Fallout 3 SPECIAL Character creation . At birth the player chooses the player character ' s name , gender and appearance . Later , as a child in Vault 101 , the PC receives a book titled " You ' re S . P . E . C . I . A . L . ! , " whereupon the player can set the PC ' s seven primary character points . Later in life during the teen years the PC ' s performance on the G . O . A . T . determines which skills of the PC are tagged ( tagged means raised by fifteen points ) ; the player can also choose which skills to tag manually via choosing particular dialogue options with Edwin Brotch . Every aspect of the Lone Wanderer chosen during early life can be changed when exiting Vault 101 . The maximum level the player can achieve in " Fallout 3 " is 20 . This cap is raised to 30 with the " Broken Steel " add - on . Primary statistics . The S . P . E . C . I . A . L . system should be familiar to " Fallout " veterans , though there are significant differences from past games . The player ' s S . P . E . C . I . A . L . attributes default at 5 points per attribute , with an additional 5 points for distribution for a total of 40 points . Individual attributes cannot score lower than 1 or higher than 10 , regardless of equipment , chems or ailments . S . P . E . C . I . A . L . stands for : Derived statistics . Derived statistics are attributes of a character which are based on ( or derived from ) the character ' s primary statistics or attributes which the player cannot influence directly . The following derived statistics exist in " Fallout 3 " : Skills . Skill s in " Fallout 3 " determine the player ' s effectiveness in a variety of situations . As in the previous games , the player chooses three Tag Skill s out of thirteen to receive a point boost . Tagging a skill grants the player a 15 point bonus to that skill . Your S . P . E . C . I . A . L . points affect certain skill points for a one time bonus of 2 points per score ( except Luck , which is 1 point per score for all skills ) . There are 13 skills in " Fallout 3 " : Perks . Perk s are special elements of the level up system which grant special effects and abilities . In " Fallout 3 " , you gain perks every level . Many perks have an attribute requirement , for example the Mysterious Stranger perk requires a Luck of 6 to become an option . Other perks have attribute and skill requirements . A perk ' s S . P . E . C . I . A . L . requirements cannot be met by equipping items or using drugs ( with the exception of the Lucky 8 - ball ) . For a list of perks , please see Fallout 3 perks . Changes from previous " Fallout " games . Compared to its predecessors , the new systems in Fallout 3 are much more flexible and allow for more changes during a character ' s development . For instance , tagging a skill no longer increases the rate of a skill ' s development , but skills gain their maximum effectiveness ( and cap out ) at 100 . Additionally , while the Gifted trait ( along with all traits ) has disappeared , primary attributes are simultaneously less important and easier to acquire as your character grows . Players who played the previous two games should also keep in mind that the SPECIAL system in Fallout 3 is much more forgiving when compared to the first two games : Low ability scores penalize the player less , while high ability scores do not grant as much of a benefit , where in the first two games lowering a SPECIAL stat to 3 or lower could be a risky move regardless of your character type , characters in Fallout 3 can get away with SPECIAL scores of 1 in particular stats . For example , a character with 1 Intelligence will find most character interaction in the first two games impossible , while in the 3rd you simply sacrifice a few Intelligence dependent conversation options and some skill points . Trait s were removed completely , with some traits from previous games having their negative effects removed and being changed into perks .