Vault Dweller

The Vault Dweller is the player character in Fallout.

Background
The Vault Dweller lived in Vault 13, and was chosen to set out on a mission to find a replacement water chip for the vault. Without spare parts or the possibility of a workaround system, the overseer was forced to send one of the inhabitants out to find one. The Vault Dweller was chosen and subsequently set out to find the water chip, investigate the super mutant threat, with the ultimate goal of defeating the Master.

After succeeding in these endeavors, the Vault Dweller returned to the vault but was exiled. A group of Vault Dwellers, disgusted with the overseer's decision left after, led by Lydia, Theresa and Lyle. The group of dwellers that left Vault 13 found the Vault Dweller, and they settled, founding a village named Arroyo. The Vault Dweller and their partner Pat had a child, the future Arroyo elder. The Vault Dweller left Arroyo 20 years later, leaving behind their vault suit and memoirs behind.

Appearances
The Vault Dweller appears as the player character in Fallout, and is mentioned in Fallout 2, Fallout 3, and Fallout: New Vegas.

Behind the scenes

 * Tim Cain described the situation where the Vault dwellers drew straws to determine who had to search for the water chip as the overseer's idea. He explained that the overseer would demand everyone draw a straw in order to be truly fair. However, the overseer himself would be exempt from the process.
 * In the early stages of the development of Fallout 2, it was planned that the main character would again be the Vault Dweller. However, this idea was abandoned due to being difficult for developers to explain the loss of equipment and skills of the hero of the original game. The developers decided to create a new character, a descendant of the Vault Dweller.
 * In an interview, Leonard Boyarsky mentioned seeing promotional artwork of the Vault Dweller which was outsourced by Interplay's marketing team that dev team never approved of.
 * In Fallout the Vault Dweller could be either male or female. They are referred to with male pronouns in Fallout 2.     Chris Avellone clarified that the Vault Dweller's gender was intentionally written to be ambiguous.