Hi everyone.

I like to play the main quest for a bit, then do some other random stuff for a bit, then back to the story ect. But I'm roleplaying my character and I don't want to do something she wouldn't do like wander off to explore or go work on a settlement when she's on the trail of finding Shaun.

So can someone suggest missions in the story where it would be a good spot to take a break from it and still be believable?

If you don't get where I'm coming from allow me to elaborate. In Fallout 3 I wanted to find my dad, but I also wanted to do other things. The perfect point was when you take him to project purity after picking up doctor Lee from Rivet City. He's safe. You can imagine that he'd be getting to work on the project, setting up stuff and such like that. He's not waiting for you somewhere out in the wasteland.

Is there a point like that early on in the main quest? I've just killed Kellog and spoken to Nick and Piper about the Memory Den.

And if you could can you try to keep spoilers to a minimum?

Thanks guys.

Someone else might have something better but I can share what my last game is doing. Go to the Memory Den and do the quest there. You will then have to go to a very tough place, try to go there then decide you can't make it. It's too tough for you. So now you need training, equipment and allies. Now do faction quest with no guilt. If you're like me you'll help people along the way getting even more exp.

Jewel of the Commonwealth: Good chance to spend time preparing for a trip to Diamond City, plus at that point the trail is so cold and your lead is so vague that you can rationalize searching/exploring elsewhere.

Reunions: After killing Kellogg, a chapter of the main quest is essentially over. You've still got a son to find, but you've dealt with the man that took him. This is even a good chance to walk away from the main quest, and definitely an open opportunity to visit that airship that just flew in.

Dangerous Minds: After this quest, you're asked to make another long journey into an extremely dangerous place. Good time to decide nah.

The quests after that lead up to a point where you're collecting resources, so that's a good point to take a break. And after the quest after that, it's pretty story appropriate to take a break from the main quest whenever. Or at least the initial "Talk to this NPC" objectives that start the next quest.

Well, I think doing some quests like helping Tenpines Bluff by dealing with Corvega and helping the BoS at Cambridge Police Station can make some role-playing sense since you're obviously dealing with a well-organized group, it can't hurt to make friends on the way to Diamond City. But aside from that, after doing Reunions you learn that you're dealing with a major faction that has a poor reputation with everyone you talk to so that sounds like a good point to switch to a slow and steady pace to me. And then there's after Dangerous Minds where you find out your next clue is found in the most dangerous (story-wise at least) part of the Commonwealth.

Earlier in the game, I think when you first arrive at Diamond City is a good point for a break. After arriving there you have to seek out Nick Valentine. The quest doesn't start until you've talked to Ellie at the Valentine Detective Agency. I knew that I needed to go there to continue the main quest, but as far as the role play of my character is concerned, I "didn't know about it" until a good while later. There's a lot to explore at this point though. This is likely your first trip into the downtown Boston area, and there are a ton of locations and other settlements to discover. This seems to be a natural point for it to me. After that, I think the next natural point for a break is after completing Dangerous Minds. This is the first quest in Act II of the main quest line, and it's a pretty simple (though very interesting) quest. The quest that follows it isn't quite so simple. It involves a much longer and more difficult journey than any you've taken up to this point, so it's natural for your character to need time to prepare for the journey that's ahead. I think after completing Institutionalized is basically the last good point for a break. It's the first quest of Act III, and is also a very simple quest. At this point you're going to potentially have four factions worth of radiant quests and side quests to complete that aren't directly related to the main story, and you're likely to have explored a sizable portion of the map, so you'll probably have plenty of other non-faction side quests to do as well. Once you get a few quests past Institutionalized, the pace picks up a lot. There's not much of what I'd consider to be a natural point for a break past that. I play most games in mostly the same way you're describing. I like to take breaks from the main quest to prepare (both practically and in terms of role playing) for what's ahead. These are the point that I've chosen in both of my play throughs.