How ‘Fallout 76’ Tells a New Type of Bethesda Story With No NPCs

I cry every time I play Fallout 3, and not just because it’s always been my dream for Liam Neeson to be my father. The stories are well written, well told, and supported by real arcs with real characters. That’s how Bethesda has done it for years with each new iteration of Fallout and The Elder Scrolls. But even though these games have unique storylines, they all rely heavily on the same narrative device: NPCs. So it’s a pretty big deal that Fallout 76 will feature a total of zero human NPCs. None. Not a one. Zilch.

NPC stands for “non-player character.” So every villager, trader, knight, king, elf, and even dragon in Skyrim — except for the one you’re playing as — is an NPC. Most of these game feature hundreds of non-player characters. That’s how the stories are told. You find a character who points you towards a town where you find someone else who shares a rumor about a guy in this castle, and then voila, the tale unfolds.

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