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Fallout What's the reason for the courier to care about the main story of New Vegas?

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Codex Year of the Donut
What's the motivation for a courier to care who owns a patch of desert and a dam?
A particularly vengeful character would want to pursue Benny, but it sort of falls apart after that.

Contrasting that to Fallout where you have a clear reason to continue on after delivering the waterchip as the mutants pose a serious risk to the safety of the vault.
 

Nano

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Grab the Codex by the pussy Strap Yourselves In
Why does the Vault Dweller have to care about what happens to Vault 13 after leaving it?
 

vota DC

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Why does the Vault Dweller have to care about what happens to Vault 13 after leaving it?
Same reason the average person would care if someone was going to burn down their family home and massacre their family, I'd assume
House saved the courier and offers a job. He is sort of family for him, so stick with House make sense.
Independent Is the obvious choice for powerhungry characters.

Ncr and legion paths make less sense for courier and can be only explained with patriotism. Every soldier that you encounter complains that ncr Is stretching too much and keeping Mojave Is a problem so even if you plan to leave New Vegas and go in California you don't need ncr to win.
 

Lurker47

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House saved the courier and offers a job. He is sort of family for him, so stick with House make sense.
House being the canon ending makes the most sense for me imho. Hopefully, if there's ever a continuation for New Vegas, they go with that one.
 
Last edited:

Wunderbar

Arcane
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True answer: The player's preexisting investment in the Fallout setting.

Welcome to sequels. "We don't have to write exciting, gripping stories anymore! We can just geek out with the lore! The fans already care!"
are you trying to defend poe2 by implying that fnv is guilty of the same thing?
 

xuerebx

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Why does the Vault Dweller have to care about what happens to Vault 13 after leaving it?
Same reason the average person would care if someone was going to burn down their family home and massacre their family, I'd assume
House saved the courier and offers a job. He is sort of family for him, so stick with House make sense.
Independent Is the obvious choice for powerhungry characters.

Ncr and legion paths make less sense for courier and can be only explained with patriotism. Every soldier that you encounter complains that ncr Is stretching too much and keeping Mojave Is a problem so even if you plan to leave New Vegas and go in California you don't need ncr to win.

Legion never made sense for me to join them. They always seemed too stereotypically evil from what I remember, and it was only at the end when Caesar rationally explains their world view to the PC.
 

deuxhero

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If the player doesn't skip directly to The Tops (such as by sneaking across the Deathclaw highway, waiting for a NCR soldier to die to a Fiend and using their uniform to board via monorail), they've met NCR and Legion if they've followed the crit path. Goodsprings will direct you to go to Primm, and from there you you're directed to Nipton where they meet the Legion (and likely visit the NCR border post along the way). After Nipton you continue to Novac, where you get some more NCR background from Andy, Boon and Boon's partner in Novac and likely run into all the Legion v NCR stuff in that area (Searchlight, the legion camp, forlorn hope ect.). They'll generally encounter plenty of the conflict by the time they're approached to take a side.

Once you hit Benny's, you're actually given plenty of ways to go. Mr. House just outright hires you. Depending on how you dealt with Benny, you may encounter Yes Man who will appeal to power (you could become ruler) and compasion (you've likely seen how the balance of power can screw over the common man). NCR and Legion both call you to meet with a representative who will detail the factions and why they should win.
 

RepHope

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I’m assuming you’re asking “why would the Courier go after Benny and the Chip instead of saying ‘fuck it’ and just leaving?”
1. Getting shot in the head would really piss most people off and most people would probably want revenge
But assuming you’re not most people
2. I believe there are some notes about the delivery that say if you the Courier don’t deliver the package, the service you work for will expect you to pay the package’s worth, and will send bounty hunters after you to collect. So there’s that.

Edit: Yep here it is https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Mojave_Express_delivery_order_(6_of_6)
You have to complete the delivery or the Mojave Express will fuck your shit up.
 

Prime Junta

Guest
The courier doesn't have to give a shit about the politics of the Mojave. He can find some other motivation. That's the point.

It's a sandbox game and the whole point of a sandbox is that you get to build sand castles like you want to. Being led by the nose through a forced motivation is the worst thing in a sandbox game, although it works great in a story-driven game. Cautionary example: Deadfire. It would've been just overall better without the dumb Eothas hook. Just shipwreck you there and let you figure it out from there, with the main story outcome being "who, if anyone, gets to control Deadfire."
 

Gargaune

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What's the motivation for a courier to care who owns a patch of desert and a dam?
None. Obsidian chose to rely on the player's motivation, rather than the character's.

1. Getting shot in the head would really piss most people off and most people would probably want revenge
I think you mean most protagonists. Most people would thank their lucky stars for making it in one piece and fuck off in a hurry.

Cautionary example: Deadfire. It would've been just overall better without the dumb Eothas hook. Just shipwreck you there and let you figure it out from there, with the main story outcome being "who, if anyone, gets to control Deadfire."
Absolutely, though it would've worked even better if the Eothas plot just hadn't been dumb.
 

Verylittlefishes

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Well, the main plot in NV never made sense. The game is not about it, Benny and the Hoover dam is just the MacGuffin. The real game is in these small stories scattered all over the map and in the DLCs.
 

d1r

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Really depends on how you RP the whole thing. The last time I played an evil character in NV, I wanted to get my revenge on Benny, and then move on from this place. Respectively, I did Honest Hearts as my next job, and then heard about Lonesome Road, and finished the story. If you play a "good" character, you obviously have a reason to hate the Legion (could have been different if Obsidian had more time with their cut Legion town), so that you have an agency to try to resolve the upcoming conflict between the factions. And then there is also New Vegas itself. A place, that might fascinate the Courier (if he chooses so in the dialogue with Mr.House), so that he himself wants to uphold it, because he, as a Courier knows, that the Wasteland out there is mostly just death and destruction.
 

Xamenos

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Pathfinder: Wrath
What's the motivation for a courier to care who owns a patch of desert and a dam?
A particularly vengeful character would want to pursue Benny, but it sort of falls apart after that.

Contrasting that to Fallout where you have a clear reason to continue on after delivering the waterchip as the mutants pose a serious risk to the safety of the vault.
The Courier essentially has no backstory. His motivation is whatever you decide it to be.
 

Butter

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You're asking this now? How many times have you beaten New Vegas without stopping and worrying about your character's motivation? Given the broad range of possible ending slides, it's pretty easy to imagine that the Courier might have a preferred outcome for the Mojave.
 

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