Let's Play Fallout New Vegas: Journal of a Mojave Wastelander

[tlozoot]

<img height=300>http://desktopia.net/wp-content/uploads/walls/thumbs/Fallout-New-Vegas-Vault-Boy-575x300.jpg

Welcome to my Let's Play of Fallout New Vegas. This is my first attempt at such a project and as such this may well deviate from whatever you think a Let's Play should include. Essentially this is a narrative write-up of my experiences in Fallout New Vegas. I'm going into this game blind, so the adventures of Deckard the wastelander are pretty much synonymous with my own initial experience with the game. I will try not to progress too far on from where the writing is currently at so the experience is relatively fresh in my mind.

Contents
<url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.300070-Journal-of-a-Mojave-Wastelander-A-Fallout-New-Vegas-inspired-writing#11941106>Part 1 - By the width of a card
<url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.300070-Lets-Play-Fallout-New-Vegas-Journal-of-a-Mojave-Wastelander#11944796>Part 2 - Back in the saddle
<url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.300070-Lets-Play-Fallout-New-Vegas-Journal-of-a-Mojave-Wastelander#12014524>Part 3 - Taking stock
<url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.300070-Lets-Play-Fallout-New-Vegas-Journal-of-a-Mojave-Wastelander#12068090>Part 4 - The blue star caps


If you've got any suggestions on my writing, any factual innacuracies or such then please do comment. This is as much personal practice as it is a foray to entertain.

I'll also be posting this continually on my <url=http://aledmorgan.tumblr.com>personal blog so feel free to keep up with it over there if you prefer.

Thanks!

 

[tlozoot]

Hello there escapists. As you can no doubt see from the above post this is going to be an iterative series whereby I write up Deckard's experiences in the Mojave wasteland alongside my initial play through of Fallout New Vegas. It's going to be written mostly in the first person perspective, interspliced with some inner monologue musings. How far I carry on with this little project will mostly depend on the amount of interest it gets, although I guess this is all good practice for my writing whatever the reception.

Some background info. I've never played New Vegas before. As I play I'll be writing up new entries in character (who I've got sort of planned out, but who will no doubt evolve as his journeys continue). Because I haven't played the game before, this might give me some trouble in keeping a character consistent with the wasteland (he'll need to know more about it than I do) but hopefully research will fill in some gaps. The only other Fallout game I've played before this was Fallout 3, where I pretty much did everything there was to do.

If you've got any suggestions (would you like to see new entries in a new topic, or all lumped together in one) on my writing, any factual innacuracies or such then please do comment. This is as much personal practice as it is a foray to entertain.

Thanks!

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

Looks great, I guess I could ya know...

Stay awhile and listen.

:3

 

[tlozoot]

Looks great, I guess I could ya know...

Stay awhile and listen.

:3

Is that a reference that I'm unfamiliar with? Searches google with a tinge of paranoia

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

Looks great, I guess I could ya know...

Stay awhile and listen.

:3

Is that a reference that I'm unfamiliar with? Searches google with a tinge of paranoia

It's a quote from Deckard Cain in Diablo, he says it nearly everytime you speak to him hehe.

Your writing is good and it has some amusing bits that don't distract from the situation. You should perhaps get a beta reader for grammar and spelling. Even if you don't need it having someone read over can be good as you get 'artists blindness'

My only advice would be to add some of your own personal twists to the story as people don't really want to just sit through a rehash of the plot. I'm not saying you would do that but just be careful of it .

Good luck.

 

[Mr Thin]

Unfortunately I shall not be reading, as I have yet to play the game, and wish to avoid any and all spoilers. I'm pedantic about that. So you can justifiably discard my opinion as worthless. But I hope you won't.

First of all, if you want anyone to read that much text, you need to make it comfortably readable. Your sentence structure and paragraph spacing is a damn sight better than a lot of people I've seen on the internet (on this website even), but it could still use a little work.

Second of all, get screenshots. Screenshots are crucial. I've read quite a few Let's Plays in my (brief) time, and the best ones always have screenshots. It just adds to the involvement and gives the readers a short break from all the text. SCREENSHOTS!

That's all the definitive advice I can think of, I hope this gets more interest. Good luck!

 

[ChupathingyX]

I'll be keeping an eye on this one, and make sure to point out any canon mistakes you make

You didn't seem to make any here though, however, at the start with Benny he actually says "Khans", not "cons" which is a common misconception.

Oh, and it's "carat", not "carrot".

Also, I'm just curious but seeing as your characters name is "Deckard", is he going to be using "That Gun"?

 

[tlozoot]

Second of all, get screenshots. Screenshots are crucial. I've read quite a few Let's Plays in my (brief) time, and the best ones always have screenshots. It just adds to the involvement and gives the readers a short break from all the text. SCREENSHOTS!

That's all the definitive advice I can think of, I hope this gets more interest. Good luck!

Ah yes, screenshots. I'd like to be able to get some nice screen grabs but as I'm playing on Xbox 360 this would involve more tech than I have at my disposal. Hunting through google images for the right ones probably wouldn't work. It's a very valid point though. I wonder how much it costs for a screen-grabbing device...

My only only advice would be to add some off your own personal twists to the story as people don't really want to just sit through a rehash of the plot. I'm not saying you would do that but just be careful of it .

Good luck.

As for story, I don't plan to stick too closely to the main story of the game. I'm planning on basically making my own adventures within the game, so while scenarios will be similar I hope to add my own spin to them, and I'll probably take some creative license of some characters to flesh them out a bit.

Thanks for the feedback both!

 

[tlozoot]

I'll be keeping an eye on this one, and make sure to point out any canon mistakes you make

You didn't seem to make any here though, however, at the start with Benny he actually says "Khans", not "cons" which is a common misconception.

Oh, and it's "carat", not "carrot".

Also, I'm just curious but seeing as your characters name is "Deckard", is he going to be using "That Gun"?

Please do. Fallout wiki can only get me so far ;D

Name choice was strictly because I was browsing the wiki article for Bladerunner the other day and the name stuck in my mind as strong-sounding name that I thought would fit nicely.

 

[ChupathingyX]

Please do. Fallout wiki can only get me so far ;D

Name choice was strictly because I was browsing the wiki article for Bladerunner the other day and the name stuck in my mind as strong-sounding name that I thought would fit nicely.

Okay, well I don't want to spoil anything so how far are you into playing?

 

[CLEVERSLEAZOID]

Really really enjoyed it Big fan of the Fallout franchise, and even though I knew what was happening, it was nice to see a personal twist. Only thing I can mention [as picky as it is] is that it is spelt goner, not gonner

So then I thought I was dead, a gonner, a bloatfly caught in a sandstorm.

I look forward to reading about more of Deckard's adventures

 

[sms_117b]

I liked the short and sweet intro...kinda like a prologue, hope to see more

 

[tlozoot]

Please do. Fallout wiki can only get me so far ;D

Name choice was strictly because I was browsing the wiki article for Bladerunner the other day and the name stuck in my mind as strong-sounding name that I thought would fit nicely.

Okay, well I don't want to spoil anything so how far are you into playing?

I am literally just wandering around Goodsprings having left the doctors house. I keep feeling compelled to stop and note down stuff for the next piece. It makes getting anything done in the game take ages...

Also just found you can turn off the HUD. If I can get along without accidentally stealing stuff when I'm trying to talk to people I might keep the HUD off. Not having stuff labelled always helps me with the immersion, I find.

 

[The Harkinator]

I liked it, if you're going to do this I hope you'll get all the way to the end, actually this reminds me of a sort of internal monologue I put on when I play RPGS that lack a character voice.

Nice one.

 

[ChupathingyX]

I am literally just wandering around Goodsprings having left the doctors house. I keep feeling compelled to stop and note down stuff for the next piece. It makes getting anything done in the game take ages...

Also just found you can turn off the HUD. If I can get along without accidentally stealing stuff when I'm trying to talk to people I might keep the HUD off. Not having stuff labelled always helps me with the immersion, I find.

Well in that case let me just say that you might stumble across something that will go well with Deckard.

 

[Warlord211]

I really enjoyed this. I will definitely be watching for the next instillation of Deckard's adventures.

 

[tlozoot]

Part 1 - By the width of a card

I woke up to the grating sound of gloating. It takes a very particular tone to gloat, and this one had it down to a tee. Even as my vision was still struggling into focus as I regained consciousness, I rolled my eyes. Fucking wannabe criminal masterminds was what they were. No more than down-in-the-dirt raiders who thought they were worth more than a spit in the desert wind. I rose my head slowly above my bound wrists to try and spy my captors. Maybe I could find a way out of this mess.
"Heh. Guess who's waking up over here."
Oh for fucks sake. I raised my eyes upwards to take in the three men who were strolling over to me.

Two of them wore the regular attire for cruising the wasteland; tough and durable leather coats and bandanna's holding back their dirty, dust-matted hair. Typical raiders, I thought. Just hired guns. It was the man in the middle who stood out though - a straight-up, grease-slicked fella smoking a cigarette with the casual air of one at a dinner party. His black and white chequered coat and neat tie gave him a sharp outline against the evening sky. With a flick he tossed the dying cigarette on the ground and looked down at me with a bored expression. "Time to cash up" he said, taking a step towards me. I waved my head to the side and could just about see the fluorescent glow of the New Vegas strip on the horizon. To my left was a freshly dug grave. I wasn't sure I liked where this was going. I felt realisation soak into me like spilt water seeping into a sock.

"Will you get it over with?" said one of the raiders with agitation. The well-dressed man snapped his hand up, signalling silence.
"Maybe Khans kill people without looking them in the face." The two men flanking him padded at the ground with their feet and scowled with dejection. "But I aint a fink" he continued. He gave a theatrical glance at the two men, brow furrowed, completely steeped in the moment.
You absolute bastard I thought. You're good at this and you fucking know it. He dipped his hand into the recesses of an inner jacket-pocket and pulled out the platinum chip. He held it out in front of me.
"You've made your last delivery kid. Sorry you got twisted up in this scene" he said exchanging the chip with a slim, silver pistol from inside his jacket pocket.
Bastard! I screamed inside my head, although I had my mouth clenched tightly shut with a mixture of contempt and brick-shitting fear. The two raiders that flanked him were themselves watching him as if bored of his little pantomime. I wished I could feel the same way but the loaded barrel pointed at my skull rather forced me to take a personal interest in the situation.
"From where you're kneeling must seem like an eighteen carat run of bad luck."
That's an understatement my mind flashed, though I kept my gaze steady on him and my mouth closed.
"Truth is the game was rigged from the start." A moment passed that seemed to last for far too long. I was about to ask what the hell he meant by this but then fireworks went off in my vision and the bullet collided with my skull.

It had been a simple sort of assignment, just one in a long list of jobs completed ? another pay package to piss up a wall in some tavern in some isolated corner of the Mojave. I was a courier at the Mojave Express based in Primm ? a little runt of a settlement. No more than a barely notable place on your way to somewhere equally as decrepit.

The name is Deckard, by the way, I don't have a second name. Never needed one. Things aren't exactly official enough out in the Mojave to call for that kind of ceremony.

So I was delivering this package from Primm to the New Vegas Strip when I was ambushed by a bunch of Khans. Fierce lot the Khans. I'm not exactly a push-over myself. Been cruising the wastelands since I was a kid. That sort of youth hardens you up. Prepares you for a life working the wasteland. Didn't matter though. When the slick opposite you on the table is holding pocket aces it doesn't matter how good you are at playing the game.

So then I thought I was dead, a goner, a bloatfly caught in a sandstorm. I'd never looked into religion. It's hard to believe in that kind of stuff when you're stalking the scorched earth day after day, gunning down ghouls who used to be human. It's hard to believe in the benevolence of your fellow man, let alone in some all-powerful creator, so I wasn't hopeful in anything in the way of an afterlife. Yet I didn't wind up dead, by some miracle.

I guess even if you're going up against a pair of aces you can still score a full house on the river...

 

[War Penguin]

Ooh, I like where this is going. We don't see many LPs on the Escapist, so this should be a welcome change. Hell, I've been thinking about doing one for Minecraft. So if this goes well, let's just say you'll have inspired me to do one.

For advice, screenshot might not hurt, but they're not a necessity. Honestly, your structuring is great but you might want to make it a bit more easier on the eyes. Adding some twists into the story is a good idea as well, because the people who are reading this have probably already beaten the game don't want to read what they've already done.

And as a side note, I'm eager to see what you'll do with some of the companions you'll meet along the way.

Can't wait for more. I'm totally bookmarking this!

 

[tlozoot]

Part 2 - Back in the saddle

"You're awake...how about that." At the sound of the voice I jolted upwards only for my vision to go white. Blinded and disorientated I collapsed back onto the pillow to a chorus of bed-spring creaks. "Woah woah woah, easy there. You were out cold for quite some time." The man's voice was elderly, gentle and easy-going and it creaked like a tough wooden door opening slowly - a rich, reassuring sound that allayed my fears. I stared up at the ceiling, feeling the pain in my head settle down into a dull throbbing.

"Where am I?" I asked through a throat rasped with dryness.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves now. How about you tell me your name. Can you remember your name?" I licked my dry lips with an even drier tongue and managed to cough up the sounds.

"I'm Deckard." The old man nodded approvingly

"I'm Doc. Mitchell." He said, a note of condescension riding on his voice, as if he were speaking to a child, an idiot, or, as it were, someone who could well be severely brain-damaged. "Now I hope you don't mind but I had to go rooting about in your noggin' to get some of the bullet out of your brain. I take pride in my needlework but you'd best take a look and see if I missed anything." The doctor handed me a RobCo Reflectron - a device that was ostensibly just a mirror with a rusty switch on the side that allowed you to view your pre-loaded reflection from all angles. I thumbed the switch in silence looking at the image twist and turn on the dusty viewing screen. It showed a platter of relaxed features with a slim smile parked neatly under a series of jagged stitches above my left eye. As I moved my head around in the dim light of the room I could see the pattern of light shift on my mousey brown hair and my short, scraggly, unkept beard. Large, contemplative pupils stared back at me evenly. With a tanned hand I reached up to my eyes and tried to rub some more precise vision into them. The doctor was still watching me wordlessly.

"It's...er...all good by the looks of it - thanks" I added in what occurred to me as something of an understatement given what the man had done for me. Last thing I remembered was staring down a bullet and now I was sitting on a bed with nothing more than a blistering headache and a fresh scar-wound on my head. I tried to get to my feet but slumped back down again. Still not speaking the doctor grabbed my shoulders and helped me stand. I felt the giddiness eclipse my vision for a second and then it dripped away from my eyes, shook my knees briefly and then finally seeped away leaving me able to see straight and stand on my own.

Mitchell was a small, kind-looking man with neat, grey hair skirting his otherwise bald head. Above his lip sat an impressive, bristling moustache. He worse braces, a dusty red neckerchief and hard-wearing clothes - a working man, not some dust-riding waster. "Listen...I really don't want to sound ungrateful or anything but...how the hell did you manage to drag me back like that? Not that I'm complaining or anything but shouldn't a head wound like that keep me in the ground for good?" Mitchell turned and busied himself with a chest of drawers on the opposite wall, shuffling amongst the clothes inside them.

"You were in a pretty bad way when you came in. Not a cards width away from death I'd say." The doctor turned to me with a wry smile cuddled up close to his moustache. "Of course, I'd know. Seen a lot of death on the wasteland before, me. Chap named Victor dug you up as soon as those bandits had cleared out. It was a messy job, no doubt, but I think you were just lucky - bullet glanced off your skull and missed anything too important." The doctor came back from the dresser with my clothes bundled up in his hands. "With luck like that you should head on over for some games on the strip!" I took the clothes from him, as well as a duffel bag that contained my possessions - a worn and grubby 9mm pistol, a slim flask of dirty wasteland water and a few bobby pins for the more illicit aspects of my work.

"Do you know anything about the men who shot me?" I asked while pulling on my clothes. The doctor had gone back over to the drawers.

"I'm afraid I don't, though I'd say you'd be best off staying clear of people of that calibre." Mitchell walked back over to me as I pulled my jacket over my shoulders. "Of course if you fancy tracking them down and setting them straight, you could always ask around town. Someone's bound to know something." I nodded slowly. I had no intention whatsoever of tangling with the Khans if I could help it.

***

I stepped out of the doctor's place and got an eye-full of the late-afternoon sun. I blinked heavily to try and shake the feeling of nausea away and grabbed the gate in front of me for support. The doc had given me some stimpaks to help me get back on my feet and had flat-out refused anything in the way of reimbursement. Not that I had the caps to pay him. My modest collection of currency had been stolen from me by the Khans. The doctor had given me a quick check up and told me that I was in as good health as anyone could hope to be considering I made my living rooting around the wasteland. After a brief meal he also insisted I take his old Vault-Tec Pip-boy, the wrist-mounted personal machine that all the kids lucky enough to live down in the vaults were given at a certain age. I'd never really considered the things and didn't particularly want to take it, but the twinkle in the man's eye and the pleasant smile under his moustache made me feel embarrassed about refusing. I found myself accepting it gracefully like a disappointed child taking an underwhelming birthday present. I guessed I could always just pawn it off at the nearest general store anyway. It was bound to be worth something, I figured.

I stared out into the Mojave, feeling my eyes get accustomed to the harsh light. For miles around there was nothing but sun-scorched waste; nothing but tumbleweed dancing in the rattling wind; nothing but huddled up little communities constantly in terror of the wretched gangs of bandits. I shrugged. It was a shame, I reflected as I walked down the path from Mitchell's house with unsure steps, but what could any one person do to change it?

 

[tlozoot]

If anyone could tell me how I can copy/paste in text from MS Word without having to spend 15 minutes combing through it again and replacing all the apostrophes, dashes, ellipses and speech marks, then it'd be much appreciated.