I just started playing, and after walking around with Virgil fighting the local wildlife near the crash site, when I attacked a wolf, my half-ogre beefy melee guy instantly died. He had full HP, and then just fell over dead all the sudden after I clicked on a wolf to attack. Did he critically miss and stab himself in the brain or something? @_@

If your character can randomly instantly kill themselves I'm not sure I can get into this game, especially if it can occur so quickly after starting!

I really like the style and presentation of this game, (I loved FO1&2) but it seems.... MUUUUUUCH harder.

(I also tried a gunslinger and a mage and both have died in the starting area, but none of them killed themselves!)

If your fatigue goes to 0, your character will fall to the ground, becoming defenseless (you're too exhaust to avoid any attacks). The same happens with your companions. Always keep a eye open to fatigue (the blue bar).

It's also possible that you critically missed, but dying for this reason isn't much common.

Good luck :)
Are you playing in real time or turn based?

Turn based, can't stand the real time mode. >_< Plus it feels more like Fallout that way!

I play in turn-based mode too. Real time is unbalanced (some battles can be very tough in this mode. or pretty easy, in some cases). And it's the default configuration! >_<

It sounds like you had a critical miss, for maximum (triple) damage to yourself. Bummer; but this is why I recommend using the F7 (autosave) and F8 (quick-reload) keys as you go along, with full saves after achieving a milestone.

The best way to reduce critical misses is to increase your chance to hit; when the chance is over 100%, you won't miss (and therefore can't critically miss).

Always start with a DX of 9 and two CPs in your chosen attack style (Melee, Throwing, or Bow); get yourself up to 12 DX and a third point ASAP. With a tank character, you should be able to do that by the time you finish the quest started by the ghost in the crash site cave.

Higher DX also means more speed, which means faster attacks in real-time and more of them in turn-based. It's a win-win.