Random Encounters for New Vegas

RangerBoo

RangerBoo

Resident Schizo Poster
As of right now I am still working on my mod but I came across @Alphons post on the Things you like from Fallout 3 thread and he stated he likes the random encounters from Fallout 3 and that New Vegas would benefit from having them. So I decided that I would add some unique encounters to New Vegas but what kind of encounters should I add? I already have three down:
~ A slave caravan with some independent slavers taking three slaves to Cottonwood Cove.
~ A highway man who will try to rob you.
~ Random bounty hunters who will try to hunt you down for pissing off the wrong people.

What encounters do you guys think I should add for my mod? Please let me know.
 
  • A Drunk solicits you for booze, and he'll shit talk you if you refuse.
  • Two guys having a conversation about getting laid and come to the realization they both fucked the other's sister so they start fighting.
 
Some ideas:
  • After completing I Fought the Law on NCR side you come across NCR troopers executing some Powder Gangers
  • Aftermath of a failed Legion attack on a caravan. Mercenaries loot dead Legionaries, while the merchant mocks the wounded survivor.
  • Fiend walks up to you and asks you to watch his stuff (gives you some drugs, a random weapon and Fiend armour), changes into a dirty suit and walks away.
  • Prior to completing Restoring Hope/ We are the Legion- NCR deserter from Forlorn Hope offers to give you his armour in exchange for some clothing. You can pressure him into giving you some medical supplies he stole or returning to camp.
  • Family of refugees going to Bitter Springs. You can give them directions or supplies for NCR fame or small amount of caps. Robbing them makes you lose NCR fame.
  • Followers doctor trying to help irradiated prospector. If you help with supplies or Medicine check, prospector marks you the location of Devil's Gulch.
  • [Wild Wasteland] Dead Chinese ghoul with a note about Communists painting Moon red.
  • [Wild Wasteland] King's member runs up to you with "Hey, you're the one who's been going around..". He stops mid-sentence and tells you he can't do it anymore and commits suicide.
 
A gambler who's lost it all in Vegas and tries to stick you up for a robbery, but is terrified and can be easily talked out of it

Lost NCR tourists looking for directions to the Strip

A tribal scouting party (hostile)
 
Occasional BoS squads near Hidden Valley during the night.

After the Black Mountain quest, you get jumped by the occasional super Mutant and nightkin.

Cannibals dancing around a tied up child

Come across a comedian and a dead brahmin and he's telling dirty jokes to the dead brahmin.

A pack of baby deathclaws chasing a large rad-scorpion
 
How about a random encounter that spawns an enemy right behind the player, giving the illusion of them sneaking up on the player. Particularly animal enemies, as if the player was being hunted. Think it would be cool to have a deathclaw “sneak” up on you, or a pack of dogs/nightstalkers. Not sure if this could be affected to the player’s perception stat. Maybe characters with high perception would completely avoid this encounter? I don’t know enough about the GECK to know if this is possible or not.

Wounded or dehydrated animals lying on the ground, on the brink of death and surrounded by crows. Heal them for some karma (and maybe an animal friend), put them out of their misery for less karma, or just leave them to their fate for no karma (or maybe a little bad karma).

As far as Wild Wasteland-exclusive encounters, the sky is the limit.

Re-enact a scene from a movie or take inspiration from one. For example, find a guy handcuffed to a tanker rigged to explode, with only a hacksaw to free himself. Choose to help him or not. Sawing through the handcuffs would require high strength, sawing through his arm would require high medicine (and maybe high speech), or else he bleeds to death.

Run into a lost NCR soldier separated from his unit. If you insult him, he recites the Navy Seal copypasta and attacks.

I have no idea what your modding capabilities are though, so I don’t know how feasible these would be.
 
These are all wonderful ideas. I will do my best to add as many as I can. So far I've written two more of my own encounters:
~ A Wild Wasteland encounter with a crucified slave at Cottonwood Cove. Lets just say that one should look on the bright side of life.
~ A reference to Van Buren. The player will come across a bounty hunter named Alexandra who will weave them a sob story about her stuff getting stolen by a super mutant and for the player to get her stuff back and injure, but not kill, the mutant. When comforting the mutant he will tell you that Alexandra is a slaver and is trying to enslave him to the Legion despite him telling her that she will get next to nothing for him as the Legion hates mutants. The player can handle this encounter in one of 5 ways.
1. With a mid level Speech skill you can tell her that the Legion doesn't accept mutant slaves at which point she leaves.
2. With a Legion rep of acceptable you can tell her that you know personally that the Legion will pay nothing for the mutant.
3. With high Strength or the Terrifying Presence perk you can terrify her to give up slaving for good.
4. Kill the mutant at which point Alexandra will get pissed and try to enslave you instead.
5. Kill Alexandra.

I've also begun to write and create NPC's for some of the encounters you have all suggested. Please feel free to add or suggest more.
 
  • A Ghoul is trying to psych himself into acquiring the services of a whore while his Ghoul buddy is messing with him. Saying that his cock will fall off etc.
  • A mentally unstable and chapter-less BOS paladin by the name of 'Sir Miguel' and his Protectron 'Panza' are patrolling for fiends to vanquish. Any subject the player brings up with the Paladin is usually dismissed and he'll ask the player about any evildoers.
  • The player could find a little girl looking for her pet dinosaur who 'got big one day' and ran off, further probing will tell the player the 'dinosaur' is a Deathclaw. You can give her some supplies and advice, etc. But if the player were to scare or attack the girl the Deathclaw will attack you. The player could later encounter the girl again with her Deathclaw with her talking about heading home in time for supper. The Deathclaw's name is Lassie.
 
Iprovidelittlepianos said:
May I ask what the focus of this mod is exactly? Is it just random encounters? Is it on the nexus?
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It is actually a mod inspired by the likes of mods like Interesting NPC's. The mod will add not just unique encounters but new NPC's, quests, locations and factions. All with branching dialogue and choices that will give you many different outcomes. One of the biggest focuses of this mod is to give the player a whole lot of choices in interacting with NPC's and handling quests for role playing purposes. So far I have written over 200 pages worth of dialogue and notes.
 
Sounds great! Do you have any idea how long it will be until the first release? Obviously it’s hard to gauge these kind of things. I’d be willing to help play-test it, would give me an excuse to start up New Vegas again anyway.

Another idea I just had: A lone melee super mutant surrounded by mutilated dead bodies. Either Fiends, Legionaries, NCR troops, or Powder Gangers depending on the area. The mutant should be non-hostile but extremely tough. He could be creepily silent (*this mutant just stares at you menacingly*) or he could have some lines that hint at what happened (“It didn’t have to be this way...”, “I warned them...”, “I came in peace...”)
 
Iprovidelittlepianos said:
Sounds great! Do you have any idea how long it will be until the first release? Obviously it’s hard to gauge these kind of things. I’d be willing to help play-test it, would give me an excuse to start up New Vegas again anyway.
Click to expand...
The mod is still very much in the rough draft stages. It is going to take me a while before I begin the beta-test but all of you on here will be the first to know when the beta testing begins. So far the only one who has gotten a sneak peak of what I have written is @CT Phipps but if any of you want to have a peak to into what I have written so far, let me know and I will post a link. Although I will warn that they will contain spoilers for quests.

I have created a new encounter as of last night. The player will come across a bunker with a Chinese communist ghoul name Han who is still fighting the "good fight" and waiting for new orders. The player will tell him that nobody cares, let alone remember, the conflict of the Great War and that America and China that he knows is gone. The encounter will end in one of 4 ways.
1. Despondent, Han kills himself the next time you go to the bunker. He leaves a note begging whoever finds it to make sure that the new world doesn't repeat the mistakes of the old world.
2. With a Speech of 45 you can convince him that it isn't too late to start over and begin a new life. Han will then leave for Novac and become a town guard. He will tell the player that he is having a bit of a hard time adjusting to his new life but the people of Novac have been really kind and patient with him.
3. With a Speech of 65 you can tell him that out West in San Fransisco is a group called The Shi who are the descendants of those from the Chinese Navy. Han will be hopeful but is unsure if the Shi will accept ghouls and asks the player to find a member of the Shi who would put in a good word for him. That character will be Nurse Chan who is a nurse for the troops in Primm. You tell her of Han's plight and she will tell you that the Shi will be happy to accept someone who was from and remembers their ancestral homeland. You go back to Han with the good news and he will be overjoyed. He thanks the player for helping to give him a second chance and leaves them his bunker.
4. You can kill him with the Sneering Imperialist perk.
 
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RangerBoo said:
Dialogue: https://1drv.ms/w/s!Asn_CcWPGZurhm5Xw04j_7sU-cU1?e=U3DhB9
Quests: https://1drv.ms/w/s!Asn_CcWPGZurhLsm8gGRlsFR_F6bTQ?e=sT79Vw
Notes: https://1drv.ms/w/s!Asn_CcWPGZurhLsi0tvXiUMI1HiKEg?e=Ion6Ui
Click to expand...

Really impressive! Great to see Terrifying Presence and Sneering Imperialist checks.

Some more ideas for encounters:
Spoilered to avoid cluttering the thread
  • Star Bottle Caps: (spawns around MacCarran and Camp Golf) MP officer demanding to search you for contraband. If you comply, he steals 2-3 caps from you. You can confront him about it (threaten, NCR rep) or pickpocket them (plus other 5 he carries with him)
  • SBC: skeleton with Sarsaparilla crate (some bottles and 6 star bottle caps). Once you take them you are confronted by 2 prospectors for stealing their stuff. You can convince them to split the loot, buy their shares (you can barter down the price) or threaten them
  • SBC: Dead bodies around 2 briefcases. One with NCR dollars, the other with star caps. Using one of briefcases spawns 4 hostile Strangers with shotguns and cowboy repeaters. [Wild Wasteland] Instead of Strangers, you're attacked by Anton, armed with unique shotgun
  • SBC: Travelling merchant, his guard and some "customers". If you interact with him, he calls you a thief and tells you to hand over his star caps. His guard and "customers" join in. With high Perception or Barter you get a notification that there's something fishy about them before you get close. With Speech you can fool them into believing that you only have 1 cap, high Sneak allows you to pull a pin from one of merchant's grenades, Unarmed or Melee allows you to kill merchant and/or guard in dialogue
  • Hard Luck Blues: before completion or if you completed it by saving Vault Dwellers. Family of sharecroppers returning to California after giving up due to soil and water being irradiated by Vault 34. If you completed HLB, you can tell them that you chose to not save the farms for some negative NCR rep and getting called a dumb SOB
  • Why can't we be friends?- completed by siding with Cooke. Dead NCR rangers and several Cooke's men dressed in Khan armours. One of them tells you to take whatever you want for helping them and that NCR doesn't know what's gonna hit them soon.
  • Why can't we be friends?- completed by siding with Lem. Couple of Cooke's men in Powder Ganger armour near Cooke's corpse decide to surrender to NCR like Lem. One of them spits on Cooke before leaving
  • Prospectors around campfire. They share a bottle of dirty water with you and invite to their discussion about the biggest treasure of the Wasteland. One of them tells an exaggerated story about VD venturing into Glow, second talks about Chosen One robbing SAD for Wright's. You can lie to them or tell them a true story about the treasure you found (completed Legend of Star, Dead Money or Old World Blues)
  • [Wild Wasteland] After completing Lonesome Road, if you nuked one of the factions (or both) you are attacked by the The Bear or The Bull (or both). The Bear is a big Yao Guai that uses NCR trooper's voice lines, while The Bull is a giant Bighorner Bull that uses Legion Recruit's voice lines
  • Courier with a letter. Depending on a quest you've completed you get:
  1. Bye-bye love- blank pre-war postcard from Los Angeles
  2. How little we know (Omerta bosses are dead, Clanden was blackmailed to leave Gomorrah)- cordial letter from Clanden written on Maltese Falcon stationery. He tells you that he likes Hub much more than Vegas, has a new employer and found a nice girl to pose for his photographs
  3. Three card bounty- official letter from Bounty Hunter Association from Hub. As an unlicensed bounty hunter you have to pay a fine for collecting bounties on Fiend bosses. If you don't pay it, you get attacked by a hostile bounty hunter
 
The smoking corpses of what appears to be a deal gone wrong. in the middle is a container with caps,weapons,whatever. trying to leave with it spawns high level enemies who will wreck your shit if you are low level. because sometimes it is just better to walk away or you could chance it.
 
Alphons said:
Really impressive! Great to see Terrifying Presence and Sneering Imperialist checks.
Click to expand...
Thank you! Sneering Imperialist is sadly underused with modders when it comes to their mods. Terrifying Presence is my favorite perk. Mainly because almost everyone here likes to think of me as a foaming at the mouth lunatic and this perk lets me have that in New Vegas. I love the Terrifying Presence dialogue that Someguy2000 added in his mods and wanted to add that in mine. It is a really fun perk.
 
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