History FalloutNewVegas / TropesNToR

* OnlyUsefulAsToiletPaper: Played with if [[PlayerCharacter the Courier]] helps Mr. House secure Hoover Dam. General Lee Oliver of the New California Republic is handed the terms for withdrawal and is outraged at the demand they should withdraw their forces from New Vegas and its surrounding territories immediately even though they held the dam and intended to take it for the NCR. General Oliver finds these terms so unacceptable that he thinks the order of withdrawal is [[InsultToRocks unfit to even wipe his ass]].

* OnlyUsefulAsToiletPaper: Played with if [[PlayerCharacter the Courier]] helps Mr. House secure Hoover Dam. General Lee Oliver of the New California Republic is handed the terms for surrender and is outraged at the demand they should withdraw their forces from New Vegas and its surrounding territories immediately even though they held the dam and intended to take it for the NCR. General Oliver finds these terms so unacceptable that he thinks the order of withdrawal is [[InsultToRocks unfit to even wipe his ass]].

* PermanentlyMissableContent:

** Once you complete the ''Dead Money'' DLC, you may stay as long as you like, but you can't return to the Sierra Madre casino once you do leave so it might be worth going back and getting everything you want. Also, you can't return to the Mojave until you complete the DLC's questline, as Elijah has a explosive collar on you and he can blow it up at any time if you don't cooperate.

* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: Having a high science skill allows you to understand several elements from unrelated fields: computing, rocket science, chemistry...

*** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_B-29_Lake_Mead_crash A B-29 really did crash into Lake Mead on July 21, 1948]], and according to reports it's still mostly intact. There are numerous wrecks at the bottom of freshwater lakes and some rivers, and due to low corrosion and few animals living that deep they do tend to remain in fairly good shape, although the in-game B-29 is still in far better shape after 300 years than the real one was after only 50.

** Life under the iron rule of Caesar's Legion is brutally harsh and rife with slavery and rape, but even Rose admits (however grudgingly) that Legion trade caravans are ''the'' safest out there: not even the craziest raiders want to make an enemy of the Legion. Raul spent some time living in Arizona before the Legion conquered it, and while he's completely honest about the fact the Legion are a bunch of ruthless tyrants, it's still a ''huge'' step above a lawless hellhole where raiders prey on the vulnerable with impunity.
** The Las Vegas Strip under Mr. House is the closest the Mojave has to a utopia: clean streets managed by an incorruptible robot police force, food and clean water in abundance, electricity, total safety from criminals and raiders. [[OneNationUnderCopyright The city belongs to Mr. House outright however]], he believes democracy to be a patently ridiculous form of government, and any citizen who threatens his power (knowingly or not) is swiftly removed.

** [[Funny/FalloutNewVegas The owner of the Atomic Wrangler.]]

-->'''F.I.S.T.O.''': '''ASSUME THE POSITION.'''
* RobosexualsAreCreeps: James Garret, a casino and brothel owner who hires the PlayerCharacter to recruit new staff for him, claims that some "disgusting robot fetishists" have been pushing him to add a {{sexbot}} to his roster, and that he wouldn't normally want a sexbot within 100ft of him.. but if he's going to make money out of it, he should be professional about it. If you do manage to find and recruit one for him, his dialogue suggests that he himself is a robosexual, and that he was trying to use IHaveThisFriend to hide the fact.

* RousseauWasRight: Vault 11. The mainframe requires one resident to sacrifice themselves each year, or all life support will be turned off, dooming the others. As it turns out, [[spoiler:given the nature of vaults and their designers, it's almost certain Vault 11 was simply a social experiment. The designers added the option that once the residents refused to play along, they would be congratulated for their conscience and the vault would be opened. The population kept on sacrificing each other for years until (after the sacrifices were made random and a civil war between power blocs broke out) only a handful were left and they decided to just have the Vault kill them. Most committed suicide at the (now open) Vault door when they realized what they had done... except one, who escaped into the wastelands.]]

** With the [[SillinessSwitch Wild Wasteland trait]], you will get [[WhenEldersAttack attacked by murderous grannies]] wielding rolling pins coming straight from a Monty Python sketch at one point. They last roughly as long as you'd expect violent grannies with improvised weapons would when attacking (without provocation even) a wastelander with a body count numbering in the hundreds wielding anything from a BoringButPractical {{Handgun}} or [[KnifeNut combat knife]] to a GatlingGood or FrickinLaserBeams whom WouldHarmASenior (even if only in self-defense) and probably is a CombatPragmatist to boot.

* OldSoldier: "For Auld Lang Syne" involves bringing a whole BadassCrew of now-elderly soldiers [[RetiredBadassRoundup back together]] in order to have them fight at the Battle of Hoover Dam. The five of them are all well past seventy, but are nevertheless more than a match for whole divisions of young NCR soldiers, hardened Legionnaires, or House's securitrons. They're all veteran fighters [[spoiler:who survived the fall of the Enclave]], and recruiting them comes with a stash of advanced power armor, heavy weapons, and a vertibird bomber they can bring to the Dam.

* PartyOfRepresentatives: Each of your companions represents one of the factions of the Mojave, granting you a degree of insight into their beliefs and flaws. Veronica is a journeyman scribe who helps secure food and supplies for the Brotherhood of Steel, Arcade is a humanitarian aid doctor with the Followers of the Apocalypse [[spoiler:and was born into the Enclave to [[TheRemnant one of the few officers who survived]] the destruction of the oil rig]], Lily was one of the Master's elite operatives and lets you witness firsthand the mental degeneration which affects all nightkin, and Raul is a pre-war ghoul, originally from Arizona, and the only party member who has actually lived in a region under Legion control -- and he says the Legion and NCR are NotSoDifferent for the average civilian living on the ground. Boone and Cass are both proudly NCR, but Boone is jaded ex-military (though he seems to blame himself more than anyone for the incident that led to his departure) for while Cass is a civilian business owner who loves her country even though she sees it as deeply flawed.

* OracularUrchin: The Forecaster at 188 Trading Post, a young psyker.

* OptionalStealth: People specializing in Stealth can play in this way, sneaking about and using a silenced pistol, but breaking out a BFG and Power Armor whenever things get hairy.
* OracularUrchin: The Forecaster.

--> "Numbness will subside in several minutes."

* "Music/RideOfTheValkyries": Plays during the launch at the end of "Come Fly With Me"
** To clarify, it doesn't play as part of the game's soundtrack. It plays through speakers in the REPCONN Test Labs, implying that the employees decided that, if they're going to shoot off some rockets, [[OrchestralBombing they had better play some appropriate music]].

*** The last DLC, ''Lonesome Road'', averts this as you can leave the Divide at any point.

* PartyOfRepresentatives: Each of your companions represents a certain group of people, allowing you insight into their beliefs and flaws. Veronica is a member of the Brotherhood of Steel, Arcade is part of the Followers of the Apocalypse [[spoiler: and comes from the Enclave]], Lily is an ex-Unity operative and lets you witness the effects of schizophrenia present in all nightkin, Raul is from Arizona and is passably alright with Legion control. Boone and Cass are both NCR, but Boone represents the military side while Cass is a civilian business owner.

* PartyOfRepresentatives: Each of your companions represents a certain group of people, allowing you insight into their beliefs and flaws. Veronica is a member of the Brotherhood of Steel, Arcade is part of the Followers of the Apocalypse [[spoiler: and comes from the Enclave]], Lily lets you witness the effects of schizophrenia present in all nightkin, Raul is from Arizona and is passably alright with Legion control. Boone and Cass are both NCR, but Boone represents the military side while Cass is a civilian business owner.

** The Mojave chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel got a similar lesson during the battle for the HELIOS One Solar Power Plant. The NCR was able to wipe out most of their forces simply because they had the ability to trade blows and [[WeHaveReserves handle casualties with fresh reserves]], while the technologically superior, but far smaller, Brotherhood could not. The fact that the Brotherhood's Elder and commander was a scientist who had no knowledge of military tactics, and a [[ControlFreak personality]] that made him [[GeneralFailure completely unfit for command]] certainly did not help.

** The Mojave chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel got a similar lesson during the battle for the HELIOS One Solar Power Plant. The NCR was able to wipe out most of their forces simply because they had the ability to trade blows, while the technologically superior, but far smaller, Brotherhood could not. The fact that the Brotherhood's Elder and commander was a scientist who had no knowledge of military tactics, and a [[ControlFreak personality]] that made him [[GeneralFailure completely unfit for command]] certainly did not help.

* NeverLiveItDown: InUniverse example. [[spoiler:Cannibal Johnson got his nickname because he '''once''' took a bite out of a raider's heart as psychological warfare, in order to scare his buddies into backing away/putting them in shock long enough to run. It worked, but also got him stuck with that nickname.]]

* NeverMessWithGranny: Lily, a Nightkin supermutant who is roughly 250 years old and alternates between talking about her grandchildren and chopping enemies in half with a [[{{BFS}} helicopter blade]]. And she has [[FunnySchizophrenia a split personality where she blames all her violent tendencies on "Leo".]] She mentions that she was already in her 70's by the time she first exited her vault and saw the sky for the first time... only to be turned into a Nightkin almost immediately after.

** If you [[spoiler:kill or incapacitate Mr. House. You'll receive a message saying "A great tragedy has befallen mankind" '''and''' take a large karma hit. It's essentially some post-mortem ego-stroking]]. (Check the bottom of the note if you don't believe us). Caeser even says how House was 'full of himself' after reading through the note if the player chooses to return to him after killing House.

* NighInvulnerable - With the Stealth suit Mk II (A suit of sentient PoweredArmor) you get in Old World Blues, when you hit relatively low (about 40%) health, you have a stimpak and Med-X administered. And the rate of it is insane - about 1 dose of Stim per second. This renders you almost invincible in Casual, as long as you're not being wailed upon by about eight enemies at once, or fighting the Giant Robo-Scorpion with it's near insta-kill laser.

** Ulysses was originally designed as a Legion-affliated companion in the vanilla game. However, instead of being a plain TokenEvilTeammate he would have acted as a sounding board to the Courier in regard to the different factions, and provided a Legion-sympathetic point of view.

** Have the PC version and used the console? ''No achievements for you!'' [[CantGetAwayWithNuthin Even if you do it to fix a]] GameBreakingBug. [[note]]Fortunately, achievements can re-enabled by saving and quitting, then going back to the game. Alternately, you can play the game through Steam, which records achievements from outside of the game.[[/note]] Thankfully, a few commands don't cause this, such as "TCL" which toggles clipping and is very useful if you get stuck glitching through an object.

** Once you choose to undertake the [[spoiler:attack on the Hoover Dam]] mission there's no turning back, though the game does at least warn you about this, unlike the corresponding situation in ''Fallout 3''. However unlike ''Fallout 3'' there are four ending paths to ''New Vegas'' and each ending montage varies greatly depending on your actions throughout the game. Trying to program a PlayableEpilogue that takes all of these factors into account would be an entire game in itself.

** There's also a lesser Point of No Return in the form of which faction quest you choose to pursue. There's a lockout point in each questline which alienates you from the other three. The only two questlines that can be played concurrently are Yes Man and Mr. House, and you still have to choose one prior to the final mission.
*** Yes Man is the only one you can never alienate plus if killed as he will just respawn in another Securitron. This is to make certain that the player cannot render the game unwinnable.

** The [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Power Fist]] makes a comeback, but the big daddy of them in the game is the Ballistic Fist: a glove with a [[MoreDakka SHOTGUN]] attached to it which triggers on contact. [[RuleOfCool AWESOME!]]

--->[[spoiler:'''Benny:''' "The cleaners will knock twice. Tell them to be thorough."]]\\
[[spoiler:'''[[{{Determinator}} The Courier]]:''' [[BondOneLiner "Yeah, it's a real mess here - four bodies."]]]]\\
[[spoiler:'''Benny:''' [[OhCrap "...what the fuck!?"]]]]

* PunchedAcrossTheRoom: If you have high enough Unarmed skill, this can be one of the death animations. Veronica frequently does it as well. If you're using the Power Fist or Ballistic Glove, this will happen to everything you punch to death. The Greased Lighting from the ''GRA'' DLC, with its boosted attack speed, will frequently uppercut enemies into the air.
** Swap out for the [[{{Unobtanium}} Saturnite]] Fist added in ''Old World Blues'' and you don't punch ''people'' across the room so much as ''[[OffWithTheirHead heads]]''.

** An integral part of the ''Fallout'' universe, but the example that truly shines is the Lady. This universe's [=WW2=]-era engineers must have been remarkable, [[spoiler:since a B-29 can sit on the bottom of Lake Mead for ''300 years'' and not only be raised intact, but made to fly again by repairing her with spare parts from a museum piece.]]
** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_B-29_Lake_Mead_crash A B-29 really did crash into Lake Mead on July 21, 1948.]] And given the report recently done, is still mostly intact.
*** There are numerous wrecks at the bottom of freshwater lakes and some rivers. Due to low corrosion and few animals living that deep, they do tend to remain in fairly good shape.

* {{Railroading}}: The game is noticeably more plot-driven than ''Fallout 1'', ''2'' or ''3'', and gameplay progression follows this. Getting to New Vegas from Goodsprings either requires you to brave a BeefGate of Deathclaws or follow the counter-clockwise road through Primm, Nipton, Novac, and then Freeside before reaching The Strip. The questlines for Mr. House, NCR and Caesar, you're locked out of the other two questlines when you get to a certain point in one, forcing you to either see your chosen faction through to victory or jump ship to the Wild Card route. There are also many fewer optional areas compared to ''Fallout 3'', and a lot of the locations in the game are either bases of the three major factions, locations relevant to their questlines such as a secondary faction, or a location relevant to a secondary faction's questline, so it's hard to just go off exploring without the plot jumping in again.

* RareCandy: Magazines temporarily increase your skills. Skill Books permanently increase a given stat by 3 (4 with a perk).
* RealityEnsues: Hardcore Mode, which requires you to eat, drink, and sleep regularly, and keep track of your ammo and money's weights. Crippled Limbs must be healed by either a trip to the doctor or using a Doctor's Bag or Hydra item, and companion deaths are permanent.

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: ''Old World Blues'' starts off with a conversation between the various different members of the Think Tank, but due to engine limitations you can only face and speak to Klein. All other characters are voiced through his model too, it is hand-waved as him using a "conference call" function.
** At the end of the conversation, Dr O asks if they're allowed to move again since his biogel is starting to "crampagulate", pointing out how the engine makes everything except the person you talk to freeze up.

* RecycledINSPACE: Caesar's Legion is the Roman Empire [-IN POST APOCALYPTIC NEVADA-]! ([[InsultToRocks The Romans take offense to this horrible slur.]])

** There are several Perks and implants available to more or less slowly regenerate health over time. Both games have the Solar Powered perk, which lets you regenerate health in sunlight, and ''New Vegas'' also has the Monocyte Breeder implant, which slowly regenerates health over time (including time spent sleeping and waiting).

** Many [=NPCs=] in the main game will make comments about how they'd heard you'd been shot in the head (which is, admittedly true) and assumed you'd died (which is not). In at least one case, you're given the option of quoting the trope namer as a response.

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: "Cannibal" Johnson got his nickname from an incident where, outnumbered by Raiders and with his back to the wall, he ''tore out a Raider's heart and took a bite out of it,'' hoping to scare the others off. It worked.
* NamesToTrustImmediately: "Sunny Smiles" is a bit on-the-nose as the name of a good character. Indeed, she's one of the only "Very Good" karma NPC's in the game.
* NationalWeapon: The tribes in the ''Honest Hearts'' DLC each have a signature weapon. The Whitelegs use Submachine Guns, the Dead Horses use War Clubs, the Sorrows use Yao Guai Gauntlets, and the New Canaanites use .45 pistols.

* NonStandardGameOver:
** In ''Dead Money ''[[spoiler:if you access Sinclair's personal account in the Sierra Madre Vault [[TooDumbToLive even though a previous text clearly says doing so will permanently and irreversibly lock the vault door]], you get a message (addressed to Domino) saying you are [[FateWorseThanDeath trapped in the vault]] [[AndIMustScream with absolutely no way to get out]], and an ending slide plays saying the Courier died inside the vault and was turned into a hologram.]]
** Also in ''Dead Money'', [[spoiler:you can join Father Elijah and unleash the cloud upon the Mojave Wasteland, killing everyone.]]

* OneSteveLimit: Averted in the ''Honest Hearts'' add-on, in which two people share their names with minor characters from the main game. Stella the ex-sheriff in the Happy Trails Caravan shares her name with the NCR Ranger fought as the final opponent in the Legion Arena, and the Mormon missionary Daniel is named the same as the Fiend jailer in Vault 3.

** Taking Philip Lem's side in Why Can't We Be Friends? requires blowing up the sulfur caves under Vault 19. Alternatively, you can blow the whole Vault to Kingdom Come.

* RaidersOfTheLostParody: In ''Wild Wasteland'', you can find a skeleton with a brown fedora in a refrigerator just outside Goodsprings, in a TakeThat to ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull''.

* RefugeInAudacity: You, Boone, and ED-E storming Caesar's fort and killing everyone inside, Caesar included. Boone even comments on it. Lampshaded by Mr New Vegas later, though he was rather surprised on how the assassins evaded heavy security, even though the truth is you just storm your way in, killing anyone that gets in the way.

* OptionalPartyMember: Aside from the eight companions (who aren't needed to finish the game, anyway), there are mods which allow to recruit [[http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/37281/ Sunny Smiles]], [[http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/44776/ Benny]] [[spoiler:if you help him to escape the Legion Fort, of course]], [[http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/48600/ Ulysses]], and a whole load of brand new characters.