Fallout New Vegas - Blog Posts
I'm on episode 5 of the Fallout show; NO WHAT THE HELL I LITERALLY THOUGHT TO MYSELF "MAN I'M BEGINNING TO LIKE THIS SHOW" AND THEN THEY JUST REMOVE THE NCR FROM CANNON. WHY. THAT'S SUCH A FRUSTRATING CHOICE
also STOP PLAYING ON THE NOSE MUSIC I CAN UNDERSTAND THE PLOT WE DON'T NEED CONSTANT 50S MUSIC
A devastating and confusing thing about the Fallout setting, when you explore the pre-war aspects, is what the creators think about pre-war America. In the first games we only get hints of the pre-war world, but they seem to be some sort of wild fascist nation invading Canada. In Fallout 1, the first thing we're introduced to of the pre-war society is seeing a soldier shoot civilians and laughing.
Now, for the first 2 games and New Vegas we don't really know much. What we know is that there's a fascist military group known as the enclave who were a sort of US deep state even before the war, and that the government teamed up with corporate interests to preform vaguely MKULTRA-ish experiments with the Vaults. Basically, the government was an extreme version of the 50s American jingoism and McCarthyism.
This is well and dandy, I guess issues come up more when we get to the later games, especially 4, where it seems like none of this extreme plotting and societal civil unrest which would exist is seen. The society as presented in 4 also seems quite progressive, gay people are featured in the opening, and none of the baggage of say, civil rights not existing are included. Now on a baseline, I don't want settings to be more conservative, homophobic and sexist etc., but it becomes a very confusing setting when it's displayed both as this jingoist extreme thing with fascist tendencies aswell as a progressive place where everyone is seemingly equal. If you're focusing on the 50s as your setting, and American nationalism in the 50s, then you can't have McCarthyism spoofs and anti-communism as a societal paranoia norm while also general equality is the norm without misunderstanding why McCarthyism and nationalist jingoism is bad. A massive harm done in anti-communist paranoia is how it degrades and vilifies any progressive movements (women's rights, civil rights, homosexuality) as being morally un-American and therefore connected to communism. To ignore this just makes any critique of MacCarthyism and jingoism weird!
Basically, pre-war America in Fallout 4 becomes this both sides thing where America is both pure and equal and white fences in every instance that we see as the player (the intro), while also supposedly being this dystopic MacCarthyist hellscape that's broadcasting gladly about their war crimes in Canada, and wants to root out communism. I guess the only fix for this issue without getting into the fine print like they had to do is just not to focus too much on the pre-war world.
Interesting thing with the Bethesda fallouts (I've been playing a bit of Fallout 4 recently) is that they, at least in my opinion, misunderstand the fun parts of the first 2 games. I don't think think the setting is a very important part in those games, it's a part of it but it's just set-dressing for the gameplay and fun quest stories and how the players interact with them. I think there's some potential in say Fallout 4 for interesting quests or stories (I've done a couple of quests but a lot of my knowledge is from the Joseph Andersson video), but the solutions to any story just leads back into the shooting gameplay loop. This is, I think, antithetical to the format of the originals, which were based a lot more in having the format of a TTRPG. If your TTRPG sessions all boiled down to shooting people with basically no alternative solutions to quests I think your players would get bored. Since it's got shooter mechanics this kind of salvages it, it becomes it's very different own thing. But the wonderful gameplay loop of those first two games is lost, and I kind of miss it. Man, I need to replay Fallout 2.
I think that the Fallout: New Vegas DLC Lonesome Roads is pretty OK. Like, I get that people dislike it and I agree with plenty of the critiques and generally don't like Chris Avellone as a writer but I do think he nailed a lot of things with Ulysses. It's probably the most interesting reflection in the Fallout universe I've seen in a fallout game that seems kind of ignored by the other games. But like, yeah I do think the critiques that people have usually hold up more than 'The dialogue is pretentious', I feel like the dialogue has a lot to offer but the involuntary changes to player backstory is pretty bad, plus the weird tunneler stuff, what happened there? Having a nuke be a part of the story and it having like, long lasting effects was really cool though. Honestly the ED-E stuff was bad, I didn't like how dog based it was, it felt pandering in a way the Ulysses dialogue never felt.
Anyways I think LR is both like probably one of the better FNV DLCs in the Ulysses dialogue, but the backstory twists and the ED-E stuff was boring and kinda dull but the reflections were pretty balling. I don't get why a lot of gamer reflections don't see the whole 'The Divide Community that was something new' reading as like a leftist socialist society thing, maybe that's just me though as a leftist.
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this ending is so sad but lwk funny like Caesar really said okayyy you aight whiteboy and it was the worst day of arcades life forever
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Legate Lanius from Fallout New Vegas has
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Dean Domino has been given
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⚠️DISCLAIMER⚠️:THIS IS NOT A DATING SERVER!!! AND WE ONLY SEXUALIZE FICTIONAL MEN AND CELEBRITIES!!!
LGBTQ+ FRIENDLY!!! 18+ ONLY!!!
Hello and thank you for reading this. This is a fresh as spring community with empty seats ready to be filled.
What is our purpose? To bring together male lovers who have the strangest "hear me outs", crippling father issues, or just want some people to hangout with.
What are your requirements? Please please please be +18, if we suspect otherwise we will privately request for verification. Sure all the signs read as gay male centered but if you enjoy this server if you are not gay or male. All respectful people are welcome, please keep in mind this is a public server and no disrespect will be tolerated.
All these sound appealing? Click the join button today!!!
Legate Lanius from Fallout New Vegas has
✅ 3 smashes
Join our server to give your opinion today
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⚠️DISCLAIMER⚠️:THIS IS NOT A DATING SERVER!!! AND WE ONLY SEXUALIZE FICTIONAL MEN AND CELEBRITIES!!!
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Dean Domino has been given
✅ 3 smashes
❌ 2 passes
"Until his jerky stick falls off"
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🔥WE ARE THE BLOOD THIRSTY MALE LOVERS🔥
⚠️DISCLAIMER⚠️:THIS IS NOT A DATING SERVER!!! AND WE ONLY SEXUALIZE FICTIONAL MEN AND CELEBRITIES!!!
LGBTQ FRIENDLY +18 ONLY
🔥WE ARE THE BLOOD THIRSTY MALE LOVERS 🔥
⚠️DISCLAIMER⚠️:THIS IS NOT A DATING SERVER!!! AND WE ONLY SEXUALIZE FICTIONAL MEN AND CELEBRITIES!!!
LGBTQ+ FRIENDLY!!! 18+ ONLY!!!
Hello and thank you for reading this. This is a fresh as spring community with empty seats ready to be filled.
What is our purpose? To bring together male lovers who have the strangest "hear me outs", crippling father issues, or just want some people to hangout with.
What are your requirements? Please please please be +18, if we suspect otherwise we will privately request for verification. Sure all the signs read as gay male centered but if you enjoy this server if you are not gay or male. All respectful people are welcome, please keep in mind this is a public server and no disrespect will be tolerated.
All these sound appealing? Click the join button today!!!
🔥WE ARE THE BLOOD THIRSTY MALE LOVERS 🔥
⚠️DISCLAIMER⚠️:THIS IS NOT A DATING SERVER!!! AND WE ONLY SEXUALIZE FICTIONAL MEN AND CELEBRITIES!!!
LGBTQ+ FRIENDLY!!! 18+ ONLY!!!
Hello and thank you for reading this. This is a fresh as spring community with empty seats ready to be filled.
What is our purpose? To bring together male lovers who have the strangest "hear me outs", crippling father issues, or just want some people to hangout with.
What are your requirements? Please please please be +18, if we suspect otherwise we will privately request for verification. Sure all the signs read as gay male centered but if you enjoy this server if you are not gay or male. All respectful people are welcome, please keep in mind this is a public server and no disrespect will be tolerated.
All these sound appealing? Click the join button today!!!
🔥WE ARE BLOODTHIRSTY MALE LOVERS🔥
⚠️DISCLAIMER⚠️:THIS IS NOT A DATING SERVER!!! AND WE ONLY SEXUALIZE FICTIONAL MEN AND CELEBRITIES!!!
18 PLUS!!!
LGBT FRIENDLY!!!
Hello and thank you for reading this. This is a fresh as spring community with empty seats ready to be filled.
What is our purpose? To bring together male lovers who have the strangest "hear me outs", crippling father issues, or just want some people to hangout with.
What are your requirements? Please please please be +18, if we suspect otherwise we will privately request for verification. Sure all the signs read as gay male centered but if you enjoy this server if you are not gay or male. All respectful people are welcome, please keep in mind this is a public server and no disrespect will be tolerated.
All these sound appealing? Click the join button today!!!
🔥WE ARE BLOODTHIRSTY MALE LOVERS🔥
⚠️DISCLAIMER⚠️:THIS IS NOT A DATING SERVER!!! AND WE ONLY SEXUALIZE FICTIONAL MEN AND CELEBRITIES!!!
18 PLUS!!!
LGBT FRIENDLY!!!
Hello and thank you for reading this. This is a fresh as spring community with empty seats ready to be filled.
What is our purpose? To bring together male lovers who have the strangest "hear me outs", crippling father issues, or just want some people to hangout with.
What are your requirements? Please please please be +18, if we suspect otherwise we will privately request for verification. Sure all the signs read as gay male centered but if you enjoy this server if you are not gay or male. All respectful people are welcome, please keep in mind this is a public server and no disrespect will be tolerated.
All these sound appealing? Click the join button today!!!
I got a discord server now I guess 🤷♂️
🔥WE ARE BLOODTHIRSTY MALE LOVERS🔥
⚠️DISCLAIMER⚠️:THIS IS NOT A DATING SERVER!!! AND WE ONLY SEXUALIZE FICTIONAL MEN AND CELEBRITIES!!!
Hello and thank you for reading this. This is a fresh as spring community with empty seats ready to be filled.
What is our purpose? To bring together male lovers who have the strangest "hear me outs", crippling father issues, or just want some people to hangout with.
What are your requirements? Please please please be +18, if we suspect otherwise we will privately request for verification. Sure all the signs read as gay male centered but if you enjoy this server if you are not gay or male. All respectful people are welcome, please keep in mind this is a public server and no disrespect will be tolerated.
All these sound appealing? Click the link button today!!!
I got a discord server now I guess 🤷♂️
🔥WE ARE BLOODTHIRSTY MALE LOVERS🔥
⚠️DISCLAIMER⚠️:THIS IS NOT A DATING SERVER!!! AND WE ONLY SEXUALIZE FICTIONAL MEN AND CELEBRITIES!!!
Hello and thank you for reading this. This is a fresh as spring community with empty seats ready to be filled.
What is our purpose? To bring together male lovers who have the strangest "hear me outs", crippling father issues, or just want some people to hangout with.
What are your requirements? Please please please be +18, if we suspect otherwise we will privately request for verification. Sure all the signs read as gay male centered but if you enjoy this server if you are not gay or male. All respectful people are welcome, please keep in mind this is a public server and no disrespect will be tolerated.
All these sound appealing? Click the link button today!!!
Elizabeth “Beth” Bulldog, a gun for hire for the NCR, mostly hangs around camp McCarran. Armed with a ripper, a military-grade shotgun and a chinese pistol.
First OC within the fallout universe I think. Not sure if I’ll flesh out their character more later on or if this is just a trial OC.
I feel like making female character without them looking too masculine is really difficult. Besides the build and height men and women don’t differ that much, especially in the face, and yet that is where most difficulty seems to be.
I am very happy wiht the colors of the gear she’s wearing, but the skincolor is really difficult to get right!
Maggie the NCR medic, @worthlesssix 's OC, immediately fell in love!
First fanart I've ever made and probably not the last. Is also the first fleshed out female character for me. Why are her boots muddy? Probably had to make it past the dam, dodging some lakelurks.
I really love your style and hope to make comics one day as great as yours, they are a great inspiration to me! Fallout New Vegas will always have a special place in my heart and your work makes the memories so much more special. ❤
kleo and yes man having a lovely tea party
There's a scene in Fallout: New Vegas that I find really interesting in how it uses skill checks in dialogue. A merchant company, the Crimson Caravan, want to buy out one of their rivals, Cassidy Caravans, and they hire the player character to negotiate the deal. The player has likely already met the rival company's owner, Rose of Sharon Cassidy, by this point - in fact, it's entirely possible that she suggested they ask the Crimson Caravan for work in the first place.
Cass is propping up the bar at a truck stop on the border near the game's opening area. She's heard that her caravan has been destroyed in her absence - her employees killed and their wagons burned in an attack on the road - but she can't investigate because of a bureaucratic hold-up. The man in charge of the border post, Ranger Jackson, has halted all commercial traffic across the border because of dangers on the roads - wild animals, bandits, and enemy soldiers - that the authorities are struggling to get under control.
When the player brings the Crimson Caravan's offer to Cass, she refuses on principle. Her business may have effectively been destroyed, but she's too proud and too stubborn to sell her surname for any number of messes of pottage. Convincing her requires that the player employs one of either their Speech or Barter skills - there are two options for each, requiring either moderate or high investments of skill points. Skill and Barter are the game's two Charisma-based skills, and it's not uncommon for them to appear side-by-side like this, but here, they diverge in application.
The easier Speech option is simple - the player just reminds Cass that, if she sells the business, she won't be commercial traffic anymore, so she'll be able to get across the border. She's itching to get on the road again, so this convinces her. (She will ask the player to help Jackson clear the roads for the benefit of her fellow merchants, but this is a very simple quest that they likely already completed hours ago.)
The more challenging Speech check is to tell Cass that there's no way her business can survive, so it's her duty to do the merciful thing - shoot it in the head, bury it, and move on with her life. This, naturally, brings her close to socking the player in the jaw, but she sees the truth in it. She's been holding onto the forlorn hope that there might be something left to save, but she really has lost everything. This bypasses Jackson's quest - she just wants to walk out and not look back.
The Barter options approach things differently - from the Speech options, and from each other. The more challenging one involves making some sport of the offer, challenging Cass to a drinking contest. The player has to supply the booze, and they run the risk of getting embarrassingly drunk if their Endurance stat is too low, but, either way, this will impress Cass enough that she'll sign the contract.
The easier Barter option, though, is, I think, the most interesting. It requires the player to sweeten the deal with their own money - a not insubstantial amount of it, in fact. Cass is still hesitant, though, which allows the player to make a very interesting point. With the money from the Crimson Caravan plus the player's contribution, she'd have enough to restart her business - buy new animals and equipment, hire a new crew, start trading again.
Further, the player can point out that the Crimson Caravan are unlikely to continue using the 'Cassidy Caravans' name after buying it. They're only buying her out to try to monopolise local trade, after all. If they don't use the name, they'll forfeit their rights to it - meaning that Cass can, as she puts it, take their money, give them nothing, and go back to running her business as if the attack never happened.
Cass, naturally, accepts this offer, though she's staggered that the player is so willing to sell out their employers to help her like this. (The player needn't feel any moral misgivings about doing so. A little investigation reveals that the attack on Cass's business was actually engineered by the Crimson Caravan themselves, in collusion with a crime family, in a conspiracy to wipe out their competition.)
I think this entire interaction represents how well New Vegas uses skill checks. Barter, in RPGs, is often a very barebones skill. Its use is letting the player earn more and spend less - as part of an equation determining shop prices, or in dialogue options that boil down to asking for money. It's not uncommon for Speech to be the skill of the peaceful, benevolent diplomat, while Barter is for common mercenaries.
Here, though, the Barter options actually cost more than their Speech equivalents. The player ends up out of pocket for a sizable chunk of change or at least a lot of booze. Instead, the Barter skill represents the character's understanding of common business practices and relevant laws. It allows them to convince Cass to accept a deal by finding a loophole that benefits her more than if she refused.
The equivalent Speech options, meanwhile, are effectively free, but do involve making Cass feel that little bit worse. They emphasise what she's lost, how trapped she is by her circumstances, and convince her to give up and let the Crimson Caravan win. In the long run, this doesn't make a real difference - once she leaves the outpost, she and the player can discover the conspiracy and get their revenge either way - but I think the choice does let the player say something about their character.
Part of the brilliance of this game is how little details, like Cass being stuck at the outpost, tie into other details all across the story. Caravan traffic is halted, in part, because deathclaws have nested near the roads to the north. They've nested there because the local quarry has ceased operations - the noise caused by the digging and blasting had previously scared them off.
The quarry closed down because escaped convicts raided it and stole the workers' stash of mining explosives. The convicts escaped because the government was using them for forced labour on the railroads, and foolishly entrusted them with enough dynamite to stage an uprising, seize control of the prison, and turn it into a fortress and a base of operations for banditry.
Similarly, the threads of Cass's story spread outwards, ultimately affecting the entire future of New California. When she learns that the Crimson Caravan and their allies killed her friends, Cass is furious. She wants to march over there and beat the snot out of the people responsible. The player can convince her to instead settle things legally - get proof of their crimes, pass them on to Ranger Jackson, and hope the justice system gets revenge for her.
If Cass does things her way, the criminals pay with their lives, but their bosses end up better off for it. With their regional execs murdered, the trading companies can claim that the government isn't doing enough to protect them - so, they don't have to support the government's interests, either. They withdraw trade, demand special treatment, and end up making their shortfall everyone's problem.
If the legal option is pursued, though, the evidence becomes blackmail material. The government has the trading companies over a barrel, and that lets them pass stricter trade laws. Given the choice of accepting regulation or facing criminal investigation, the crooked execs choose to stay out of jail. Those responsible for the murders technically avoid justice, but their hopes of a monopoly are dashed - and their superiors are unlikely to be pleased with them having hurt long-term profits so badly.
Cass's story is political and economical all the way through. It's about the influence of wealth on government, and the fundamental injustices of the carceral system. It's about revenge, and reform, and how to hit people where it hurts - their bottom line. And it's about how, sometimes, skills in an RPG aren't about making numbers go up - they're about how a character understands the world around them, and how they can apply that understanding to help someone out of a jam, or help reshape the trade lines of a whole nation.
I need a Fallout New Vegas fanfic that starts with a very insecure and shy female Courier that gets an slow development as she adapts to the Mojave environments. And while doing so, she falls in love with our lovely handsome sniper Boone. Totally not self-inserting myself in the Courier though.
Maybe there's plenty of fics like this out there, but I'm still yet to find them. . .
The Burned Man
The Malpais Legate
I had a sketch of this for a while and hadn't gotten around to it, but since I started to get into digital art, I give it a go. Will it be easier and more fun if I have a tablet and pen? Possibly, but I don't want to spend money on that any time soon, so my phone will have to do.
...