I can see how people like to make up their own stories, but I don't like to. I don't, because there are no actual effects in-game. "I'm a reformed Fiend!" OK, but what's the point if there is no reflection of that in the game?

The true origin of everyone here who roleplays their origin:
Alright I'm a stalking nutjob who walks into towns, steals their clothes then attempts to pretend I was always there. Everyone else always tells me I'm new here but I was so born and raised locally. Everyone in the game just pretends not to know me because I'm so lonely. ;(

If the characters don't reference you as being an X or having anything to do with X then you aren't X, you're just an ingame Larper.

Really Sam? Really?

Exactly.

This was what i didnt like about Fallout 3. Really fallout 3 didnt give you much room for your own backstory because you started playing at birth. To me the character growing up in a vault really limits your options. FO and FO3 had this problem for me. New Vegas is my favorite so far because the character's back story is so vague, so you can really become immersed in the game imo.

That's one of the things that makes this RPG so great. Those who like to do actual role-playing are given the opportunity to create their own character in a long-standing tradition for RPG games and gamers who don't want to do that, aren't forced to do it. It's all about choice and each of us gets to choose...the best of both worlds. Thank you to the developers.

:fallout:

I almost fell out of my chair laughing when i read this. XD

I think Mass Effect really did the origin in a cool way. New Vegas could have started with you being buried and being assigned as the courier but you should be able to pick an origin from a list, ex ncr ranger, great khan outcast, refugee from dc, former raider ect ect. And some small quest will go along with whichever you picked along with a few random dialog options.

Either way I think the canyon wreckage will be expanded on with dlc. I mean almost half the map is yet to be used in that area so we could find out more about the mystery setup dude.

The argument that its a blank slate and up to you to create is a valid argument, however. They included a person that obviously knew you and aluded to a situation in your past. That created an unknown experience that we can neither discount nor explore.

Thats a problem for me.

Who was THAT person. What did WE do to irk them. WHAT happened back then.

See now I have to account for that in my backstory.

Did I have carnal relations with his sister? His Brother? With him? With Her? and not call on them the next day?

Did I threaten to beat them up if they didnt give me that deliscious Sweet Roll that Old Man Simpson gave them?

DId I steal the lucrative Van Eyes to New Reno route and make off with a kings ransom in Cats Paw magazines?

More Importantly; How did this person know this whole situation would turn out negatively and end in my death?

Why (if it was them) did they create the warning barricade forcing me to go around through Goodsprings?

These are questions that cannot be answered in the game, Im forced to account for them if I truely want to connect with my character. They also define my character by what I cant use as my backstory now, because obviously there is someone out there not fond of me.

In my best Hugh Laurie...."It's a mystreeee." I just think that's the beauty. You get to choose, you have the freedom to decide which of those you want it to be. And who knows, maybe we'll get more pieces to the puzzle in a DLC. Solving puzzles and anolyzing it to death is part of the fun. Did you see that thread about the Imperial Legion vs Caesar's Legion? Too fun. - Fawkes

On one hand, being able to create your own backstory without limitations is a fun thing to do. You aren't forced into a "This is my dad; I have to play the Main Quest that revolves around him" situation.

On the other hand, this means that you don't have any attachment to any character aside from your own and your companions, which isn't exactly a bad thing, just lacking in some aspects.

My main problem is that the two strong attachments a person would generally form with their companions would either be friendship or sixual in some way, neither of which can truly be done in game, only in imagination land.

So, in my opinion, the Courier is indeed lacking in the attachment aspect; he/she has no biological family, only a small amount of friends, and no lovers, aside from two women who only engage the Courier sixually because things are brought to them.

Of course, none of this stops the player from forming these attachments to the characters in the game; I am sure that some people feel strongly for each of the companions, in a different way.

I would like to see progression on the mystery of the 6 packages, such as who is the person who detests Courier Six so much, that sort of thing.

I don't think people who doesn't like the blank stale understand what RPG means.....

Basically, what I am seeing in this thread are two viewpoints that really can't be reconciled.

One side wants the freedom to make a character that is truly their own. (I'll call us "roleplayers".)

The other side wants to be engaged by loads of stuff that's actually in the game that addresses their character history. (I'll call them simply "gamers".)

The fact is that we really can't have both. One poster suggested making four character backstories to correspond to the four preorder packs. That's a cool idea, and I like it (though of course most players only have one preorder pack at most ). The problem is that this would still reduce the roleplayers from choosing between four characters: Sammy the Vault Dweller, Johnny the Caravan Guard, Slappy the Tribal, and Dougie the Mercenary. Sure, we could use different names or even genders, but no matter what, we would have to pick from one of these four fairly rigid backstories. For "gamers", it'd be good, because those four stories would be explored in greater depth on the computer screen, and they wouldn't have to use their imaginations at all to fill in any blanks. To "roleplayers", this svcks, because maybe we don't want to be Sammy, Johnny, Slappy, or Dougie. Only one of the three characters I made really fits into any of those four roles. Even if there were a dozen pre-made histories, like in Dragon Age, we're still basically just reading a story about a character somebody else created.

"Roleplayers" want something else. We want a game that gives us the freedom to make any kind of character we want, and for the in-game story to address us as if we could have any possible background or personality. The obvious disadvantage is that interactions are going to be shallow; our parents aren't going to show up, we're not going to find the bones of our first girlfriend who had psychic powers, we're not going to have a long side story about overcoming our deep-seated fear of spiders that we've had since we were 8. However, a good roleplayer doesn't care. He's happy to fill in those blanks himself. A character with a deep-seated fear of radscorpions might be really fun to play even if the game doesn't force you to run away from them because the fear isn't hard-coded. A character who loves to get women alone and slash them to death with a straight razor because of a disturbed past could be a really interesting playthrough, though maybe only weird players would want to do that. Sure, you could paste these extra personality traits over one of the premade characters, but it would still devalue my creative input every time I heard a guy say, "Hi, Sammy the Vault Dweller! Boy, it sure is cool that you spent 15 years making crankshafts in the Vault's factory. The outside world must be weird and scary to you, huh? Well since you feel that way, let me offer you a quest that addresses it." You know what I mean?

Bottom line, Obsidian had to make a decision to please either the "roleplayers" or the "gamers", and they chose the "roleplayers". "Gamers" obviously are going to be unhappy about this decision, and I'm sad that they couldn't please everybody. Me, I'm on the "roleplayers" side so I'm glad about it and encourage developers to continue offering this kind of character freedom in some of their games.

That kind of falls down when you consider that Bethesda have done the blank slate thing before - it's not laziness, just a type of game which doesn't appeal to you.
I'm with Zombra: there are gamers and there are roleplayers, and we roleplayers tend to go in for the Role Playing Games (otherwise known as RPGs).

The main problem is that the courier does have a past, with some important key events that we're left in the dark about. How connected will you be with your RPG experience when your favorite personal blank slated backstory gets RETCONNed in a DLC? Imagination is great to use in RPG games, including mix and mash RPG's like Bethesda's, but I believe New Vegas misses out on some (relatively) easy to implement character creation possibilities. The Doc could just ask you what you remember, or who you are. With a list of some semi-vague responses could give some minor dialogue changes to a few key individuals, or each a small quest that lets you role play with some feedback. More could be modded in as people think them up. RPG's (non-computer) are great, but having some outside feedback to reinforce your creative juices brings them to another level. One of the the options could just be "I don't remember," or "None of your business." That should satisfy all parties to some degree. That's all a moot point however.

It's not that I have[get] to make up my past, it's that I definitely have a set past but there's a little more than nothing that allude to it. The entire beginning makes no sense to me at all. When I loaded it up the first time it was like being slapped in the face by a logic bomb. I can't even begin to RP until I step out of the Doc's house and mind-wipe myself as to why my character is there, and why I'm wearing a rare-pipboy.

You are assuming there is a DLC about the Courier's past; but the word is, JE Swayer did said he want the players to be able to decided the Courier's background.

The passed courier is merely a pinch of specie to allow players to expand their imagination.

I consider myself a gamer, but when I play a RPG, I follow the rules and roleplay.

I myself am a role player in RPGs, I like that fact that I can 'create' my characters story. The way I see it is if we had some back story it would have to be MANY of them and that would have to be tied to the questions Doc asked, making need for many more and much more detail. There are so many possibilities, a diplomatic prospector, former/current NRC/CL, a tribal, a death to all, or paragon of light the list goes on and on. I personally see a massive amount of replay value in that, that FO3 sadly didn't have for me.

Or you have a plain Jane set back story and the way you act is solely the result of being shot in the head. You had a happy family, but you got two in the dome and you're after revenge on all or you used to be a wild and rough courier and two in the dome made you go all pacifist.

There are enough choices that you have to decide what type of person you are in the wastes that 4 or 5 back stories aren't enough to make it feel right.

It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I think it was an excellent way to go.

For all these people who want their character's background and history spelled out for them like John/Jane Shepard in Mass Effect, I wonder how many of them have actually sat down and played a table-top RPG before? With actual sheets of paper, pencils, and dice and stuff?

What they don't seem to understand is THAT'S where RPGs originated from, and you were expected to nearly always build your characters from scratch. Players would usually be offended if a DM/GM plunked down a character sheet in front of them with a pre-written history and said "This is what you'll be playing during the campaign."

Note to these folks: It's not lazy storytelling on Obsidian's part. It's a deliberate decision to cater to those of us who actually understand where the nature of RPG's came from.

True, and I actually was a little irritated when this was alluded to once or twice throughout the game. I chose to ignore it in the case of the character for whom it made no sense, but it was an immersion breaker for a minute there. Clearly, the game was designed by committee, and some of the devs evidently didn't get the memo about which approach they were really supposed to be taking. Are we supposed to have a rigid backstory, or not?

On the other hand I don't mind a Thorton overhaul.......like a Director Edition.

You do have a point but it would be cool to have some sort of back story validated. You know like if you decide to be a Legion sympathizer, similar to Captain Curtis you have been sent years in advance to assist in Caesar's westward expansion and the game would recognize the choice by a few dialog options. Perhaps you were a former NCR veteran even possibly a soldier who fought in the first Hoover Dam conflict. How about growing up in Vault 21 (the one on the strip) and found Mr. House's administration of the area to be satisfactory and would like to support him. In the end you could just be a stranger who was passing through and took the courier job for a few caps as the delivery was on the way anyway. All in all i think they still did a good job with the current story with out the added depth a bit of a back story may have provided, while not a game breaker it does seem to be a missed opportunity to flesh out the character a bit more.

Asai

*whoosh* Right over your head, pal. :lmao:


I believe he is very serious... kinda sad really. :unsure:

PnP RPG's are a completely different beast than a computer game though. A PnP player would be offended if a DM told them what their backstory was. They'd be equally offended if the DM told them that they could make up any backstory they wanted, but that he wasn't going to acknowledge it in any way

Totally player created characters are perfect for PnP because the DM can interact with your unique story on the fly.

In a videogame, since the game cannot give you such personalized feedback, you're stuck doubling as your own DM as well, not only imagining your character, but having to imagine the way the world interacts with your character in the cases where the actual game falls short (these instances can be rare or frequent depending on what character you made).

This is an uncomfortable situation to be in: I don't want to be DMing for myself the whole time. I much prefer a balance, where some backstory frameworks are provided, that still allows for player personalization within them. That way I can get some feedback from the actual game.

Obviously some people prefer the blank slate. I think it is a little miscast for a videogame, or at least the present level of videogames which are limited in how you can interact with the world.

All I can hope for is that the DLC will have a history story line. You have a Pip-Boy - that rules out being in the Legion/Fiends etc
The Doc only left it on your arm because he's a 'Good' character.
How come all previous information was missing from it? The Pip-Boy would have recorded all the Courier's previous delivery missions and locations.

To all the people who say the character is whatever you want him to be. U people are forgetting one important thing. It's called logic. If you say I'm an ncr soldier doesn't it ruin you immersion when you travel to any ncr place and they say who r u what r u doing here. If I'm a former khan none of them recognize me. Whatever you choose to make up bout your character has no reflection in game so the immersions is kinda ruined. In my opinion. Whateve background I choose for him is kinda hard to stay tru to his nature as the massive hours of gameplay are put in without any in game character reflections. If people acknowledge you in game of whateve background u came from that would be great for an rpg. But sadly this is not it