Barebones Playthrough

[Green Gecko]

My next playthrough I decided i'm going to roleplay as a tribal new to the Mojave region (Legion ending of course), anyway to the point. To replicate a more tribal barebones feeling i'm going to play hardcore, with survival as a tagged skill, I hope to produce most of my own supplies (food, ammo, and the sort), but does anyone else know how I can further replicate this 'feeling'. I was toying with the idea of not gambling, and avoiding major towns, but it seems unpractical.

Play hardcore.

Fast travel only on the caravan route.

If you die, you die, no reloads.

Use only natural supplies you find in the wastes, no chems.

Use only light armor and melee/unarmed weaponry.

Don't use science and repair features in quests, like hacking terminals or jury rigging machines.

Hunt your food, no Fancy lad's snack cakes.

Be a cannibal.

 

[whirlingdervish]

I mentioned lower INT because otherwise you end up with shit tons of skill points, and sadly with the higher level caps, you will end up with enough of them to start dumping them in speech, medicine, science and other skills that a tribal would probably not excel at.

All told Charisma has very few effects in-game that a couple skillpoints in the right areas cannot overcome. Companion nerve stuck at the standard 5 points of charisma is about the only loss if you don't buff the stat, and you can remedy that with party time mentats if you want.

 

[Eternauta]

If you don't know enough of a alnguage, no matter hwo eloquent and charismatic you are you are not gonna convnve of anythign to a speaker of said language. You need to know a language to communicate with peopel that speak it, quite simple.

That is so, however learning grammar and vocabulary is not the only thing you need to "know" a language. You also got other "levels", like proxemics (just to give an example).

And allow me to ask: if a person from another country approaches you because he wants to ask for directions, what is your reaction? I have been in this situation more than once. They certainly sucked at my language (speaking slowly, with inaccurate pronunciation, poor vocabulary, grammar errors, etc) but it didn't make me react in a bad way, especially if they showed a very cool attitude despite their poor Spanish.

 

[Walpknut]

But if a person from another country that is not that good in the language approaches me and tries to convince me to let him enter a Highly Protected Military facility I wouldn't buy into it.

 

[Eternauta]

But if a person from another country that is not that good in the language approaches me and tries to convince me to let him enter a Highly Protected Military facility I wouldn't buy into it.

If you are protecting a military facility, you shouldn't let anyone pass. If a person comes and asks you to let him enter, would you let him in just because he speaks very good English?

What if it's not a military facility, but the installations of some multinational company, and the foreigner has got himself some nice, expensive suit. He might try to convince you by you he is a very important guy who's part of the same company but has come from country X because he was needed for a very critical situation. He can add that he is alone at that very moment as he had been just phoned by some dude from above, and needs to go pass the door you're guarding immediately or the company will be in danger. I don't think he'd need much grammar for that, especially when he would also have to act desperate, etc.

A really charismatic and "high-speech" person might use his poor English skills or even physical characteristics as a tool, like in the example I gave. He could use it to create an "image" to convince other people.

 

[Walpknut]

We are talking about the wasteland setting, why are you bringing up examples that don't even apply to the game? also a suit counts as a boost, liek takign mentats. And if the characters is a tribal, and we knwo Tribals are looked down by a lot of peopel in the Fallout world, he is from the begining in a disadvantage, makign it so that he picks up speech and Barter skills as he levels up is valid, but if you are roleplaying him eh should start with a handicap, or else you are just making a regular build that is just using the Tribal game race, not actualy roleplaying. My tribal character for example is Level 31 right now, he has 40 speech, I made it so that he perfected his prefered initial skills and as he went by and ran into problems for lack of other skilsl eh starts to put points, or better said, he tries and hone the skills he is lacking. Like Follows-Chalk, I am sure that when he starts exploring the world outside of his people land eh will have lots fo trouble with things he wasn't taught or didn't need before leaving, he would be able to pick up skills along the way. I don't see why make a special kind of character but make him just a regular guy, or a compeltely ilogical chaarcter giving it skills that don't have anything to do with the backgroudn you are giving him.

 

[Eternauta]

We are talking about the wasteland setting, why are you bringing up examples that don't even apply to the game?

Well the first time I mentioned a foreigner asking for directions you didn't say anything

also a suit counts as a boost, liek takign mentats.

I disagree, only a person who knows how to do some fast-talk and act, could get the suit and think about using it as part of his attempt to convince the dude that he's a company man, etc. The suit in itself gives no boost: a guy who's not charismatic might get the suit, would possibly be able to walk past most people without trouble (as they'd think he is a company man), but when he actually has to talk and convince, or is talked to, he will be in a problem no matter what he's wearing ("Hey! who are you? Can't quite say I know that face" - "Oh that's, um, yeah, 'cause, I'm [...]"). Getting some expensive suit *allows* you to try that story, but it doesn't really *help* you in your attempt to convince others that the story is true.

Now about the rest you said, especially this part:

And if the characters is a tribal, and we knwo Tribals are looked down by a lot of peopel in the Fallout world, he is from the begining in a disadvantage

I do admit it makes sense. But my conclusion is that New Vegas does not really offer the possibility to play certain roles like this. It would be easier, for example, if you could choose a background at the beginning of the game, and if you choose Tribal, you'll notice a change in the first reactions of most non-tribals. You know, something like the Sex Appeal trait from Fallout 2.

Low barter or speech mean the character, let's say, "inherently" sucks at those activities, when he could be a trader who has no problem while trading with other tribals, but always fails with other communities due to their prejudice, or whatever. Same with Charisma, he might be a shaman or a tribe elder, who the members of his tribe stick to because of the power of his words and always listen to him, but that doesn't count when he's around non-tribals who won't listen to him because they think he's a "savage".

But like I said, this last part is not really "against" what you said. I'm only saying that in order to be able to play some roles we would need certain mechanics to enhance the Roleplaying possibilities of this game. But we don't have them so we have to opt for other solutions like low Charisma, Barter, Speech, which kinda means sticking to stereotypes (hurr durr savage tribal with spear!)