dweller again but I understand why they did it

I wouldn't mind starting outside the vault. My character would have been born and raised by raiders or the Followers

That could be the opening sequence. Rather than life in and escape from the vault. Our story begins with an altercation with a vaultdweller with a pipboy.

Some kind of Tribal, I suppose. Like in F2

That would make for an interesting opening.

FALLOUT 5

It does allow you to not know the lay of the land. You could be form another section of the country but you would have at least a basic idea how things work then. It OK for me. Isolated techie group might work also.

You don't start as a vault dweller. You start as a military veteran living in the pre-war world. Then later on, I don't know how far later on, you become a vault dweller.

VERY early on. We see in the E3 trailer when equipping the pipboy that we have no XP and level 1. Prewar & whatever experience in vault seem to be tutorial/look at old world filler

Why no more Pipboys? You find a vault and a Skeleton. All the Skeletons have a Pipboy. You take it. You now have a Pipboy.

Its really no different that the Doc in Goodsprings giving you his old Pipboy. Otherwise you wouldnt have one in that game either.

In regards to playing as coming from a Vault, its obviously done so the player/characters has no knoweldge about where they will come out to. The towns, the important people etc. Its easier to have npcs in game explain what the power pyramid is like, why a character dosnt want to visit the cannibal town etc. Otherwise a character would already know about such things.. and thus the player should know.

Its one of the areas where NV suffered because logically the character should know all about Novac, and Boulder City etc but we get it explain by dialogue in game ..etc.

Emerging from a Vault is really the only way to get the blank slate.

Certainly not the ONLY way, but it works.

I think it is fine, the Vault-theme is so associated with the franchise, and it gives a useful plot reason to 'start from scratch'.

New Vegas 'cheated' by giving the Courier a Pip Boy and Vault Suit and kind of got away with it, with the 'shot in the head' opening.

It's been 7 years since FO3, so it's ok to re-emerge from a Vault, and the old/new world give it a new twist.

Escaped slave would be cool (or maybe you start as a slave and escape during the intro). Starting out as a raider (and it's your choice to mend your ways or continue to be crazy and murderous) or tribal would be cool, or even just a random schlub from some little settlement so you can get a more personal look at how people live in the wasteland.

Ooh, or maybe you start as a guy/lady with amnesia and its your goal to put together the past by following clues and by doing so you learn that you uncovered some kind of wrong doing that you must stop for the sake of everybody or simply vengeance. You can choose to embrace your past or forget it and forge a new path.

I like how this is the first character from the Pre-War era, but because s/he lived in a vault in a cryo-chamber, that's not unique enough. Seriously? People will find everything they can to complain about. I understand many of you were underwhelmed by FO3's story, I certainly was, but this one is definitely different and interesting. Between it's not fallout enough, to it changes too much/little, this is seriously a whiny group of people. We don't know what the story is about at all, and we are not going to find out much between now and release, but after listening to the voice actors, I don't believe that it is as poorly thought out as FO3. We do know we are supposed to be getting a true fish out of water experience.

Not sure how many people played the Video game version of Twilight 2000 , but it had a rather neat background story generator. It also dealt with a very similar premise. I don't think I ever got very far in the game, but I did enjoy making characters. Also Daggerfall's was pretty sweet. It doesn't have to be fancy, to work. So they could do it. I just don't see it happening. They want to be able to control the plot flow. But that's what you have an imagination for (and a (GE)Creation Kit.

Since I will likely start as a female in Fallout 4, going to go with USO Entertainer. Natalie Sarkowzi, Magician. Traveled extensively to entertain the troops during the Annexation of Canada, saw the brutality of war first Hand. Escaped from Canadian Separatists when they captured her during a matinee showing in Ontario. Met the male protagonist at some point and they married. Now they are both living the dream!

Likely High agility, Charisma and Perception. I will refine it more when I get the game.