Hey I'm new to these forums so I'm not sure if this thread was done before, but my question is how do some of you go about explaining the pc and their exploits.

Ill use fallout 3 as an example since if was the first fallout I played. How exactly does a 19 year old kid from a vault do what he/she did?

Like do you guys role play that they are genectically different then the people of the wasteland due to their perks (because genetics is the only way I can accept the perk solar powered). Or is it something else.

Myself for example role plays what I stated in the paragraph above, that like people who have that x-factor gene to become ghouls the PC has x-factor genes to maybe get beneficial mutations.

If I'm wrong and my "theories" are stupid feel free to crush them because I would like an explanation.

For one of my playthroughs I role-played using a multidimensional theory. When creating an overpowered character it was due to a Spartan II getting launched into an entirely different dimension through charged particles fueling a forerunner construct. Aside from that I simply pick the perks and skills that I believe would fit my role-playing situation. You have to remember that the Capital Wasteland had a good deal of radiation and there were most likely places your character traveled that others did not. The mutation of the genes and different scenarios could cause some of the perks.

As for skills, I just think of it as my character being proficient in those fields naturally. Upon gaining experience and persevering beyond what others have it'd be somewhat natural to be the best in the field.

He does it all through sloppy writing and bad implementation of the rulesystem and balancing. I couldn't get past that point. It felt more gamey and rigid than it should've.

I think that's an interesting question. Myself, my background is in tabletop gaming. My dad introduced me to Paranoia at age 5, and I was hooked ever since. Not to say that I haven't been playing computer games since the DOS days, just that I cut my teeth - so to speak - on tabletop games first.

Really, that's kind of a paradox that exists with videogame RPGs in general. I mean, if I'm playing a game of Dungeons and Dragons for example - it takes years to get from level 1 to level 20. In those sort of games, that degree of progression represents your character starting out as a young adventure and then retiring as an old weathered veteran. In a videogame like Fallout 3, you go through the same degree of progression in (it depends on how much time you play at once, of course,) say a month or so?

In short: in a tabletop RPG that amount of character progression represents virtually the entire scope of that character's life over the course of years or even decades. In something like Fallout 3, you're going the same distance in what amounts to a few months of the character's life.

For me, it's just one of those things I try not to think too much about.

For a more generalized answer, though - I tend to see my player character as pretty much the same as anyone else. What tends to separate them is a degree of determination and simply being a born survivor. Any other NPC could potentially progress and gain experience by doing the same things as my character - the difference being that my character actually is doing all these things, while most of the NPCs aren't.

ie, after getting beat up and shot to hell and back by raiders after scavenging at a run-down school, my characters tend to be type that after healing go back out to do it all over again, whereas your average person would likely just call it quits at that point.

Well, If the game was made right in the first place you wouldn't have to come up with some far fetched explanation for why your character is so powerful, because you wouldn't be that powerful.

/rant

The way I deal with it is I use mods that make my character and everyone else in the world not so bullet sponge-y, and whatever happens, happens. If I manage to make it through the game alive (including reloads) I just chalk it up to good luck and experience.