Fallout 3 - Find your father.
Pros
Your dad is LIAM NEESON
Your dad is a caring figure that the player interacts with during the prologue
You spend a good portion of the prologue with him.
Cons
Your dad is admittedly a bit bland when it comes to personality
He dies within an hour after finding him
Fallout 4 - Find your Son
Pros
Shock value of seeing your wife murdered and infant taken
Cons
Your son is a baby with no personality
Your son is arguably an antagonist
Your son and the player only bonded for less than five minutes total, when combined with lack of personality, results in most players not getting attachment
Fallout 5 has the potential to finally get it right, the whole "find x family member" personal character motivation that Bethesda adores.
Choose your gender, male or female.
Like with Fallout 4, your character gender determines which of the two characters you are.
Play as twin siblings Samuel or Samantha, roughly in their early twenties.
Samuel is witty, coy, and a bit of a goof.
Samantha is sarcastic and a half-hearted cynic.
You've chosen your character, altered their appearance, given them a new name, and determined their base SPECIAL stats?
Good.
The character you have not chosen is now your default companion for the early-game. Samuel or Samantha will accompany you as you quest about doing small tasks and larger tasks. One such quest spirals out of control eventually as mercs were hired to acquire the same item of value that you were looking to snatch and salvage. The result is a fight as two bands of rival mercenaries, a group of raiders, and yourself are suddenly in a skirmish. During all the fighting, you are wounded and left for dead, your consciousness fading as your sibling is captured and hauled away.
Waking up in a nearby village with your wounds patched up, you must now set out into the wasteland in search of your twin sibling and discover just how important that McGuffin device was that so many were coveting.
If written correctly, the players will have a character that they have actually grown fond of and bonded with suddenly snatched away, Angered, the players now have a motivation that is in sync with the character you are role playing as. Instead of players losing interest in their character's personal goal, they are now invigorated. And when the game enters Act III, depending on your actions; your sibling may be alive and well enough to return to being a companion. If not, they may become comatose for a good portion of the late game. Or worse, dead.
Again, if written well enough, these negative consequences will further anger and spark revenge in the players.
After all, everyone gets sad and mad when the goofy, lovable, charming, and fun character gets killed off.
Bonus, it also opens an avenue for a DLC story wherein we take on the role of the sibling that was captured, escaped, evaded recapture for a while and was captured again during that key quest that leads from Act II into Act III, giving us your sibling's perspective of Act I and Act II's events; and even a chance to directly react to your base-game character's actions after hearing of some of your deeds.
Whaddya think?
