First off, I'm an RP [censored]. I play my characters as personalities, not as tools to get through the game with a high kill rating or whatever. If I'm playing a paladin, I'm not going to kill the nice old lady to get her +5 shotgun, use the water bug to get infinite ammo for it, and then pet a kitten to get faction back so I don't lose my paladin powers. I'm going to play a paladin as a good guy the whole time, and avoid exploits no matter how sweet they are. See what I'm saying? If this doesn't make sense, stop reading now. Thanks for stopping by.

I love F:NV because of the ability to dream up a character, and hit every conflict in the game from the point of view of that character. Of course, sometimes small compromises have to be "fudged" in order to make it work. It's obviously bad policy to make a character who faints at the sight of scorpions if you're playing Scorpion Quest RPG, but in games of FNV's depth sometimes the conflicts are subtler. For example, when you meet a new character, you have to choose the dialogue option closest to what your character would "really" say, and smooth over the inconsistencies in your imagination in order to keep playing.

What I am looking for in this case is the best way to proceed to get me the most fun gameplay experience with a minimum of character compromise.

Ahead be the spoilery part of the post.

The character: a physically powerful warrior, bent on revenge, headstrong beyond the level of stupidity. As an example, when she made it to the Tops casino, she demanded to see Benny but refused to relinquish her weapons. That turned into a totally unnecessary brawl with a dozen well-armed hotel guards (which incidentally took a couple reloads to beat, I can tell you). Doing it the "hard way" is her favorite way, and she has the magic of being the protagonist, so it works out for her. She is an indomitable individualist and distrustful of technology, using good old muscle-based weaponry as well as simple stuff she understands, like dynamite.

After the casino, she met Caesar. Seems like a match made in heaven, right? They don't trust guns. They don't trust robots. They believe in the actualization of the individual through individual effort. They both like scary-looking medieval armor, torture, and fear. So far, so good! Caesar said, I have Benny, and if you want him you have to deal with me, and all I want you to do is go blow up some robots. She jumped at the chance, of course, blew up the robots, received her prize, and killed Benny (thereby winning Fallout: New Vegas at level 11. gg). She got her revenge, which was her main motivating factor throughout the game. Now what? This is when things went off the rails a bit. Caesar said, OK, welcome to my service, now for your next mission, I want you to go and kill ... and she was like, whoa, whoa, whoa. I like blowing up robots, but you can't order me around. We had a fair trade before, but that doesn't mean I'm your errand girl now. Caesar sort of lost it and threatened hideous vengeance if she ever disobeyed him again, and suggested that she leave now if she valued her skin, so she walked out, head high. Save game and now here we are.

So. I've gathered that actually joining the Legion gets you a bunch of great quests that I know would be a blast with this character. However, the character has no humility and fudging it upon her is a compromise I'd prefer not to make. I also LOVED having the dialogue option to tell Caesar to stuff it, and want to pursue that gameplay path if it will lead to more fun.

So should I go back and start doing his quests anyway? And just pretend that she talked him down, and made it clear that she's doing it because SHE wants to, and not because he told her to? Or is there a way to actually get back on Caesar's good side and win his true respect? Or is it possible maybe to kill Caesar to show him who's boss but still get all the cool quests?

Fellow RP [censored]s, who hopefully know more than I about the games' quest structure, what would you advise? Please don't spoil too much from here; I'm just looking for general guidance as to my next step with this character.

At some point in the Legion storyline, you have the option of killing Caesar. If your Speech is high enough, you can convince the others it was an accident. I will say no more, but you'll know it when it happens.

Hm! That'll help inform my decision; thanks for the info (and the spoiler restraint). Though the character isn't much of a schemer and her Speech skill is abysmal Nevertheless, I may decide to take that route, kill him, and suffer the consequences!

What is this? You're not allowed to role play. You have to get Boone and an anti materiel rifle at level 1 and kill every human you see until you get bored, it's the forum rules!

Kidding aside, if your character is headstrong and doesn't like being used as a pawn, she's going to have to make some hard choices soon. It sounds like your character might get a feel for the situation and how the factions operate by wandering around and doing some good for the little people for a while. You might find you don't like the NCR or House much and go back to Caesar because he's still the most in line with your ideals. Or maybe not.

I got a good laugh out of this. Thank you


Great advice, thanks! There's a lot to do out there, so why shouldn't she just go touring around stirring up trouble? All kinds of crazy quest situations out there to divert her from any big decisions.

Hopefully Dr. House will make good on his threat to send an army of robots after her (after she blew up his precious facility), ultimately leading to a showdown there. And if she ends up killing him, she might go back to Caesar just to let him know, since Caesar wanted House dead so bad. (I did pick up the quest, after all, even if I told Caesar to take a hike once he issued it!) That might lead more naturally into the Legion quest lines (or possibly a final, "That's it, time to kill the whole Legion. I'll start with this tent and work my way outwards.") I like this plan. Thanks again.

[EDIT:] I wouldn't be too confident about her doing any "good for the little people", though. She has a tendency to eat the weak for breakfast, often literally.