T w e n t y S i d e d

Fallout 3’s James is a terrible main character–possibly because he wasn’t understood to be in some ways the main character. His actions, principles, and backstory solely drive the main quest right up until he dies. This week is about making all that count for something: making the player’s relationship with and study of James something useful and worthwhile.

There’s a lot we stand to improve, but these are my chief objectives:

• The story should provide a genuine mystery players feel they’re solving. I don’t mean adding detective mechanics or even detective-lite sequences, like Fallout 4 dabbles in. When I say the story should be a “mystery,” I mean there should be a progression from unexplained but important event–> disconnected facts that are but incomplete but intriguing–> revelations that suggest possibilities –> satisfying conclusion. That’s a pretty standard formula for hooking, motivating, and entertaining an audience presented with a question that needs answering, like, “Why did my dad just vanish?” Currently the story runs from unexplained but important event–>directions to the end of the mystery–>directions to the end of the mystery–>the mystery unravels abruptly.Technically, by having your character’s birth take place in a location not available inside the vault, the game provides a subtle clue to the mystery of “what’s up with dad.” Which would be great, if it weren’t the only clue. That’s sort of mechanically functional, since a big part of the game is in journeying from place to place, but it’s also dull and doesn’t make efficient or memorable use of the setup.
• Make more complete use of the characters and locations already employed by the story. If you cut Megaton from the main quest’s gameplay, that’d be a huge loss—it serves a lot of mechanical functionality. But from a story perspective, Megaton is totally dispensable. It doesn’t inform our understanding of James’ character or our mission to find him in anything but the most perfunctory fashion: “he went that-a-way.” Let’s fix that.

I’m going to proceed through the locations of the main quest in order. For each location, I’ll do two related rewrites: one that makes a drastic alteration to the location’s history vis-a-vis its relationship with James, another that makes minor alterations to how the player finds it and what cluesAgain, not even clues in the sense that they functionally permit the mystery to be solved; just clues in the sense that they encourage the player to actually speculate about the information they’ve received. are available there. In doing so I’m going to set a new rule for myself: in his life before Vault 101, James should have progressed from area to area in the same chronological order as the player. This not only makes it easier for the player to eventually connect the clues they’ve found and figure out what their father was up to, it suggests a sense of continuity between the main characters. By the time they meet James, they’ll have walked in his shoes: they’ll have seen what he’s seen and understand why he made his choices. This is important because before long, James will die, and the player will have to decide whether they’re going to follow in his footsteps or choose their own path.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Overhaulout Part 5: The Story of James”

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