The gaming industry has gradually shifted away from making games with a strict moral alignment system, and theFalloutseries exemplifies this pretty well. For example, the player character’s Karma significantly impactedFallout 3. However, its importance was greatly reduced in favor ofFallout: New Vegas’factionsand eventually dropped entirely fromFallout 4.
However, whileFallout 4’sconflict is a bit more nuanced than Good versus Evil, that doesn’t mean some characters don’t lean toward one side or the other. OneFallout 4fan decided to have a little fun with this idea, choosing nineFallout 4companions and matching to aDungeons and Dragonscharacter alignment.
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Of course, it is debatable whether someone can fairly apply the rigidDungeons and Dragonsalignment systemtoFallout 4, but that hasn’t stopped Reddit user NotASynth499 from trying. They created a three-by-three grid arranging characters from Evil to Good on the vertical axis and Lawful vs. Chaotic on the horizontal axis. Reading left to right and top to bottom, it shows Preston Garvey as Lawful Good, Deacon as Neutral Good, John Hancock as Chaotic Good, Old Onfell as Lawful Neutral, Dogmeat as True Neutral, Strong as Chaotic Neutral, Porter Gage as Lawful Evil, Cait as Neutral Evil, and X6-88 as Lawful Evil.
Given thatFallout 4doesn’t have an objective in-universe standard for Goodness or Lawfulness, some of these placements will come across as more than a little arbitrary. Naturally, this led to some debate amongFallout 4fans regarding how accurate this chart is. Preston’s position is uncontroversial, but some felt that Deacon was more Chaotic than the diagram implies. Others argue thatHancock is Neutral or even Lawfuldue to his leadership of Goodneighbor and clearly defined principles.
The Evil characters were the most divisive. Some argued thatFallout 4’s Cait isn’t Evil at alland that she and the super mutant Strong should trade places. Several people also expressed confusion over how or why anyone would consider X6-88 Chaotic. As an Institute Courser, his job is to help maintain the Institute’s iron grip over its Synth servants, and he enforces its laws without question. Meanwhile, Porter Gage breaks the system entirely.Fallout’sraiders generally fall on the Chaotic side of the spectrum. However, Gage’s main job is to maintain order and unity among Nuka World’s gangs, and he lacks the violent temperament of other raiders. Thus, there are arguments for putting Gage anywhere on the Lawful/Chaotic spectrum.
Gage himself exemplifies the problem with imposingD&Dcharacter alignments on settings that don’t use them. Even someDungeons and Dragonsplayers find the system artificial or overly simplistic, particularly in howD&Ddefines Good and Evil. Thus, one would not expect it to mesh perfectly with another game. Still, it’s at least fun to think about howFallout 4’scompanions might fit in the tabletop game’s logic.
Fallout 4is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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