Robert Joseph MacCready

Robert Joseph "RJ" MacCready is the 12-year old mayor of the Little Lamplight children's settlement in Fallout 3. He wears what appears to be a Pre-War American Soldier's uniform several sizes too big, is armed with an assault rifle, and threatens to "blow your fuckin' head off" when the Lone Wanderer and MacCready first meet. Despite his threat, when provoked he will run away shouting, "Every man for himself!"

Biography
MacCready came into office in 2274. shortly after the five-minute rule of Princess. According to Sammy, when Princess demanded the title of Mayor to be changed to Princess, MacCready punched her in the nose and said that the children of Lamplight needed a leader, not a princess. He was then elected to Mayor.

Cave Fungus Trading
MacCready offers several different ways of obtaining the very exclusive cave fungus, such as trading Strange Meat to Eclair or Buffout to Lucy or threatening to blow up Lamplight Caverns.

Related quests

 * Picking up the Trail
 * Rescue from Paradise

Bugs

 * Mayor MacCready is prone to disappearing when you need him to continue a questline. Others have reported that he tends to wander into obscure and dark corners. He may appear near the front gate if you go outside and fast travel back to town. You can also reliably find him by standing on the platform where he first stood when he let you into town and waiting for 8 hours a few times in a row (tested on 360) it also works if you wait 3 hours at a time. It may take a great deal of time to find him again (if you can at all) without resorting to the command console (PC only). The relevant PC console command is player.moveto 0000313B


 * While this may or may not be a "bug", it is advised that you get him to open the back gate during your first conversation with him, so seeking him out a second time is not required.


 * There have been some reports that sometimes MacCready will not give you the option to open the gate, even if you are at that point and have followed the advice outlined in this wiki. One way to make sure that this does not befall you is to click all of the grayed out speech options when speaking to MacCready. The dialog 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. Short of using the console to activate the gate/toggle clipping, the solutions are to either use the other entrance or reload from a previous save. Another possible solution is to wait for 24 hours, which will cause them to open the gate.

Trivia

 * "RJ MacReady" is the name of the main character/hero, played by Kurt Russell, in John Carpenter's "The Thing." In the film, MacReady also takes leadership of his group being there is no other option, and (much like MacCready's confrontation with Princess) personally punched out someone causing a problem.


 * His personality resembles another character called MacReady who is also a mayor in the horror movie "Slither".


 * MacCready's physical appearance is that of the kid at the end of Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. The kid is the son of The Gyro Captain from The Road Warrior. Father, son, and the kids from the airplane crash site all fly off in his odd looking airplane. The quote "I'll blow your fucking head off" is exactly what the kid tells Mad Max and friends when he is "robbing" them.


 * When using the Child at Heart perk to convince MacCready to allow Bryan Wilks to move into Little Lamplight, he will say, "You're killin' me here, mungo!" in a possible nod to the line by Ham Porter in "The Sandlot".
 * MacCready swears more than most other characters in all of Fallout 3. The only character to swear more is Desmond Lockheart.