I can't help you with the Fallout series: haven't played them myself either.
But I have played all the way through Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, all the way up to Throne of Baal.
First things first: mods. The Baldur's Gate series is old now, and doesn't support most modern screen sizes. For a comprehensive guide to modding the everlasting shit out of Baldurs Gate, look over here. I found that guide invaluable when I first played the Baldurs Gate games. One of the best things the article describes is a way for you to play Baldur's Gate 1 in the Baldur's Gate 2 engine. It makes the original Baldur's Gate look better and it stitches both games together so that you Never. Have. To. Stop. Playing. HNNGG.
Secondly: carefully pick which class to play. Mages start out extremely weak but end up as some sort of demigods. The downside is that you will probably be very frustrated during the first few hours of playing the game. Mages can only cast a very limited amount of spells and have to rest before being able to use them again. So most of the time your mage will just be standing there while his or her party members get kicked in the shins by evil necromancers or whatever. To make mages more useful, I recommend equipping them with either darts or a sling. The same goes for most caster classes such as clerics.
Warriors, paladins and other melee classes are generally more straightforward to play, although you may want to keep a close watch on their 'armor class'. The golden rule with the armor class stat in the Baldur's Gate series is: the lower the better. So if for instance your paladin has an armor class of -9, that is a good thing. If you want to know the armor class of one of your characters, hit the 'i' - key to view his or her inventory and look for the shield icon next to his or her character portrait.
Speaking of the 'i' - key: the Baldur's Gate games have a lot of keyboard shortcuts which might be useful to remember. You can hit 'o' to go to the options menu, hit 'q' to quicksave', hit 'L' for your quest log, hit 'w' to see your characters' wizard spells and hit 'p' to view his or her priest spells. Tab reveals useable objects or items.
If you are stuck, there are a lot of guides and walkthroughs to get you through the game. You may want to have a look at sites like gamebanshee.com for comprehensive walkthroughs. It also helps to speak to all named characters you encounter. Most of them are part of quest lines or have interesting things to say about where to go next.
And last but not least: companions. You can have a party of up to six companions, and I would recommend you to have at least one dedicated healer and two tanks in your party. I also strongly recommend that you recruit a man who goes by the name of Minsc. Seriously, go look for a big bald man with a pet hamster.
I hope this helps you in some capacity.
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