Character

Characters are individuals appearing throughout the Fallout series.

Non-player
A non-player character (NPC) is any AI-controlled character. While some of these NPCs may interact with the player, others may be hostile mutants or critters that pay no mind to combat. In the Gamebryo games, NPCs are pre-programmed via "packages" in the G.E.C.K. editor. Non-player character records within .esm data files use an NPC_ record signature.

Mentioned-only
A mentioned-only character is any person that does not actually appear in a game, and is mentioned in conversation with NPCs, on holotapes, notes, terminals, or any other source in the specific game.

Player character
The player character is a player's avatar in the game world. These can be designed by them, or some games offer pre-designed player characters to choose from. Character creation is the process of defining one's strengths and weaknesses represented by a set of statistics and includes customization options for physical appearance and personality traits.

The player character can only embody a human except in Fallout Tactics, where one can control other races in their recruits. In Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, one can choose a ghoul as their player character.