Fallout: The Board Game player characters

General information
When starting a new scenario in Fallout: The Board Game, each player chooses a player character to play as. There are five playable characters in the base game and five more added in the Fallout: New California expansion. While the only difference between the human characters is their starting equipment, the non-humans have special rules as noted below. Each player also draws one agenda card after picking their character. All player characters, except the NCR Ranger, start at the Crossroads Camp, regardless of which scenario they are in.

SPECIAL
Like other Fallout games, Fallout: The Board Games uses the seven SPECIAL attributes: Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck. Unlike previous games though, these are not treated as variables ranked from 1 to 10 but are instead represented with tokens that the player character acquires and places on their character board. Tests taken by the player characters will specify certain attributes that, if the player character has the corresponding token, will allow them to reroll their dice to get better results.

Each of the player characters start with two SPECIAL tokens, one specific to their character and a second one picked at random. When the player character obtains enough experience points, they level up. When leveling up, the player randomly pulls two SPECIAL tokens from the pile and chooses one to keep. If the player character already has the chosen SPECIAL token on their board, they choose a perk card to take instead of keeping the extra attribute.

The amount of experience needed to level up is equal to the number of SPECIAL tokens they have plus one. So, the first level up will always require three experience points, as the player character starts with two SPECIAL attributes, while leveling up with all seven attributes would require eight experience. Experience is gained from killing enemies, completing certain quests, and from magazines. The Swift Learner perk automatically levels up the player character regardless of how much experience they have.

Traits
Player characters can obtain, or start with, the following traits during gameplay:


 * Addicted - can be obtained after taking drugs and can only be removed with Addictol
 * Idolized - can be obtained through quests
 * Super Mutant - can be obtained through quests or if they start as The Super Mutant, but not if they already have the Synth trait
 * Synth - can be obtained through quests, but not if they already have the Super Mutant trait
 * Vilified - can be obtained through quests or if they start as The Ghoul
 * Well-rested - can be obtained through resting, but not if they already have the Addicted trait