Robert Joseph MacCready

Robert Joseph "RJ" MacCready is the 12-year old mayor of the Little Lamplight settlement in Fallout 3. He wears what appears to be a Pre-War American Soldier's uniform several sizes too big and is armed with an assault rifle.

Background
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 the position of Mayor.

MacCready was born in 2265. He swears more than most other characters in all of Fallout 3. The only character to swear more is Desmond Lockheart.

Interactions with the player character
When first met, MacCready will threaten to "blow your fuckin' head off" unless you leave the Little Lamplight cavern entrance. The player has to pass a difficult speech check, use the Child at Heart perk, or complete the Rescue from Paradise quest in order to gain entrance to Little Lamplight. After gaining entrance to Little Lamplight, the player will have a new dialogue path with MacCready which reveals the entrance to Vault 87 through Murder Pass.


 * Due to his unpredictable wander tendency, it is advised that you get him to open the back gate (to Murder Pass) during your initial meeting with him. Finding him a second time may be difficult.


 * After completion of the Those! quest, the player can convince MacCready (using the Child at Heart perk) to accept Bryan Wilks into Little Lamplight. It is also possible to extort Cave Fungus from MacCready through a speech check. Afterwards, he will tell you to not expect any goodwill from the other residents (closing off the trade agreement path), and you lose Karma.

MacCready cannot be pickpocketed. He also can't be killed because children are treated as essential characters in Fallout 3.

Cave Fungus trade agreement
After speaking with either Eclaire or Lucy, the player can convince MacCready to enter a trade agreement; swapping either Strange Meat (to Eclaire) or Buffout (to Lucy) for Cave Fungus.

Related quests

 * Picking up the Trail
 * Rescue from Paradise

Quotes

 * "Get out of here or I'll blow your fuckin' head off"
 * "Every man for himself!"
 * "You're killin' me here, mungo!"
 * "No, you know what? You can go take a hike, you insane mutant-fucker. Get out of my town!"

Bugs

 * Mayor MacCready is prone to disappearing. 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, or standing on the platform where he first stood when he let you into town. You can move to his current position with the console command "player.moveto 0000313B".


 * 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.

Behind the scenes

 * "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.


 * 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.