Ian (Fallout)

Ian is a short, stocky merchant guard. A no-nonsense man, he used to be a guard for the Crimson Caravan merchants in the Hub, but was shot during a bandit raid and recovered in Shady Sands. He helps defend Shady Sands from raiders and occasionally visits Hub and Junktown to do some trading. Overall, he is very self-reliant, tough, annoyed at getting wounded, and maybe a little overconfident. Many veteran Fallout players consider Ian to be annoying, often shooting at the player if in the way of an enemy. He is useful nonetheless.

When asked he says his home is now Shady Sands, but mentions his hometown and having "someone waiting for me back home".

Fallout 2
According to the Vault Dweller's memoirs, part of Fallout 2, Ian died while fighting supermutants in Necropolis with the Vault Dweller, having been burned to death by a flamethrower. However, in the special encounter Cafe of Broken Dreams, Tandi mentions that Ian may be a part of the Abbey.

At one point in the planning for Fallout 2, Ian had survived and was living in Vault City under the name of Old Joe. According to his dialogue, Ian would mistake the Chosen One as the Vault Dweller and would reminisce about events from Fallout before realizing the mistaken identity. Commenting on the prejudiced nature of Vault City's citizens, he would give the Chosen One a gun, apparently his old Colt 6520 10mm Pistol before sending him away, encouraging the Chosen One to "make proud" the memory of the Vault Dweller. This character is returned in the Restoration Mod.

General information

 * Hit Points: 50.
 * Armor: Leather Jacket.
 * Weapons: Knife, pistol, SMG.
 * Effective with the 10mm SMG early on. Very capable with the .223 Pistol.
 * Likes the Power Fist.
 * Special: Notorious for accidentally shooting the Vault Dweller during battle. This was referenced as a part of Old Joe's dialogue.
 * He will attack you if you've fought people in Shady Sands before recruiting him.
 * Rating: Good during the initial stages of the game, despite his tendency to shoot the player or other friendly NPCs.
 * There is a severe bug with Ian that makes him multiply continuously throughout the gameworld. This becomes a real pain when combat is triggered as the player needs to wait until all the Ians on the map have taken their turn...(Fallout 1)

Tell Me About
You can ask Ian about the following words: War, Shady, Junktown, Hub, Raiders, Caravans, Sands, Necropolis, Medic, Healing, Killian, Gizmo, Casino, Children, Apocalypse, Mutants, Khans, Tandi, Booze, chems, Seth, Aradesh, Razlo, Psychics, Merchants

Related quests

 * Recruit Ian

Behind the Scenes
Ian was a test case character designed to see if the engine could handle non-player-controlled followers who would move from map to map with the player's character. Though the initial implementation required some troubleshooting, it functioned well enough for the team to decide to implement followers.

The character of Ian was based upon Ian Dunteman, a friend of designer Jess Heinig, although the developer found it hard to portray the real-life Ian's characteristics in just a few short lines of dialogue.