So I am deciding to buy my first GOG games the Fallout series. I was going to get them on steam as it seems a lot simpler to get set up but they are cheaper here and DRM free. I always planned on games here over steam for the no DRM and decided to start now. So before I buy them is there anything I need to know to get these running properly? Just download and play or do I need to find some patches. Never played any fallout before but it looks pretty damn sweet. So yeah thanks for the help everyone!

Download. Run the file you downloaded. Play unless you have some weird system specs.
You can also backup your GOG version of Fallout without worrying about DRM biting you in the arse.

You shouldn't have to install any patches. GOG takes care of that sort of thing beforehand; they are very straightforward and user friendly.

It works just great without patches. But you may want to add unoficial patches and addons, just to have at least high res support and some other goodies. But yeah, works right out of the box.

What/Where are some of these unofficial patches?

Just to get you started, you can get all the patches and mods you may want from here:
[url=]http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/dload.php[/url]
For Fallout 1 you should get the Children patch because GOG used the UK version which had the no children sensorship treatment.
For Fallout 2 I would recommend Killap's Unofficial patch. It fixxes some old bugs the developers left in there such as the Too Many Items bug. But others here will probably recommend the Restoration Project patch.
I also use the High Res patches for both even though I just upped the resolution to 800x600. You can use any resolution you want.
Check out the stickies at the top of the forum for all the recommendations.