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psyphigirl · 4 months

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How to play Caravan (New Vegas)

While I was tryin to learn how to play Caravan I saw loads of guides were just explaining the win conditions and not the actual rules or controls. So this post'll explain everything about caravan from top to bottom. (The only reason to play Caravan is for the two achievements, win three times and win thirty times; I don't find it very fun, not the fastest way of making money, and has no bearing on any plot.)

Getting the Cards

The only way to get the Caravan Deck is from Ringo after completing Ghost Town Gunfight (or looting it off his body). You don't need this, but it gives you the minimum number of cards you need to play. If you don't take it you'll have to manually find enough cards for Caravan to be available for you You can get cards from vendors and merchants (~two caps per). Keep an eye out for 6's, 8's, 10's, and Kings (The strat I'll describe needs those cards). You can have multiple copies of the same card (i.e. more than one 6 of Spades)

I got the most cards from Lacey (the bartender) at the Mojave Outpost (anywhere from three to eight). Buy the cards you need and wait three days for her to restock. There's a semi-rare bug where she'll sell two of the exact same card (i.e. two Ultra Luxe 8 of Hearts): Buying both'll crash the game

Sierra Madre Cards

If you have Dead Money installed you can find additional cards for Caravan in and around the Sierra Madre. Below is all the cards you can find and where they are:

8 of Clubs - Sierra Madre Casino & Resort (Cantina Madrid): On the floor in front of a file cabinet to the right of the Cafe Madrid terminal and restaurant manager desk. King of Clubs - Medical District: Inside a 2nd floor room with an active electric hot plate, north of the Villa clinic and above a ground level cafe sign directly west across a courtyard from the room containing the 6 of Diamonds, on a round table in the northeast corner. 6 of Diamonds - Medical District: Inside a 2nd floor room northeast of the Villa clinic and directly east across a courtyard from the room containing the King of Clubs, on a wooden shelf in the southwest corner behind an orange chair. 10 of Hearts - Villa: Some distance north of the Villa police station and west of the room containing the 5 of Hearts, on the interior corner of a walkway to the southeast of a wall fountain. Going from the 5 of Hearts, out the door with a wall fountain, down the stairs, in the corner of the interior walkway on the left. 6 of Spades - Salida del Sol North: In the northwest corner of a small courtyard with three bear traps and a dead tree, on the ground between a wall and three pipes, just west of the stairs leading to a room containing Dean's Secret Stash, a radio and two pool tables. 8 of Spades - Villa police station: In the northwest corner of the cell Dog is located in.

Who can I play with?

You're never explicitly told who you can play with, you just have to ask around. Here's the full list; Limited: You can only play with them five times and then never again Restricted: You have to have good rep with their faction to play

Cliff Briscoe - Dino Bite gift shop - Limited Dale Barton - The Fort - Restricted Dennis Crocker - NCR Embassy Isaac - Gun Runners Jake Erwin - NCR Embassy Johnson Nash - Primm - Limited Jules - North Vegas Square Keith - Aerotech suite Lacey - Mojave Outpost - Limited Little Buster - Camp McCarran Q.Master Mayes - Camp Forlorn Hope - Limited - Restricted No-bark Noonan - Novac Ringo - Goodsprings/Crimson Caravan Camp Jed Masterson - Northern passage - Only available with Honest Hearts

Johnson Nash uses more face cards than other players which can break the strat I'll describe later. No-bark Noonan is the easiest to play against

Building your Deck

After offering to play with someone, and after setting your bet, you'll be shown two long rows of cards. The top row is the deck you'll play with in the game, the bottom row is the cards you won't be using

Use your arrow keys to move left and right, pressing W to add a card to your deck and A to remove it. Only select your 6's, 8's, 10's, and Kings. If you don't have enough of these to reach the 30 card minimum, add some Jacks or Queens. After that press F to play

The Controls

The descriptors of the controls listed along the bottom right can be a little vague or misleading, here's a better explanation;

Arrow keys to highlight a card in your available hand (these will be the cards revealed to you in a fan) W to select a card Q to discard a card (counts as a full turn) If you select a card and want to deselect it, press R. With no card selected, R is the forfeit button E lets you completely discard a caravan you've built

When you select a card it will move to the left side of the screen. This is where the game is played. Use the arrow keys to place your selected card in one of the six sections available (these are the caravans)

Number Cards and Face Cards

Ace - Value of 1 Number Cards - Value of 2-10

You can play face cards on your caravans or your opponents caravans, and they can do the same to you

Jack - When played on an Ace/Number Card, removes that card along with any card attached to it Queen - When played on an Ace/Number Card, supposedly reverses the direction of hand and changes suit of the hand. I'm not sure if it's just my game being buggy or if I'm using them wrong, but Queen cards don't seem to do anything for me. I use Queens as null cards: Just something to fill up my deck. If you know what they actually do I'll add a proper explanation here. King - When played on an Ace/Number card, doubles the value of that card. Multiple Kings can be attached to the same card Joker - When played on an Ace, removes all other non-face cards of the ace's suit from the table (except that card) When played on a Number Card, removes all other cards of that value from the table (except that card) You can place multiple Jokers on the same card to remove any card of that suit/value placed after you placed your initial Joker

Playing Caravan (6 8 10 K Strat)

This isn't a strategy I invented, I found it online. But I only every found it in posts that assumed I knew how to play already. So I wanted to put it here alongside a tutorial Also, just as a rule of measure for how weird this game is, we're only now getting to how to actually play the game ...

You're aiming to have the values of the bottom three card piles (your caravans) be higher than their matching top three values (your opponents caravans), while keeping your values between twenty and twenty-six (values outside of this are invalid).

You might notice that you can't place a card on a caravan that already has a card in it. This might be for a few reasons;

There's a difference between attaching a card to another, and stacking a card on top of another: Press the up and down keys to move along the various heights of a caravan. Face cards can only be attached, number cards can only be stacked

You can't place two number cards of the same value in the same caravan. But you can place as many of the same face card as you want in the same caravan

Place a 10 and a 6, or a 10 and an 8 in each caravan, attach a King to the 10 in 10/6 caravans, or to the 8 in 10/8 caravans. These will each bring your value up to 26. If you don't have any of the cards you need, discard something you don't want (like a Queen if you have any in your deck and are using them as null cards). It's worth having a handful of Jacks in your deck to use against your opponent

Beating No-Bark

I'm not certain, but I think No-Bark's deck has no 2's, Queens, or Jokers. He only has three to four Jacks, and two to three Kings. After you've placed your initial card in each of your caravans he'll use a Jack against you one or two times. Rarely three, very rarely none. After your first few moves he's very unlikely to use Jacks again. I only saw him using a king against three times out of thirty-five games. Sometimes he deliberately busts his caravans. I have no idea why he does this

The strat I use against him is to place 6's and 8's as my first card in each caravan, then replace any cards he removes. It's only after three to five moves that I actually start building my caravans. Unless he's particular nasty with his Jacks, or you're particularly unlucky with whichever cards you draw, you should be able to get to 26 in each of your caravans immediately. If not, don't forget to Jack or King any caravan of his that reaches 20

Conclusion

Caravan sucks

If I missed something or didn't explain something right I'll make edits

Peace and love

#berrytalks #fallout #fallout new vegas #fnv #fonv #caravan

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papakhan · 9 months

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Other than the horrible feeling inside his skull, Manny Vargas felt… good. Better than he had done in weeks. His cheeks were sore from laughing, his throat ached from talking, but his heart soared. The warm feeling in his chest was more than just alcohol. It was nostalgic, being back with the Khans. Their songs were just the same as Manny remembered. All cheering and dancing and swinging eachother around. Not even the man in the checkered suit sitting sourly in the corner could dispel the feeling of joy in that room.

I wrote ANOTHER Manny Vargas fic this time featuring Benny :) this takes place during the main story of FNV when the Khans and Benny stay at Manny's place in Novac

I'm also gonna mirror it right here

“Do not let Jessup buy any of those fuckin’ toys.” McMurphy said as he trudged up the stairs.

Not even a second passed after the door slammed, and Cliff waved one of those ever-so-tempting Dinky the Dinosaur toys, “Aw now don’t listen to him. You’ll never forgive yourself if you walk away now!”

Cliff Briscoe deserved some credit, he was completely undeterred by the sight of half a dozen Khans piling into his shop. In fact, he was delighted to see them. Most shopkeepers kept wary eyes on Khans, waiting for them to slip something into their pockets. But not Cliff Briscoe.

“No dice,” Benny said, pushing his way to the front, “We don’t want any of your junk, pal.”

Briscoe’s eyebrows knitted together as he scanned Benny. The Mojave dirt had somewhat diminished the crispness of Benny’s suit, but it still screamed ‘Hot Shot Casino Owner’ no matter how many days in a row he’d worn it. Though nowadays that seemed more like ‘Hot Shot Casino Owner After Wrestling With Six Khans’.

Still, ever resolute, Cliff pushed on, “Well… what are you looking for?”

“We’re not looking for anything, get it?” Benny snapped, and Jessup scowled at him.

“You got any slugs man? Twenty gage.” Jessup asked, leaning on the countertop to run a finger along the dinosaur’s spines, eyes wide with temptation.

Benny tutted, “And how are you gonna pay for that, genius?”

Jessup snapped upright. He shoved his face in Benny’s, lips pulled back in a snarl, “Get the fuck off my back.”

Benny’s mask cracked as he jolted away from Jessup, like snatching a hand away from a dog about to bite. Cliff eyed the pair hesitantly. One of the other Khans laughed. Jessup held fast, his stance daring Benny to get closer.

Benny was many things, but he wasn’t stupid. He raised his hands after a moment, placatingly, “Fine, do what you want.”

Jessup wrinkled his nose, then spat on the ground between them. Both Benny and Briscoe pulled a face, though Briscoe’s quickly disappeared as Jessup turned back to face him. Benny stalked away to another corner of the store, ignoring the Khans jeering at him. One of them elbowed him, Destiny--or ‘Eyepatch’ as Benny had taken to calling her in his head.

“Serves you right, dumbass,” She snickered as she flicked the lapel of his suit jacket, “Hasselin’ Jess when he ain’t sleepin’ right.”

Benny swore he’d never hit a woman, but he smacked Eyepatch’s arm away without thinking. She returned the favour by jabbing him in the ribs. Benny recoiled away, taking a learnt-- slightly out of practice --defensive stance.

“You hit me again girlie, and none of you are getting paid.” He hissed.

“I’m just playing, man. Don’t have to be so stuck up all the time.”

Benny ignored her, pretending to be very interested in the signed baseball cards framed on the wall instead of rubbing where she’d jabbed him. What he wouldn’t give to drop these idiots tonight and make his own way back to Vegas. But it was too many days away. He couldn’t risk sleeping unguarded. At least if the Khans robbed him in his sleep, he’d know where to start looking for the chip.

Not that they would. They weren’t exactly loyal, but they kept their word. It was almost nostalgic. The old style of honour big gangs like the Khans believed in. What the Boot Riders used to believe in. Not much honour left on the Strip these days, even Benny could see that.

He had to wonder if this ‘associate’ they were banking on lending them a room subscribed to the same worldview. As they’d approached Novac, McMurphy had raised an open palm to the dinosaur. He hadn’t elaborated much. ‘An old friend’, he’d said. Benny had heard some muttering from the other Khans, a couple of names he hadn’t heard before. It seemed that some were not as excited about this reunion as others.

The bell above the door jingled and a hush fell over the store.

“Oh, hey there Ranger Andy,” Cliff said cheerily, words that made Benny’s head jerk up. A fucking ranger? Here? Seriously?

Benny eyed each of the Khans, trying to guess which would step out of line and start shit with a ranger. None of them moved an inch, their gazes fixed on the Ranger who was wearing his full uniform and leaning heavily on a cane. All except Jessup, who kept his back to Andy and Benny. The Ranger licked his lips, glancing around at all the Khans in the tiny room.

“Uh, howdy Cliff. You alright there?” The Ranger spoke carefully, watching Cliff like he was waiting for him to blink SOS.

“Oh you know how business is these days, but I’m just fine.” Cliff replied cheerily, entirely oblivious to the look the Ranger was giving him, “I haven’t had any more of those holotapes you like, but I still got plenty of Dinkies!”

Benny watched Jessup, glaring at the back of his head waiting for any twitch. As if just staring at him could root him to the spot. Jessup may have had the old-style honour of the Boot Riders, but he didn’t have the obedience. But Jessup only glared at the countertop.

“Right.” The Ranger said, standing his ground, “Sure Cliff, you just let me know.”

Another door opened up above and a hot breeze blew in, carrying with it a pair of gruff voices. One belonged to McMurphy, and the other belonged to the assumed “friend”. No one in the room moved as the voices got closer until McMurphy reappeared and frowned at the stand-off, only to roll his eyes at the sight of it. No help there then.

“Friends of yours, Vargas?” The Ranger said.

“Uh,” This Vargas stepped out from behind the taller McMurphy and glanced at the gathered group, the bright blaring red of his beret the first and only thing Benny noticed, “Yeah, sorry Andy, forgot to tell you.”

“You’re not in the army anymore, son, you don’t need to check guests in with me,” Ranger Andy sounded miles more relaxed now than he did moments ago, “I can’t tell you what company to keep, was just a surprise on my afternoon visits, is all.”

Eyepatch beside Benny glared daggers at Vargas. The word ‘anymore’ had Benny’s ears pricked. An army boy, friends with some Khans? Benny didn’t like the NCR, but he was never one to turn down gossip. The way he heard it, they recruited just about anybody, and former raiders were a particular favourite of theirs. Like House to the gangs of The Strip, cushy digs could buy loyalty from a lot of people.

Not that Benny would sell out for anything less than what House came a’knocking with. He could at least rest easy knowing he would never scrub out his own identity for straw army cots and marching laps at the crack of dawn. No no no, it took far more than that. He had what some might call ‘standards’.

Vargas-- or “Manny” as the other Khans took to calling him, led their little band across the courtyard, earning even more raised eyebrows than when McMurphy had done the same earlier. Benny kept his head down, knowing his suit was loud enough on its own. He chewed on the information he’d gathered on Manny so far, which admittedly wasn’t much. A lot more attached to his clothes than the Khans seemed to be. Less scant leather, more cable knit red sweater.

As Manny worked on unlocking the door to his apartment, Benny’s eyes trailed to Manny’s boots. Soft leather, scuffed and dirty. Not one who took his soldier training to heart, it seemed. And, judging by the tattoos peeking out from under Manny’s long-sleeve shirt, not one who took pride in his old gang ink.

Manny pried his door open and ushered the group inside. The room was small and dingy, a bed, kitchen and diner all rolled into one, but compared to how Benny had been sleeping these past few days, it was a palace. Benny revelled in the soft carpet floors underfoot, considering how he’d felt every rock and bump in the road through his dress shoes. His eyes fell immediately on the double bed as Manny hurriedly picked up sheets from the floor and rearranged the pillows. So this visit was not expected, Benny realised. The single bulb overhead buzzed to life as McMurphy flipped a switch. Benny eyed him too, McMurphy was very… comfortable here. Like he’d been here many times before.

“Sit down somewhere, jeez,” Manny said and the Khans took that as a cue to flop onto the couch and promptly start fighting over space. Great. Five Khans, one ex-Khan and Benny between one couch and one double bed.

Benny glanced skywards again, squinting at the bulb. If Manny Vargas had electricity, did that mean…

“You got one ring-a-ding pad pal,” Benny said, sauntering over to Manny as he tidied up a stained mug and bowl that looked as if they’d been out for days, “Think you can answer my prayers and tell me you got hot water too?”

Manny stared at him like it was the first time he’d noticed there was a non-Khan amongst them. Though knowing he was a sniper, Benny could say with some certainty that it was an act. He didn’t even process that Manny might be staring at him like that for the nonsense words that’d just spilt from him. Manny looked down at Benny’s dress shoes, then back up at his slicked hair. Though slick with his own grease now, more than the pomade he’d applied days ago.

“You gonna pay my water bill, buddy?”

“You’re guarding the town all day and they still make you pay bills?” Benny probed, “Sheesh pal, they’re really wringing you dry.”

This time, Manny laughed. He dumped his cup and bowl in the sink and raised his hands in mock surrender, “Alright, you got me. I don’t pay for the water. But my landlady will get mad with me if we use too much.”

“Oh come on, now you’re just teasing me,” Benny said.

“Look man, I don’t even know you--”

“See! Exactly! You don’t know me! So why don’t you and your friends play catch up while I scrub the grime off my poor skin, whaddya say?”

Manny sighed, chewing the inside of his lip in what Benny hoped was serious consideration. His dark eyes flitted to the Khans like a cry for help.

“Please baby, just give me an hour alone with the shower.” Benny clasped his hands together, “Shall I beg? Look, you'll get the Ben-man down on his knees. I'll do it but it won't be pretty,”

“Yeah go on! Beg!” Jessup crowed from the couch, “I wanna see!”

Benny stopped to glare daggers at Jessup. Then turned back to Manny and flashed his best puppy-dog eyes. Manny pursed his lips, then glanced over at the Khans, grinning, and for a moment Benny was afraid Manny was about to make good on the begging act. But instead, Manny shrugged his shoulders and nodded to the bathroom.

“Go for it, man,”

“I could kiss you.”

“Yeah, you don’t need to do that.”

When Manny stepped into the dim light of the motel courtyard he pressed his back against the door of his room and took a steadying breath. The pleasant buzz of alcohol had started to creep towards a messy blur. He wasn’t a young man anymore, drinking every night on leave. When was the last time he’d had a drink?

Manny scrubbed his face, pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes in the hopes of stopping the feeling of the world rocking around him. Or at least stop it enough to keep from being violently sick on his own doorstep.

And tomorrow they’d be gone. He sighed into his hands.

“You okay Manny?”

Manny lifted his head to see McMurphy leaning against one of the posts that held up the balcony, cigarette between his fingers.

“Uh, yeah,” The alcohol made his tongue heavy in his mouth, “Yeah I’m… okay.”

“You sure?”

Manny pushed away from the door and made towards the post opposite McMurphy’s. He wrapped an arm around it and then remembered himself, straightening up to lean more casually and not like a total lightweight.

“I just needed some air,” he said.

McMurphy watched him out the corner of his eye, and even in the dark Manny could see the twitch of his lips smirking upwards. He brought the cigarette to his lips and sucked, the tip glowed ember.

“Me too,” McMurphy’s words came out in a curl of smoke.

They stood there in silence, nothing but stale smoke drifting between them. It had been a long time since Manny had talked with McMurphy. Going on ten years now. He remembered that leather jacket, before it was so beaten and soft, recognised old patches and paint under the new. McMurphy, like Jessup, was exactly as Manny had left him, but at the same time an entirely different man. Like a faded photo. Tired and worn but familiar.

“Do you remember when we climbed around in those old buildings, back in Vegas?” Manny asked.

“When we hopped rooftops when we got in trouble with your mom?” McMurphy chuckled, “Yeah, I remember.”

Manny snorted, “Oh man, after I ‘donated’ one of her old world plates as target practice. I thought she was gonna kill me!”

“So did we,” McMurphy flicked ash from his cigarette, still smiling, “Here I thought Khan moms were scary.”

Manny laughed again and fell into an easy, comfortable quiet. He glanced over at McMurphy, who was staring skywards. Manny followed his gaze to the millions upon billions of stars up above. It was what he missed the most after Mr House took Vegas back from the Khans. Maybe the Khans survived House’s onslaught of securitrons and bankrolled gangs, but the night sky did not. The stars never shone the same after he switched on the lights. Manny didn’t have the head for science to understand why, but even out here the sky was never quite the same.

“Can you still read the stars?” Manny asked absently.

“‘Course” McMurphy replied, Manny could still hear the smile on his lips, “Harder closer to Vegas but, I can still see what I need. Always know my way home.”

Home. That’s what he missed. A home he could never go back to, with a night sky he’d never see again. Home was what the Khans had. Wherever they pitched that night, that was home. And here he could feel it, their warmth and joy and love despite it all. Novac had none of that, not anymore, not since House, not since the NCR, not since Carla. Manny’s home was gone. Like his family, his friends, his night sky, all gone.

“You okay man?” McMurphy’s gentle voice drifted to him like smoke on the wind.

Manny’s eyes prickled and he could feel hot tears on his cheeks. Goddamn it. He scrubbed them away with the back of his hand. But he was already caught.

“Yeah. I’m fine.”

The quiet from McMurphy stretched on and Manny’s cheeks burnt hot with shame. His head swam with alcohol and his heart ached. It hurt! A burning pain that tightened his throat and forced a sob from his mouth when he tried to laugh it off. The gravel crunched under McMurphy’s boots as he closed the gap between them and wrapped his strong arms around Manny without hesitation. And Manny cried. He couldn’t remember the last time he did. He cried and McMurphy held him close, rubbing circles into his back and shushing him gently.

McMurphy smelt of clean sweat, leather and cigarettes, with just an undertone of amber. He was taller than Manny, and his jacket was soft and worn. Manny wrapped his arms gingerly around his chest as he tried to get his breathing under control and not snivel all over the friend he hadn't seen in a decade.

“It’s just so-- shit,” Manny managed.

“Tell me about it,” McMurphy said.

“I keep screwing things up. I feel like I-- I threw away everything and for what? A shit job, no friends, my family hates me! I wake up every day and I think is-- is this it?! Is this all I have left? One shitty hotel room and twelve hours of standing around on my own?” Manny rambled, “Okay-- I had one friend here. One! But his wife hates me so he’s barely allowed to talk to me and now she’s taken off back to Vegas and he thinks I ran her out of town! Is this it?”

“C’mon man, you’re barely thirty. You’ll be fine,” McMurphy pulled back, his hands on Manny’s shoulders, forcing Manny to look at him, “I promise. You’ll be ok.”

“I just…” Manny sighed, “I feel like I’ve wasted all my chances. I fucked things up with Vegas, I tried to have my cake and eat it too with the Khans and-- you know what happened there. And then the only good thing I did in the army was… leave.”

“Yeah, and it takes guts to do that,” McMurphy said, “Look, Manny, you think anyone else in that room can say they’ve done all the things you have? Anyone in this town? You’ve been a son, a raider, a soldier, a citizen, a guard-- all before you got even one grey hair. Not even that beat-up old ranger can say that.”

“But--”

McMurphy prodded Manny square in the chest, just over his heart, “You got guts, and you got skills. Ain’t nothing else you need. You want friends? Well you got one right here--” McMurphy pointed a thumb at himself, “and I know Jesse’s always gonna have your back no matter what.”

Manny scrubbed his eyes on the sleeve of his sweater. This time, when he laughed, he didn’t stop by accident, “Hey. Good to know we’re still friends.”

“Sure we are.”

“Even after everything?”

“Even after everything.”

Manny woke with a strip of light in his eyes and a weight on his chest. It would be more pleasant if his head wasn’t throbbing. Manny scrunched his eyes up to block out as much of the morning sun as possible as he tried to think of the name of who he was in bed with. It wasn’t unusual, he’d taken men to bed before. Passers-by mostly, someone he wouldn’t have to look in the eye every time they bumped into each other in the gift store. He’d learnt his lesson there.

Then the night before started to creep into Manny’s memory. The Khans who came to stay.

“Shit,” Manny hissed to himself. He peaked down at the arm draped over his chest. McMurphy. Okay, McMurphy being in bed with him was a good sign. He had the integrity to refuse any drunken kissing from Manny, at least. Especially in a room full of other Khans. Manny squeezed his eyes shut and prayed to any god that would listen that he didn’t embarrass himself last night.

“Hey hey wakey wakey baby, about time too. I just sent your hair-challenged friend off with a line about you powdering your nose,” Benny called over, making little effort to keep his voice down, “But before you go, how abouts you wake up one of your pals so we can split before the heat sets in.”

Manny scrubbed the sleep from his eyes, only half understanding the words that had just spilt from Benny’s mouth, “You saw Boone?”

“Boon, is it? Not sure if he really looked like a boon I’d want. Unless what I wanted was a plank of wood.” Benny huffed smoke out the door, squinting into the rising sun, “What time did your shift start anyhoo?”

“Shit.”

Manny tossed away the covers and shot from the bed. McMurphy groaned beside him, covering his head with the arm Manny had abandoned. First Manny looked for his clothes, only to find that he had fallen asleep still wearing them. All save for his boots, which were neatly paired at the end of his bed. Manny plopped his ass on the bed and shoved his feet into his boots, pushing away the vague recollections of McMurphy prying the boots off him as Manny drunkenly insisted on sleeping with them on.

Great. The first time seeing his childhood friends in years and he’d gotten drunk and acted the fool. What else can go wrong today? What about angering Boone even more? Sounds just perfect.

Manny gave up on his laces, standing up and setting a ginger hand on McMurphy’s shoulder. McMurphy made another sound that could have meant anything from “What do you want?” to “Go away”.

“Hey man, listen. I gotta go but-- thanks for last night. I really mean it. I hope I see you again soon, okay?”

He hoovered for half a second as McMurphy shifted, rubbing grit from his eyes. Before the man could wake up fully, Manny leant down and pressed a kiss to his temple. Then he straightened and fled from the room, pushing past Benny to run towards the dinosaur.

“Manny?” McMurphy croaked.

Benny blew smoke out the door again, watching Manny half jog, half stumble in his unlaced boots, “He’s gone, pal.”

#fnv #fallout new vegas #manny vargas #benny gecko #jessup #mcmurphy #my writing #txt

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unothief · 4 months

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How to Play Caravan in Fallout New Vegas

I promised a guide on how to play Caravan a bit ago so here it is

Getting a Deck and Finding a Player

Step 1: you'll need Ringo's spare deck, you've probably picked it up at least once while talking to him about Caravan as he'll just hand it to you, as far as i know it's impossible to play without getting this deck in some fashion but I'm fairly sure you can loot it off him if you plan to just kill him on sight for one reason or another

Step 2: you'll need an NPC to play caravan with, there are only a few of them but you'll run across while playing the game if you look through their dialogue, Ringo is the earliest one you'll run across but some other ones of note are Cliff Briscoe, No-Bark Noonan, and Johnson Nash.

NPCs which aren't merchants have somewhat fixed cap counts they're willing to bet on a game, with No-Bark being the highest (he often will put up to 1000 caps down on his first game), playing subsequent games with an NPC will result in them putting less and less down for each time they lose

NPCs which act as merchants will pull a percentage of their store's cap inventory, including the value of any Legion Coin or NCR dollar they have. This makes it possible to buy a ton of stuff from a merchants and then beat them in a game of caravan with a high bet to return most of the caps spent or even more than you spent to begin with, however you can only ever play a total of 5 games with a single merchant per save

Building a Deck

Now that you've found a player you'll be placed into the game's screen when you select the dialogue option to start a game.

You'll be presented with all the cards you have in your inventory, Caravan is not played with a standard deck of cards and can be played with any almost any assortment of loose cards, this screen (shown in the attached image) is where you select what cards you want to have in play when the game starts

the only rule you'll need to worry about when building a deck is you must have at least 30 cards in play, you can have more if you think it's a good idea

the top row is where you'll see the cards you have in play and the bottom row is the cards you have on you but not in play, use the arrow keys to navigate this screen, if you don't want to build a deck for one reason or another hitting S will randomize the cards you have into a playable deck.

more cards can be found to be added to your deck throughout the game, normally as items on merchants that sell for a few caps each, when bought these won't show in your inventory but will be added to your deck.

The Game

Once a deck is confirmed you will move onto the actual game, you'll draw a handful of cards from your deck and your opponent will make their first move

Three columns exist on the board "Boneyard-Dayglow" (Left), "Redding-New Reno" (Middle), and "Shady Sands-The Hub" (Right)

your "caravans" are the stacks of cards that we will build on your side of the board (Dayglow, New Reno, and The Hub), they compete with your opponents caravans placed in the same column (Boneyard, Redding, and New Reno)

a Caravan can be in one of three states: unsold, sold, or overstacked, the state it is in depends on the value of the numbered cards within the stack

A sold caravan is anywhere from 21-26 in value, anything over 26 is overstacked and anything under 21 is unsold. If both of the caravans in a column are within the sold range the Caravan with the higher value sells and the lower value caravan acts as though it were unsold if both are the same value neither will be sold

the game ends when one caravan in all three columns is sold and the winner is determined by which player has sold at least two in their favor.

during the first 6 moves of the game (including your opponents moves) only number cards and aces can be playe, one card must be placed in each column before any other cards can be played

CARDS

The value of a card is simply the number assigned to it, aces act as ones for this purpose so a caravan with a 10 and an ace is worth 11

as you play cards you'll draw more from your deck into your hand, note cards removed from the board do not return to your deck

a deck has an "order" based on ascending or descending value this order is defined when you place the second card on a caravan, example the Dayglow caravan (see the below image) is in a descending order, numbered cards of a value higher than the top numbered card can't be played normally on a descending deck, the inverse is true for a deck which is ascending there are two ways to bypass caravan order

you can either play a matching suit at which point the order rule can be ignored, example a three of clovers is a valid card for the dayglow caravan this would also change the order to ascending for future cards OR a queen can be played which leads us into face cards

Face cards each have a unique function and can be placed not only on your caravans but also on your opponents caravans

Queens will invert the order of a deck but provide no extra value on their own (placing a queen on dayglow in the below image would make it ascending but it's value would remain at 12)

Kings will double the value of the card they're placed on, these can be placed on any numbed card in a caravan not just the top most card (example placing a king on the 10 in dayglow would double it to be worth 20, which would make the overall value caravan value 22)

Jacks will remove the card they're placed on and any face cards which have been attached to it from the board like kings these can be placed anywhere on the deck (placing a jack on the 9 in boneyard would remove the 9 AND King attached to it from the board)

Jokers when placed on numbered cards will remove all cards of that number from the board, not including the card it's been placed on, when placed on an ace it'll remove all of the ace's suit from the board (a Joker on a 9 of spades will remove all 9s from the board, while a joker on an Ace of Spades will remove all Spades from the Board)

#fallout new vegas caravan #caravan #card games #fallout new vegas

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koopadumpling · 1 month

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You ever sell the rocket souvenirs right back to Cliff Briscoe

#i kept a couple for myself and of course the ones for the quest #but i sold the rest back to him lmao #it felt like i was bullying him #txt #fallout #new vegas #fnv #fonv #fallout new vegas

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thefalloutwiki · 1 year

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Fallout: New Vegas: REPCONN Shakes

“They're scale replicas of the real thing. Very detailed. Got a liquid in them that makes them glow. From what I hear, REPCONN used to give them out on tours of their HQ up in Henderson. But I guess they had to stop after the first few kids thought they were filled with Nuka Cola and drank it down.”

- Cliff Briscoe on the Rocket Souvenirs, Fallout: New Vegas

The Rocket Souvenirs contain the highly radioactive liquid, Isotope-239. Papers coined the term, “REPCONN Shakes,” to refer to the condition suffered after ingestion. You can read more about the Rocket Souvenirs here:

https://fallout.wiki/wiki/Rocket_Souvenir

#fallout wiki #independent fallout wiki #fallout new vegas #fallout #fnv

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plasmaandsandstorms · 20 days

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Saturday 10.26.2281 - 11:41AM

(The crackle of the microphone momentarily masks a stark change in disposition from the previous audio log. Lydia, rather than racked with pain or sickness, speaks with great excitement.)

I'll be goddamned! No-Bark was fucking right! Well, sorta anyway! OK, first, I woke up this morning in damn near as much pain as when I fell asleep...lucky I woke up at all from what the...eh...hmm 'doctor' here in Novac said. I had three broken ribs, a fracture in my forearm, a broken tibia and a severe concussion along with advanced radiation sickness.

She was able to flush my system with radaway, curing the sickness, and with the application of a few splints and a super stimpack my bones were all healed up. The concussion required some medication to repair, but at least now the world isn't spinning all the time. After dragging my ass here in total misery, Novac has been a wonderful return to form for me. I met a man named Cliff Briscoe, who runs a shop out of this giant dinosaur figure...he also sells souvenirs of the dinosaur as well as rockets, he seemed disappointed that I wasn't interested in them so I may buy one just for the novelty. When I asked about the Checker suited fuck, since he came this way, Cliff directed me to Manny Vargas. He's a sniper who sits in the mouth of the dinosaur, isn't that cool?! Anyway, he said he'd tell me about Checkers if I cleared the ghouls out of the Repconn facility the town uses to salvage scrap to trade. After that fucking embarrassment at Searchlight I'm more than willing to go kill some damn ghouls. But! That brings me to No-Bark! He's an old man who lives here in town, he talks crazy but he speaks with a certainty that I feel betrays some level of understanding. He told me that the McBrides, a local rancher with a small corral of brahmin, was being harassed by a Chupacabra. An invisible chupacabra with an automatic weapon! (She bursts into a fit of giggles and ED-E trills audibly from somewhere nearby.)

Ok, heh, ok ED-E I'll get to it! Obviously this sounds completely mad, right? Especially after he tells me he met the thing and that it spoke to someone nearby. Well, regardless of No-Bark's craziness I figured I'd check in with the McBrides and offer my help. They were happy to oblige me and I set out to their corral to see what I could find. A dead Brahmin for one, which wasn't much so I took a walk around the corral look for footprints. I didn't find any, and I was feeling a bit hungry so I slipped over to a cactus for some delicious prickly pears.

Well, while I'm enjoying my little snack I happen to turn to the right and catch a glimpse of a weird patch of air, a shimmer in the shape of a very large human. I've used enough stealth boys to know what they look like from a distance but if the user saw me, he didn't show it. I slipped back around the rock and heard him muttering to himself about the voices in his head, to quote, "Horns will help the Bull. Voices say they knew that would happen." End quote, whatever that means. Anyway, he had a mini-gun, which was consistent with the wounds of the dead brahmin and the McBride's testimony, and No-Bark's for that matter. He said the Chupacabra had a 'blunderbuss with a rotating barrel that shot bullets out of a backpack' which perfectly describes that weapon. So...I shot first, took the creature by surprise, he tried to bring the mini-gun to bear but me and ED-E took him down before he got a shot off. The stealth field shut off a moment or two after the body stopped moving. It's an eight foot tall blue-skinned humanoid with straps holding up and over grown upper lip. The basis for this mutant is clearly human, though what created it I couldn't say. It had a recording on it, mostly consisting of incoherent screaming and rambling...that said most of it consists of comments about a pack of Brahmin who keep him awake by screaming inside his head when he closes his eyes. This, at least, proves this creature was as intelligent as a human being. More interestingly, it proves No-Bark was telling the truth. He really did see something that killed brahmin with a mini-gun, which he understood to be an invisible Chupacabra with an automatic weapon. I will take this information to Mr. McBride, he'll be pleased to know his cattle are safe now. This revelation has me wondering if the 'Commie Ghosts' No-Bark said were haunting the Repconn facility are more of these 'Chupacabra' I'll update once I know more. (The microphone cuts out briefly before surging back to life,)

Sitrep, I've made it to the Repconn facility. Evidence of those strange ghouls in robes here...prepared for a more intense firefight than expected. Furthermore, I've found two dead Chupacabra, which points to the idea that the Commie Ghosts No-Bark mentioned are real too...more of these Blue-skinned mutants. There is also evidence that the Ghouls were fighting the Chupacabra. Not sure why, maybe I'll find out more inside. Anyway...time for me to get back to work, peering through binoculars only does so much. (Despite her leaving off with a slight indication that she'd resume the log, it simply ends here.)

#fallout #fallout new vegas #fallout oc #lydia burke #new vegas #new california republic #ncr #no bark noonan #manny vargas

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