So after having the game practically forever, I'm finally about to start Fallout 3. But then I get to the character creator and just... :poke: ...ugggh, it's awful. So far I've gotten NMCs Texture Pack, but of course that's only for environmental stuff... what's a good mod for PCs / NPCs? Any others highly recommended? I don't want to change story or gameplay.

If you don't want to change gameplay, then there aren't many mods out there for you except for texture packs. The main point of mods IS to change gameplay.

Well... I mean... yes. As I said in my original post, it was the awful nature of how faces looked in the character creator that led me here. The problem is there 's eleventy different texture packs on FO3Nexus, and I can't even begin to figure out which ones are any good.

I'm in a similar boat of only just recently getting around to trying different mods. The Mad Martigans mod seems pretty popular in that it changes how mobs look and makes them more unique as well as increasing the difficulty somewhat. There are also optional features that you can pick and choose with that mod to customize it to your tastes. Another popular mod is Fellout, which basically makes the world look a bit more realistic (among other things getting rid of the faint green tint to everything that a lot of people complain about). Both are what I'd term noticeable and nice improvements without drastically changing things.

But as Diviner notes, a lot of mods are created because people want to tweak different things. So they drastically change how the major NPCs look. Or they mess with the combat balance. Or slow down leveling. Or add/change weapons. If you don't feel that stuff is necessary, the list of mods is somewhat limited.

http://fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=6843 has some small changes that make the character look better. Eyes... eyes can make a difference.

I don't remember what other mods there are for the PC's face. I don't recall if any of the body replacers change the faces.

Give http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=6341 a try. It makes the NPC's (and PC's, to a lesser extent, due to the HD skin textures) actually look human.

For making female characters, Search Anthony Lings Coiffure at Nexus. It includes a huge amount of hair/eyes/face presets.
Type 3 Body has a nice face texture.
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=6037

Wait, are you saying you've NEVER played the game? Well, ya, then I agree, you don't want to change anything about the story or the gameplay. How could you make an intelligent choice about what to change? Were you trying to make a male character? Ya, it's almost impossible to make a good looking one IMO.

My problem with Project Beauty is that rather then just clean up the NPC faces, the modder significantly changes the look of some of them to reflect his own personal tastes. A mod that just eliminated the unnatural skin tones and the notable borders between things like the head and neck textures would be sufficient in my mind.

http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=8942 adds 120 new presets to chose from during character gen, all with eyelashes, expanded eye options and virtually every hair ported to the game.

Beyond that I recommend you install Marts Mutant Mod. After that, chose a weapon pack and a re-balancer and your good to go.