Big Town

Big Town is a medium sized settlement consisting of nine wastelanders, located far north of Vault 101 and southeast of the Moonbeam Outdoor Cinema.

Background
The population of Big Town is mostly comprised of former teenage residents of Little Lamplight, who were expelled from the settlement of Little Lamplight upon their 16th birthday.

Big Town was glorified by those of high authority in Little Lamplight, and was made out to be a safe, comfortable area where "Mungos" go to live. In reality, Big Town is constantly besieged by slavers and super mutants, whilst the demoralized residents can do little to repel the invasions. When the Lone Wanderer arrives in the settlement for the first time, they are informed that some residents were kidnapped by super mutants and taken to the old police station in Germantown. Upon arrival, every resident is seemingly depressed.

Aftermath
After completing the quest Big Trouble in Big Town by showing the citizens how to defend themselves, mutant attacks will cease on Big Town and the area turns into a relatively safe place to visit. The chosen method of handling the problem (or not) will also determine what happens in a certain random encounter with a wasteland merchant.

Layout
Big Town is a small town which apparently used to be a sprawl of suburban housing before the Great War. It has since been transformed into a makeshift fortress, with walls made of cars, debris, and rubble. The dilapidated homes are fortified with barbed wire and sandbags. The town is only accessible by using a bridge (located at the north end) as the town is surrounded by barricades.

Inhabitants

 * ¹ After randomly encountering the scavenger who is heading for Big Town, he will remain there indefinitely.
 * ² After completing A Sticky Situation.

Notable loot

 * D.C. Journal of Internal Medicine: Red's Clinic, lying on her kitchen table.
 * Lucky 8 ball: can be obtained from Timebomb, assuming the player meets the requirements.

Appearances
Big Town only appears in Fallout 3.

Bugs

 * When you have not started the quest Big Trouble in Big Town for more than four game weeks, you will get a notification that Red and Shorty have died. When finally go to Big Town, you will fail the quest before you have even started it. It is advisable to complete Big Trouble in Big Town as soon as you are adequately equipped (e.g Armored Vault suit and Assault Rifle)
 * Sometimes players are unable to teach the people in Big Town how to defend themselves and you never see the town being attacked by super mutants.
 * If you choose the robotic solution to the problem, at some point during the game, you may encounter a scavenger who tells you that "he's headed for Big Town, which has been overrun, to scavenge whats left". On arriving, you will instantly be attacked by super mutants on the bridge, and all the residents will be gone, and the robots are still there in Big Town, and won't help you fight the super mutants.
 * It should be pointed out for those who intend to protect the town by giving them "robot defenders," that sometimes due to what is possibly a physics or placement glitch, when fast-traveling to Big Town, the Protectron will inexplicably launch itself into the air at high velocity and can land anywhere from within the town, to just outside to the town, or even as far as past Megaton. Unfortunately, there's often no way to track it except to follow the resident that goes after it after you fix the sentry bot. Unfortunately, again, the resident in question will walk, very slowly, to the protectron to activate it. To prevent all this, when you first get to Big Town, if you intend to use the robots, pick up an object like the grocery cart nearby or one of the wheels, and use it to "drag" the protectron underneath one of roofed patios of the houses, the protectron then will not be able to launch off into the air.
 * Sometimes after completing Big Trouble in Big Town the residents of Big Town will randomly vanish with no trace.
 * The nearby wheels provide a better moving platform as the carts can glitch through protectron. In order to test one's positioning, one should enter two additional cells in order to trigger the glitch; such as entering red's clinic, then the basement of the clinic, then return to the outside. If done correctly, there should be a longer loading screen with a background image rather than a black screen, and the robot will have attempted to move.

Behind the scenes

 * "Big Town" is the name of a song by Roy Brown, whose songs Butcher Pete and Mighty, Mighty Man are included on the Fallout 3 soundtrack and are heard in-game on Galaxy News Radio.