Order and reason to play DLCs in character

[JonarusDrakus]

This probably isn't what you want to hear... But, as far as HH goes, *I* can't think of ANY decent role-play 'hooks' for my character(s) either... The 'best' I could come up with is that after receiving the radio message on the pip-boy, the character follows up for the simple reason of trying to figure out how the 'happy trails' mob were able to send the message out to begin with (with a healthy dose of "why me?" thrown in)... Of course, that only gets me to the Northern Passage location... It doesn't actually give me a reason to join the expedition...

 

In the end, the one time I played through it, I ended up throwing 'role-play' to the wind and going just so I could unlock the .45 and Tommy-gun... ^^;

 

~JD

 

PS: The other three I place into the following order: OWB --> DM --> LR. LR is obviously best left to last (though technically that is harder to justify in-character). The 'crashed satellite' puts OWB ahead of DM simply because it's location will almost certainly be found before the 'lost BoS bunker'... I (and my character) find it hard to justify moving on without investigating properly (I run the game in 'real time' though, so of course my character has to stay active while waiting for midnight... But that's different than 'moving on' altogether).

[charwo]

It depends on the character. Right now I have three characters I'm toying with: Theresa, a vampire, her ghouled brother Daniel and my Vault Dweller from Fallout 1 Charlotte Merriweather (this being a disconinancy based on my understandings of Fallout, thus its 2181, Fallout in 2141, Fallout 2 in 2161, Fallout 3 in 2177) so she's only 61 years old and because of genetic treatments common before the war, she looks early 30s tops. Theresa certainly has no reason to go in the time of the game, but before as a broken wanderer after the disaster of the Divide, then certainly. She wasn't doing anything. Daniel can take that job as he's a loyal supporter of NCR as it's America coming back and because he's a pre war ghoul that cut his teeth in Afghanistan, he's always up for roughing it in barren hills. Charlotte has the best story: she was on her way to Vegas to drop off the Chip and then head to Happy Trails as she's been signed on from the beginning as the expedition's doctor. They leave November 1st, with or without her. Because she's a Follower's doctor and a Sneering Imperialist Anthropologist, she seeks to eradicate tribalism that is offensive to her in her country (the US) by civilizing if possible, extermination if necessary (she isn't genocidal towards mutants because they can't reproduce. In all things, it's not personal, it's just there's only room for America in America).

 

The trick of course is tyying in HH to the main quest. Think people would like a mod for that?

[Triaxx2]

Did your Courier save Ringo? If so, when he tells you he's heading to Utah, your courier might want to see how he's doing and thus get caught up in it.

[charwo]

Well the problem there is that Ringo is Crimson Caravan, and Jed is Happy Trails. They are competitors. Ringo isn't involved at all in Honest Hearts.

[Triaxx2]

True but A) the courier wouldn't know that, and B) since crimson Caravan doesn't offer a trip, Happy Trails is the only option.

[Tolben180]

To be honest (No pun intended), Honest Hearts seems to be the natural spot to start the DLC myth arc. It's a very idyllic location, compared to the Sierra Madre, Big Empty, or Divide. It's also got an example of the handiwork of your evil counterpart, as well as light foreshadowing of him thanks to Joshua Graham. Plus, it works great even if you haven't entered the new vegas strip yet.

 

Dead Money seemed to be the next logical choice, taking things on a much darker turn thanks to Father Elijah. He further foreshadows the Divide, Big Empty, and Ulysses, providing the perfect hook for Old World Blues, where you will get a direct look at what happened when Ulysses, Christine, and Father Elijah all wound up in the Big Empty, as well as hearing the voice of Ulysses.

 

When you reach Lonesome Road, you will have finally caught up with him, and brought the myth arc to a close. That's my run-down on the order of it anyways.

[charwo]

Too true. But whereas the others had solid reasons to go or get shanghaied to exotic places, Honest Hearts is too disconnected to justify a break from the action. That's why in my latest game, I did a bunch of console commands to get to the Northern Passage without doing anything else. I treated it as a prelude, and de facto justified tutorial. If you can imagine HH in the way back machine it works fantastically.

 

In this case, HH is a bullet to the head relapse after meeting Joe Cobb. Faint, fall and go back to the spring of 2180 (I do a lot of mods, but a year and a half before game start) where my vamp meets her Watson, Dr. Merriweather who is something between an NCR agent and a do gooding phycho for hire.

 

This is an important thing because while the side quests can be done with followers, a lot of the main quest and the DLC assumes the Courier is alone. Justified in Lonesome Road as the Courier would choose to take no one with them. But if companions see the start of OWB or DM, it derails their integration into the main storyline. With HH, I get around it by being a prelude. With Dead Money, it's actually a sting with Veronica doing the tracking and monitoring after I could make you care. Old vampires can smell obvious traps as well as innocent blood. But I'm really frustrated in that I can't justify doing Old World Blues until after doing the NCR side quests where thereafter I can justify the crew working to disaster relent in Nipton, where Theresa can be seperated in a logical place AND have the crew occupied in something that prevents Theresa from being absent from side quests.

 

It's rewarding, but maddening. The challenge for me is the meta gaming. Not to play the game well, but to tell the perfect story with the basic materials I am given.

[huntsman2310]

So, in any case, you basically treat HH like a sort of prequel to the other three DLCs.

 

1. Courier wakes up from bullet wound.

 

2. Saves Goodsprings (or destroys it).

 

3. Memory relapses point her or him to the Northern Passage.

 

4. Events of Honest Hearts.

 

5. After doing Veronica's quests, she starts to monitor frequencies to find traces of Father Elijah, instead finds Sierra Madre signal. Courier investigates.

 

6. Events of Dead Money.

 

7. Midway through any of the Main questlines, Courier investigates disturbance at the Mohave Drive-In, gets teleported to Big Mountain.

 

8. Events of Old World Blues.

 

9. On the eve of the second battle of Hoover Dam, the Courier goes to the Divide, alone, to settle his or her business with Ulysses.

 

10. Events of Lonesome Road.

 

11. Endgame begins.

[charwo]

Pretty much, except that the Old World Blues comes before Dead Money. The reason for this is a lore justified event: At some point, NCR is going to have to take control of Nipton. Previously, Nipton wanted to remain neutral, but any survivors have likely changed their minds. Basically the team stops to help/perform guard duty as the survivors of Nipton (those that got away on the initial Legion attack plus traders and others out of town) come in to rebuild. Old vampire has alone time, sees Drive-In down the way and then 'Willow, where the f***'s Theresa?' 'I dunno, Cass!.' 'Shut up all of you....I'm looking for Legion to snipe' 'Really Boone, is that all you live for?' 'I dunno Cass, are you angry I get to avenge the deaths of the people I care about while you wait for the NCR courts to avenge yours?' 'You're an a**hole, Boone.' 'I'm just good at spotting the obvious.'

[AxlRocks]

I'm wondering this myself, but I'm contemplating doing the DLC after the game ends or before. Half of me says before because without the "Play after ending" mod I'm using, well, yeah, naturally I'd have to, but the other half says play them after because I just don't like the main quest to be the end all be all, even though I have the mod. I also just feel like they fit naturally as an extension of my Courier's story, rather than a stepping stone towards the end.

 

Anyone else ever do this or think of doing it this way?

 

Oh, and for the DLC, I've read up a bit here and there without spoiling anything, and I'm just going to do those in release order. Lonesome Road will definitely be last, at least. It's also my first playthrough of any DLC, so I don't know every little way in which they interact with the base game, just basics from the Wiki. EDIT: What I mean is does their completion actually change anything (substantial) I wouldn't see having completed them post main quest?

Edited December 21, 2012 by AxlRocks