In Fallout 1/2/3 the protagonist was a very defined character. He/she was a vault dweller/tribal with very little knowledge of the outside world. The background for each of them is pretty much set in stone.

Now, New Vegas gave us a clean slate protagonist. He/she has no background and you are just dropped into the character and go on your adventure. I had a though ever since they put traits back into fallout New Vegas. I think in future games that have a clean slate protagonist they should introduce "Background traits."


Background traits would let you define your characters back story through game play with a new traits menu. It would be separate from regular traits, but still function the same by having bonuses and drawbacks. You could only pick one of course and it would be completely optional like traits. Again this would only work with clean slate characters like the courier, but i think it's an interesting idea.

Here are some ideas i had for backgrounds.

Vault dweller: you've spent most of your life in a Vault-tec vault. Spending your young life surrounded by the technology of the old world your aptitude with such things is significantly increased, but the outside world is daunting to you and you haven't been prepared enough for life on the outside.

Background abilities: Perks with science or medicine skill requirements have those requirements reduced by 1/3, Perks with survival skill requirements have those requirements increased by 1/5 up to a maximum of 100

Tribal: Living as a tribal in the wilderness has honed your ability to live off the land and skill with primitive weapons. Your upbringing has left little opportunity to socialize with the more civilized people of the wastes, you are seen as barbaric to the more civilized wastelanders.

Background abilities: Melee weapon attack speed increase 10%, throwing distance and damage increase 10%, all Speech and Barter check requirements increased by 10.

Caravan Merchant family: You grew up learning all the tricks of the trade and dealing with all different kinds of people in the wastes. The one thing you didn't learn, though, was how to properly handle a weapon, any weapon.

Background abilities: Perks with barter requirements have those requirements reduced by 100% and all reputations start out accepted. any weapon you use will deteriorate twice as fast.

So, good idea? bad idea? ugly? if you like put your own background trait you would like. I refrained from putting any faction related backgrounds like NCR citizen or Legionnaire, because that just seemed like being able to pick your faction early, maybe in a game where those factions aren't big players.

I like these, but they should go in the suggestion thread,

Yes, I like it. I am for everything that makes every character more unique from another. It could also have other effects than 10% here and there in stats and skills. Maybe reactions of other NPCs. If you used to be a tribal, some characters might notice that, maybe ask you about your accent or something. Some NPC's might not like tribals, and therefore you wouldn't like to reveal your passed as a tribal to them as their attitude would worsen (probably have a less pleasant conversation, or no more conversation, and skill and barter checks could get their penalties from there on...) and some are fascinated by your heritage and will like to hear about it and their attitude brightens (you get Veronica's "is it a dress?"-attitude at you, barter will get a bonus etc..)
Background traits might even open up a few unique mini-quests, and there might be NPC's with a similar background as you that might symphatize with you.

Other background traits would of course be Raider, Mercenary, Slaver, Slave, Toaster Repairman and others. Your starting outfit could also be based on your traits, like if you are an ex-Vault Dweller, you get a ragged vault suit.

:vaultboy:

Optional right?

Would love for these to be in Fallout, should have a large variety of them though.
Time to contribute with some ideas:

Soldier: In your past life you were a soldier, due to your combat training you're more proficient with most ranged weapons but due to being more of a puppet than an actual leader you have a hard time ordering people around.

Background abilities: You get +10 to all ranged combat skills (Guns, EW, Explosives, Chemical Weapons, Throwing and Big Guns (Depending on which are in the next game.) but you receive a -2 to base Charisma and cannot raise it above 5. You also get unique dialogue with characters who belong to (an) army(ies).

Slaver: Spending years of enslaving other human beings and being around less than honorable men has left you with a twisted mentality.

Background abilities: Darker shade of gray characters will be more fond of you while lawful citizens and law upholders will be cautious about you. You also do not get any bad karma from doing normally bad things as in your mind you're not really doing anything wrong in the first place. (except killing good people)
(If there is a slaver faction in the game then you can skip the starting quest(s) and join them right away.)

Rat: You're a down right sneaky rat, spent a large part of your life living off of other people's property instead of working for your money, due to this you have been in a lot of fights with communities when they've caught you and this has left you scarred physically.

Background abilities: You get a +10 to Sneak, Steal, Lockpick and Blade/Melee skills but all towns reputation bars are set to Shunned and your scarred face scares the living [censored] out of children. (No child will talk to you, just run away.)

I really like this idea as well. Though I am a bit hesitant to give numerical bonuses for a backround. (heh like I actually have a say in the matter). Still I believe that a few extra speech cues and qualifying for certain perks earlier or stats not withstanding would be awesome. As would heralding back to when your skills set your eq a bit maybe starter gear as well (nothing over powered just say basic crap raider armor for a raider). mmm maybe take to much work to do though sigh

Thinking on it a bit more maybe some craftable exclusive to backround might be cool as well (like a slaver could actually make a slave collar)

Yeah, I would keep them completely optional like regular traits, but also separated from the regular traits menu as well. and only 1 would be able to be picked, of course.

All these backgrounds should be too combat oriented either (slaver, merc, raider, soldier).

So, I'd say that instead of soldier you could maybe be an ex-field medic or doctor. Good at Medicine, if bleed damage is included, he could be good at stopping that fast. Can get the option to tell people he used to be a doctor in back in the days. Maybe either for helping someone who is bleeding, or for a job where they need someone good at Medicine (either you have some other background trait and need atleast 80 Medicine to be able to take that job, or you have the medic background and can take the job reguardless of your Medicine skill. Just because you've got the medic background doesn't mean you've got a Medicine skill of 80.) I dunno how to make the medic more unique. Maybe making your own Doctor's Bag by gathering all that doctor equipment junk laying about, and then combine them with a bag? Don't want to compete too much with the Survival skill. Or the Doctor's Bag has several uses with the medic character? The downside could be......... I dunno? I don't think a penalty to Guns, but not a boost either. I mean, he was in the military and/or has been out in the wasteland alot, he should know how to handle a gun to still be alive.
Ex-medics could start out wearing maybe Wasteland Doctor fatigues or Merc Grunt outfits.

The two more combat oriented backgrounds could be raider and mercenary.
The mercenary could be a person that has done a lot of different jobs, both good and bad, which he either regrets or don't (depends on what you RP). Anyways, he may have done jobs like protecting caravans and getting back loans in not so nice ways. Of course he would have a boost in Guns skill or just certain weapons (weapons that were included in the Small Guns skill). People would also like to hire him for mercenary jobs, or well, you could apply for such jobs and stating your past experience. Because you could roleplay a person that wants none of it anymore.
Ex-mercs could start with any Merc outfit (Merc Adventurer outfit <3 )

The other combat oriented trait, the raider background, would have a boost to maybe Explosives and Melee (I am thinking Benny's knife fight with Bingo and Trashcanman's "blowing [censored] up"-behavior here, so maybe just blade weapons like knives,machetes and explosives that are thrown and set.) Mentioning your raider background to most people will be frowned upon, except of course to raiders and ex-raiders. Maybe you want to join a raider group, mentioning your past experience will be a plus. For downsides, except wastelanders disliking your background if you mention it, maybe you've got a scarred face from all violence you've gone through, giving you less Charisma. Or since you've mostly raided and stolen in your life, you are kind of awkward when it comes to Barter and Speech.
Ex-raider could start with a kind of raider outfit, but not the ones currently present in game. They are too extreme, show so much flesh and even has body parts on them. Some outfit covering more of the body, but still looking a little raiderish.

About slaver, I don't know if you get a tattoo on your forehead or not. Probably depends on what slaver company you work for, and/or in what region. But yeah, you probably get a bonus to capturing people and you might negotiate a better prize for them aswell. As with all the backgrounds, you can choose to keep them hidden as well as you can. You might want to leave that life behind, or you don't want the wrong people to know. All for RP purposes, and also gameplay purposes because it may lock/open some side quests, or just enhance/worsen the outcome/reward. So you don't exactly let police officers know of your background, but when meeting a slaver company in the need of a job, you might want to. Then if the police officer finds out later is another story. So the downside here, as with the Raider, is that most people won't like your background.

I think I would prefer these to races, as the differences would be able to be more subtle and therefore not distract to other things in game, but they would add more replay value.

Begger: For as long as you can remember, you have owned little more than rags and basic tools to defend yourself. However, years of begging has taught you some things about human nature and some tricks when you have to use your meager earnings.

Abilities: Store prices are permanently decreased by 10% and skill checks when recruiting a companion are decreased by ten.

Downsides: Your starting equipment is the worst of all (very bad clothing, a kitchen knife, and 15 caps) and you cannot increase luck above 5.


Drifter: You never seem to stay in one place for long. You are very comfortable in temporary places of rest and you make good time while traveling. Due to your solitary nature, it might take a little more to make people trust you.

Abilities: Well Rested perk at any non-permanent resting place (or some other sleep bonus) and a small speed boost to walking and running.

Downsides: Speech skill requirements are increased by 10 (unless the speech check is maximum already) and your starting reputation with towns and some factions will be decreased.