Form ID

is an object property assigned by creators or the engine to each and every thing in Fallout 3, be that items, NPCs or parts of world like sign on a wall or the wall itself.

Base ID (aka Actor Base parameter in the game console)
Base ID is the number assigned to template of each object that is used to create many instances of that object. For example all bottle caps in the game have exactly the same Base ID. This ID is used in scripts or console with commands that create new instances of object, like  or.

This value is also used for the setessential command, which makes the NPC invulnerable. To use it, put in:

Reference ID (aka ObjectReferenceID in the game console)
Every new created item have its own reference ID. For example, all the bottle caps created from same Base ID will have different reference ID. This ID is used to manipulate existing objects with commands like,  , or  , for example.

Any item that is not created by pre-defined game scripts (either original or from mods) will have reference ID starting with FF to indicate that this item belongs to this particular save game. It is for dynamically generated items, like loot from containers, random encounters or trader's wares.

Named Character IDs
Below are the Base ID and Reference IDs for most of the named characters in the game. They are grouped together by the character's initial location and then sorted alphabetically. RefIDs were obtained from the textfile created by the console command. Base IDs were obtained using Fallout Mod Manager: http://timeslip.chorrol.com/fomm.html. ".esm name" indicates characters whose name in the Fallout3.esm was significantly differnet from the name used in the game.

Player Character
SetEssential does not work correctly on yourself, it causes the camera to point at your feet and other issues.

Vault 101
Many Vault 101 characters have multiple BaseIDs because they have different models, one for each segment of the Tutorial Levels. (e.g., when your character is 10 years old, 16 and 19.) Because of this many characters are listed multiple times. In addition while many Vault 101 security guards are named ingame, behind the scenes they are just generically labelled. Collectively this means many Base IDs for characters in this section may be incorrect or missing.

Miscellaneous Locations
Locations that contain just one character are listed here.