I have yet to play the game (will be playing when I get home tonight). I see a lot of talk about APs and damage threshold etc. Is there a site/link that describes what these modifiers actually do?

Thanks in advance

Traditionally many RPG's have been stat based. The idea is that you are in the game world as someone else, or are suggesting actions to someone else, and they have limitations (physical, mental, and educational). The PC has a list of personal statistics like how strong they are or how skilled they are. A PC with low skill at firearms will mean that your targets don't get hit as well or as often ~because the PC is no good with a gun. The PC with poor intelligence and/or social skills will be at a disadvantage in conversation. Your options become limited. The premise is that you can only develop your PC so much, and what you add to one stat takes potential away from the others.

Really good RPG's will tailor the game experience to the kind of PC you create.

That makes sense.

Any other thoughts?

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Action_Points

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Damage_Threshold

Spoilers may be encounted in the following links.

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout:_New_Vegas_derived_statistics

http://www.gamebanshee.com/falloutnewvegas/otherstatistics.php

That makes sense.

Any other thoughts?

I really like the idea of damage threshold. At some point there is going to be a disparity in strength, where you just plain can't hurt someone. It's like that in real life. If you don't have a high powered weapon, you just aren't going to damage something with an armored shell. It doesn't matter if you hit it 1 time or 50, they will all be glancing blows, unless you get lucky and find a weak spot, which of course would be your critical hits I suppose.

Truth be told even traditional FPSes are stat based. They're all computer programs after all. Enemies have a health pool, each bullet has a spread (the percent chance of it hitting a given location), a damage, and each hit is a math problem resulting in a decrease in health. The difference here is that you have control over those values.

Guessing by the content of the top post I'm assuming the OP is new or new-ish to the fallout franchise. If that is the case, there is a good chance that the fallout wiki will become your best fallout friend as you play through.