Okay, got a question for ya'll.

So, why blow up Megaton?
What reason could there be for it for the player character to blow up a settlement of people?

And no "cause of evil" or "cause of being a dike" or "cause of being greedy" comments.
I don't qualify them as good reasons.
Someone doesn't just blow up a settlement cause they're a dike.

And even if someone is "evil" they have to have a reason for actually wanting to blow it up.
If the player character was just a mass murdering psychopath he/she wouldn't have taken the time to wander around the place, find that suited dude, talk to him casually, plant a bomb then travel over the wasteland to his employeer to see it blown.
Nope, that kind of character would simply start killing people right off the bat, or (s)he would have killed them silently and try to torture them and possibly force procreation upon his/her victims before ending their lifes.

So... Why? What possibly reason could there be for any role one might take on in Fallout 3 to just blow up an entire settlement?

Because of the pretty explosions.

And my allegience is to Allistair, not some random junk town.

Besides, Doc Church was annoying.

I just wish I could save Nathan, best character in the game

I think the developers let you blow it up so that you could destroy your starting town (maybe to eliminate the past when you were weak?), they allowed the same in New Vegas. That's the only reason I have ever sided with the Powder Gangers to take Goodsprings (with a sociopathic character who denies any showing of weakness).

I'd do anything Burke asked me to <3
A few random wastelanders will not stand between us. If he says we'll be together forever once they're out of the way then they gotta die.

Because you can. A nice circular go nowhere responce

I guess the only real reason would be to get that place in Tenpenny Towers. Ten Penny only wants you to blow it up because it messes with his view. Great depth in writing Bethesda

Best writing ever, I don't see why you don't like it?

Does Burke even inform you that you will be rewarded for blowing up the town? I think its just "Hey blow up this town and come to Tenpenny towers when you are done."

If he does tell us we will get something for it, I guess that's something

Yes, he does tell you that.

You can even raise the reward with speech.

How much does he give you for blowing it up? A couple hundred caps?

500 caps, but 800 if you pass a barter check.

That's ALOT in Fallout 3, in NV that's nothing. But in Fallout 3, I spend 1000 caps on ammo every hour. There's a raider and super mutants in every corner, you basically need to spend hundreds and hundreds of caps repairing your equipment and buying ammo.

I just don't see any viable reason for any character to blow it up.
Someone who's greedy should not be completely soulless and be able to perform genocide for a hundred bucks.
No, greed doesn't = evil.
And evil is such a bad term for a character's role. Why is (s)he evil?
And if so, what is the reason for killing around 50 innocent people?
Cause they smelled funny?
Cause of the priiiize?

I see no viable coherent reason for ever blowing up Megaton.
I mean, I could see someone being mentally broken down by Moira's quests and finally snapping but being weak the character knows (s)he can't take on the entire town alone so (s)he goes with the KABOOM choice.
That I can understand. Cause when someone mentally snaps they can do incoherent, selfish things that harm others.

But other than that I see no reason why any character would ever want to blow up Megaton apart from "teh lulz" and "stupid evil".

So come on guys and gals, gimme a reason, I want to be able to figure out this design decision they made.

Really? I played several play throughs without spending a single cap. I pretty much never buy anything, because ammo is everywhere and so are weapons. I used to stock up on caps and try to get as much as I can. Then one day I noticed I have tens of thousands of caps, and I didn't need to by a damn thing. So I just stopped.

I agree with Gabriel77Dan, there is nothing that really makes blowing up Megaton worth it.

Well I use the gatling laser, and ECP's are really rare, and expensive. It's probably the best gun in the game, but you have to repair it so often...

Most of my characters never blow Megaton up. The place is nicely located in the center of the map.....

I can recall one evil character blowing it up after she realized that 'good old dad' had already left the place and wandered into the wasteland. She was depressed at the thought of all that dust and dirt and miles ahead.

I blew up Megaton a couple times just to see what would happen. It caused the game to become unplayable. It would freeze and crash when ever I went to far into the radioactive dust area. Fast travel no longer worked anywhere in the game.

So that combined with no meaningful reason to blow up the town, I only did it a couple of times.

.... So the selfish little brat decided to blow up a town full of innocent people because she was "depressed"?
Awful, awful reason.
Not valid.

Please try again.

(Really, blowing up a [censored] town of innocent people becauase she is depressed is not a good reason.)

Don't be surprised when you see "crazy depressed person blows up town because dad was not there" on the news.

Doesn't make it a good reason. Just makes the person a psychopath.

I'm not saying it is, I'm saying by that logic we would have thousands of towns destroyed by now.

I don't accept those kinds of characters are role's though.
They are spontaneous, unemotional and incoherent.

They are The Dark Knight's 'Joker' but without the charm.
But Joker has an antagonist that makes him have a purpose.
What purpose does this kind of character have in the Capital Wasteland?

If a character is this way, that they don't care about others, they don't care who they hurt, they are cold blooded, they are spontaneous and just "do" things and remain incoherent all the time through with their choices.
How are they suppose to finish the main quest?
And for that matter, how the hell did they live in a vault for 19 years without snapping already?
A character likes this makes no sense to me with Fallout 3's intro-story and it's main story.

I like the Dark Knight's Joker. He is a psychopath, but there is method in his madness. He does just want to "watch the world burn." But he doesn't just go around blowing things up and killing people at random. He thinks and plans, he is a evil genius.

I don't like that in Fallout 3 there is a guy that says "I'll give you 500 caps to blow up Megaton." And our guy is like "Ok I'll do it." The Joker would need more than that, and I am not talking more money. He burned what was it 500 million dollars? Money isn't a motive for him.

Well, if we want to RP a terrorist or something, then blow up Megaton.

Even terrorists have a motive, beyond creating terror. They don't blow themselves up to make people crap themselves in fear. They do it for a greater purpose. We don't get that in Fallout 3. Unless you count giving Ten Penny a better view as a greater perpose.

But how does it work?
The player comes from a vault. Why would (s)he be a terrorist? And what reason is there to blow up Megaton? Politicis? There is not politics. Economical? There is no economical strategy. Ideology? They don't have any ideology apart from the cult and why blow everyone else up along with it?

A terrorist doesn't just blow [censored] up cause they find it fun.
No, they blow things up because they ideologically oppose it and fint it intrusive to their culture and the world itself. (Among other things)


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Until I get a good reason why to do it, and the only one I have is the one I myself stated which is pretty damn dumb, I'd say that The Power Of Atom is the perfect example of horrible moral alignment in todays videogames, where it's about being "evil" and "good", with the "evil" part not even making any sense.

i've only done it on one chr, on him i waited to James died and then had my guy get super drunk in megaton with jerchio, he awakes the next day in his TP suite with no memory of what happened but soon hears about megaton, thinking he did he devoutes him to being good and becomes the Saviour of the wasteland.


Although Gabriel77Dan perhaps it's mean't to show their is no good reason for blowing up the town, no matter how pissed angry at the town you are. even if the LW(you) was not a Vault dweller and just some random wastelander, a raider or even an enclave solider, there still wouldn't be any good reason. to do it...

edit: acttually their is one reason i can think off, You're Chr is an Junkie, your're out of cash and drugs but then you met Bruke, he offers you money in exchange for a favour....