History Fallout3 / TropesNToZ

** [[spoiler:James]] sacrifices himself by flooding the Purifier's control room with radiation to keep the Enclave from controlling it. However, his act only keeps the Enclave from accessing the Purifier's control room afterward, it does nothing to keep them from occupying the Purifier and using it as a base of operations. The Enclave didn't have the means to activate the Purifier anyway, it isn't operational and they don't have the activation code if it was. But then, even if those problems were solved, they'd definitely figure out a way to access the control room safely sooner or later.
** The player is presented with this option in the original ending, either sending Sarah Lyons in to activate the purifier or doing it yourself, even though the lethal radiation levels in the control room will kill whoever enters it. However, of the possible companions you have with you, three of them -- Charon, Sergeant RL-3, and Fawkes -- are immune to radiation, and Fawkes was even the one who retrieved [[spoiler:the G.E.C.K.]] for you earlier by going into a room that was radiated to lethal levels. If the player tries to get any of them to activate the purifier for them, they refuse. With ''Broken Steel'' installed this trope is negated, any of the three will obey the direction to activate it, and if the player chooses to do it themselves they survive now.
* StylisticSuck: Jingwei, a Chinese general, is depicted in General Chase's Anchorage simulation as [[InterchangeableAsianCultures committing sepuku when talked down]] and speaking Chinese in a fake and almost incomprehensible accent. It's unclear if it was Bethesda doing a poor job on his voicing, or if Chase didn't bother to make the simulation accurate at all (considering it's implied that the whole thing might be a fabricated retelling of Operation Anchorage).

** Wearing [[OneManArmy huge powered armor and toting a gun bigger than you]] won't stop [[TooDumbToLive leather-armored raiders from taunting you and]] [[CurbStompBattle firing their peashooters at you]].

** [[spoiler:The Enclave's improved FEV targets anyone who was born outside of the Enclave or a Vault...including ''you''. If you plug the FEV into Project Purity and try drinking Aqua Pura in ''Broken Steel'', you will suffer debilitating status afflictions. If you drink three bottles, [[PressXToDie you will die instantly.]]]]
** If you have ''Broken Steel'' installed and activated Project Purity, you find in the PlayableEpilogue that bringing clean drinking water to the Wastes wasn't as simple as flicking on a switch. The Brotherhood of Steel have to set up a complex water distribution network practically overnight, and they are not too thrilled about you putting such a bureaucratic nightmare on them.
** The Tenpenny Tower sidequest with Roy Phillips. Tenpenny Tower has an exclusionary "no ghouls" residence policy, but being around Roy (a ghoul) for five minutes will clearly show you that he is every bit as a racist {{Jerkass}} as the tower residents. Even if you work out a peaceful solution that will allow Roy and his ghouls in, Roy will eventually turn on the human residents and have them all killed. Sometimes you will meet people who cannot be swayed in their mindset or personal beliefs. But unfortunately, unlike every other evil character in the game, killing Roy will net you ''negative'' karma and the local DJ [[WhatTheHellHero will admonish you over the radio for it]] because he is [[HorribleJudgeOfCharacter convinced that Roy is the real victim in this situation]] and [[HeroWithBadPublicity you are guilty of a cold-blooded racist "murder"]]. Journalists might be ethical and committed to reporting the truth, but they can still get the facts wrong.
** In "The Superhuman Gambit" sidequest, the mayor of Canterbury Commons hires the Lone Wanderer to get rid of either The Mechanist (a superhero who claims to be Canterbury Commons' protector) or The [=AntAgonizer=] (a supervillain who was somewhat harassing them before The Machanist's arrival) who are regularly fighting in the town. Aside from a young boy living there, the inhabitants aren't exactly pleased by the situation and feel those fights (The Mechanist has robots armed with machine guns and missiles, while The [=AntAgonizer=] controls giant ants) are much more dangerous for them than The [=AntAgonizer=] was initially. In other words, that how the muggles would probably feel in any setting where superheroic vigilantes are active.

* TacticalSuperweaponUnit: TheJuggernaut known as '''LIBERTY PRIME''' was designed as the United States' ultimate weapon for destroying the communist army of China during the Alaskan invasion. It's capable of shooting EyeBeams, throws nuclear football bombs, and shrugs off conventional and energy weapons. The US ultimately couldn't solve its short power supply problem due to all of its weapons, so it didn't see use until the Lone Wanderer helps the Brotherhood of Steel reclaim the Jefferson Memorial from the Enclave. In the Broken Steel DLC, the Lone Wanderer learns that Liberty Prime was crucial for absolutely curb-stomping the remaining Enclave bases, and it was only finally taken down because of a KillSat.

** "Trouble on the Homefront" has you returning to Vault 101 to settle a conflict between the current Overseer and a group of rebels who want to see Vault 101's government changed, having been inspired by your previous escape. You can take either side, or you can (for a small karma hit) sabotage the vault's Water Chip, forcing everyone to evacuate into the wastelands. Regardless of your choice, you're not going to be allowed back in again, so why not make them see the world as you have?
** In general, there's quite a few quests that let you do this and get both rewards by playing both sides against one another:

** After the release of ''Broken Steel'', the final quest of the main storyline can also end like this if you have the right companion - normally, you could only either activate the purifier yourself or have Sarah activate it. However, if you have Charon, RL-3, or Fawkes as a follower, you can instead have them activate the purifier. As they are naturally immune to radiation, neither you or Sarah have to die.

* ThereAreNoAdults: Little Lamplight. The eldest kids have to look after the younger ones and do certain jobs like teaching, taking care of injuries, and [[BreadMilkEggsSquick guarding the gate to Vault 87, the birthplace of the DC super mutants.]]

* ThisIsGonnaSuck: During ''The Wasteland Survival Guide'', your dialogue option for the chapter on 'Crippling Injuries' is thus: "I'm going to hate myself for this, but what do you mean about handling injury?" [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], given it involves either waiting around to get shot, throwing oneself off non-lethal heights or walking over a land mine or two. ForScience

** [[StuffBlowingUp Nuka Grenades]]. Nuka-Cola Quantum is rare to come by, so unless you're being attacked by a [[BearsAreBadNews Yao Guai]] or a [[BossInMookClothing Deathclaw]], you'll want to save as many of them as you can. Subverted in ''Broken Steel'' with the new Quantum Chemist perk; whenever you have ten Nuka-Cola bottles in your inventory, they automatically disappear in order to convert to one Nuka-Cola Quantum. Suddenly, [[InfinityPlusOneSword it becomes more viable to make Nuka Grenades as regular throwable weapons]].

** The Vault 101 Overseer, who decides that after repeatedly attempting to murder the Lone Wanderer, something that has obviously failed, the best way to deal with them is to taunt and be sarcastic. Particularly egregious when the Lone Wanderer returns to Vault 101, now most likely clad in power armour and having [[TookALevelInBadass taken several levels in badass]], and the Overseer ''still'' doesn't understand that this may not bode well for his continued plans on having his head remain connected to his body.
** Ditto for Officer Wilkins, the only security officer most supportive of the Overseer. [[GenreBlind Attempting to stop a]] [[PoweredArmor power armor-clad]], [[GatlingGood minigun-toting]] [[TookALevelInBadass Lone Wanderer]] by brandishing a pea-shooting 10mm pistol and clad in mall-security body armor is going to make you a hero, eh?
** The Ninth Circle's proprietor, Ahzrukhal. He knows that Charon really hates his guts and is [[ObstructiveCodeOfConduct only held in check by a contract]]. Ahzrukhal will still let the Lone Wanderer buy the contract off him.
** To a lesser extent, feral ghouls, since they ''always'' announce they've detected the player with a [[RoarBeforeBeating distinctive screech]] that lasts about three seconds, giving an attentive marksman plenty of time to line up a shot.

* TownWithADarkSecret: [[spoiler: Andale.]] Subverted in [[spoiler: Meresti Station,]] where they're pretty open about their disturbing habits.
* TrapIsTheOnlyOption: Vault 112 is ''blatantly'' a trap. But it's a part of the story so hop in the pod, kid!
* TrappedInAnotherWorld: Both Vault 112 and the Operation Anchorage DLC has the Lone Wanderer transported to a digital simulation.
* TraumaInn: Any bed will heal you, but owned or rented ones give you a "Well Rested" XP-generation bonus for a short time afterwards.

** Happens to the Lone Wanderer when he/she is captured by the Enclave. They are knocked out and wake up in a stasis field wearing only their Pip-Boy and their unmentionables and about to be interrogated by Colonel Autumn.

* UnexplainedAccent:
** Moriarty and Tenpenny speak with Irish and British accents respectively. (There is no indication of transatlantic travel in this or any other Fallout.) According to the lead designer, Tenpenny is supposed to have come over from England.

** Roy Phillips, pre-War cop turned post-War ghoul, needs your help to get into Tenpenny Tower. Do it peacefully and he'll murder everyone inside with his pack of feral ghouls because he was going to anyway. Kill him afterwards and you'll get a karma hit (unless it's a sneak attack) because Three-Dog portrays him as a "victim" of a group cruel racists.

* UnreliableNarrator: The Narrator says that Vault 101's door never opened, "This is where you were born. This is where you will die. For in Vault 101, no-one ever enters, and no-one ever leaves.". [[FirstEpisodeTwist Obviously, you and Dad are about to make a lie of that.]] [[spoiler: And not even for the first time.]]

* UpdatedRerelease: The Game of the Year edition, which comes with all of the game's DLC.

** Any perk that only boosts a skill. Skill books are found all the time (there's 25 of each in the whole game, for a total of 25 free skill points, 50 with Comprehension) and +5 to a skill isn't worth the waste of a perk when you can just wait for another level up.
** Swift Learner: +10% experience for each level, but there's an infinite amount of experience available. Even worse is "Deep Sleep", which lets you get the "Well Rested" bonus for +10% exp from any bed you sleep in, meaning it's like Swift Learner, but you need to sleep in order to get the benefits, and those benefits only last a limited time. In addition to the fact that leveling up too quickly will cause more difficult enemies to appear sooner.

** Puppies!: If Dogmeat dies, Dogmeat's Puppy appears outside Vault 101 after a few days; also applies to his puppies, making him impossible to permanently kill. Only available in Broken Steel, which causes Dogmeat('s Puppy) to have ridiculously high HP so he'll likely never die anyway. Useful only for the follower exploits.

** Nuclear Anomaly: At twenty HP or less, you lose all your radiation, your health rises to twenty HP exactly, and you create a small nuclear blast where you're standing. Although it's an amusing gimmick, anything that could drive you to under twenty HP at level thirty is probably going to be dealing '''more''' than twenty damage per hit, the blast re-irradiates you, damages your clothing, often cripples your limbs, damages any friendly NPC in its radius, and occasionally it glitches up and fails to provide the healing, causing you to kill yourself. (Plus any enemy that can reduce your health to 20% at this point will probably be too strong for this Perk to kill.)

* VideoGameCaringPotential: You can play tag and hide-and-seek with a lonely little kid who lives in a mine in Point Lookout.
* VideogameCrueltyPotential:
** [[InvisibilityCloak Stealth Armor]]. FlamingSword. [[BloodyHilarious Bloody Mess perk]]. Town full of innocent people. You know what to do. And nuke the evidence.

** Dr. Braun gives us an in-universe example - his only source of amusement is cruelly tormenting the other inhabitants of Tranquility Lane.
** In Rivet City, you can talk a suicidal old man into jumping off the flight deck. Feel proud.
** The unmarked quest "The Kid-Kidnapper." You know Bumble? The littlest of the named Lamplighters? You can tell her you're taking her on an adventure and then SELL HER TO FREAKING PARADISE FALLS.
** In Rivet City, you can screw over [[spoiler:both Harkness and the Institute using MindRape and first-degree murder. Step one: Get permission from Harkness to execute Dr. Zimmer and his bodyguard. Step two: Convince Harkness to go back to the Institute. Step three: Wait until Zimmer says mind-wipe phrase to Harkness. Step four: ''Shoot Zimmer dead before he can give Harkness a single command''. Congrats, you have left the Institute short of a well-respected genius and left his robot slave in a permanent vegetable state, doing nothing but standing there requesting a dead man to give him commands that will never come. And the rest of Rivet City will completely forgive you for this. Legally.]]
* VideoGameFlamethrowersSuck: Played straight with the Flamer, subverted with the Burnmaster and the Slo-Burn Flamer, and ''utterly'' {{averted|Trope}} with the [[{{BFG}} Heavy Incinerator]].

* VigilanteMan: The Regulators is a whole organization of these guys.
* VillainByDefault: All raiders are homicidally insane, drug-crazed lunatics who live in shelters with human remains used as decoration. Text logs and messages suggest them to be capable of reasoning, but gameplay-wise all they ever do is [[SuicidalOverconfidence attack anything and everything regardless of consequences]].
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Roy Philips. To put it simply, he has a homicidal hatred for unmutated humans. However, the Galaxy News Radio thinks he's an oppressed minority woobie, and bashes you if you put a bullet between the bastard's eyes. This is even reflected in the gameplay itself: even though Philips is villainous and the game knows it, killing him and his followers still nets you negative karma as they are set at "Good" karma.
* VillainousIncest: [[spoiler: The Andale residents.]] You're pretty far gone when generations of inbreeding that's been going on for about 200 years straight '''isn't''' your [[TownWithADarkSecret dark secret]].
* VisualPun: How does [[spoiler: Liberty Prime]] deploy nuclear weapons during "Take It Back"? He throws them like footballs. As in the Nuclear Football, the briefcase that the US President keeps the launch codes for America's nuclear arsenal in.
* VitriolicBestFriends: Harold and Bob are a downplayed duo as Harold is a mutant and Bob is a tree. Harold likes to call Bob "Herbert", which apparently gets under Bob's bark but being a plant, Bob can only communicate to Harold in kind.

** The march to The Purifier during the mission "Take It Back". You and the Lyon's Pride "escort" [[spoiler:Liberty Prime]] while it makes mincemeat out of the defending Enclave forces.
** The finale of ''Broken Steel'' pits the Lone Wanderer versus dozens upon dozens of Enclave soldiers. At one part of the mission, you get some appreciated help from a squad of Brotherhood Paladins, but they die quickly and for the most part you're on your own.
* WastelandElder: There are multiple examples. Such as Manya, the oldest person alive in Megaton, who can tell you the history of its foundation, as well as the elderly leaders of the Children of the Atom. There are also ghouls that have survived since the Great War bomb drops, one of which says that her interesting story is somewhat boring.

* WeCanRuleTogether: AffablyEvil President Eden suggests that there may be a place in the Enclave for the Lone Wanderer, perhaps even replacing Colonel Autumn as his [[TheDragon dragon]], if they agree to help Eden implement his Final Solution. Nothing ever comes of it, though, for two important reasons; 1) even if you don't destroy Eden yourself, in ''Broken Steel'' Liberty Prime will level Raven Rock, either destroying Eden or burying him under a few thousand tons of rubble. 2) Despite being raised in a Vault, the Lone Wanderer is descended from Wastelanders, so Eden's [=FEV=] turns out to be fatal to him/her as well.

** The Vault 101 Overseer. He seems sour and unfriendly most of the time, but if you read his entry in his terminal, he really wished to have the vault residents lead a peaceful life and didn't proceed with Vault experiments.
** Just about everyone in Canterbury Commons believes The Mechanist is doing more harm than good. While he's sincere about protecting the town, it's agreed that his heavily-armed robots are doing a lot more damage than the Antagonizer's mutated ants.
** The Enclave. They're [[ANaziByAnyOtherName essentially Nazi's]], though their goal to restore America and humanity is respectable. Their methods certainly are not.
** The adults of Andale. They're just trying to make a stable food supply and home for themselves. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, that involves [[ImAHumanitarian relying on murdering people for food]] and mass incest.]]
* [[WhamEpisode Wham Mission]]: ''The Waters of Life''. Specifically, [[spoiler:the point when its revealed that not only are the Enclave still active despite the events of ''2'', but they also intend to forcefully take control of Project Purity for their own sinister ends.]]

** Dad gives you one if he finds out you destroyed Megaton.

** You get called on this if you kill the Overseer during your escape, or if you kill him in the sidequest "Trouble On The Homefront." If you kill the original Overseer and also the second one, Amata will accept the latter as self-defense, but you'll still get a lot of "what have you done?" from everyone else.
** In the ending, Sarah Lyons will give you a lot of sass if you insist that she make a HeroicSacrifice rather than doing so yourself. The narrator will also do so in the ending voice-over, even if you send in one of two possible radiation-immune followers (which is easily the most logical choice).
** In ''Broken Steel'', if you choose to target the Citadel after reaching the Satellite room in the Mobile Base Crawler, upon landing back at the [now destroyed] Citadel, the Brotherhood of Steel will immediately find out that it was your doing. They will then declare you a traitor in their eyes, and will shoot you on sight.
** A more subtle one happens if you kill Three Dog, as his DJ segments on GNR are replaced by a very unenthusiastic and bitter technician who talks about how "some asshole killed our DJ."

* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman:
** A recurring theme. There are multiple quests that ask you to decide whether ghouls/androids/slaves/mutants/people trapped in a LotusEaterMachine Are People Too (with the Karma Meter almost always falling on the side of "yes they are"); the two most powerful factions on either side of the coin are distinctly human-chauvinist, although the Enclave [[spoiler:have an AI for a leader]] and the Brotherhood [[spoiler:employ a high-ranking cyborg]]. The Enclave plan to [[spoiler:use the modified FEV to kill all "meta-humans" with even the slightest degree of mutation]].

** The Replicated Man quest is about an android, and both his pursuer and "helper" give reasons on why or why not he's human.
** Subverted at least once, though; [[ThePollyanna Moira]] is convinced that Mirelurks must have a complex underwater society. [[spoiler:They don't.]]
* WhatYouAreInTheDark: The main character has a Karma meter to track this, and it doesn't care whether there were any witnesses. The trope is also applied to a ''lot'' of the evidence you find of peoples' last moments in the Great War - evidence of selfishness, or tragedy, or heroism.
* WhileRomeBurns: Dukov and his two party girls spend every day huddled inside a building doing nothing but drinking, partying, getting high, and having sex. The fact that they are almost completely defenseless and surrounded by super mutants and other monsters is something they choose to simply ignore. It helps that Dukov is [[spoiler:a RetiredBadass whose reputation as a mercenary was known to even Alistair Tenpenny.]]

** The Lone Wanderer him/herself. The character is ''nineteen'' during the Vault 101 escape, and some of the technical things expected of the character (such as disarming a nuclear bomb) would ordinarily not be entrusted to a nineteen-year-old.
* WouldHitAGirl: Colonel Autumn makes his character clear when he murders an unarmed female scientist in cold blood the first time you see him.

* WreakingHavok: The game's physics, when manipulated right, can be very amusing. Such as when you use a couple hundred mines to send a Behemoth Flying into the sky. The game tends to exaggerate the ragdoll physics more in VATS, so critting a Super Mutant with the Victory Rifle can cause them to go tumbling into the air because the weight of their own limbs pulled them into it while still in VATS.

* WrongGenreSavvy: Both the [=AntAgonist=] and The Mechanist believe they are in a superhero comic... you can complete a quest by convincing them that they're not. In the [=AntAgonist=]'s case, she's so far out of touch with reality that she believes she's living the ''Grognak the Barbarian'' comic of which she is based off of.

* YouCantGoHomeAgain: Following the tutorial, you are forced to leave Vault 101 and go into the wasteland after your father escapes while the paranoid Overseer plans on killing you as a scapegoat. Later, the mission "Trouble On The Homefront" allows you to return to the Vault, which has fallen into chaos, and help sort things out. Of course right afterwards [[UngratefulBastard you are told to leave]] and this time you can't ever return (Although you can soften ''that'' blow, as you do have the option of forcing '''everyone''' out of the vault with you by sabotaging the environmental controls.)

*** The quest 'The Velvet Curtain' in which you [[spoiler:follow the intended footsteps of a Chinese spy. After you accomplish the mission and look at the extraction information, it's revealed that Chinese intelligence felt silencing the spy would be far easier than recovering him, so they arranged a booby-trap involving an irradiated room.]]
* YouHaveResearchedBreathing: You can get meat from anything from a dog to a giant bug, but you need the Cannibal perk if you want fresh human meat. Feral ghouls (and Swampfolk in Point Lookout) will occasionally carry around steak-shaped slabs of human, however. Justified in that taking a more active role in cannibalism is a major life choice.

** A frequent result of BoomHeadshot, which [[CranialProcessingUnit even works on some robots.]]
** Moira develops a molerat repellent made of Jet and Psycho that, as it turns out, repels their heads from their bodies.

** Under normal conditions, the Mesmetron that the Paradise Falls slavers give you temporarily confuses targets long enough to allow you to slip a slave collar onto them. However, if you score a critical hit to their head, it will explode a few moments later. They don't even see it coming. The instruction manual the slaver gives you even says that it hasn't been fully tested yet, and a random side effect was that occasionally pressure builds up in the subject's head and [[ArtisticLicenseBiology it explodes.]]
* YourMindMakesItReal: Tranquility Lane and the Anchorage Reclamation Simulation both use a biofeedback network that will lead to real death from virtual shock. The hallucinations encountered in Vault 106 are a less justified version of this.
* ZipMode: Carried over from Bethesda's ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series, the game has a fast travel system to reduce player fatigue with having to travel long distances at a moderate jogging pace. Unlike ''The Elder Scrolls'', there are no services allowing for the discovery of new locations without the aforementioned walking to them, unless [[spoiler:you get the info of the vault locations from Vault-Tec systems]] while doing the "Agatha's Song" subquest or get the "Explorer" perk after reaching Level 20. And you need to be in the World Map or any location that allows you to fast travel, grounded, not overencumbered, and without enemies going for your blood.

* RevolversAreJustBetter: Averted with the .32 pistol, a revolver that is actually one of the weakest guns in the game. The Scoped .44 Magnum on the other hand is among the best of the available pistols offset by its ''terrible'' item health; every shot visibly degrades it. Then there's the PC cheat-only .44 Magnum, which will destroy ''anything'' in one shot. Raiders, mutants, robots, buses, vertibirds...
* RoarBeforeBeating: Feral ghouls and Zeta's alien abominations. This is not a free action--they tend to get shot up doing it.

* RuleOfDrama: The original ending forces the player [[spoiler: to make a heroic sacrifice. Even though logically speaking, several of your potential companions could ''easily'' perform the action for you and be unharmed]]. But all the companions will simply refuse to help -- even Clover and Charon, who are both slaves forced to obey your every whim (the former via the threat of an explosive collar around her neck, the latter through brainwashing that renders him incapable of refusing an order) -- with their reasoning being essentially "It's simply more dramatic if ''you'' do it."
* ScaryScorpions: Radscorpions, who have no [[BoomHeadShot weak point]]. The Giant and Albino versions even more so.

** [[spoiler: Oasis]].
--->'''Three Dog:''' Have any of you kiddies ever seen... a ''tree''? [...] Somewhere out in the Wasteland is a place with ''lots'' of trees, a veritable [[spoiler: oasis]] of green in a [[RealIsBrown depressing sea of brown]]...

* SchmuckBait: InUniverse, there is an insane man in downtown DC with a megaphone who keeps spouting off [[CloudCuckooLander completely crazy nonsensical ramblings]] from the safety of the second floor of his building. In the playground in the back alley of the building is a minefield. If he spots you, he will detonate the minefield and you '''WILL''' die. Over by the street is a wastelander who just wants the guy to shut up. You can convince the poor sap to walk up and try to talk to him... Just make sure you're standing well beyond the sidewalk so you don't get caught up in the explosion. [[note]]It's best to just pick the guy off from a distance with a gun. The minefield itself has at least 4 Mini Nukes scattered under the playground equipment. Yours for the taking if you kill the guy and don't set off any mines in the process.[[/note]]

** A few characters in the game mention ''The Commonwealth'' and ''The Institute'', which exist far to the north of the Capital Wasteland. Among other things, it's where the escaped android came from and where Dr. Li heads to between the end of the main quest and ''Broken Steel'', and is said to be a place of scientific and technological research. In 2012, Bethesda employees were rumored to be visiting Boston and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in preparation for a new ''Fallout'' game to be set nearby - and sure enough, this plot thread turned out to be ProductionForeshadowing for the main plot of ''Videogame/Fallout4''.

* SinisterSubway: Every wrecked metro system in the Capital Wasteland is crawling with either mutants or raiders. Given that they're dark and dank with at least a few systems flooded with radiation in either form as well as the occasional trap...
* SkippableBoss: [[spoiler:General Jingwei and Colonel Augustus Autumn]] can both be talked out of fighting.

* SomeOfMyBestFriendsAreX: When telling Dukov that Crowley wants him dead for being a bigot, part of Dukov's argument against the claim is that he had a Ghoul whore once just to see what it was like.

** James is shown to have an affinity for scotch throughout the game. Scotch is a type of whisky, which in turn gets its name from the Gaelic ''uisge beatha'', which translates into modern English as...wait for it..."water of life".

* StealthBasedMission: In the first leg of the ''Operation: Anchorage'' DLC, you must sneak up the cliffs and take the Chinese guards out [[WithThisHerring with a rather weak silenced pistol]].
* StealthyMook: ''Operation: Anchorage'' has Chinese soldiers equipped with stealth suits that work like a permanent Stealth Boy while in use. Completing the simulation gets you one as a reward as well.
* StepfordSmiler: The Wilsons and the Smiths in Andale are way too cheerful to be real. They also talk as if they're in the middle of a picturesque suburban small town, not a cluster of scorched houses in a post-atomic wasteland.

* {{Stripperiffic}}: Several outfits (although generally more for females than males). The Sexy Sleepwear and its unique variants are obvious ones, but some of the Raider gear and slave outfits from the Pitt are even more suggestive/revealing. The Pitt's "Bombshell" armor is a full blown ChainmailBikini on a female.

* StupidEvil: You, if you [[spoiler:poison the purifier with modified FEV at the end of the main quest. This results in dooming all the non-vault people in the Wasteland. Like, well, you.]] You get Evil karma for that, but you really should get some Stupid karma instead.

** You do not get karma penalties if you do 'evil' things to evil people (including stealing from them or killing them in broad daylight).

** Attacking Betty, the psychotic and omnipotent little girl in charge of the Tranquility Lane simulation, will see you killed very quickly.

* QuintessentialBritishGentleman: The Mr Handy robots. When confronted with an enemy, they will oftentimes shout "For Queen and Country!" before firing their flamethrower.

** Generally avoided, given the open world structure, but some of the quests -- particularly in the main plot -- are starkly this. For example, how choosing not to protect the code to Project Purity gets you insta-killed, or how your only options at the final "morality choice" are to be [[BlackAndWhiteMorality either extremely selfish or extremely generous.]]

** A [[OurOrcsAreDifferent Super]] [[SuperSoldier Mutant]] companion: [[GeniusBruiser Fawkes]], a [[DefectorFromDecadence Defector From Decadence]] [[TokenHeroicOrc who managed to hold onto his sanity]], and is [[NiceGuy incredibly friendly]], [[HiddenDepths surprisingly]] [[WarriorPoet intelligent]], [[TheAntiNihilist contains a Zen outlook on life]], and ''extraordinarily'' [[OneManArmy dangerous]].
** A [[OurZombiesAreDifferent Ghoul]] companion: [[BlueAndOrangeMorality Charon]], a [[BrainwashedAndCrazy brainwashed Ghoul mercenary]] that is [[MyMasterRightOrWrong unswervingly loyal to whoever owns his current contract]]. Outside of that, however, he's quite the [[NiceGuy friendly fellow]].
** A [[RobotBuddy robotic]] companion: [[DrillSergeantNasty Sergeant RL-3]], a Pre-War [[KillerRobot Mr. Gutsy]] that the [[PlayerCharacter Lone Wanderer]] can purchase and have fight at their side - he just does it [[LargeHam very]] loudly.
** A [[TheOrder Brotherhood of Steel]] companion: [[TheBigGuy Star]] [[OldMaster Paladin]] [[CoolOldLady Cross]], the [[TheAce highest-ranking member]] of the Brotherhood's Paladins and Elder Lyons' personal bodyguard. She was turned into a {{Cyborg}} after [[WeCanRebuildHim getting injured in battle]] years ago.

*** The main faction of the Brotherhood, led by [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure Elder]] [[CoolOldGuy Lyons]], who have [[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight discarded most of the Codex]], [[PragmaticHero directly recruit from the locals]], and focus more on protecting the innocent citizens of the [[DeathWorld Capital Wasteland]] from the [[DumbMuscle Super]] [[TheVirus Mutants]] than gathering Pre-War technology - which often leads to them getting [[IronButtMonkey beaten up a lot]]. They're still [[FantasticRacism racist]] towards Ghouls, [[KickTheDog though]].
*** A smaller [[RenegadeSplinterFaction splinter faction]], led by [[AntiHero Protector Casdin]], called the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin "Brotherhood Outcasts"]]. They [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere left Lyons' Brotherhood]] because of him [[AntiMutiny abandoning most of the Brotherhood's Codex]], and focus on gathering Pre-War tech while defending themselves from the local hostiles - which actually makes them the ''most'' like the original ''VideoGame/Fallout1''-era Brotherhood of Steel. Despite their AntiHero tendencies, they get several paralleling moments between them and Lyons' Brotherhood, and mostly just like to be left alone. They get [[ADayInTheLimelight more attention]] in the ''Operation: Anchorage'' DLC.

** Raven Rock, [[spoiler:headquarters of the Enclave]], is only visited once near the end of the main mission. Completionists would be advised to grab the collectible Energy Weapons bobblehead during that time, as [[PermanentlyMissableContent you will not be able to re-enter to get it later]].
** Vault 101, where you begin the game. After escaping at the end of the tutorial, you can only return once during the mission "Trouble on the Homefront". Like Raven Rock, it is advised that you grab the Medicine bobblehead during one of these opportunities, as [[spoiler:once you're banished from the Vault]], you lose it forever.

* OptionalStealth: People specializing in Stealth can play in this way, sneaking about and using a silenced pistol, but [[{{Hammerspace}} breaking out a BFG and Power Armor]] whenever things get hairy.

** If you can't get crooked bar owner Colin Moriarty to reveal where James went - or hack the answers out of his computer - one possible way to earn the answers is to do a little debt-collecting work for him. For good measure, Moriarty is a consummate bastard who will screw over everyone he's in business with, so [[EvilDebtCollector playing the mission his way qualifies as Evil Karma]].

** ''Broken Steel'' enemies such as [[BigCreepyCrawlies Albino Radscorpions]], Feral Ghoul Reavers, and Super Mutant Overlords have massive pools of hit points. At later levels they won't be individual threats, but they still take forever to kill. [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard Just for you though]], as most DLC foes can deal extra points of damage that isn't reduced by your Damage Resistance[[note]]some guns have 15 extra points per shot while double-barrel shotguns have a whopping 35 '''per pellet'''[[/note]] and many travel in groups with others of their type (such as Point Lookout's Tribals and Swampfolk) or weaker variants (such as Super Mutant Overlords and Feral Ghoul Reavers). Part of the problem seems to be that they were balanced for players who put off the finale and take their endgame characters out to explore the new DLC areas, rather than ones who start a new character and check out the new content as they re-explore the wasteland. Hope you brought a lot of Stimpaks and Med-X.

* ParentalAbandonment: [[spoiler: Your father]] leaves around your 19th birthday, which leads to the Vault falling into mayhem from the Radroach infestation and the Overseer going nuts. He had a very good reason for it however, despite the severe consequences for his child. "Latchkey" Kenny in ''Point Lookout'' was also abandoned by his parents, the Swampfolk, because he "don't got the marks" of a Swampfolk and was left to fend for himself.

** Averted when it comes to [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil enslaving]] enemies. Even putting a slave collar on the most evil [[RapePillageAndBurn village burning raider]] or cruel Talon mercenary gets you a lot of bad karma point, while blowing up their heads leaves your karma meter unblemished. Apparently EvenEvilHasStandards.

** You can only enter in Raven Rock in a late part of the main quest, and can't go back once you leave. The area contains the Energy Weapons Bobblehead, which actually lies in an area (Colonel Autumn's room) that can't be returned to once you leave its Raven Rock's sublevel.
** The Medicine Bobblehead is found in Vault 101, that (beside the prologue) can only be revisited for a single, easily missable, quest, before and after which it's inaccessible. This one is a bit more lenient than the Energy Weapons Bobblehead mentioned above, as you have three opportunities to grab it (right before passing the G.O.A.T., during the run from the Vault, and eventually when you return to the Vault during the "Trouble on the Homefront" sidequest).
** It goes without saying that choosing to nuke Megaton will cause you to lose nearly all associated quests, followers, and equipment you might have wanted (with the exception of Moira's Wasteland Survival quest) -- but [[VideogameCrueltyPunishment that just serves you right]]. This includes the Strength Bobblehead.

** Not only is the whole simulation of ''Operation: Anchorage'' visitable once, but it consists in very linear levels with several [[PointOfNoReturn Points of No Return]], making its own [[GottaCatchEmAll collection sidequest]] and its unique reward (10 intel suitcases, getting all of them grants a free perk which increases Science, Small Guns, and Lockpick skills by 3) easy to fail.
** If you complete the "Stealing Independance" sidequest by teaming up with Sydney, she'll then relocate to Underworld's bar and become a merchant if she survived the quest. Failing to do either results in the loss of a merchant whose stock contains tons of ammos, and who carries a high amount of caps. She also carries a unique SMG, which is lost forever if she dies and the gun isn't looted from her corpse.
** Recruiting Charon causes him to murder Ahzrukhal, resulting in the disappearance of a merchant in Underworld's The Ninth Circle, though Ahzrukhal only sells alcohol and don't carry a very high amount of caps.
** Sapling Yew from the Oasis settlement has a dialogue option during the "Oasis" siequest which results in a Speech check. Passing the check results in a permanent increase (+10) of the Speech skill. Failing the Speech check (unless you also have the Child at Heart perk) or not speaking with her at all while the quest is active makes this reward unobtainable.

*** One of the objectives of ''Point Lookout'' sidequest "The Velvet Curtains" requires to trigger the self-destruction of a Chinese submarine abandoned not far to Point Lookout's shore. It doesn't contain much of interest beside a stealthboy, though.

* PersonaNonGrata: You, and by extension your father, in Vault 101 after you leave at the end of the tutorial. Amata only lets you back when she begs for help as the civil war between those who support and those who oppose the Overseer and his oppressive reign. Once the quest is over you're back to being banned because you staying there would lead to the collapse of the Vault. If you choose to do so, you can sabotage the water chip and force everyone else out as well.

* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: "Raiders" seem to do very little actual "raiding", in the sense of attacking inhabited settlements. Instead, they tend to act as highwaymen and territorial scavengers, staking out spots of the Wasteland and attacking anyone who crosses their path. However, several towns have checkpoints and security measures that suggest raiding is a constant threat, and occasionally raiders will spawn as a random encounter close enough to a settlement that they and the sentries will spontaneously start fighting.

* PointAndClickMap: One in your Pip Boy, per series tradition. It includes both a "Local" map and a "World" Map, from which FastTravel is available from the latter.
* PointOfNoReturn: The final mission (without ''Broken Steel).'' Once you enter [[spoiler:the inner confines of the Jefferson Memorial]], the doors lock behind you, making it impossible to go back and do anything else but finish the game.

* ThePollyanna: Moira Brown, who takes everything from her bleak surroundings to her catastrophically failed experiments to her own ghoulification with the same sunny enthusiasm. [[BreakTheCutie Breaking her spirit]] by persuading her to give up her Guide project is treated as a special kind of evil (that rewards you with a special perk.)
* PostApocalypticTrafficJam: A section of highway in the Capital Wasteland features bumper to bumper cars, all of which still retain the working nuclear reactors that power each of them, and will explode if they take enough damage. There's also a horde of bandits that roam the highway and will attack you on sight. A fun way to deal with them is to shoot a car on one end and let the chain-reaction of explosions quickly blow up the entire highway with everyone standing on it.
* PoweredArmor: Per series tradition. However, it requires specialized training that limits it to the Brotherhood (both factions) and the Enclave. Advancing far enough in the main questline will get you training from the Brotherhood, as will the ''Operation: Anchorage'' DLC which [[DiscOneNuke can be accessed from day one if you choose, and also unlocks a nigh indestructible variant of the T-51b]].
* PoweredByAForsakenChild: The cure that Werhner wants? It's a transferrable genetic immunity to not only the Trog disease, but all mutations in general. [[spoiler:Issue is, it's only held by a baby. Ashur and Sandra are slowly but safely extracting the gene, but Werhner doesn't give a shit about little Marie beyond the cure and intends on much more brute-force fueled means to extract the immunity gene.]]

** When you find the [[spoiler: G.E.C.K., you can ignore Fawkes' warning and run to the (lethally-irradiated) storage room yourself. It's doable with a lot of Rad Resistance. When you get it, you can pick it up or activate it; choose the latter and it'll first warn you that everything in a several mile radius will be annihilated to use for materials. You can then do it anyway.]]

** Nearly all Vault-Tec Overseers. Braun is an exception, as there is no "Punch Clock" involved with him.

* PuttingOnTheReich: The Enclave Officers.

* TheQuisling: [[spoiler:Anna Holt.]] And according to the game's karma system, it's still [[KarmaHoudini wrong to kill her]]. However, she likely dies if the base self destructs. She only goes with the [[spoiler:Enclave]] because she foolishly believes that they want to help wastelanders and save the Wasteland with their advanced technology.
* RadiationImmuneMutants: Ghouls and Super Mutants, per series tradition. Taking it a step further, they are even healed by radiation. Glowing Ones, a rare variant of ghoul, can even emit bursts of radiation that heal nearby ghouls and harm the player.

** Here and Now is a perk available at level 10 (or higher) which sends you to he next level automatically.

* ReverseEscortMission: In the quest "Following in His Footsteps", the Lyon's Pride faction of the Brotherhood of Steel may escort you through the DC Ruins. As it occurs early on, you aren't likely to survive numerous Super Mutants and a Behemoth. Should you {{Sequence Break|ing}}, you'll have to fend for yourself when you decide to visit GNR later.

* RuleOfCool: Per series tradition, where the ''Fallout'' universe works according to 1950s era ''SCIENCE!'' and theire vision of the future. For example, instead of simply causing a miserable death, radiation can create mutants while nearly everything runs on atomic energy.

* ScenicTourLevel: The game tours various areas of Vault 101 during the JustifiedTutorial, some of which are otherwise inaccessable.

* SetTheWorldOnFire: [[SoundtrackDissonance You don't want to,]] but it happens anyway.

** The game has no issues with saying "Fuck", but there's a character in Megaton who's job is to "comfort" her customers." She doesn't call herself a hooker, callgirl, or any other term.. She doesn't say that her job is having sex with the bar's customers, but that's exactly what she does.

---> Someone told Father Clifford that Diego and I were...you know.
* SheCleansUpNicely: Moira Brown + reverse-pickpocketed Raider Bombshell Armor = instant FanService. [[FanDisservice Inverted]] if she's been ghoulified by blowing up Megaton.

* ShoutOut: See the series' page [[{{ShoutOut/Fallout}} here]].

** In the main plot, your quest to find your father eventually leads you to Vault 112: here, the residents have spent the last two hundred years plugged into virtual reality, the current simulation being [[{{Dreamville}} Tranquility Lane]], an idyllic 1950s suburbia. Compared to ruins of Washington outside, it's a paradise... except that the Vault's Overseer, [[PsychopathicManchild Dr Stanislaus Braun]], routinely uses his [[VirtualRealityWarper power over the simulation]] to torture the residents for his own amusement. Worse still, your dad's ventured inside and can't escape, forcing you to follow him in. [[spoiler: The only way to escape is to play along with Braun's sick games... or make use of a CorruptedContingency to break Braun's control of the simulator, put his victims out of their misery, and leave Braun trapped alone in virtual reality - [[AndIMustScream forever]].]]

* SkippableBoss: [[spoiler: General Jing-Wei and Colonel Augustus Autumn]] can both be talked out of fighting.
* SlainInTheirSleep: The "[[http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Mister_Sandman Mister Sandman]]" perk lets the Lone Wanderer murder {{Non Player Character}}s in their sleep for a flat gain of 50 ExperiencePoints.

** Enslaving people with the Mesmetron is always an evil act. ''Always''. Even enslaving the VillainByDefault raiders. PayEvilUntoEvil is not in effect here as you're only furthering the system.

* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: [[spoiler:Colonel Autumn in one scene, Sentinel Lyons and yourself in a later one. Autumn injects himself with some sort of AppliedPhlebotinum before the radiation brings him down, Lyons was outside the control room and therefore took a less powerful blast, but you, on the other hand, have no such explanation for your survival]]. However, with ''Broken Steel'', [[spoiler:you do ultimately survive even if you go into the room, so maybe the Lone Wanderer is just that much more durable to this situation]].

* ObviouslyEvil :

** Creator/RonPerlman intones the series ArcWords: "War. War never changes."
** A new [[IconicOutfit Iconic Outfit]] ([[TheApunkalypse the armored Vault 101 jumpsuit ]]) and model of [[PoweredArmor Power Armor]] (the T-45) make their first appearances.

*** A smaller [[RenegadeSplinterFaction splinter faction]], led by [[AntiHero Protector Casdin]], called the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin "Brotherhood Outcasts"]]. They [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere left Lyons' Brotherhood]] because of him [[AntiMutiny abandoning most of the Brotherhood's Codex]], and focus on gathering Pre-War tech while defending themselves from the local hostiles - which actually makes them the ''most'' like the original [[VideoGame/Fallout1 Fallout 1]]-era Brotherhood of Steel. Despite their [[AntiHero Anti-Hero]] tendencies, they get several paralleling moments between them and Lyons' Brotherhood, and mostly just like to be left alone. They get [[ADayInTheLimelight more attention]] in the ''Operation: Anchorage!'' DLC.

** Raven Rock, [[spoiler:headquarters of the Enclave]], is only visited once near the end of the main mission. Completionists would be advised to grab the collectible Energy Weapons bobblehead during that time, as you will not be able to re-enter to get it later.
** Vault 101 where you begin the game. After escaping at the end of the tutorial, you can only return once during the mission "Trouble on the Homefront". Like Raven Rock, it is advised that you grab the Medicine bobblehead during one of these opportunities.

** New DLC enemies such as [[BigCreepyCrawlies Albino Radscorpions]], Feral Ghoul Reavers, and Super Mutant Overlords have massive pools of hit points. At later levels they won't be individual threats, but they still take forever to kill. [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard Just for you though]], as most DLC foes can deal extra points of damage that isn't reduced by your Damage Resistance[[note]]some guns have 15 extra points per shot while double-barrel shotguns have a whopping 35 '''per pellet'''[[/note]] and many travel in groups with others of their type (such as Point Lookout's Tribals and Swampfolk) or weaker variants (such as Super Mutant Overlords and Feral Ghoul Reavers). Part of the problem seems to be that they were balanced for players who put off the finale and take their endgame characters out to explore the new DLC areas, rather than ones who start a new character and check out the new content as they re-explore the wasteland. Hope you brought a lot of Stimpaks and Med-X.

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: "Deathclaw", per series tradition. They're hulking reptilians larger than a man with claws that really justify the name.

** Averted in the original game, to the anger of the fans -- [[spoiler:none of your radiation-immune teammates will enter the radiation-flooded problem area, not even the one who did a similar action just a few quests earlier, instead coming up with excuses about it being your destiny]]. That was fixed in ''Broken Steel'', but the ending voice-over is the same as from the ending where [[spoiler:you send a very much ''not'' radiation-immune teammate to their death instead]], and so still implies you're a coward for not choosing to die. Pragmatism is dead in the wasteland.
** If you ask Sarah, a Brotherhood of Steel paladin, to make the sacrifice, she snaps "[[MenAreTheExpendableGender What happened to chivalry?]]" (even if you are a woman as well). Err, chivalry, as in the idea that a KnightInShiningArmor is meant to protect others? Her snappy attitude probably comes from the dialogue option asking her to make the sacrifice instead of yourself being incredibly rude for no real reason, and to her credit she does ultimately do it.
* {{Nerf}}ed:
** Colonel Autumn's unique laser pistol was originally full-auto, allowing it to fire as fast as a Gatling Laser and making it almost as powerful.

** The Sniper perk has been hugely downgraded from what it was in previous games. Instead of giving a Luck/10 chance of your hits with a gun being critical, now it merely increases your chances of hitting an enemy's head in VATS.

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: At one point, Col. Autumn has captured (a) the missing component for Project Purity and (b) somebody who he thinks knows the secret password to access Purity's computer (you). He ''could'' just fly you to the Purity site and interrogate you there. However, President Eden ''orders'' him to take you (the Enclave's most dangerous adversary) directly into the heart of their incredibly-secret, you'd-never-have-gotten-in base for questioning. [[spoiler: Eden has his reasons.]] If not for this detour, you'd have been entirely in Autumn's power, dooming your character and likely the Capital Wasteland as well.
* NightmareOfNormality: The game springs this on the players during the mission to Vault 112: upon discovering James imprisoned within one of the Tranquility Loungers, you take a seat in one yourself in an attempt to rescue him... only to end up in the virtual-reality neighborhood of Tranquility Lane, a suburban cul-de-sac modeled on 1950s-era sitcoms. Here, you're not only stripped of all your equipment but regressed to the age of ten - meaning that those hard-earned skills and powers earned out in the Capital Wastelands are now effectively useless. For good measure, it eventually becomes apparent that the Loungers are equipped with mechanisms that can erase your memory and alter your personality, ensuring that the illusion of normality is utterly unbreakable for most of the residents; fortunately, you're spared the extra mile of mental manipulation for as long as you remain amusing to Vault 112's overseer, Stanislaus Braun.
* NoCampaignForTheWicked: You can't side with the Enclave in the main quest even if you have Evil karma, and [[ButThouMust are forced to side with the goody-two shoes Brotherhood of Steel]]. This is because [[spoiler:you are a Wastelander and not a genetically pure human like the Enclave, so their genocidal plan will be harmful and potentially lethal for you.]] However, you can carry out President Eden's [[spoiler:[[DepopulationBomb Modified FEV]] genocide plan for the Wasteland, and call an orbital strike on the Brotherhood of Steel's base [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness after having them help you capture the Enclave base]].]]

** If you've reached Good karma, the Talon Company Mercs will go after your head, calling you a "holier-than-thou white-knight". It matters little for some people though, since it also means more things to kill. That turns into more XP, ammo, armor, and weapons, as well as [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential more things]] to shoot at. (And if you have Ranger armor as your main armor, the Talons represent an endless source of combat armor to repair.)
** On top of the Talon Company Mercenaries coming after you, pissing off Tenpenny can result in him sending out a hit squad on you... [[UnfinishedBusiness even if you were completely compliant and reasonable with his requests and/or he's already been dead for a while now.]]

* NoHealthcareInTheApocalypse: While escaping from the Enclave's raid on the purifier, Garza (one of Dr. Li's assistants) is revealed to have a serious heart condition. If he is not given medication, the group is forced to leave him to die (unless the player does it personally).

** Attacking [[EnfanteTerrible Betty]] in the Tranquility Lane simulation results in death via a pulse blast.
--->"You can't do that here. And now you have to pay." [''zap'']

** If you fail to [[spoiler:activate the purifier in time, it explodes,]] terminating your game regardless of whether ''Broken Steel'' is installed, since [[spoiler:without the purifier, the events of the epilogue can't take place, and the main characters are probably killed in the explosion anyways.]]
* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: [[spoiler:Colonel Autumn in one scene: Sentinel Lyons and yourself in a later one. Autumn clearly injects himself with some sort of AppliedPhlebotinum before the radiation brings him down: Lyons was outside the control room and therefore took a less powerful blast. You, on the other hand, have no such explanation for your survival.]] However, [[spoiler:you do ultimately survive even if you go into the room, which kills Lyons, so maybe the Lone Wanderer is just that much more durable to this situation.]]
* NoPlaceForMeThere: Should you accept and follow through with [[spoiler:Eden's idea of purifying the entire Wasteland from mutated lifeforms. Remember, you're one of them.]]
* NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup: The Cure in ''The Pitt'' expansion. Justified - [[spoiler:the cure involves tissue samples from a baby.]]

* NPCAmnesia: NPC characters have a hard time remembering if you've insulted them unless it drove them to attack you; however, when you're given a chance to make a Speech check, you only get the one chance--botch it and you can't convince them to let you try again. Not related to Speech checks, if you [[spoiler:steal the Power Armor Mr. Crowley is hoping to retrieve]], the NPC in question will never talk to you again, [[spoiler:instead only saying, "You stole what was rightfully mine."]]

[[/folder]]

** A few characters in the game mention "The Commonwealth" and "The Institute", which exist far to the north of the Capital Wasteland. Among other things, it's where the escaped android came from and where Dr. Li heads to between the end of the main quest and ''Broken Steel'', and is said to be a place of scientific and technological research. In 2012, Bethesda employees were rumored to be visiting Boston and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in preparation for a new ''Fallout'' game to be set nearby - and sure enough, this plot thread turned out to be ProductionForeshadowing for the main plot of ''Videogame/Fallout4''.

* SelfImposedChallenge: Escorting the Temple of the Union slaves to the Lincoln Memorial. The path to the place isn't straight, while it initially appears that the crew might go through Friendship Heights straight into the heart of DC, they instead border the area, going through places such as Megaton, Andale, Arlington Library and the Citadel. [[spoiler:The crew eventually hits a wall if the Enclave is in possession of the Jefferson Memorial (from "The Waters of Life" onwards), and the only way to pass through is via Liberty Prime destroying said forcefield]].

* SpiritualSuccessor: In addition to the ''Fallout'' series' origins as a successor to ''{{VideoGame/Wasteland}}'' (although this applies more to the first two games in the series than to the post-Black Isle titles), ''Fallout 3'' is often considered a "spiritual sibling" to Bethesda's previous game, ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'', on the basis of their shared focus on sandbox-based exploration and role-playing, as well as both games using the same basic engine. It's not uncommon for people who dislike ''Fallout 3'' to refer to it dismissively as "''Oblivion'' with guns", although many people enjoy it for that ''exact same reason''.

[[folder:Tropes #-C]]