Magazine salesman

[Rossum]

While scouring the desert for copies of Locksmiths Reader to pick the locks of some important doors, I thought how it would be really nice if there was a reliable way to get access to the various skill magazines. So I've got a few ideas:

 

1). The magazine vending machines in the Strip might occasionally refill with random magazines. Maybe set them up so you have to pay 20 or 25 caps to buy them like a regular vending machine (Or maybe have them accept casino chips or NCR money if its unlikely that bottlecaps would fit in a coin slot).

 

2). Have a newspaper crier in Freeside or some other place, kind of like the criers for Mike and Ralphs or Atomic Wrangler except they sell magazines. Like one of those paperboys in old movies who'd yell "Extra! Extra!". But instead of selling newspapers they sell skill magazines... possibly on a rotating schedule or the like. Maybe each day they sell a new magazine for 25 caps and the previous days mags for 20 caps or similar.

 

3). The Courier takes a subscription to Magazine of the Day, They pay a bunch of caps and every day for a few days they get a magazine dropped off at a mailbox for them to pick up (or maybe the magazine shows up in those post office boxes).

 

4). Same as above but they pay the money and instead of going to a post office box then a delivery person meets them and delivers the magazine as soon as they enter town (like how once you have a good reputation in freeside then the Kings send stuff to you).

 

5). Or something like the Outcast Collection Agent, like a person who sells magazines but in addition to accepting caps also takes other stuff like ammo or pre-war books or ruined books (to recycle the paper) or various bits of junk, clothes, medicine or weapons. They might be a sort of charity who's got a working printing press to make the magazines and are trying to get pre-war books to safe the knowledge, medicine food clothes and chems to help the poor, and getting weapons as well so other people aren't fighting with them. Maybe have them accept various empty bottles and tin cans to recycle them. Basically they take all sorts of junk that clutter a players inventory and convert it into skill magazines (or maybe water bottles too).

 

 

Though, if they are a magazine salesman in the wasteland then they might sell pornos as well (not everyone would be buying magazines for locksmiths). Don't know what a porno mag might boost... probably carrying capacity. Reading a porno boosts carrying capacity by 10 or 20 (like how booze does the same thing by boosting strength) for a while because it distracts from the tedium of hauling stuff around. It would provide an excuse for the sellers to stay in business in a place where not everyone is reading stuff for programmers or doctors.