Fallout: New Vegas/Tropes M to Z: Difference between revisions

* [[Mind Screw]]: The Lonesome Drifter's {{spoiler|father may very well be the Mysterious Stranger. Made even screwier (with a certain perk as a male character) by the fact that "Lonesome" and "Drifter" are synonyms of "Lone" and "Wanderer." Make of that what you will.}}

* [[Minigame Zone]]: The casinos, of course:

** Gomorrah, a [[Den of Iniquity]] run by [[The Mafia|The Omertas]].

** The Ultra-Luxe, which caters to a [[Upperclass Twit|more refined clientele]], run by the White Glove Society, which is made up of {{spoiler|former cannibals}}.

* [[A Million Is a Statistic]]: A strange meta-example with the Mr. House quest to {{spoiler|wipe out the Brotherhood bunker}}. Of the available options<ref>A peaceful solution existed, but was [[Dummied Out]].</ref> are going in, guns blazing, and killing them all, or sneaking in, and [[Stuff Blowing Up|blowing the whole place up]]. Of the two options, both give negative Karma, but the latter significantly less-so, because it's one large karma hit, instead of many smaller (but still reasonably large) hits.

* [[Mismatched Eyes]]: Some dogs (e.g. ones at Gibson scrap yard) have one brown and one blue eye.

* [[Mood Lighting]]: Camp Forelorn Hope gets a [[Real Is Brown|brown color wash]]. If you play on a low detail setting, the color is instead much more desaturated than normal.

* [[Molotov Cocktail]]: The firebomb from ''Honest Hearts'' gives off this vibe, as it is made from a beer bottle and uses a lit rag as a fuse. In gameplay, it's more of a weaker, craftable Incendiary Grenade.

** The game also has the potential for a user-induced one, in that if you take multiple substances together, the visuals change. If you take every mind-altering chem and drink at once, you can make yourself temporarily go blind. Bonus points for taking enough antivenin to poison yourself and add health damage and even more visual distortion

* [[Musical Theme Naming]]: Almost every quest is named after a classic song, along with an [[Incredibly Lame Pun]] or two ("Ant Misbehavin'").

** Elder MacNamara also has this attitude.

* [[My Greatest Failure]]: This attitude is commonly held of {{spoiler|The Bitter Springs Massacre}} by those who were there.

** His securitron friend Jane is based on Jane Russell.

** Several casinos and landmarks were given this treatment, such as Bison Steve = Buffalo Bill's, Dinky the T-Rex = Dinny the Dinosaur/Mr Rex, and The Tops = The Sands.

** Mr. New Vegas is Wayne Newton, famous announcer known as "Mr. Las Vegas". And literally so as the character is actually voiced by Newton.

* [[No Fair Cheating]]: Have the PC version and used the console? ''No achievements for you!''

** Subverted with the Hoover Dam. There are guard rails and there is a fence to block anything going into the intake valves. [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything|including stray players trying to sequence break.]]

*** Followed through in many other cases where toxic waste is dumped in places such as a fire station. The REPCONN headquarters' tour guide also lampshades this by constantly reassuring you that no safety measures are required for toxic waste dumps because "nothing bad will ever happen."

** Maybe it's a [[Stealth Pun]], since the real-world equivalent is "[[The Silence of the Lambs|Buffalo Bill's]]".

* [[Not So Different]]: {{spoiler|Caesar and Arcade Gannon}} are extremely similar. Both are or were members of {{spoiler|the Followers of Apocalypse}}. Both lost their fathers at a young age. Both are well educated {{spoiler|to the point of knowing Latin}}. Both believe in the greater good, even if it is at the expense of the individual good ({{spoiler|although Arcade doesn't take it to the same extremes}}). Both prove to be {{spoiler|remarkably effective military leaders as soon as they put their mind to do so. Arcade is openly gay, while Caesar (along with the entire Legion) is implied to be gay (though this might just be slander). If you get a very specific ending, the trope is more apparent, as well, due to Caesar's interactions with Arcade}}.

== R ==

* [[Ragnarok Proofing]]: An integral part of the ''Fallout'' universe, but the example that truly shines is the Lady. This universe's [[WW 2]]-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.}}

*** 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 remain in fairly good shape.

** Averted with most other Pre-War stuff left behind in the wasteland, which are either so decayed they're useless or on the verge of breaking down entirely. With the exception of those still being maintained, like the Las Vegas Monorail, most tech (including firearms) is by this point produced long after War ended.

* [[Rape As Drama]]: {{spoiler|Corporal Betsy.}}

** Cook-Cook is a notorious rapist, so much so that a ''male'' bounty hunter and even a lot of NCR soldiers are afraid of him. {{spoiler|Killing him will earn you the thanks of some of his victims, some of which only regret that they weren't there to see him die.}}

* [[Real Is Brown]]: ''New Vegas'' plays around with this; there's a surprising amount of color in the Mojave Wasteland, especially New Vegas itself but as you approach Camp Forlorn Hope the color is leached out of the setting, making everything appear in shades of dull brown.

* [[Recycled in Space]]: Caesar's Legion is the Romans <small>IN POST APOCALYPTIC NEVADA</small>!

* [[Save Scumming]]: this plus a Slots Machine equals easy but boring money-making... [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything|until the casino kicks you out.]]

** When doing this, trying to use the slot machines (or the Black Jack or Roulette tables) within 60 seconds of reloading produces a message stating that it seems to be resetting itself [[Lampshade Hanging|as an anti-cheating measure.]]

* [[Scenery Gorn]]: Camp Searchlight.

** [[Death World|The]] [[Everything Trying to Kill You|Divide]].

{{quote| {{smallcaps| Doctor Mobius}}: It is I, Doctor Mobius, transmitting from my dome-shaped... dome in the forbidden zone. A zone that is... yes... FORBIDDEN to you!}}

** And don't forget [[Large Ham|the Tesla coils! The coils of Nikola Tesla!]]

** Two of the laser rifle's mods are one that gives it a mid-range scope, and one that turns it into a laser shotgun. Some players see it as [[Schmuck Bait|an invitation to use both]], but most see them as mutually exclusive.

** As of patch 1.3.0/1.5, all shotguns are now decent weapons at medium range due to vastly reduced spread, including the sawed-off.

** The Multiplas Rifle is topped only by the Gauss Rifle and Anti-Materiel Rifle in damage per shot. Granted, the damage is split up between three projectiles, but it's still a lot of damage for a mid-tier weapon. Its main disadvantage is its ammo consumption.

* [[Shown Their Work]]: "Caesar" is pronounced "kye-zar" and "ave" is pronounced "a-weh", reflecting prevailing academic opinion of ancient Roman pronunciation as opposed to the medieval "Church Latin" pronunciations used today.

** The fluff about the Legion fits both in-universe and in the meta. The Legion features far too many accurate reflections of the Roman Empire's nature to be cooincidental.

** As mentioned above, the vast number of towns and landmarks that appear in this game (even the starting town) that are closely based off those in real life, if a bit space-compressed.

*** For instance, the Goodsprings General Store and the Prospector Saloon do exist and look exactly as they do in-game (except that it's the Pioneer Saloon). Not exactly general tourist knowledge.

* [[Silliness Switch]]: The Wild Wasteland trait, available when you're making up your character, changes some dialogue and adds in some extra bits to the game to make it... weirder.

* [[Sorting Algorithm of Weapon Effectiveness]]: Being an RPG, this obviously isn't played very straight, but most weapon types have a noticeable pattern, about 4-6 weapons in rough order of power. Keep in mind they don't necessarily have to be found in order:

* [[STD Immunity]]: Averted. Benny remarks at one point that he "doesn't need another 'social disease'.

* [[The Stoic]]: Boone.

* [[Straight Gay]]: Arcade Gannon, Veronica, and the Courier if the player so desires.

* [[Stuff Blowing Up]]: The Powder Gangers' [[Weapon of Choice]] is sticks of Dynamite and power charges. Cranked [[Up to Eleven]] with the Boomers, who venerate anything that goes... well, ''[[Shaped Like Itself|boom]]''.

"'''RETRIBUTION!'''" <br />

"[[Rule of Three|Patrolling the Mojave almost makes you wish for a Nuclear Winter]]." }}

* [[What Happened to The Mouse?|What Happened To The Abominations]]: Lonesome Road features the Tunnelers, mutated humanoids that can tear apart Deathclaws. Ulysses mentions that they're slowly tunneling their way towards the Mojave, which would be utterly screwed when packs of super-strong abominations pop out of the ground without warning. And yet you can do absolutely nothing about this, and its never mentioned again.

* [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?]]: Aside from the ghoul and mutant companions in game, you also have Victor, [[Ninja Pirate Robot Zombie|a robot who think he's a cowboy.]]