Just over two years ago when II first purchased and played Fallout 3, my first foray into the Fallout universe, I played it much like a "video game." I min-maxed my character, he ran around killing things in V.A.T.S. and using power armor. It was fun and became one of my faavorite games I had ever played. On my 2ed play through, I chose to play a character with "issues." A selfish wasteland @$$-hole who never thought about others or how her actions would affect others. She hung out with Jericho since meeting him at level 2 who only found dad by chance while exploring the wastes. That was another fun play through.

Well, after that, I stopped playing Fallout 3 and moved on to other games. I have all the DLC but never really did any of it. Now, after I have played New Vegas a ton, I was wanting to go back and re-play Fallout 3. More importantly, I want to role play Fallout 3. t the same time, this is still a video game and I feel that i need a "main combat skill" to be 95+ as quickly as possible. I don't like how gun play is done in RPGs, but that is a whole other topic.

Here is what I was thinking:

I want to name my character "The Lone Wanderer." That way, if for no other reason, when the Talon company wants me dead, the contract says "Kill The Lone Wanderer."

I want to play as much of the game as possible wearing the Armored Vault Suit. A character who is trying to survive in the wasteland and find his father rather than a walking tank in power armor going "PEW PEW PEW" like my first play through.

I think these should be my S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attributes; 4, 6, 4, 6, 8, 6, 6. Less than average strength and endurance, but makes up for it in agility. The son of James and Catherine is going to be pretty intelligent a little more charismatic than most. Finally, to go through what the Lone Wanderer goes though, he/she is luckier than most as well.

Tag skills: Guns, repair, science. I see the tag skills as a way to select your primary form of combat, unless you are going to try a "doesn't kill anyone/anything" approach, while your other two tag skills are you "talents." As James' son, I was brought up learning and having a natural affinity for science. After taking the G.O.A.T. I was told to be a mechanic and work with Stanley.

Perks: I am thinking about taking some of the Role Playing perks like Lady Killer and Child at heart along with V.A.T.S. perks.

Finally, I plan on limiting how much I pick up and take with me. I like the idea of having my only "storage" being my armored vault suit instead of "magic RPG pockets." A knife, a side arm, long barrel I can sling over my shoulder, ammo and other smaller objects that can fit into the pockets of my armored vault suit. I ply on the 360, so I don't have mods. I expect that most of my eating, drinking, and hygiene needs are taken care of along my various stops to Megaton, Super Duper Mart, GNR, Underworld, GNR again, pit stop locations on the way to Rivet City, Rivet City itself, more pit stops like Megaton again, Vault 101, and so on. You get the idea. Along with playing with my HUD off, my goal is to play like my character really lives in the wasteland unlike my prior play throughs.

So please tell me what you think. Also, share how you play.

Sounds well thought out. Here is a copy and paste of how I am playing my character at the moment:

Here are some of my play restrictions, to name a few:

1. No fast-travel
2. Ammo has weight
3. One big gun, one mid-range weapon, one "up close and personal" weapon, some nades, couple of mines.
4. 5 stims, two radaways, two radx
5. You can pop one stim only, during combat, and no spamming of any health items.
6. No Educated, Comprehension, Grim Reaper's, Light Step, Finesse, etc : basically any perk that makes you too powerful.
7. You cannot carry ammo for a weapon you are not carrying. Honestly, you cannot carry 40 missiles. You can carry one, but since this is all fiction, I say you can carry two.
8. No sleeping in the wastes unless you have a companion.
9. I have to go to the doctor to cure radiation poisoning and crippled limbs. Sometimes meaning that I must walk my crippled ass all over the Wasteland looking for a doctor.
10. Every transaction must equal zero. Which means that I am basically trading, instead of selling. My barter is unchanged from the beginning = 13 for skill.
11. I can make money by scavenging, finding Quantums, and selling sugar bombs.
12. You cannot repair unless you are standing next to a workbench. You cannot be over-encumbered, ever. If you can't carry it, dump it.
13. If a weapon breaks on you out in the wastes, you must drop it, no matter what it is.
14. My character has been addicted to alcohol since level 4 or so.

He is evil. But does not go around randomly killing people. He has an agenda, but is more thoughtful in his ways of obtaining items and prizes. I named my character Hoss, so that I am greeted by name whenever I do business at Lock n' Load. I try to play the character as to what HE wants to do, or would do, not what I want to do. It's the most fun I've had to date with a character in FO3. HUD off is brutal, and a lot of fun at the same time. :foodndrink:

My current character is named Alina. She's tiny and fragile and needs her loyal ghoul Charon around to protect her. I think she has a crush on him.
She fights only with her trusty Shiskebab and a few plasma mines.
She must sleep seven to eight hours every night.
She likes Jet and Psycho but refuses to use Radaway or Rad-X.
She has a habit of setting up her campfire next to irradiated puddles and standing in them while her food cooks. I think she's trying to become ghoulified.
Always wears sunglasses.
Currently trying to prove her worth and join a gang. She was last sent on a mission to kill Machete and managed to pull it off in broad daylight surrounded by dozens of people.
Hates Hunting Rifles.
Has never met James.

Thanks for the replies guys.

I copied your list and I will only address the ones I disagree with.

3. One big gun, one mid-range weapon, one "up close and personal" weapon, some nades, couple of mines. - Pretty much how I play. A side arm, a long barrel that you can strap to your back, a knife and some explosives.
4. 5 stims, two radaways, two radx - I don't use stim packs and pay for my rad away. I pretend they don't exist. I don't even sell them for profit.
5. You can pop one stim only, during combat, and no spamming of any health items. - See above
6. No Educated, Comprehension, Grim Reaper's, Light Step, Finesse, etc : basically any perk that makes you too powerful. - I don't like "skill perks" like Gun Nut, but I am okay with Educated. I also am okay with Finesse and V.A.T.S. perks.
7. You cannot carry ammo for a weapon you are not carrying. - Well, My character understand t he value of ammo and will use that to trade with. I don't carry any missiles, mini nukes or mine,
9. I have to go to the doctor to cure radiation poisoning and crippled limbs. Sometimes meaning that I must walk my crippled ass all over the Wasteland looking for a doctor. - I add Rad Away to that list.
10. Every transaction must equal zero. Which means that I am basically trading, instead of selling. My barter is unchanged from the beginning = 13 for skill. - For the most part I agree. I will level up barter after visiting key areas. Megaton, Rivet City and Cantuberry Commons are solid examples of locations you gain experience in Barter. I do not see myself going above 60 or so. 50 is supposed to be an "average score." After spending time in the world, my character should have enough experience trading.
11. I can make money by scavenging, finding Quantums, and selling sugar bombs. -As I said in my OP, I try to only carry what is reasonable for my clothing. My Armored Vault Suit has a holster for my side arm, a sheath for my knife, a sling for my rifle, pockets and a bandoleer for my ammo/clips, with a few additional pockets and a pouch to carry small scavenged like a Fission Batter, a pair of Sensor Modules, some Pre-War cash, packs of cigarettes, some Buffout and Mentats to sell to chem dealers and obviously some room for a few grenades clipped on. I currently carrying 43/190 weight without counting ammo, have 109 caps, and am doing a mission for 3-Dog at level 5.
14. My character has been addicted to alcohol since level 4 or so. - I avoid using chems. I understand the value in Buffout and Mentats. I am not proud of selling chems, but I need to trade something, and Chems are small, easy to carry and are valuable. I assume a box of Mentats or a jar of Buffout isn't full in the wastes always and that I consolidate new product I find whenever possible.

I have been role playing this character all day/night today seeing how these two days are my days off and it is a lot of fun.

Regarding combat, I play on easy mode and try to maximize guns and explosives as quickly as possible before raising other skills. Gun play in RPGs bothers me to no end. I don't want to play a difficulty that has a human enemy take multiple direct shots to the dome and survive simply because the difficulty it high/he has a ton of HP/my weapon skill isn't "high enough." if I could play the Wanderers Edition on my 360, I would, but I cannot. I end up playing HUD off, easy mode and abuse V.A.T.S. my goal is to role play the adventure and progress the story/my character rather get bogged down in combat playing "corner camp the shot gun" or sneak attack critical everything, or unload countless rounds of ammo into a raider before he drops just "to make the game hard." I don't mind that Farrel Ghoul Reamers take extra rounds of ammo, they have combat armor on. Super Mutants are, well super mutants. Brutes are armored Super Mutants, often with Chain guns. I am going to do my best to totally avoid them, but when I cannot, I understand why they are tough to take down.

Well, sounds like it will be fun, and you've worked it all out. That's the main point, as long as you are having fun. I've found over many characters, that by the time I hit level 30, even when choosing useless perks to further gimp my character, I'm still pretty powerful. That's why I've taken away all VATS/Combat Perks (Except my Big Guns is at 100). And why my Barter is still so low, level 30, 300ish caps. I can't go out and buy buy buy... I have to consider paying for repair and medicine, and that damn boat ticket that I cannot afford at the moment, no I cannot/will not trade for it.

I don't know how well it will work, but I think that if I get to a point where I am happy with my skills, I may end up dumping my points into skills I do not care about/use as an over flow.

Here are the stats I care about and where I would like them to be for 19 year old James Jr. aka, The Lone Wanderer:

Barter: 50 [average]
Explosives: 100 [secondary combat skill]
Lockpick: 25*
Medicine: 25 [basic knowledge]
Melee Weapons: 100 [close quarters combat skill]
Repair: 75 or so. Above average/experienced with how things work in the wastes at some point.
Science: 75. Daddy's boy. Not an expert, but well versed
Small Guns: 100 [Primary combat skill]
Sneak: 50 average
Speech: 50-60 [60 kind of fits my 6 charisma, just above average]

As I said, I don't like how combat numbers work. Instead of "learning moves" like you kind of do in New Vegas, gain skill points in melee has nothing to do with being an expert with melee weapons. It just lets you get full damage out of successful strikes. You don't actually "fight" better. Bullets shouldn't suddenly deal more damage with 100 skill compared to 50 skill. You should be more accurate and more familiar with various firearms. I like the Fallout PnP and New Vegas approach where you need "skill" to know how to operate different firearms. I don't mind having 100 skill as I don't see myself being an "expert" at all guns, but rather competent in their usage. You still spray all over the place with 100 skill while using an assault rifle, unlike a real marksman. Regarding explosives, that skill shouldn't have to deal with damage either. it should still deal with how easy/difficult it is to disarm. This skill should also have to deal with how well you can craft explosives and set traps. Right now, I just want my well placed grenades to kill people. I was so mad my first play through when I shot a "yogi bear" with a missile right in the side only to have it deal minimal damage because my explosives skill was low, and then had my 9mm sub machine gun rip it to shreds with a couple bursts to the head. While I don't plan on using launchers on this play through, I do like the idea of frag grenades to help deal with the bigger badder enemies.

Regarding lockpick, the mini game has a lot to do with why I only want 25 skill. I only want to be able to try and open "easy" locks. I am not playing a character who knows how to crack the most difficult safes in the wastes. I already had a character with 100 lockpick before anyway.

When it comes to perks, I actually ended up taking Swift Learner on levels 2, 3, and 5. I took educated on 4. I took demolitions expert on 6. I plan on taking Lady Killer, taking after dear old dad, and child at heart soon. Finally the V.A.T.S. perks for a while. The real problem is you get 29 perks in this game. You only get 15 in New Vegas. You just about have to find 14 or so "throw away perks" to balance things out.

Personally, I know you want to "Role-play" this, but Science really isn't really the most "useful" skill in the game. It mainly only opens up a few options, such as getting somewhere quicker, or opening safes (which can be done with lock picking). I tried with science for the roleplay, but quickly found reading alot of the terminals to just get way to tedious and boring.

As for your S.P.E.C.I.A.L, I think it's pretty good except, i'd probably push for a higher agility. Think of endurance and agility as a trade off as eachother. You really don't "need" one if you have the other, so dropping Endurance down to 3 and agility up to 7 will be more helpful, especially since Small Guns is affected by agility, so it will go up faster.

If you want a good "Role Play" experience, I highly suggest speech, widow maker (or ladies man, depending) and the perk that allows you to have different conversation choices with children. These may seem useless, but I promise you they add a whole new depth of "Role Play", and are pretty entertaining for the most part. (:

I'd personally go Small Guns, Repair and Speech in that case!



Also, my playthrough's seem to lean towards stealthy. I also had a power armor, gattling laser character who roamed around with Fawkes (with a gattling laser) and we practically tore the wasteland to pieces. But that was the only time, most other times I tend to be a bit sneakier, trying to kill stuff from a distance, or atleast take it's health down enough that it will die rather quickly. (:

I also favor this kind of gameplay because it allows me something I love, and that is being able to explore alone, without worry of getting seen and instantly messed up. Plus, it works out awesomely with a dart gun, and a mod that enhances cripple effects

I wanted NV badly, but promised myself to wait and read some reviews, and to wait to see what Hardware and Software section yielded the day after release. I'm glad to wait longer now. Even though I promised myself that my current guy would be my absolute last, I'm still pretty powerful... so I might have to get one more character, new rules.... damn this Fallout addiction!