Many questions about Fallout 76 were answered during a QuakeCon 2018 panel today, including how potential griefing and player versus player combat will work. Remember, Fallout 76 is an online game where the wasteland you explore will be populated by other players, who you can attack and who can attack you.
The way it works is if you initiate combat – you start shooting somebody – you only do a little bit of damage, said Todd Howard, game director. You don’t do full damage. It’s like slapping someone in a bar, he said, and if the person you’re ‘slapping’ fights back – engages you – then you do both do full damage.
If you die, you do not lose all your stuff, you only lose the junk you’re carrying, so your weapons and armour are safe. But as junk will be valuable for crafting and making camp, there’s an element of danger in carrying around too much.
Source: Eurogamer Griefing in Fallout 76 turns you into a wanted criminal with a bounty on your head