Something that I think would be cool for New Vegas would be "race" traits...
Not Asian, White or things like that.

What I mean is, at the beginning of the game, you have the option to choose a third trait, but from a new list.
This list would be more like... well, here is an example:

Farmer Boy- You were born out in the farms with an extensive set of knowledge on how the land works, and how to make your own good medicine, also spending a fair share of time wielding a baseball bat. +20 Survival and 20 First Aid, with +15 Melee. The only downside to this is that you were never experienced with weapons, or technology, and advanced weapons frighten you. -20 to Guns, Science and -15 to Energy Weapons.

Caravaner- Being born out on the Caravan route, you know how to get a deal or situation to work they way you want, and defending the Caravan from raiders has given you a handy ability to wield weapons. +20 to Speech and Barter, +15 To Guns. The Only problem is you were out on the road the whole time, computers mean nothing to you. -20 to Science and other things, a little shaky about this trait.

Evil Doer- Your family was evil. Nothing good came out of them, and nothing good will come out of you. There ability to be sneaky to rob, to be crafty to hacking, and be able to open up locked chests containing valuable treasures inside. +20 to Sneak, and +20 to Science, +15 to Lockpick. Karma automatically starts out as Very Bad, and most starting reputations with people will be "Concerned."(Most people have heard about what family you came from, and generally want to avoid you in every way possible.)

Well, this is my idea so far, and there could be a TON of these options to choose from...
It could help develop character better for RP styles,.

I don't think they need a new list or to allow us to take a third trait, but rather just expand on the current list.
I noticed that with Dead Money, the DLC didn't load until "after" I've left Doc Mitchell's house.
So how can new traits be implemented?
Well.
How about allowing us to go back to Doc Mitchell for "ONE" reset in traits.
When you reset your traits you can get the new one's since all DLC's will have loaded by then. (At least the one that allows resets and the traits that followed with it.)

Oh and I don't see how any of those traits are about "races" really.
Maybe "origin" or something like that.

Ahh ORIGIN! That was the word I was looking for...
(I Couldn't Find the word to describe what I meant.)
And for the Doc problem, maybe you could receive a letter or something.
"Oh, forgot about this, but these papers seemed to belong to you... Seemed rather personal."

Thus allowing you to pick up a trait?

Profession could have been another word as well :tops:

As far as the idea goes, it's pretty cool. Could add a bit more diverse gameplay to the mix.

i think in the next game they should go the route of dragon age origins, and have multiple different origin stories giving you different beginnings for your character. I've even made up some form of beginning story

- NCR - You start off as a regular soldier taking a physical (which is where you pick all your traits and stuff). You do a tutorial mission which involves killing some simple enemies like fiends or something. Later you get chosen to go to some pre-war location, where some big weapon is supposed to be held. Both the BoS and Legion are there as well, and it is a three way battle for the weapon. Later on in the mission the place you are supposed to capture explodes, killing most of the people around the weapon. You are on the outskirts of the blast and can see a person standing on the ruins of the location, and he does some speech and your character blacks out. You wake up in an NCR base, and after it you are healed you are told to go to the general or whatever high ranking official they have there. The official tells you that you are being chosen to join a special unit made to capture the person you saw before you blacked out, and he tells you of their location. You go to their place, join them, and are given a safehouse along with one of the members of the group as a companion. If you choose this origin you start off with unique special forces armor, a service rifle, a shelter, and a companion, making this choice ideal for beginners. You have no pip-boy, and instead have a regular menu. VATS is instead a techniqiue your character knows that lets him concentrate super hard.

- Legion - Unlike with the NCR, in the Legion story you begin from the explosion itself, and are knocked back a few feet into a wall. You can hear the person doing their speech, and your character passes out a bit, and wakes shortly after being carried by another Legion soldier, with a placeholder name of Steve. Steve takes you behind some rocks and begins asking you questions, like your name and stuff, which is where you allocate stats. After the stats are done, you begin a tutorial mission which involves you running away from the location through some paths similar to scorpion gulch, except with easier enemies, like geckos. You make it to a Legion base and are healed up there. You get another mission that is to kill some NCR soldiers that are getting too near your base, and Steve assists you. when you get back to the base the Legion leader at the base tells you and Steve that you have been chosen to find the person that blew the building up. You and Steve are given regular armor so you can walk without being attacked as a Legion soldier, and go on your way. For starting with this origin you get a Cowboy Repeater, a Machete, Leather Armor, Legion Armor, and Steve as a companion. the menu thing is same as the NCR one.

- Brotherhood of Steel - You begin the with a BoS scribe stating "Here are your stats." and you simply get to choose your stats. After you are done she disappears like she was never there to begin with. A voice tells you "Begin!" and you are given a mission to clear out your location of enemies, and you begin doing so. The location looks like some destroyed buildings from FO3, and you have to clear the enemies on the outside and inside of the area. After you kill the last one the screen whites out, and you see that you are in a simulation pod. You get out of the pod and are given an asessment of the test. The scribe there tells you the Elder wants to talk to you. The Elder then explains that you are the best initiate they have, and can be promoted to knight if you complete a mission for him. He tells you that you and a Knight (with the placeholder name joe) are to go to the pre-war location and see what you can find from the destroyed ruins of place. You and Joe leave right away and appear at the location. You search throught the area, and don't find much. After you begin to leave the area Joe tells you he hears something and you run to find a BoS Paladin on the ground, asking for help. You help him out with some stimpaks and and decide to take him back to base, but are attacked by some legion soldiers. After taking them out you take the paladin back to base. You takt to the Elder again, and he tells you the Paladin is in the infirmary, getting fixed up, and You have been promoted to Knight. He gives you your next mission, a large one, which is to find the person the paladin described during the battle. Joe is assigned to the mission as well, and he let's you be the leader of this mission. For starting with this origin you get Recon Armor, a laser pistol, and a Joe as a companion. Instead of a pip-boy your character has a different kind of mini computer. VATS is the same as the NCR and legion explanation.

- Vault Dweller - You are taking a physical in a medical room, and here is where you allocate your stats. You are asked to talk to the overseer, and go on your way. You can talk to other people along the way, and they talk about some guy who left the vault. You go to the overseer, and he tells you the situation. The person that left the vault was the head scientist of the vault, although he was pretty crazy. As a crazy scientist, he found out about some weapon of the old world in a building nearby the vault. You are told by the overseer to get him to come back to his senses and bring him back. You are given a simple gun and leave the vault, for the first time of your life. You leave the vault and have to fight some critters in your path, and eventually see the building. you enter the building and can see the corpses of a bunch of things like molerats and stuff, and follow the death trail to an underground section of the building. You continue along the path and encounter two sentry bots and the scientist, who congratulates you on having the cajones to leave the vault. He tells you that his plan is just beginning, and you can feel free to try and stop him, although he tazes you first, knocking you out. When you wake up a few minutes later, you can hear a humongous explosion, and leave the underground area to find that the entire building has been destroyed, and there are many people of many groups hobbling around, with the scientist nowhere to be seen. You go back to the vault and tell the overseer of your experience, and are given the task of stopping the scientist. For starting with this origin you get a vault security guard suit, and a 10mm pistol. the pip-boy and vats is similar to as it is now.

- Outsider - You are talking to a bartender, and he asks you who you are. You state that you are a simple traveler, and he asks more, allowing you to allocate your stats. The bartender asks you if you heard what is going on, and you reply no. he tells you of the huge battle that happened between the NCR, Legion, and BoS, and the resulting defeat of all three of them. You can hear about it on the radio as well. you get a mission to investigate the incident, and go on from there. This is the neutral option, and you start out with a 9mm pistol and a roving trader's outfit. the menu is the same as the NCR one's

Ugh... I'd rather not.
Sounds way too linear, if the origin story has nothing to do with any faction at all then sure, but starting out as an NCTrooper or Legionnaire at the get go is too linear for me.

This is a terrible idea. It creates player "clones". How does me having the exact same history as a few hundred other people create better RP styles? Sure as the story unfolds things could differ slightly, but in a Fallout game, especially this one, I'd be very hard pressed to find a "unique" player (if that's even possible with the limitations already in place).
Heres an Example of what i mean, 'Static Origin available to everyone - You were born in Vault City, had a family, went to school, fell in love & planned to marry you're childhood sweetheart, she cheats on you, you take up a courier job hoping the change & adventure will strengthen you, yadda yadda get shot in the head, game begins'.
Now an example of an origin story i just made up on the spot for an evil character - 'Was born on a small ranch in a small town, when young witnessed dad kill mum, grew up scarred, kill a woman & like it, continue my life of murderer until i get caught by NCR police & thrown into jail, get released, take up a courier job, continue my sordid history wherever i go, using the job as a means to continually escape justice, end up in the Mojave, need money for a good time, take 1 last job, get shot in head, game begins'. See the difference? My story adds much more depth because i made it up making it personal & it's "loose" letting me customize whatever i want about it, thus making up you're own history is true RP fashion & should be left as is.

If they added "personal viewing" with a bio & stats tabs to show off to others online then FO would take on an epic identity as a truly RP based game & you're want of an origin story would be a great idea. This idea will most likely never take shape though, so to you & anyone else wanting an "origin" story, go play DA:O or Mass Effect. Better yet, make yourself a mod or something & start getting into the spirit of RPGs.

that's why there is the "outsider" option, where you just play as a random guy that came in from the wastes

of course you could join a faction from then on

Still sounds awfully linear to me.

well the beginning is really the only place where you have to do things, after that you would be free to do whatever

you could start as an NCR soldier, then immediately kill all of the NCR

But no history about "how" we joined NCR before that start right?
Could make a good start for a Legion spy.

nah, it's just that you are a soldier

and that would be a good way to be a spy, lol, tho you would fight some legion at the beginning mission

Er, clones? They are just traits for background purposes. If you don't like it don't pick it? The traits adds + and - to certain stats.
It's not deciding your background, it is deciding where you were born. All it is basing off of is just: Family was evil, your took the job up as a Courier Done. You figure out the rest.
You were born into the caravan business, then became a courier done. It's only a trait of course, you don't have to pick this third optional trait. You can avoid it if you want to make up everything else. Where you were born=/=origin of how you came to be developed.

I think you are taking it much more literally than it was intended to be.

lol Yeah my bad, i did read way to much into it. The way you have just explained it though does seem in my eyes to be a very good idea. an extra trait such as better deals with merchants due to being born into a caravan business would be quite fun & add depth creating many more playthroughs.