Fallout: New Vegas SPECIAL

Character creation
Upon waking up, the player chooses the player character's name, gender, age, stats, and appearance.

The maximum level the player can achieve in Fallout: New Vegas is 30.

Primary statistics
The S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system should be familiar to Fallout veterans, though there are significant differences from past games. The player's S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attributes default at 5 points per attribute, with an additional 5 points for distribution for a total of 40 points. Individual attributes cannot score lower than 1 or higher than 10, regardless of equipment, chems or ailments.

S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stands for:
 * Strength
 * Perception
 * Endurance
 * Charisma
 * Intelligence
 * Agility
 * Luck

Derived statistics
Derived statistics are attributes of a character which are based off (or derived from) the character's primary statistics or attributes which the player cannot influence directly.

The following derived statistics are known to exist in Fallout: New Vegas:
 * Action Points
 * Carry Weight
 * Health
 * Melee Damage
 * Unarmed Damage

Skills
Skills in Fallout: New Vegas determine the player's effectiveness in a variety of situations. As in the previous games, the player chooses three Tag Skills out of thirteen to be the character's specialties. Tagging a skill only grants the player a 15 point bonus to that skill. Your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points affect your skill points.

The only two confirmed skills in Fallout: New Vegas are:
 * Combat skills: Melee, Unarmed

Perks
Perks are special elements of the level up system which grant special effects and abilities. In Fallout: New Vegas, you gain perks every level. Many perks have an attribute requirement, for example the Mysterious Stranger perk requires a Luck of 6 to become an option. Other perks have attribute and skill requirements. A perk's S.P.E.C.I.A.L. requirements cannot be met by equipping items or using drugs.

For a list of perks, please see Fallout: New Vegas perks.

Changes from previous Fallout games
Much of the original SPECIAL from Fallout 3 remains intact, with very few new features being added in the way of character creation or stats. Melee Weapons has been renamed Melee, and weapons now have a minimum strength requirement to be used, like in Fallout and Fallout 2.