History FalloutNewVegas / TropesSToZ

** If you ask Marjorie about Ted Gunderson's disappearance, she will promptly insist that the members of the White Glove Society are ''not'' cannibals. [[spoiler:Subverted in that Marjorie has no idea that Mortimer wants to return the White Gloves to their cannibalistic traditions. She's just heard the accusations so much that she assumes that must be what the Courier is trying to say.]]

** If you approach Marjorie and confront her about Ted Gunderson's disappearance, she will immediately deny the rumors about the White Glove Society being cannibals... [[YouJustToldMe before you even mention cannibalism.]] [[spoiler:Subverted in that Marjorie has no idea that Mortimer wants to return the White Gloves to their cannibalistic traditions. She's just heard the accusations so much that she assumes that must be what the Courier is trying to say.]]

* SpeculativeFictionLGBT: ''New Vegas'' features the most indepth look at LGBTQ+ people in the wasteland, whereas they only appeared as minor characters in prior games. The Courier can choose [[GayOption homosexual equivalents to Lady Killer and Black Widow]] and a considerable amount of supporting characters are homosexual compared to the previous games, while also ingraining these characters' sexuality into their arcs and development. The game also allows the player to fight Ceasar's Legion, an oppressive empire that seeks to kill any and everybody who isn't heterosexual, which resonated well with fans.

* WeWinBecauseYouDidnt: Arcade Gannon does not like House, nor the NCR, and does not care what their political ideals are, even so his priority is for the Legion to lose, so he will be willing to support any of the two factions(or three, if the Courier decides to compete) as long as the Legion is defeated.

** In fact, given the very high amount of whacked-out lunatics in the ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' universe, the intro at the start of the game where Doc Mitchell specifically wants to find out out if you're all there make perfect in universe sense, especially given the paranoia that led to the post-apocalyptic war and all the crazy people who tried to make the lives of the post-apocalypse population suck in the previous games. That said, it makes good sense for him to want to make sure you're not batshit insane. Doc Mitchell comes from Vault 21, but Vault 19 isn't too far away from Goodsprings. If Mitchell knew what [[MindScrew happened in that vault]] (which is to say, the final outcome isn't explained, but it certainly didn't end with people dying horrific deaths, if at all) then his psych test is damn well justified.

* {{Zeerust}}: Obviously. Due to limitations to the number of variations to wall textures and such, pretty much every location look like a dilapidated wreck with mildewed walls and moth-eaten mattresses (even in supposedly swanky locations like the casinos that are rolling in money). It seems that humanity somehow managed to lose the secret to making paint and carpets.

** Whoever was in charge of ammo specs clearly knew what they were doing. One small but important detail they got right (that fiction almost never does) was that hollow-point bullets are more damaging to soft, fleshy targets, but also have the real-life drawback of being much less effective against solid targets like armored foes, robots, and creatures with hard carapaces. You can have armor-piercing ''or'' you can have expanding bullets, but you can't do both; one trait comes at the direct expense of the other.

* {{Superboss}:

* TalkingIsAFreeAction: Not talking per se, but you can spend any amount of time on hacking and lockpicking minigames even if you're dying of any kind of damage-over-time or, even more egregiously, triggered a tripwire but managed to click the locked item/terminal a split second before the trap explodes.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Wearing the gear of a particular faction will make members of opposing factions hostile to the player -- you're wearing the other guy's armor, after all. And similarly, a faction's armor is not a get-out-of-jail-free card -- if you repeatedly commit crimes against a faction while wearing their gear, they'll still turn hostile to you.

* {{Zeerust}}: Obviously.

** In ''Honest Hearts'', [[spoiler:you are faced with the choice of either evacuating Zion or brutally eradicating the White Legs. Both options lead to {{Bittersweet Ending}}s. However, if you choose to eradicate the White Legs and convince Joshua to spare Salt-Upon-Wounds, you get a slightly happier (albeit still quite bittersweet) ending.]]

* SequelEscalation: Item crafting is a ''huge'' thing in this game, whereas it was only sparingly used in ''Fallout 3.'' All your skills do more than just their base function, as they impact what stuff you can craft or have additional effects. Most of the perks in this game tend to be game-changers rather than ''Fallout 3'''s "this perk increases your skills a bit" perks. There's a whole faction system in place for numerous different groups throughout the wasteland. All in all, ''Fallout: New Vegas'' is a bit more complex than its predecessor.

* SequelEscalation: Item crafting is a ''huge'' thing in this game, whereas it was only sparingly used in ''Fallout 3.'' All your skills do more than just their base function, as they impact what stuff you can craft or have additional effects. Most of the perks in this game tend to be game-changers rather than ''Fallout 3'''s "this perk increases your skills a bit" perks. There's a whole faction system in place for numerous different groups throughout the wasteland. All in all, ''Fallout New Vegas'' is a bit more complex than its predecessor.

** [[spoiler:Jeannie May]] full stop, but it turns out to be justified in her case. You might wonder why in the world would you keep a receipt that states that you were responsible for selling the wife of a highly skilled and very, very vengeful sniper into slavery instead of destroying said evidence of your actions the first chance you got? Then you realize that the sale includes both [[spoiler:Carla Boone]] AND her unborn child, who has his own value in caps if he is born healthy. The receipt is[[spoiler:Jeannie's]] proof that the Legion owes more caps than the original sale.

** The Powder Gangers are a major enemy in the area of the Mojave where you start. At Nipton, you learn that they are no match for the Legion. (Admittedly, the Powder Gangers were only the threat they were due to you being in the very early game.)
** In ''Lonesome Road'', the first Tunneler you see kills a deathclaw. (Admittedly, with the Living Anatomy perk and a quick hand in V.A.T.S., you can see it only has 35 HP... but it's the thought that counts.)

** ''Old World Blues'' gives us the Y-17 Trauma Override Harness. Laying aside the fact that they were made with the best of intentions -- though they never worked and essentially gave us gun-toting zombies -- the overall design is a textbook example of Worst Aid. Should the operator be critically injured, the TOH walks him or her back to an aid station for treatment. It does this, however, with no consideration for ''what'' has happened to the wearer, meaning that it'll happily force-march someone with critical internal injuries, spinal fractures, and any of a wide variety of injuries where moving the victim is right up there on the medical treatment advisability scale with "beat patient with brick." Given the bat-crap crazy plans cooked up at Big MT, though, this really should come as no surprise.

** [[DeathWorld The Divide]], a collection of nuclear wreckage, earthquake damage, and twisted, torn-apart, half-buried buildings constantly covered in a storm and whirlwind of radioactive rubble, filled with ghoulified, insane NCR and Caesar's Legion soldiers all after you.

** [[spoiler:Anthony House, elder half-brother to Robert E. House, founder of RobCo and martial lord of New Vegas, during his reign at H&H Tools, largely out of an extreme paranoia that the rising star Robert might eventually come to reclaim his stolen inheritance.]]

* SafelySecludedScienceCenter: The Big Empty. Originally a colossal Scienceville hidden under Big Mountain, it's only become more isolated with the fall of civilization; even when one of the Think Tanks' experiments ended up transforming the mountain into a crater and exposing the facility to the open air, the high walls and sophisticated defences kept anyone from investigating too deeply - and those who do manage to break in usually end up having their brains sucked out. As a result, the Big Empty remains unexplored to this day... up until you show up.
* SamusIsAGirl: Nightkin, like other Super Mutants, have no secondary sexual characteristics, so the ladies sound just like the men chewing gravel. This is used as a point of humor a few times with some plot-relevant Nightkin such as Lily, a former member of [[{{VideoGame/Fallout1}} the Master's army]]... who has the mind of an [[NeverMessWithGranny elderly grandmother]] and joins the Courier, seemingly believing them to be her grandchild.

** [[spoiler: Anthony House, elder half-brother to the Lucky 38's Robert E. House, during his reign at H&H Tools.]]
** Due to the effects of near-constant Stealth Boy use, all Nightkin begin suffering this at some point. If you see one, it's generally not a question of ''if'' they are crazy, but ''how much''.

* SawedOffShotgun: Both a bog-standard 12 gauge double-barrel, and 20 gauge lever-action with a cut down barrel and stock. In addition, there is also the laser version, the Tri Beam Laser Rifle, a shorted laser rifle with a beam splitter attached.