Of course roleplaying is not impossible, but neither is it impossible to roleplay in Jak and Daxter. The fact remains that Fallout 4 does not support or encourage roleplaying in any way shape or form, even less so than 3 did.

In Fallout 4, I鈥檓 not asking for a blank slate of a character, I鈥檓 asking for enough room to express myself.

Yeah. Things like this are what make it unessesarily hard to roleplay in Fallout 4. Not impossible, but not encouraging either.

I like my personality, no intelligence and running around laughing like I pulled a bunny out of my dunce cap whenever I randomly get 5X exp from the luck skill.

I knew the voiced protagonist would be a problem for this very reason. You don't feel like it's your own character. You are given a voice and a backstory that is chosen for you. They are even using a dialogue system like the Witcher3, a game I don't care for.

I hope they don't screw up TESVI like this.

Agree. If this game was not named Fallout, I would be quite ok with it. But the wanton destruction of most of what made the previous games memorable (even FO3) in favor of the shooty bits, I am having a hard time with.

Same here, for this one, and its predecessor.

It is more of an action game.... get over it. Or try wasteland 2...

Sarcasm clearly doesn't work on the inter0webz.

I love these backgrounds. I am very much having a blast roleplaying the back story myself and the fact that my character Vivian Black is trying to cope with the current state of the world after the death of her husband and unknown fate of her son(hasn't even been a day game time) is very cool. She was a middle class lawyer who will ultimately turn bad ass renegade and possible give up on believing her son is alive. Until she finds some clue a month later (whenever I decide to do the main story) and seeks to take up the search again with all hardcoe dialogue, shoot a [censored] in the face options.

Arcanum has background seeds, to help the player flesh out their character's past... but these have an effect the game.

http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj125/Gizmojunk/Arcanum.gif

Bethesda has been systematically removing the "RP" from "RPG" for ages. And now they've finally realized their vision! The "G" now also stands for 'Generic', 'Gauche' and 'Greedy'.

Those are our only options. You are either a male or female with a child and a voice that is picked for you.

At least in the elder scrolls games, they left the protagonists backstory mostly a mystery. BGS even said they like for players to make up their own backstory. Well, in Fallout you don't get to do that.

BGS, please, no voice protagonist and forced backstory in TESVI.

I think the main problem with the game for me is that it feels like you're controlling someone else's character and not your own, and not because of the backstory but because of the whole voice thing (thought I don't think playing the pre-war segment really helped).

This subject has been getting beaten to death since we learned about the protagonist months ago. And you're opinions are not unfounded, but I will say this about this statement here.

1. You're an Army Veteran in a time of war. Nothing has ever been said about what the protagonist actually did (unless mentioned later on in the game, if so just say so but no spoilers please). Nothing was ever said what type of Veteran he during the war. A desk jockey during a time of war, helping in the war department making sure mail goes where it needs to go, is a war veteran. Never saw combat, not even close. But they are a veteran. Really what it boils down to is this: This guy was in the army, and he was in it during wartime.

2. There are many people out there who live in that middle-class suburban home and guess what? They're not financially stable, they're not responsible, they just happened to come across something in their lives that allowed them to live there. Maybe a poorly invested inheritance spent on a house they can't afford the mortgage on...but thankfully everybody gets bombed so no big deal. The point is, just because you live there doesn't mean they lived there for long, or are financially stable enough to keep the place. I live in the suburbs right now and I'm very responsible, but there were times I wasn't sure my finances would keep me there. Thankfully things panned out for me.

Honestly, this is the first time we've had a character that is not a true Vault Dweller...but then again, all the vault dwellers that have been there...guess where they all probably came from?

Yep, that's right...the supposed middle class financially stable and socially responsible families of the suburbs or their descendents that carried on their culture and lifestyle in the vaults. So in essence: the Sole Survivor, the Lone Wanderer, the Chosen One, and the Vault Dweller all have similar backgrounds. The only character that really deviates from this was the Courier.

they should just make an option to turn off character voices. Surely it wouldn't be that hard to program. I like the voice but I completely understand why some would hate it

If not, doubtless someone will mod a sample replacer swaps the PC's voice files for silence ; (presumably before the next GECK release; as it should be an easy fix with the GECK).

I'm not having any problems RP-ing. Must be a modern-day video gamer thing.

I feel like you missed part of what I was saying.

I made it clear that PREVIOUS FALLOUT GAMES HAD RESTRICTIVE BACKSTORIES TOO.

Let me say what I was trying to say again:

In 3, I could make it clear through dialogue that I didn’t care about my father or his quest. To be fair that mindset would lock me out of the main questline, but at least it was an option. I didn’t have any responsibilities forced upon me, I didn’t have a job picked for me, I wasn’t forced to be married and have a family of my own. I was, more or less, left to my own devices the moment I left the vault.

Even though Fallout 3 forced you to be a 19 year old and the son of scientist, the tutorial allowed you to determine what type of person you were, what your character’s interests were, what sort of occupation you wanted to have, whether or not you were a violent sociopath.

Nothing about your pre-set backstory determined anything significant about what type of person you had to be.

This allowed me to create a different character each time I played the game. In one playthrough, I was the star athlete of vault 101’s baseball team. My character used a baseball bat to bring justice to the wasteland. In another playthrough I was a mad scientist, an anarchic trouble-maker who, according to my aptitude test, was obsessed with explosives and science.

In Fallout 4, no matter what, I will be a middle-class U.S. soldier with a wife and child whom I apparently love.

OR

I'll be a middle-class lawyer married to a U.S. soldier with a child whom I apparently love.

Sure, I can randomly decide to go insane once I leave the vault, but I can do nothing to change the core aspects of who my character is.

Not only that, but from what I’ve seen the dialogue is very bland. You never really get a chance to flesh out your character’s personality. At best you can be sarcastic or hostile at times, but it all seems very disjointed and schizophrenic. The issue is made worse with the inclusion of voice-acting, so you can’t pretend your character is delivering his lines in a way that would make sense for the personality you chose for him.

So, I COULD randomly decide to go insane once I leave the vault, but whenever I decide to talk to someone, my character will remain calm and even-toned outside of specific situations.

So yes, previous Fallout games had pre-set backstories as well, and yes, it's POSSIBLE to roleplay if I just close my eyes and pretend, but Fallout 4 makes it much more difficult and gives me much more to work around than previous titles.

Edit: To the person above me, you're totally right: Fallout 2's storyline was restricting as well. I would say that that was a problem just like it is in Fallout 4, and one of the reasons people are still divided on Fallout 2.

Oh, I c wut u did thar...

I should have follow my first mind...I though you were joking! lol

I concur, and that was you using Fallout 3 as an example which before Fallout 4 was the most intrusive in terms of roleplaying.

There are two issues. First the small one: They don't sound like the PC the player crafts. It's annoying, but not a deal breaker.
The real issue is the limitations that having a fully voiced fixed script (and HIGHLY variable) protagonist, [what it means for plot mutability]; and the effect on mod makers ~making it up to them to figure out how to seamlessly add their quests into the game, when the PC cannot speak their custom lines... unless they manage to recycle or impersonate the two voice sets.

I don't (at all) see this as a problem for an RPG; in Fallout your PC was 20 [officially]. As for FO4 and the role of a middle-class U.S. soldier with a wife and child whom he apparently loves... if that's the role, then that's the role; anyone can roleplay that one ~it's easy.

'Nameless' in Planescape:Torment was more difficult. He was an ageless immortal with a checkered past that he did not fully recall. It was a lot harder to extrapolate how a being of that nature would react to the world. Witcher [1] was easier, as the character of Geralt was pretty fleshed out, and he had friends; and you could tell a bit of what he was like based on his friends, and their initial attitudes towards him. Those are two of the best RPGs that I know of, to date.

Role Playing in any Fallout or Elder Scrolls game is never impossible.

Let me show two of my characters, one from Skyrim and one from Fallout 4(I don't have the game yet and I've already got her backstory laid out).

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim:

Why are we comparing Fallout to a completely different (albeit great) rpg? I don't play Planescape for the same reason I play a Bethesda game. I don't play Mass Effect for the same reasons I play a Bethesda game either.

In regards to the character from Fallout 1, I feel like every person whose quoting me is leaving out a huge chunk of my post where I explain the difference between Fallout 4's pre-set character and the ones from other Fallouts, and I don't know why:

I feel like you missed part of what I was saying.

I made it clear that PREVIOUS FALLOUT GAMES HAD RESTRICTIVE BACKSTORIES TOO.

Let me say what I was trying to say again:

In 3, I could make it clear through dialogue that I didn’t care about my father or his quest. To be fair that mindset would lock me out of the main questline, but at least it was an option. I didn’t have an occupation picked for me, I wasn’t forced to be married and have a family of my own. I was, more or less, left to my own devices the moment I left the vault.

Even though Fallout 3 forced you to be a 19 year old and the son of scientist, the tutorial allowed you to determine what type of person you were, what your character’s interests were, what sort of occupation you wanted to have, whether or not you were a violent sociopath.

Nothing about your pre-set backstory determined anything significant about what type of person you had to be.

This allowed me to create a different character each time I played the game. In one playthrough, I was the star athlete of vault 101’s baseball team. My character used a baseball bat to bring justice to the wasteland. In another playthrough I was a mad scientist, an anarchic trouble-maker who, according to my aptitude test, was obsessed with explosives and science.

In Fallout 4, no matter what, I will be a middle-class U.S. soldier with a wife and child whom I apparently love.

OR

I'll be a middle-class lawyer married to a U.S. soldier with a child whom I apparently love.

Sure, I can randomly decide to go insane once I leave the vault, but I can do nothing to change the core aspects of who my character is.

Not only that, but from what I’ve seen the dialogue is very bland. You never really get a chance to flesh out your character’s personality. At best you can be sarcastic or hostile at times, but it all seems very disjointed and schizophrenic. The issue is made worse with the inclusion of voice-acting, so you can’t pretend your character is delivering his lines in a way that would make sense for the personality you chose for him.

So, I COULD randomly decide to go insane once I leave the vault, but whenever I decide to talk to someone, my character will remain calm and even-toned outside of specific situations.

So yes, previous Fallout games had pre-set backstories as well, and yes, it's POSSIBLE to roleplay if I just close my eyes and pretend, but Fallout 4 makes it much more difficult and gives me much more to work around than previous titles.

WOW WOW WOW ppl should take the chill pill =P.

ahahah, all of u get mad about not been able to roll play when on each of the Fallout game u have the back story per-set for u. F1 u are a Vault dweller from V13 u cant change that and u live your whole life there till they kick u out. F2 u are a tribal no meter what u do u are a dirty not smart tribal, bc if u know about computer or someone know about it they wont live like they do on that game. F3 u are the child that born on river city and your father took u to vault 101. the Tunnel snake are always the bully and Amata(if i remember correctly) like/love u, and the overseer dont like u or ur dad. FNV, not meter how much u want to dress it u are the courier, is more u spend the [censored] 4 DLC learning who u are, contradicting everything u roll play till that point.

I really dont see all the problem that they give a deep backstory this time, is more after u leave the vault u can do what ever u want, hell u can ignore and dont look for ur son or shoot everyone on the museum.