It is entirely up to players to determine their character's age, motivations, and any details of their life before the start of the game. Skyrim even avoids saying which way across the Skyrim-Cyrodiil border the player was attempting to travel when they were captured by the Imperials and sent to Helgen for execution. Players always start imprisoned in some way, but their reason for being there is rarely elaborated upon. The Elder Scrolls games prioritize roleplaying freedom above all else. One of the reasons for this lies in a subtle difference between the storytelling styles of the two series. While Elder Scrolls fans can choose from many of the races of Tamriel, however, Fallout players can only ever play as a human.
They use the same engine, both series are first-person open-world roleplaying games, and both worlds have a variety of races.
Ever since Fallout 3 the Fallout games have had the same basic formula as Bethesda's Elder Scrolls series.
