When I played Fallout 3, there was a mission to help the rangers, with a special armor as reward. After finally playing New Vegas this year, I discovered the rangers are the elite troops of the NCR. Loosely related, in Wasteland 2 you also play a ranger.
Why are the rangers so present in post apocalyptic worlds now? Is this a cultural thing?
If I remember correctly, Fallout 1 and 2 didn’t have any rangers.
On a side note, I think someone at Bethesda has a kink for rangers because they are also in Starfield 😁
As for the connection to Fallout 3, really it’s just because Fallout 3 transported a lot of content from the first two games regardless of how tenuous the connection was.
In New Vegas, the Rangers obviously are a more natural fit to the game and as a continuation from the reference in the original. In FNV the Rangers were an independent group which has been absorbed by the NCR, though they still have a lot of autonomy. That’s what that big statue at Interstate 15 is about.
I’m actually a little shocked there aren’t (to my knowledge) any Roger’s Rangers references in Fallout 4, given that the are Minutemen LARPing around.