An explanation for caps as currency

[Panzermann11]

In older Fallout games, an NPC at the beginning of the game will tell you what you need to know about the currency of the wasteland.

 

Katrina at Shady Sands in Fallout 1 can tell you about the caps, the elder of Arroyo in Fallout 2 for NCR dollars. Fallout: New Vegas doesn't have someone explain it to you, but the Courier already knows about bottle caps and this is backed up further by the delivery order you get at the start of the game which mentions a 250 caps reward upon successful delivery of the platinum chip.

 

But, what about the Lone Wanderer? He/she magically knows that caps are used as money after he/she leaves Vault 101, but how? Silver at Springvale is the closest you can get when you tell her about her story, but even then there's a dialogue option to threaten her for caps before asking her for her story. There isn't a single option to question Simms what caps are for when he offers them as a reward for disarming the bomb. It's a minor plot hole, but it's been bugging me for quite a while now.

 

So, a mod which gives an in-universe explanation for the caps as money would be nice. My suggestion is to put it through a terminal entry in Vault 101's overseer's terminal on your way out of the vault. Have the entry explain from the vault expeditionists about the caps as money, simple as that.

 

EDIT: At the time when I was writing this, I wasn't aware there's already a same mod that has the exact same idea I proposed for such a mod. I decided to port the mod for TTW with permission from the original author because I felt like the mod derserves some more recongition.

Edited May 31, 2022 by Panzermann11

[TheVampireDante]

The pre-war world had videos/holotapes of how a potential post-apoc world would operate (the little Vault-boy S.P.E.C.I.A.L. skits are part of them), which included the use of bottlecaps as currency. Since the LW grew up in a vault, they would have had access to those videos as well as part of their education for when/if they were to vacate the vault and step into the world.

 

Despite 101's hidden goal of remaining closed, I believe they would have shown the recordings anyway, to cover emergency evacuation survival plans - and if not, then James might have mentioned it for a similar reason.

 

So a terminal entry or holotape (maybe a pipboy entry?) explaining their use is quite fitting, perhaps located before the classroom test? Setup as a "reminder" lesson note or similar.

[Panzermann11]

Alright, so at the time when I was writing this topic, I wasn't aware there's already a mod like this made 2 years ago. In this case, you can simply scratch what I just said.

 

Also, the delivery order you get in the beginning of New Vegas pretty much backs up my assumption that the Courier already knows about bottle caps, since the order mentions a 250 caps reward for successful delivery.

Edited May 23, 2022 by Panzermann11