Well you could say im a complete noob at FO3... i traded one of my games to my friend for FO3 i was excited to play it. I watched many videos on youtube about it but when i got in the game i just hated it... I don't know why but i just didn't like the atmosphere (although i got over it) but the main thing that bothered me was the learning curve. I bought fallout new vegas (don't ask me why i did if i hated FO3 lol) and it did a great job of guiding you... it helped you through about 5% of the game all the way to new vegas but had to stopping to towns on the way. When i got to megaton it basically said have fun. And so starts the frustration haha. I forgot the name of her the opitions to talk to her really didn't matter because no matter what she said it was obnoxious and the 2 quests i did have i always seemed to cross this one river then get destroyed by super mutants.

Soooo... long story short best way to start off in FO3 and tips maneuvering the map (because its a lot diff then FO: NV) Any good weapons to start off and character build tips... all posts are appreviated to prevent me getting blown back into the river by a super mutants sledgehammer... lol.

Unfortunately, going to Megaton and working for Moira (and the other people in town) is the way you get started in this game. There are other ways, it's just much harder.

Moira sends you to places that should not kill you, but I won't say they are safe, to get you immersed in the game. And, yes, going to Minefield can be a problem if you stray too close to Bigtown and German Town Police HQ. You need to stay to the West side of that area. Also, stop in the Scrapyard and you will find a friend that will make the game a bit easier to chew on. Just don't shoot anyone until the fight is over, the new friend can not be killed during this battle. But, you can hit them by accident and that messes things up for the new friend.

Learn to Sneak, learn to scout out the land before you move forward. Once you are at level 8 to 10 or so (and you can get there with Moira) the game will much easier to handle.