One thing I really loved about Fallout 1, 2 and 3, were the random encounters. There was the occasional wacky one, but the majority weren't. They helped flesh out the setting, and made traveling through the wasteland interesting. Seeing a bunch of vagrants fighting over a stash of purified water, meeting Uncle Leo, stumbling into a New Reno gang war... good times.

In New Vegas, it seems like the only random encounters are the Wild Wasteland ones, which are all well and good, but I can count them on one hand, and they only happen in certain areas, meaning more than one playthrough with WW is a waste of time (and they're not all that random!).

Are there any non-Wild Wasteland random encounters?

I can't say I've had a single random encounter over the course of my 3 playthroughs, and that was a major dissapointment for me... Based on what I've seen so far, I think there are NO RE's except for the WW ones, and even those aren't so obvious, or maybe I was just not paying attention when they happened.
Just like you, I absolutely loved the encounters in 1,2 and 3, and I do feel like it's made my wasteland roaming a bit less fun... :sadvaultboy: