I've spent a lot of time trying to come up with a term that can pretty much sum up over 90% of every character I've ever made on Fallout 3 or Fallout New Vegas. Here it is: Magnificent Bastard.

As defined by Urban Dictionary:

Magnificent Bastard -
There's a certain type of character that defies such definitions as hero or villain, good or evil, friend or enemy. Love him or loathe him, you have to admire him. And at the end of the day, there's only one thing we can call him... a Magnificent Bastard.

The Magnificent Bastard is intelligent, capable, supremely competent, and always in control. He can be playing everyone from both ends, or making it up as he goes along with such consummate skill he gets away with it. He might be cynically exploiting all around him for his own ends, or persuading everyone to do everything for him. He might be a lying sneaky bastard playing everyone for his own selfish ends, but he goes about it with such breathtaking skill and panache you admire him for it. Above all else, what defines a Magnificent Bastard is his ability to evoke not just amazement, but grudging admiration, from friend, foe and audience alike.

Aka Argyle.

Sounds like David Xanatos from the Gargoyles animated series...

"Argyle you magnificent bastard!"

Man I miss wandering the wastes listening to that show, it really got you immersed in the game world more than you usually were.

When the typical player character is some idiot who runs to Old Lady Gibson's house for the sole purpose of shooting her directly in the face in order to take her gun, or goes on what should be a suicide run but turns out to be a killing spree in The Fort "because slavery," it's really difficult to buy this.

In the right hands, the Courier can be downright Chessmaster in his/her dealings. The majority of gamers are not the right hands.

Or Erwin Rommel.

Heh, Leroy Jenkins could take lessons from some Couriers.

I typically go the 'Suave Diplomat' route: everybody likes me, even though they have no clue who I actually am or what I'm up to, and they'll do anything I ask them to. When my characters do pull something shifty, nobody seems to either notice or care until it's too late.

Or nukes an entire nation because they want some cool armor for themselves. Especially if it's the nation they want to win at Hoover Dam but they want that nation's special armor, too.


This. SO this.

Now, to be fair, a lot of gamers couldn't give a flip about immersion in the first place and care only about the gaming environment insofar as what it can provide for their PC and nothing else. There is no connection with any of the NPC's, nor does the gravity of larger events in the game ever enter into their minds because they either don't care for the storyline or it's just a funny little game on their TV screen they can turn off at any moment at no consequence. And that's fine, that's their game and how they want to play it, and since they are paying customers I won't begrudge them of that. Being able to run around causing complete chaos is what sells the GTA games, for instance. But it's definitely not the sort of game I want to hear about whenever I talk about the Fallout universe as a grand storyline.

that's pretty much the type of character you have to play if you want to experience as much of the game as possible in one go. My first character only missed out on five or six quests.

True on all accounts.

If I ever get around to getting my Legion character through Lonesome Road, though, I'll probably end up guilty of your first point. I've got it covered, though. My Legion character actually is a psychopath, so presented with the opportunity to cause chaos and destruction on a massive scale, it'll be hard for him to resist.