Been through the game once and wondered what all the business about karma is about. My karma was neutral so Fawkes wouldn't join me. But what does karma really matter?

How people react to you, what followers you can get, and a few perks (lawbringer, contract killer).

besides some follows that won't join you if they don't like your karma, not much. if you are good or evil, you will be randomly attacked by different groups but you won't be attacked by them if you are neutral.

That's because Neutral is balanced. But, to my knowledge, gaining and keeping Neutral is hard.

Being bad is a blast! :mohawk:

Jericho doesn't mind.

Being good or bad affects certain small events in the game, but the storyline is essentially the same. Being good gets you the most powerful follower in the game (Fawkes), but not until late. Still, once you have him, you can essentially walk along behind him and watch him annihilate every threat in your path.

Being bad gets you Jericho much earlier on: you can theoretically recruit him without really ever leaving Megaton. Get 300 caps from Silver, another 500 from Simms by defusing the bomb, and 200 from Walter for fixing the pipes. Result: 1000 caps, and Jericho'll follow you. And he's plenty tough, and his assault rifle will chew up enemies at a considerable distance.

Neutrality can get you RL-3. If you hire him early on with BS loaded, he will level up with you, and be able to absorb a horrendous amount of damage. And he's the perfect pack mule, since you can give him any weapon, ammo, or armor and he won't use it.

ammo has no weight so you won't need packmules for that.