Mojave Meanderings and Wasteland Wanderings, The Fallout "Where are you now" thread Options

[Lopov]

@Acadian - those Great Khans are meant to die in almost every playthrough of mine.

@SubRosa - And don't mess around with Webb...'cos you'll end up at a low ebb.

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When he earned 1,250 chips at a blackjack table in the Atomic Wrangler casino, they gave Alan Webb a bottle of beer for free. They hoped that he’ll get drunk and run out of his luck.

When he earned 2,500 caps, they gave him a bottle of whiskey and a gambler hat. Luck was obviously the cowboy’s best friend.

For 3,750 chips he was given a bottle of whiskey and one of rum & nuka, and a gambler suit. If it continued like that, they’d soon have to ban him.

Which is exactly what happened – when Alan Webb earned 5,000 chips, Garrett twins informed him that he can no longer gamble at their casino. He was too much of a lucky son of a gun.

Alan Webb was satisfied, though. 5,000 caps were needed to gain entrance to the Strip. When he was denied entry earlier this day, because he lacked sufficient caps, he decided to try his luck at the only casino outside the Strip. In the past he’s been quite a successful gambler and though it’s been years since he tried his luck, it was obvious that he still didn’t lose any of it. The following morning he was allowed to enter the Strip and without further ado he headed straight to the Tops – to settle a score with Benny, the man who shot him in the head.

*His default luck is 5, but he's been carrying Benny's lucky lighter (mod-added) which boosts his luck by one point, and he's been under influence of lucky cigarettes which boost his luck by one additional point. Gambling games are mostly affected by luck - the higher it is, the better your chances for winning. If it's very low, you actually don't have any chance for winning even the smallest bets.

[Acadian]

Nice that Al had an enjoyable time at the tables and even won!

[Renee]

Are you actually allowed to play blackjack Lopov, or how does this work?

I'm glad he won though. This way he won't have any finical problems.



This post has been edited by Renee: Nov 20 2016, 01:52 AM

[Lopov]

@Acadian and Renee - gambling is part of the vanilla game, there are five casinos available to gamble in the vanilla game and one more in the Dead Money DLC. You can play slots, blackjack or roulette.

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Joe, one of the card dealers at the Tops Casino in fabulous New Vegas continued dealing cards despite havoc going on around him. Benny, the man in charge of the Tops, paid him to deal cards and he would deal cards, no matter if another Great War occurred while doing so. As long as he remained unharmed, Joe would never leave his position behind a blackjack table. No, sir, Joe would stay and deal cards.

Chairmen were involved into a heavy fire with some cowboy, even Benny joined the gunfight, bullets of all kinds - .44, .22, .10, .9mm - were flying right past Joe’s ears, gamblers were screaming and running out of the Tops, a leg just flew over Joe’s head because the cowboy tossed a grenade which turned one of Benny’s goons into a bloody mess, Frank Sinatra was singing in the background that somewhere, somehow, someone’s gonna get kissed, but Joe remained dutifully in his position, dealing cards – not that anyone stopped by to play blackjack in the current situation but still. Only when the shooting was getting the most intense right behind his back, Joe put cards down and slowly walked to another table, avoiding any and all bullets. With a stoic face he stepped behind the table and began dealing cards. Perhaps the cowboy would be interested in trying his luck once he deals with Chairmen because from what Joe saw when switching tables, he was winning the gunfight.

The shooting went on for a few long minutes and when silence finally fell over the Tops, Joe finally took a good look around – Benny, his bodyguards and most Chairmen on the main floor were dead. Two or three unlucky gamblers caught in crossfire were dead too. It was the 31st of October and Joe was supposed to get his salary from Benny. But since Benny was dead, Joe figured out that he probably won’t get paid today. And the cowboy didn’t seem too interested in playing blackjack. So Joe might as well go home after all.

With Benny’s head shot off just like Alan Webb wanted it, the courier closed the final chapter of the Revenge. In one of Benny’s pockets he found the platinum chip, a seemingly unimportant object whose real value was obscured to him and because of which Webb was shot in the head. He brought the chip to Robert House just as it was written in his contract. He got paid for the delivery but refused to perform any further work for Mr. House. Richer for a thousand caps, Alan Webb left the Strip.

[SubRosa]

None of my characters have ever gambled in New Vegas. I have never had any interest in it IRL. I think it is just boring. So that just translates over to the characters.

A Halloween shootout! What a perfect night to usher a dozen more souls into the underworld!

[Acadian]

Joe is the consummate professional! Neither blood nor bullets nor headless bosses will keep him from his duty. What a neat perspective to use for this gunfight.

[Lopov]

Red Orchid had every reason in the wasteland to be furious. Not only was she betrayed by her lover and accomplice Benny, shot in the head AND buried alive, but her Remington Derringer, nice dress and hard-earned bottle caps were stolen from her as well! “Stolen” from her viewpoint, because most of these hard-earned caps Red Orchid stole herself. And if there was one thing which Red Orchid hated, it was being capless. Before the war, if you were without paper money, you were zero. After the war, if you are without bottle caps, you are zero. And Red Orchid was far from zero. She couldn’t allow her anger or fury show on her face, though, because worries make you look older, less attractive and cause premature wrinkling.

But it’s been years since she was as poor as she’s been now, that’s why she aimed to correct that annoyance pretty soon. She can’t walk across the wasteland wearing some zombieland outfit and be careful about how much caps to spend! Despite she didn’t like to kill for the sake of killing, extreme conditions call for extreme measures. As such, two unfortunate traveling merchants stopped traveling for good close to Goodsprings. But now Red Orchid had a little over one thousand bottle caps and a western-styled yellow dress with spurred boots that jingle jangle jingle.

Time to head after that bastard Benny.

[SubRosa]

Red Orchid is robbing her way though Nevada!

[Acadian]

Red Orchid is robbing her way though Nevada!

Heh, we've had several casino owners and at least one US Senator do the same thing.

Go get 'em, Red!

[Renee]

Red Orchid She couldn’t allow her anger or fury show on her face, though, because worries make you look older, less attractive and cause premature wrinkling.

Ha ha I like that part.

[Lopov]

Ammunition was precious in wasteland and Red Orchid made sure to spend as less bullets as possible. From Nipton road rest stop all the way to Novac she fired only six bullets. “You go girl!” Red Orchid applauded herself. How did she manage to shoot so little bullets on roads, cluttered with hostile wildlife and raiding tribes?

First of all, she sneaked past giant ants patrolling the road leading to Nipton road rest stop. At the rest stop she killed one raider because sneaking past him was impossible. Fortunately she killed him with her first shot from Lucky and he never had time to alert other raiders. After witnessing the horrible fate of Nipton, Red Orchid decided to follow Nipton’s doombringers – the Legion. They were well-armed and travelled in a group so why not join them? It turned out, though, that Legion doesn’t care much for Red Orchid and as she was attacked by three bark scorpion hunters, none of them helped her. “Gentlemen!” Red Orchid spent next three bullets to bring down little hunters.

The last two bullets were spent on a Viper gunslinger whose attraction she gained as she was killing scorpions. The gunslinger obviously found Red Orchid more interesting than legionnaires so he headed after her – in return, Red Orchid shot off his upper head. Realizing that the Legion isn’t of any use to her, Red Orchid joined a caravan of merchants traveling to Novac.

The caravan was soon attacked by another group of legionnaires – Red Orchid didn’t participate in the shootout, instead she waited behind a nearby rock. Merchants were victorious and as they were moving on, she helped herself to some Legion denarius from fallen slavers. Not long afterwards the caravan was once again ambushed by the Legion, this time a much more powerful group. Once again, she hid at the foot of some hill but this time legionnaires were victorious. Not for long, though, because a group of three NCR troopers that heard shots, came to investigate, and they finished off already wounded legionnaires. Once again, Red Orchid helped herself to some bottle caps of the fallen merchants and stuck with the troopers ‘til she made it to Novac.

She knew that she’d be able to deal with wildlife and raiders on her own but why bother? Not only she saved ammo but her yellow dress didn’t get dirty in the slightest.

[Acadian]

Good to see Red realizing that bypassing some foes not only saves ammo, it keeps her dress clean as well.

[mirocu]

Hmm.



Is Red Orchid the same Red from Fallout 3? The one I failed to rescue in time?

[Lopov]

@Acadian - indeed, one can't be too wasteful in wasteland.

@mirocu - you can find the answer to your question in the screenshots thread.

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Red Orchid wanted to know where exactly Benny went but Manny Vargas was clear – he wanted something in return. She already began to undress in the sexiest possible way but it obviously wasn’t what Manny had in mind – while she was undressing, he barely looked at her, instead he went on and on about some ghouls who took over the nearby rocket test site, and how he wanted them gone.

As Red Orchid clearly told him that perhaps she might offer him something else in return, Manny asked her to leave and went to sleep! Seriously? She was prepared to give him some fun, surely he doesn’t see many women in that backwater town of Novac but he went to sleep and asked her to kill ghouls?! Red Orchid couldn’t recall when she was turned down like that.

“A confirmed bachelor through and through!” She dressed back up, convinced even more that she won’t do any ghoul hunting. Maybe Manny’s friend Craig could help her.

….a little later…

“Oh boy! One is into men and the other one is embittered, crying over his dead wife. Men of the wastes!” Though Red Orchid didn’t try to seduce Craig Boone, at least not as directly as Manny, he wasn’t of much help to her either. Instead he asked her for trying to find out who sold his wife to slavers. Red Orchid agreed to help, not out of the kindness of her heart but because then Boone might be of some use to her. He might not know where exactly Benny went but he might be convinced to accompany her to the Strip. She wouldn’t mind him watching over her.

[Acadian]

Aww, poor Red. No luck with one of her most powerful weapons (that body of hers). Looks like she'll have to earn favors the harder way - by questing.

[Lopov]

@Acadian - If your character is male and has the Confirmed Bachelor perk, Manny will tell you where Benny & the Khans went, without asking you to kill ghouls. When I was playing New Vegas for the first time ten years ago, I took this perk without knowing that it actually means your character is interested in men. Only when I saw some specific replies that were available with the perk, I realized it.

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Charming and cocky - that’s how Craig Boone perceived Red Orchid, but most of all he could describe her with just one word - unpredictable. When she was around, Boone never really knew what to think and what to say, she was confusing him through and through.

Red Orchid helped him find out who sold his late wife to slavers, and in return Boone was accompanying her to the Strip. On way there, they caught up with Great Khans that attacked Red Orchid a while ago. As it turned out, Khans were surrounded by NCR soldiers and were holding two troopers as hostages. Shrewd, Red Orchid managed to sweet-talk the leading Khan to release the hostages in exchange for their safe passage but once hostages were released, she didn’t mention anything about their safe passage to the NCR lieutenant, so troopers gunned all the Khans down. Boone helped finish off the Khans as well, seeing them as a tribe of drug dealers and good-for-nothings, he didn’t care much for them.

“Tit for tat, Craig-boy,” Red Orchid winked at Boone, as the Khans lay dead.

Boone made sure that Red Orchid didn’t need to go through the main entrance to the Strip. Seeing how he was once one of the best NCR snipers, his renown was still great enough to let her on the Strip via the NCR monorail. And in return, he got a passionate kiss from Red Orchid. Confused from what just happened, he wanted to say something in return but Red Orchid was already waving at him from the monorail which was just about to leave for the Strip.

It was a while before Craig Boone heard of Red Orchid again, and by that time she was already running her own casino.

[SubRosa]

I am thinking Craig did pretty well for himself. He's going back to Novac while he's still alive!

[Acadian]

I love Boone's description of Red and can easily tell between the lines that she enjoys the crap out of intentionally confusing him and keeping him totally off balance.

[Renee]

I'm really looking forward to RO's casino. For those who don't know, Lopov found a mod which allows the player-character to run his/her own casino. That'll be interesting.

“You go girl!” Red Orchid applauded herself.

I guess Red Orchid doesn't know how cliche this phrase is, for us who lived amongst 1990s and 2000s era media. It's still funny though.

[Lopov]

Yes, Renee is right, I'll use the Run the Lucky 38 mod in the future. Supposedly it's buggy but various fixes have been posted over years so it's possible to complete the mod and run your own casino. The best thing of the mod is that you can open the Lucky 38 for public immediately (as long as you have enough caps) and then you merely upgrade it by adding various other services, rooms, suites etc...

I've been using another mod called Benny returns which allows you recruit Benny as a companion once you free him from the Fort. This will be for the first time that my characters won't take revenge against Benny.

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"You can call me Red Luck. And tell your boss that I accept his invitation," the red-haired lady said to Nico and smiled. A few hours ago Red Orchid came to the Tops casino on the Strip. Instead of rushing straight to Benny and revealing herself, she gained his attention the other way - by gambling. When Nico, the floor manager of the Tops, informed his boss Benny that the red-haired lady is winning a bit too much for his tastes, Benny sent Nico to invite Red Orchid on a dinner with him.

But as she was seductively walking towards Benny, he immediately recognized his former lover and associate. There was only one problem - Red Orchid was supposed to be dead. Well she obviously wasn't. And though Benny was getting to be seriously afraid about what's going to happen next, a part of him was glad that she was still alive. Despite he tried to deny it, he still had feelings for Red Orchid.

Stepping towards him, Red Orchid had mixed feelings herself. Before this day she had at least one hundred different plans how to repay Benny for what he had done to her, but now that she saw him in person again, she tried to deny it but couldn't - she still had feelings for him.

And so former partners in crime, the 18-Karat Baby & Fancy Pants skipped the dinner and jumped straight to bed.