“I was a guard for the merchants of the Hub. However, I was shot during a raid by bandits. I've been staying here, since the people have helped me recover. Still, my knowledge of the outside world and my experience make me useful here.”
Ian is a short, stocky former Crimson Caravan guard, now a Shady Sands guard and a possible companion who resides in Shady Sands in 2161.
Background
Fallout
A no-nonsense man, he used to be a guard for the Crimson Caravan in the Hub, but was shot during a bandit raid and recovered in Shady Sands. Having a debt to them, he remained in Shady Sands and helps defend the village from raiders and occasionally visits the Hub and Junktown to do some trading. Overall, he is very self-reliant, tough, and rather overconfident.
When asked he says his home is now Shady Sands, but mentions his hometown and having "someone waiting for me back home".
Fallout 2
According to the Vault Dweller's memoirs, part of Fallout 2, Ian died while fighting super mutants in Necropolis with the Vault Dweller, having been burned to death by a flamer. However, in the special encounter "Café of Broken Dreams", Tandi mentions that Ian may be a part of the Abbey.
 | The following is based on Fallout 2 cut content. |
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At one point in the planning for Fallout 2, Ian had survived and was living in Vault City under the name of Old Joe. According to his dialogue, Ian would mistake the Chosen One for the Vault Dweller and would reminisce about events from Fallout before realizing the mistaken identity. Commenting on the prejudiced nature of Vault City's citizens, he would give the Chosen One a gun, apparently his old Colt 6520 10mm pistol before sending them away, encouraging the Chosen One to "make proud" the memory of the Vault Dweller.
| End of information based on Fallout 2 cut content |
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Abilities
- Hit Points: 50
- Action Points: 10
- Sequence: 12
- Armor Class: 15
- Critical Chance: 15%
Interactions with the player character
Interactions overview
| Interactions | ||
|---|---|---|
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This character is a permanent companion. | |
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This character is a temporary companion. | |
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This character has a talking head. | |
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This character starts quests. | |
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This character is involved in quests. |
- |
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This character is a doctor. | |
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This character is a merchant. | Sells: - |
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This character can modify weapons. |
- |
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This character is allied with the following faction(s). |
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Quests
- Recruit Ian: Self-explanatory; recruit Ian.
Other interactions
- Ian is one of the possible companion NPCs in Fallout. As a companion, he is notorious (or rather, infamous) for his problematic lack of discretion with automatic firearms. He will - more often than not - make burst shots, and accidentally hit the Vault Dweller let alone other non-hostiles, if they are in the same line of fire.
- Because of his experience from being a former caravan guard, he can inform the Vault Dweller about the locations of several towns.
- Ian will turn hostile if the people in Shady Sands are attacked without his company.
Tell me about
| Ian's Tell me abouts | |
|---|---|
| Query | Response |
| Alya, Base, Blades, Boneyard, Brotherhood, Cathedral, Deathclaw, Diana, Exodus, Experiments, Followers, Gwen, Hall, Initiates, Lieutenant, Library, Master, Military, Nicole, Overseer, Paladins, Petrox, Police, Regulators, Scribes, Set, Scavs, Tolya, Unity, Vats, Vault, Vault-13, Vault13, Watershed, Zimmerman |
Sorry, bud. Don't know much. |
| Apocalypse | You know, we'll always have war. Just the next one's gonna be fought with sticks. |
| Aradesh | Aradesh is the leader of Shady Sands. A kind and patient man, although he's kinda looney. |
| Booze | Got any beer? |
| Caravans | Most caravans come from the Hub. They travel all over the place. I worked for a group called the Crimson Caravan before my untimely injury. |
| Casino | The casino is Gizmo's big project in Junktown. Brings in a lot of tourists and money, but problems come with it. |
| Chems | I used some Psycho once on a caravan raid. It made me twitchy. Odd. |
| Children | Yeah, there's some kids in Shady Sands. So? None of 'em are mine. |
| Chip, Water | No idea what a water chip is. Sorry, friend. |
| Garl | "Garl's some dumb-ass who thinks he can take over the world with his crummy raiders. Yeah, whatever." |
| Gizmo | "Gizmo runs a casino in Junktown. I hear that it's rigged, though." |
| Healing | "Razlo does a good job of fixing people up, and his junja juice is well worth it!" 
|
| The Hub | The Hub is the biggest trading center in the New West. It's run primarily by a group called the Water Merchants, but there are some other traders there, too. It's a booming town, but there's a lot of political fighting between the traders. |
| Junktown | A medium-sized town made of junk, overseen by a sheriff named Killian. It's just a few days southwest of Shady Sands. |
| Khans | They're a sorry group of raiders who attack Shady Sands and think that they're gonna take over the world or some such crap. |
| Killian | Killian's mayor of Junktown. He also runs a store there. He's a decent fellow. Never did any work for him, but he seems okay. |
| Medic | Razlo's a great doctor. You should see him if you're hurt. |
| Merchants | Some merchants come from the Hub to trade with Junktown. That's all I know. |
| Mutants | I saw some weird things when I was guarding caravans for the Hub. Mutated coyotes and mantises and scorpions and such. |
| Necropolis | Isn't that the mythical city of the dead? |
| Psychics | I dunno. I think there's something to it, yeah, but there's just not enough evidence. |
| Raiders | There are several different groups of raiders out there. The most organized group is called the Khans; they seem to think they can conquer the world or something. |
| Razlo | Hey, if you need help, Razlo's the man to see. He's a great doctor. |
| Seth | Seth is the captain of the guards. Between you and me, he couldn't guard a fruit if it was nailed to his leg. |
| Sands, Shady | A small and peaceful village. Probably the most promising community in the wastes. |
| Store | Killian runs a good general store in Junktown. |
| Tandi | She's Aradesh's daughter. She's pretty sweet, but I've got someone waiting for me back home. |
| War | Happened a few decades back. Basically, a bunch of countries got kind of antsy, and everything went BOOM! |
Comments
| Ian's comments | |
|---|---|
| Location | Comment |
| Killian's general store | This is Killian's, a general store. Killian's a good man, and they have plenty of stock. |
| Gizmo's Casino | Gizmo's casino. A hive of gambling and underworld activity. Careful; they say the games are rigged. |
| Beth's gun shop | This is the Weapon Shop. It's run by Beth. She's good for guns, but better for gossip. |
| Jake's gun shop | Jake's weapons. High prices, but really good guns. |
| Water Merchants | Office of the Water Merchants. They're the big movers and shakers of the Hub, since they supply the water that keeps everything going. |
| Crimson Caravan | This is the Crimson Caravan. I did some work for them. They do a lot of high-risk jobs. |
| Far Go Traders | Far Go Traders, run by Butch Harris. He's ot-nay oo-tay ight-bray, if you catch my meaning. |
| Maltese Falcon | Ah, now the Maltese Falcon is the place to be. Good music, good drinks, and good company. |
| Vault 13 | Heard about some of these places before, but never been in one. Seems nice and clean . . . a little too clean for my taste. |
| The Glow | What the hell happened here? |
| Mariposa military base | This is gonna be a tough nut to crack. |
| Necropolis | This place gives me the creeps. |
Inventory
| Apparel | Weapon | Other items |
|---|---|---|
| Leather jacket | 10mm pistol | 10mm JHP x72 Bottle cap x63 Stimpak x2 |
Notes
- He can use knives, pistols, and SMGs.
- He is effective with a 10mm SMG early on, but becomes a liability with it when more companions join. Very capable with the .223 pistol and a 14mm pistol.
- Likes Power fists.
- He is also very precise on long ranges.
- He can accidentally shoot the Vault Dweller during battle, especially when using burst fire weapons.
- Despite having the Big Guns skill secretly tagged, Ian cannot use large weaponry like miniguns due to his sprite set not having animation frames for them.
- In Fallout 2, a Chosen One with an intelligence below 4 can say to Angela Bishop that they travelled with someone named "Iam", who kept burst-shooting them from behind. This is a reference to Ian's reputation of accidentally causing friendly fire with SMGs.
Appearances
Ian appears in Fallout and Fallout 2.
Behind the scenes
- Ian was a test case character designed to see if the engine could handle non-player-controlled followers who would move from map to map with the player's character. Though the initial implementation required some troubleshooting, it functioned well enough for the team to decide to implement more followers.[1]
- The character of Ian is roughly based upon Ian Dunteman, roommate of designer Jess Heinig. However, the developer found it hard to portray the real-life Ian's characteristics in just a few short lines of dialogue.[1]
- Ian's line when asked to Tell me about "Apocalypse" is a reference to a quote by Albert Einstein: "I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
- Chris Avellone first mentioned in the Fallout Bible that Ian was to appear in the Den after the Abbey was cut[2], but was later corrected when his dialogue file indicated he would be in Vault City[3].
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Jesse Heinig, a Fallout designer
- ↑ Fallout Bible 6#Questions galore:1. In FO2, the random encounter Café of Broken Dreams Tandi says Ian is some ware in FO2 is this true and if so, ware???
- ↑ Fallout Bible 8#Questions galore:Ian was actually slated for the Abbey and the Den that I know of, but something that Ausir (I think) pointed out, he was actually in Vault City before he was cut from the game.
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