Robert MacCready

Robert Joseph "RJ" MacCready is the mayor of Little Lamplight in Fallout 3 and a potential companion in the Commonwealth in Fallout 4.

Capital Wasteland
Robert MacCready was born in the Capital Wasteland. Growing up as an orphan, MacCready resided at Little Lamplight, a settlement populated entirely by children where adults, or "mungoes", were barred entry. At the age of ten, MacCready was picked as the new mayor of Little Lamplight after punching the previous mayor for insisting the mayoral title be changed to "Princess." He began practicing with sniper rifles at the same age, becoming an entirely self-taught sharpshooter.

He left Little Lamplight when he turned sixteen, as was the policy for all children who were of that age. He wandered the Capital Wasteland, taking the "odd job" occasionally before settling as a "hired killer". He soon met Lucy, his future wife. During their first meeting, he told Lucy he was a soldier, fearing he would lose her if he told the truth about his job. She carved him a toy soldier as a gift. The two would reside at a homestead and soon have a child named Duncan. MacCready placed a no cursing rule on himself as a promise to Duncan that he'd clean up his act. After unknowingly spending a night in a feral-infested metro station, Lucy was swarmed by feral ghouls and killed, leaving MacCready to escape with young Duncan in his arms. At their homestead, Duncan contracted an unknown illness that caused a severe outbreak of blue boils with an intense fever. In search of a cure, MacCready left Duncan and travelled north to the Commonwealth.

Commonwealth
While in the Commonwealth, MacCready met a man named Sinclair whose partner contracted blue boils similar to Duncan's. He informed MacCready about a potential cure being housed at Med-Tek Research that he planned to obtain shortly before his partner's death. MacCready was nearly killed by feral ghouls after unsuccessfully attempting to breach the facility.

MacCready found well paid work with the Gunners upon hearing their need for sharpshooters, thought later quit, fearing it was catching up to him and commenting that they "were animals" and "killed anything that moved if it got in their way". To continue his work independently, MacCready began offering his services in Goodneighbor, a town known for not asking "too many questions". After striking a deal with Hancock, he "started waiting for the caps to roll in." Two former Gunner colleagues, Winlock and Barnes, continually threatened MacCready for operating within their territory, driving off potential clients due to his prior line of work.

Effects of player's actions

 * When the Sole Survivor meets MacCready in the Third Rail, he is in an argument with his former colleagues, Winlock and Barnes. After they leave, he can be hired as a companion for 250 caps (can be persuaded down to 200 or 100). The amount paid will be given back to the Sole Survivor after completing one of the parts of his quest.
 * When he is the companion, he will occasionally give some random ammo, ranging from 10mm rounds to a fusion core.
 * If the player reaches highest Affinity with MacCready he will give the perk Killshot, which boosts hit percentage for heads in VATS by 20%.
 * Once idolized, MacCready gives the player character a wooden soldier toy, a gift from his wife, Lucy. Lucy made the toy soldier for him after he told her that he was a soldier when they first met.
 * He will steal when commanded to do so by the Sole Survivor. He is able to steal items undetected right in front of people.
 * If the player attempts to steal from the VIP room of the Third Rail and gets caught, MacCready will leave their company and become hostile, prompting an interface for one to send MacCready to a settlement, similar to Preston Garvey if the player character kills a settler. If the player character doesn't get caught, MacCready will like the theft.
 * If the player commands him to steal an item, or does anything to cause hostility while in Goodneighbor, MacCready will leave the Sole Survivor's company and become hostile, prompting an interface to send MacCready to a settlement.

Companion

 * MacCready likes when the Sole Survivor steals things.
 * MacCready likes it if the Sole Survivor picks a lock that is owned.
 * MacCready likes using most special dialogue options that require Charisma, only if one lies, threatens, or asks for more money though.

Inventory

 * * Unlike the other Little Lamplight characters, there's no interaction possible with his inventory when trying to pickpocket him.

Quotes
Fallout 3

Fallout 4

Appearances
Robert MacCready appears in Fallout 3, Fallout 4, and Fallout: The Board Game.

Behind the scenes
The quote "Let's be careful. No human being would possibly pile books this way" is a line from the movie Ghostbusters.

Bugs
Fallout 3
 * Mayor MacCready is prone to disappearing. He tends to wander into obscure and dark corners. He may appear near the front gate if going outside and fast travel back to town, or standing on the platform where he first stood when he let the Lone Wanderer into town. One can move to his current position with the console command.
 * Sometimes MacCready will not give the option to open the gate. One way to make sure that this does not happen is to click all of the grayed out speech options when speaking to MacCready. The dialogue option to open the gate comes after a line that is often grayed/dimmed.
 * It's possible for MacCready to not open the gate after being instructed to do so. He will run to it, and climb up to the catwalk but will not activate the switch to raise the gate. This is because the scripted sequence requires Princess to be on the other end, and she may not run with MacCready to perform this function. Short of using the console to activate the gate/toggle clipping, the solutions are to use the other entrance, reload from a previous save, or attempt to move Princess in range of the event with the console command followed by.
 * Doing DLC quests before opening the path will end "Picking Up the Trail" resulting in MacCready's and Joseph's dialogue options to vanish and making entry into Vault 87 impossible. The only solution is to resort to a save that still has "Picking Up the Trail" as an active quest, and redo whatever progress has been lost or to use the console command and go to the Citadel to start the quest again.

Fallout 4
 * Sometimes you may not be able to talk to MacCready or open up his inventory. He also fails to follow the player during fast travel. Entering the console command followed by  will bring MacCready to the player, but does not correct the issue.
 * After dismissing MacCready, hiring him again will prompt up the dialogue when you meet him for the first time, needing to be paid before being hired. Reloading a previous save fixes this.