Dhruin
SasqWatch
A site called Experience Points has an interesting piece on roleplaying in Fallout 3, when illuminated against a Pen&Paper experience. The author created motivations for his character and set out to see how well the game supported his choice:
More information.Despite these barriers, I had fleshed out my character to my liking and came out of the vault comfortable with my decisions. My evil actions would be driven by mistrust, paranoia and a desire to find my father. Yet the game design did not facilitate this interpretation. I stole to survive, yet for every Stimpak I would steal, I would lose Karma points. At one point, my negative karma allowed one "shady" gentleman to view my character as a potential compatriot, despite the fact he had never seen me steal or kill. The personality I gave my character was not the personality Fallout seemed to be shepherding me towards.