Given the achievement "Hometown Hero" and the overall story of LR (Ulysses past with the Courier), many have speculated that the upcoming DLC will delve far more into the Courier's backstory than any previous DLC, or the main game itself.

Obsidian previously left the Courier's backstory pretty much entirely blank, with a few bits of optional dialogue. If LR goes into great detail with the Courier's past, would you be cool with it? If The Divide turned out to be his/her hometown?

Personally I RP as my Fallout 3 character so I'd, within reason, like things to be as vague as possible - certainly not delving back too far and definitely not mentioning any hometown. I might be alone in this though.

Since it's delayed there's a bit of time to mull over what we know so far.

You're not alone. More than one of my characters has a personal backstory that would be ruined if this turns out to be true, including one just like yours who is my Lone Wanderer gone West. I really really hope "Hometown Hero" ends up meaning something else entirely.

I've said it once and I'll say it again.

I'm more shocked that people are shocked that the Courier isn't a blank slate. That was clear from the first conversation with Johnson Nash.
A man setting you up to get shot implies you're hated.
You being hated implies you had a conflict with the guy.
A conflict is a piece of backstory.

Yet we apparently have dozens of people roaming these forums for the past year who are suddenly shocked as hell that the Courier has backstory. "Omg but Obsidian promised he was blank!" They did? Even so, their interpretation of blank could be different from yours, and the logical deduction of that conversation with Johnson Nash contradicts that statement and it's more concrete since that convo is already in the game.

Personally? I've been looking forward to hearing about the Courier's backstory for some time now. I wanna hear who he is.

Those could have been inferred from the main game. You're a courier, so it stands to reason someone hired you. You were shot which implies someone wanted you dead. Beyond that the early history of The Courier is pretty blank. You get maybe, three optional lines that I can think of (Montana impregnation, New Reno clubs, visiting Utah). Even so, all those things don't derail RPs too much. A hometown and more detail can.

Fair enough. Still if Obsidian does put an an even larger chunk of lore or "background" to the Courier other than them coming from the NCR and accepting a courier job it does go against a fundamental reason people play the game and why they didn't give us a courier named John whose linear story we have to follow to the end.

Let's go back over this. This is an RPG. Roleplaying game. We roleplay a character by their personality, beliefs, skills, nd bankground. And we're given a practically blank or vague slate unlike Deus Ex or Mass Effect.

This is exactly why someone might be mad or is justified in being mad.

No, you were shot because someone wanted your package. You were set up with that specific package BECAUSE someone else wanted you dead.

Johnson Nash told us we were set up.
Christine told us Ulysses was looking for us.
Ulysses says we know the way to the Divide.

And yet, almost one year later, people are incredibly shocked the Courier isn't a blank slate.

Also, I don't see the big deal. The Courier apparently did something bad enough that another person wants him dead, and that doesn't bother anyone? But omg, he was born somewhere. How dare that [censored] Courier. He should be like the Lone Wanderer and the Vault Dweller and the Chosen One and not have a specific birthpla- oh wait....


I mean look at OP's complaint. "My FO3 character is my FONV one and now it won't make sense." It wouldn't make sense for your FO2 character to be your FO3 one either, or your FO1 character to be your FO2 character. None of those make sense, so why flip a [censored] over the Courier having a birthplace, JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE?

Besides, we don't even know if that's the case. "Hometown hero" is super vague and can be interpreted various ways.

I didn't understand more than half of those...

So I chose not bothered, luckily that is how I really feel about it.

Yes, but that's all we know about the Courier's past. Chosen One is Vault Dweller's grandson/daughter in canon, whereas The Courier and TWL have no stated canon relationship, so your anology is flawed. In vanilla game there's nothing in lore contradicting pretty much any RP you want due to the vague backstory. The Courier has no current canon birthplace and nothing is known about his/her early life, this topic is about why it should or shouldn't stay that way for the sake of RP.

I have done a lot... I mean a LOT of things that would make someone else want to kill me, and that is on my 'nice' run.

However I don't really understand how this can rub an RP'er the wrong way. Just change what you don't like for that RP. My one character FO: 3 character who's head wound made him 'reboot' skill wise will just think the man is telling a lie, and will just 'play along' to seem sane (he does that often).

I for one really hope this ties the story up well. I would like to know my home town, and some information... however I still kinda hope there is a touch of mystery left behind.

How? My point was that you're complaining that you can no longer do a crossover character with your main characters from FO3 and FONV being one and the same, but why should you complain about this when that's impossible for EVERY Fallout? They all include their birthplace in their backstory. How can you be surprised when this is how they've always done it?

My point is that it's been BLATANTLY CLEAR from the very beginning that the Courier was an actual character with a past and a personality, so you have no one to blame but yourself for being absolutely shocked that Lonesome Road is gonna dive into that backstory. We've all expected this for almost a year now. I can see someone thinking Johnson Nash's convo is cut content with no meaning, but Dead Money has been out since last year, and it makes it blatantly obvious that the Courier has a history with Ulysses and that they WILL be addressing that history in Lonesome Road.


If you wanna argue that a blank slate is superior to an actual character, sure go ahead, but I don't get how you can be surprised the Courier has a backstory. We knew this was coming. You'd think if you could pretend your character came from D.C. to the Mojave, you'd be able to pretend Ulysses hated him for other reasons.


And again, Hometown Hero can be interpreted a number of ways. This isn't even set in stone yet.

I think the Montana impregnation you refer to is a reference to the Mysterious Stranger, not the Courier. I don't know what visiting Utah reference you're talking about.

The difference is that in all the others the birthplace and such was established right at the beginning of the game. It was abundantly clear from the get go that the Vault Dweller was... well... a vault dweller, the Chosen One was a tribal, etc. What looks like it might be happening here is that we started out with a mostly blank slate and then some backstory is going to be suddenly pulled out of the hat at the last minute. That's annoying when you have already invested time and imagination in filling out that blank slate you thought you'd started with.

The three statements he's referring to are:

-When the Lonesome Drifter says he's from Montana and has never met his father, the Courier can imply he impregnated someone in Montana and never met his child by nervously asking the Lonesome Drifter's age.
-When the Courier meets Bruce Isaac, the default response has the Courier recognizing Bruce, saying he's seen him sing in New Reno.
-When the Courier first joins the Happy Trails caravan to go to New Canaan, he can say "I haven't been in Utah lately. How is it?"

People treat these as canon because they include very unusual specifications for dialog options and they don't contradict anything else. (for instance, the fish convo with Cass can't be canon because it contradicts itself and depends on the player's intelligence)
Personally I don't know why people take the Utah comment so seriously. I myself might sarcastically say "I haven't been there lately" when inquiring about a place I've never been to, but if the Courier's been to Montana then I suppose he may have passed through there.

My point isn't that I'm worried about going into The Courier's backstory with Ulysses/how it affected Nash and his decision to give The Courier the platinum chip (in fact I'd be annoyed if it didn't). However, this contradicts nothing about The Courier, no matter how you play him - all indications point to The Courier not even knowing what exactly he even did to get Ulysses after him. A few years of wiggle room is no big deal to all but the most hardened RP'ers.

Where it becomes problematic is if it deigns to add more to this. The Courier's unstated birthplace, family, allegiance before the Benny incident - see his/her responses to Veronica (Goodsprings, The Grave, I'm not entirely sure, None of your business - none are exact in veracity) - allow myriad possibilities for The Courier's past which enrich each character depending how you play them. With a fully fleshed out backstory, your Courier is how Lonesome Road envisions them and any attempts to convince yourself otherwise are fooling yourself. Not saying that the others are bad for having backstories/brithplaces or what have you, but New Vegas gains something by it.

Edit; Darkon puts it perfectly.

I agree. Was actually waiting for someone to make this point.

And yet the fact remains that we've known since Dead Money that the Courier would have a backstory. I can see us having this conversation upon Dead Money's release, because that would be annoying to start the character thinking he's blank and then find out he's not, but now? Now I'm just baffled as to how anyone can be surprised. Obsidian basically held up a giant sign that read "INCOMING: THE COURIER'S BACKSTORY" for the last 9 months and somehow people missed it. Statements discussing how they're going to go about doing it, statements saying "no, the Courier doesn't have amnesia," statements in advertisemants for OWB and Lonesome Road explicitly stating that we'll find out more about the Courier's past....

The only promise was to resolve the business with Ulysses and Primm, which is fine - it was always going to be part of the canon Courier and isn't a problem for RP'ers. If it was, you'd be perfectly correct, you'd be foolish to be annoyed at Ulysses' presence in The Courier's backstory. However, "Hometown Hero" set alarm bells ringing. Yes, we're overanolysing it, but until any more info emerges we might as well. This is the internet, after all.

But we DON'T KNOW what the Courier's conflict with Ulysses is. The conflict could be that the Courier [censored] Ulysses' sister for all we know; we have NO IDEA how their conflict plays out. It could involve ANYTHING, and THAT'S why I think RPers should've been prepared for something like this long ago.

And again, Hometown Hero can be implied various ways:

-"Hometown" could be the Mojave, with the Courier being a hero because he saved it from impending doom at the hands of Ulysses. This would tie in with Ulysses seeming to imply the Mojave is doomed and with the implications that we HAVE to fight Ulysses.
-"Hometown" could just be another reference to the USA, with the Courier being a hero of "the US" for a variety of possible reasons in the plot of Lonesome Road.

All I'm saying is, personally?


If I hear the Courier has history with Ulysses, I think "ok, the Courier is an actual character with depth. I don't know how much depth, but if I plan on RPing, I should be ready for anything."
However, it seems more like a lot of people thought. "ok, the Courier killed someone. I'll manage to write this into my RP character somehow, but I'll be damned if he has a birthplace or a family!"

Wtf? Why would you only brace yourself for ONE possibility?

True, but we we do have an inclination that The Courier doesn't know what it was. Given that, it can't have been something that utterly dominated every year of his/her existence before they were shot in the head. I'm hoping that the Hometown Hero element is implemented in one of those two ways.

i've got bigger problems in my life at the moment to let something like this weigh so heavily on my conscience, but that being said, if it turned out my courier was Steve from Newark i'm not sure how i'd react

Not really. There's the issue of, if it's too mild (AKA the Courier stole Ulysses' candy bar) then Ulysses seems like a psychopath for holding the grudge. If it's a big issue, then there's really no issue created. For example, you can't tell Christine about Veronica or vice versa. This implies the Courier either didn't connect the dots or actively chose not to bring it up; he kept that info to himself. In the same way, The Courier could just be keeping that info about Ulysses to himself aswell. I mean, why would he bring it up to begin with? Joshua Graham doesn't care about his history with the Courier, nor does Elijah. Or why would he tell Raul? "Btw, I killed a guy and royally pissed off another man in the process." "Good work boss." No, this is the Courier's story and no one in the Mojave has anything to do with it, thus he doesn't discuss it. There's no point in telling them, but it may be beneficial to the Courier to ask questions about Ulysses, and he does. He just doesn't bother to explain WHY he asks those questions, but why he doesn't explain why, whether it's because he doesn't want to discuss it, doesn't realize what he did or is just quiet about personal stories, we don't know.

Drawing such conclusions is what's gotten you upset with the possibility of the Courier having a birthplace to begin with. Feel free to speculate, but drawing conclusions is something that can rarely be done with the little info we've got.

Not bothered.

You realize that this is a game, right?

I'm not getting this, we're all fans of the game, so why is this comment necessary at all? Is our discussion of something we enjoy suddenly unwarranted because it's a game? If that's not what you mean, enlighten me. I don't think anybody here is losing sleep or being too passionate about it, so I don't get why you'd say this.


Anyway . . . I'm annoyed if it reveals a detailed backstory for the Courier. Since before the game, Josh Sawyer said that the Courier's past doesn't matter, for one. For another, the whole thing in Primm doesn't at all imply that they are going to give the Courier a hometown. It's frustrating when you've potentially been mislead by one of the developers and the game itself and they wait until the final piece of content before they reveal that to you. This would be a much smaller issue if it was known since the beginning of the game that there was a set place you came from (for example, telling Mitchell that you came from Hopeville or something). Anyway, I just hope that all this worrying is for nothing.

It is possable that the courier did come from the Divide, (Hopewell). The experiments that the brains at Big MT, (the ones that went horribly wrong, thus destorying that area), happened after the first battle of Hoover Dam, 4 to 5 years before FNV starts.