History Characters / FalloutNewVegasNewCalifornia

* BlackAndGrayMorality: To the Legion. The NCR has their fair share of problems but they're a far more preferable option compared to an evil empire that endorses slavery, child soldiers, rape, canibalism and torture. With NCR and House it's quite a bit muddier. The two really do want to rebuild a peaceful and stabilized society in the wasteland, but their views of how to do it are incompatible and the end result is a mix of pros and cons. Thus it's up to the player's discretion to decide who's in the right and worth backing, or neither of them.

** Their arrival in New Vegas also destroyed the economic independence of many independent caravans in New Vegas by bankruptcy or by gunpoint of hired mercenaries employed by bigger companies like the Crimson Caravan. In addition the uptick in tourism meant a high turnover of drug/gambling addicts on both ends of the spectrum that Freeside and Westside's sex trade is made up of ex-Gommorah sex workers who didn't get addicted and refuse to work there.

* TeethClenchedTeamwork: According to Angela, Keely and Director Hildren get along as well as a Deathclaw and a Bighorner, but she isn't sure which is which.

* {{Foil}}: To her boss Director Hildren, who is a JerkAss GloryHound that takes credits for other's accomplishments, while she is a friendly and hardworking scientist, who is genuinely interested in helping others.

* BadassBookworm: She's not only a scientist with vast knowledge, but she also managed to survive going into the dephts of a Vault full of dangerous mutated plants, while dialogue with Angela Williams and Thomas Hildren imply that a lot of mercs who went there ended up dead.

* TeethClenchedTeamwork: According to Angela, Keely and Director Hildren get along as well as a Deathclaw and a Bighorner, but she isn't sure which is which.

* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: If you don't want to go through the extra work, you can just retrieve the information Hildren sent you for and go, leaving her to her fate.

* PetTheDog: If you are "Idolized" by the NCR, Moore will salute you everytime you finish speaking to her to show how glad she is on you helping them.

* DemandingTheirHead: Offers a sidequest to the player to bring him the heads of three leaders of the Fiends, a gang of drugged up raiders, in exchange for bottle caps.

* GoodParents: For what little we know, he's this to Bitter-Root. He took Bitter-Root in when he was very young and raised him up to be an upstanding NCR soldier. The reason they are both stationed at Camp [=McCarran=] is that Dhatri pulled some strings so he could see Bitter-Root off when ever he leaves on missions. From the way he talks about Bitter-Root, Dhatri clearly loves him without question.

* [[spoiler:TheMole: Sent to New Vegas four years before the start of the NCR-Legion War as a spy for Caesar's Legion, Curtis used his post and a manufactured sense of trust from Colonel Hsu to sabotage NCR operations and orchestrate many casualities by reporting plans and troop movements to the Legion over radio, all without any suspicion to his position to the point Hsu unknowingly tasked him with investigating his own espionage.]]

* GameplayAndStorySegregation: The default NCR Ranger Armor does ''not'' have the nightvision effect (Sneak Sight) that is shown off in the opening sequence (when a Ranger turns it on before sniping a Fiend near the El Rey Motel). You only get access to the nightvision helmet if you've installed ''Lonesome Road'', where it is a staple of the Riot Gear variations.

* {{Expy}}: She has a very similar demeanour to Amy Madigan's character [=McCoy=] from the 1984 film Film/StreetsOfFire.

** He got his post primarily due to nepotism according to Boone; Colonel Hsu (see below) would probably be in that position if he hadn't. His plan for the Legion (dubbed "Tunnel Vision" by House) is [[HollywoodTactics to fight it out in one big glorious meat grinder battle at the Fort.]] Instead of, you know, weakening the Legion beforehand with skirmishes, defending the river from Legionaries sneaking across to do the same to them, and training his very undertrained and unprepared troops before the battle. His derogatory nickname among many of his subordinates is "General Wait-And-See". In the House and Wild Card lines, one of the options for dealing with Lanius is to tell him that the NCR is organizing a trap for him, because does he really think taking the Dam is this easy? Yes, it actually is; Oliver really is just a poor strategist.
** While he is obsessed with the idea of defeating the Caesar in the single decisive battle, he does precisely nothing to make it happen, like weakening the Legion, forcing them to fight in the bad position or lowering their morale. It's Caesar and Lanius who got all the initiative and starts a battle whenever and wherever they want to.

* GloryHound: Everything he does is to increase his standing in the NCR, and the reason for his "strategy" listed above is that he feels he has to outdo Hanlon and the Rangers.

* PlayerNudge: If asked, she points out the locations of the New Vegas medical clinic if needing a doctor (the doctor there sells valuable implants) and Camp McCarran as well as Major Dhatri if looking for work.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: She's willing to ask anyone, especially an NCR hero, for the help she desperately needs such as the ghost attacking her camp and her medic's problems.

NCR captain and commander of the refugee camp at Bitter Springs in 2281, she is in charge of managing the growing influx of people running from the settlements being razed by Caesar's Legion. Her story with Bitter Springs however goes a lot further than just being stationed there.

* TheAtoner: [[spoiler:Gilles still regrets what happened at Bitter Springs four years ago and is now trying to make amends to her failure.]]
* DarkAndTroubledPast: [[spoiler:She was the commanding officer at the Bitter Springs Massacre, where she froze up at the carnage and soon demoted and reassigned for her failure.]]
* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler:If Boone remains bitter and angry about the Massacre, he eventually returns to California and kills both her and himself.]]

* MyGreatestFailure: [[spoiler:Her actions caused the Bitter Springs Massacre, something that still haunts all that was involved.]]

* ReassignedToAntarctica: After [[spoiler: being demoted to Captain]] she was reassigned to Bitter Springs refugee camp, the civilian version of Camp Forlorn Hope and, as Cass points out, "stinks like piss and vomit".

->'''My hands are tied. I can't go against orders... can I?'''

!!!NCR Rangers

[[folder:In General]]
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fnv_ranger_patch_2759.png]]
[[caption-width-right:250:Eight of Hearts]]
->''"Rangers are volunteers. Every man and woman who signs up is [[HeroicSacrifice willing to die]] for the NCR, [[GoingDownWithTheShip myself included]]."''
-->--'''Chief Hanlon'''

There's the best of the best, and then there's the NCR Rangers. Known across the Mojave on all sides as the elite troops of the NCR, their skills are credited for winning the First Battle of Hoover Dam when otherwise the Legion may have prevailed. Notably, it's an NCR Veteran Ranger that graces the game's cover and main menu.

* IdiotBall: Much like Caesar he's very quick to trust the Courier even if you've been totally anti NCR up until this point. To be fair he's a lot less boneheaded about it, since he at least offers some incentive up front, only gives you relatively minor jobs at first and doesn't allow you to do anything you couldn't have done before meeting him.

* SympathyForTheDevil: Thanks to being a ButchLesbian, she holds minor regrets over having to kill female Fiends, citing that she wouldn't mind getting to know them better outside of combat if it wasn't for the fact that most of them are really feral chem fiends that she's bound by law and common sense to kill.

* PetTheDog: He genuinely appreciates and thanks you [[spoiler:for retriving the data and would put in good word of you.]]

* HateSink: From the moment she's introduced during the NCR storyline, she comes across as extremely abrasive {{Jerkass}}, with a haughty "my way or the highway" attitude and a "shoot first ask questions ''never''" tactical mindset, especially when dealing with the Brotherhood of Steel, The Great Khans or The Kings. If the Courier tries to resolve these conflicts peacefully, she uses her reputation and forceful attitude to bully, overrule or even outright fire either of the two [[OnlySaneMan Only Sane Men]] for the NCR, or leading a smear campaign against the Courier (which doesn't affect their overall reputation with the NCR that much, but it's still a dick move). Dealing with Moore could arguably be a primary the reason why players might be inclined to take the independent or Mr. House routes instead of supporting the NCR.

* IronLady: If nothing, one thing you certainly can't call her is soft.

* BadassCrew: And HOW! This is so true NCR troopers take one look at Boone following you around and are openly envious a First Recon guy is your guardian angel. The only man that they couldn't kill was Joshua Graham, though this says more about [[MadeOfIron Graham]] than it does about them.

* DysfunctionJunction: While they are some of the best soldiers and sniper the NCR has, most of them have their share of personal issues.
* FriendlySniper: All of them are pretty much friendly in some way or the other, with the exception of [[ColdSniper Boone and Bitter-Root]].

* ItsPersonal: They'll help you kill Driver Nephi and his gang both because they're NCR soldiers and because Nephi is infamous for beating NCR soldiers to death with his golf club.
* LivingLegend: They are some of the most elite soldiers of the NCR and each of them live up to their reputations.
* ThereAreNoTherapists: Averted. Bitter-Root and 10 of Spades have both been to therapy, and an entire quest is devoted to getting Betsy to go.

* VideoGameCaringPotential: If you want, you can avenge Betsy's rape by Cook-cook (and get her to seek counseling), convince 10 of Spades he's not responsible for not being able to save her (he was unconscious) and wipe out two other Fiend leaders, at least one of which has personally murdered half a dozen of their own.

* AFatherToHisMen: To the point it bites him on the ass in regards to Betsy, who Gorobets wants to pull rank on but can't because he doesn't want to further demoralize her, hence he asks the Courier to do what he can't bring himself to do. That aside, he's a well liked officer as a result of this trope.

A child living at Bitter Springs, Bitter-Root was one of the few survivors of the massacre due to being rescued by friendly NCR soldiers and adopted by Major Dhatri. He despises his former tribe and believes they deserved their fate.

* AbusiveParents: His father was a drunken asshole who forced Bitter-Root to shoot at NCR soldiers and civilians starting at the age of three. His mother was worse, being a chem addict who neglected him when she wasn't trying to sell him for drugs.
* BoomerangBigot: Despite being born a Khan, he hates the Khans to the point he's one of the few people whom says that the Great Khan civilians deserved to be killed at Bitter springs.

* DarkAndTroubledPast: Aside from his parents being horrible people, he was at Bitter Springs on the Khan’s side as a child, and is implied to have killed his abusive parents during the massacre.

* {{Foil}}: To Manny, who like him, was a former member of The Great Khans who went on to become a First Recon Sniper for their ArchEnemy The NCR. But Bitter-Root is abrasive and has grown to despise the Khans, while Manny is a fairly friendly guy and holds no ill-will towards either faction.
* NoSympathy: Unlike most people on both sides of the Bitter Springs massacre, he's convinced that the Khans [[AssholeVictim had it coming, to a man/woman]].
* SelfMadeOrphan: He strongly implies this about himself if you pass the right stat checks. He ''really'' hated the Great Khans.
* UnfriendlyFire: He used the confusion doing the NCR's attack on Bitter Springs to "settle some scores" with the other Khans. [[AllThereInTheManual The script notes for the concerning dialogue in the GECK]] strongly imply that this involved [[SelfMadeOrphan killing his own parents.]]

A former Ranger who was captured and tortured by the Legion. After escaping, he joined the First Recon due to being unable to perform all the duties of a Ranger due to his injuries.

* DarkAndTroubledPast: While on patrol he was captured, tortured, and nearly killed by the Legion, being so mutilated that the Rangers discharged him as his hands and feet were too damaged to continue performing his duties. Luckily, Sterling was transferred to First Recon as his sharpshooting skills remained intact.
* {{Determinator}}: He was tortured to the point his hands and feet were fucked up. Instead of letting that slow him down, ''Sterling escaped captivity by crawling away on his knees and elbows into the Colorado River.''
* FriendlySniper: He is quite jovial and friendly despite his profession.

* OldSoldier: Despite being much older than the rest of the unit, Sterling is no less capable than them.
* StillWearingTheOldColors: Wears the Rangers' distinctive campaign hat despite no longer being a member of the Rangers himself.

* ActionGirl: As befits a female member of the First Recon.
* ButchLesbian: She is quite aggressive about her sexuality and not very feminine. The "aggressive" part may be due to her trauma over being raped by Cook-Cook.
* ColdSniper: She comes off as one, but partly subverted when Betsy admits she sometimes -- very rarely, mind you, but sometimes -- feels guilty about killing the drug-addicted Fiends since they're so coked out of their minds all the time they probably don't even realize that they're the bad guys, and after what Cook-Cook did to her that says a lot. Legionaries, on the other hand, she ''never'' feels guilty about killing.

* DarkAndTroubledPast: She is recovering from the emotional trauma of being raped by Cook-Cook, which she is mostly in denial about. The player can convince her to go get help.

* SympathyForTheDevil: Thanks to being a ButchLesbian, regrets having to kill female Fiends, citing that she wouldn't mind getting to know them better outside of combat if it wasn't for the fact the poor bastards are feral chem fiends she's bound by law and common sense to kill.
* VengeanceDenied: If you kill Cook-Cook and tell Betsy about it, she'll act as if she's upset and complain that she had several elaborate revenge fantasies that she won't ever be able to enact on him, though she'll also give you some NCR dollars as a reward for a job well done.

Raised on a ranch, 10 of Spades has been shooting his whole life. He is the newest member of Alpha Team and is partnered with Betsy.

* BadassAdorable: Between his stutter and general attitude, 10 of Spades makes one friendly killing machine.

* EndearinglyDorky: He is one of the shortest characters in the game, [[SpeechImpediment has a stutter]], wears [[NerdGlasses thick glasses]], and talks about how much ass he kicks. He's also got a maxed out Charisma of 10.

* ItsAllMyFault: 10 of Spades believes it's his fault [[spoiler:Betsy was raped.]] You have to option of [[VideoGameCaringPotential comforting him]] or [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential rubbing it in.]]
* NewMeat: Originally wanted to be called the AceOfSpades, but he had too little combat experience, so he has to settle for 10 of Spades and work his way up the ladder. While Jack of Spades is an improvement, [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments he says he will probably try to skip Queen of Spades]].
* SpeechImpediment: 10 of Spades speaks with a heavy stutter. He's largely OK with his squadmates making a few cracks about it since he sees it as friendly ribbing, though he's much less accepting about the Courier taunting him about it.

* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: You can tell 10 of Spades it was his fault that [[spoiler:Betsy was raped]] and make fun of his stutter. Twice. If you mock him enough, he'll eventually refuse to speak to you.

* DespairEventHorizon: By the time the Courier find him and the rest of the camp, they are more or less at this point and only miracle worker can help them. Good thing The Courier's just that.

* CommunicationsOfficer: Reyes is this for both Camp Forlorn Hope and the NCR Rangers in the Mojave.
* SpottingTheThread: She figures out [[spoiler:Chief Hanlon's]] scheme via utilizing the Courier to confirm her suspicions of bizarre reports over the radio, and uses the updated security codes to hone in on the culprit.

Dr. Alex Richards joined the NCR Army sometime prior to the first battle over the Hoover Dam between Caesar's Legion and the New California Republic. He served in that battle as a medic, and was present for some of the worst of the fighting and the gruesome aftermath it left behind. Currently, he's the one and only medical professional stationed at Camp Forlorn Hope.

* KnightInSourArmor: Countless hours of patching up injured soldiers with no assistance and netiquette supplies, only for them to be sent right back into the battlefield to be injured again or killed has weathered away at his past idealism with NCR and its goals, but he continues to press on and do all he can to save as many soldiers as he can.

Private Sexton is in charge of helping raise morale in the morale drained camp.

* BattleTrophy: He makes contest out of collecting the ears of dead Legionaries, that the player can enter, as an attempt to help morale.
* JackOfAllStats: Like several other NCR [=NPCs=], he has fives in all his S.P.E.C.I.A.L. skills, though he does have above average scores in his Tag Skills.

* QualityVsQuantity: The NCR has both. They have the basic troopers, whose training, equipment and loyalty is varied, who are mostly used in huge packs of [[MoreDakka bullet-spamming]] soldiers. But all of their special units (the [[MightyGlacier Heavy Troopers]], the [[GlassCannon 1st Recon snipers]] and the [[MemeticBadass Rangers]]) are high-quality troops which are feared by the other factions.

* MemeticBadass[[invoked]]: In-universe. As described under TheDreaded, they are famous for being the toughest of NCR's forces. Rank-and-file NCR soldiers will say they've heard the Rangers "chew nails and spit napalm". Opinion on both sides of the war is that it was the Rangers who won the First Battle of Hoover Dam for NCR; without them, the Legion would have prevailed. If you fight in the Legion arena, your final opponent is an NCR Ranger, and upon a victory the Legion members whisper they didn't think it was possible for anyone to beat a Ranger one-on-one.

* MemeticBadass: In-universe.

* ButHeSoundsHandsome: A downplayed variant when [[spoiler:he calls the [=McCarran=] mole, that is, himself "slippery".]]
* [[spoiler:HiredToHuntYourself: He's in charge of the investigation into the Legion spy at Camp [=McCarran=], which he himself is]].

* [[spoiler:TheMole: Sent to New Vegas four years before the start of the NCR-Legion War as a spy for Caesar's Legion, Curtis used his post and a manufactured sense of trust from Hsu to sabotage NCR operations and increase NCR casualties by reporting plans and troop movements to the Legion over radio, all without any suspicion to his position to the point Hsu unknowingly tasked him with investigating his own espionage.]]
* WalkingSpoiler: See all the censor bars? Pretty much any story relevance he has involves the fact [[spoiler:his real name is Frumentarius Picus and he is the Legion's spy within Camp [=McCarran=]]].

* ApocalypticLogistics: ZigZagged. On the one hand, the NCR still makes use of old-world equipment and weapons, while its rapid expansion has made it progressively more difficult to keep supply lines going. On the other hand, the NCR is also capable of not only repairing Pre-War infrastructure, but also producing their own gear, including guns and ammo, on an industrial scale. They also have access to motorized vehicles to help keep said supplies chugging along.

* BoringButPractical: Every NCR soldier, even the lowliest one, receives basic combat training and has standard armor, a service rifle, and some grenades. Their armor (DT of 12) is not great but still capable of stopping most pistol rounds and buckshot as well as lower-end rifle rounds, their grenades always come in handy, and their rifles are unremarkable but still reliable and accurate semi-automatic weapons. As a result, at equal numbers NCR troops tend to slaughter foes like Great Khans, Powder Gangers, Recruit Legionaries, and Kings- all of whom are primarily equipped with short-ranged pistols, pistol-caliber submachine guns, shotguns, and the occasional melee weapons, which are all not only out-ranged by NCR rifles but also incapable of reliably penetrating NCR armor, or low-level lever-action and bolt-action rifles, which fire very slowly.

* CannonFodder: According to some veterans and officers, recent NCR Recruits in the Mojave are lucky to even get ''armor and gear'', let alone training or a half-decent weapon, before being thrown into combat.

** In the final battle, it's possible that due to the efforts of The Courier, The NCR will be supported by three of their long-time enemies of the past: the Brotherhood of Steel, the Khans and [[spoiler:the Enclave]].

* FromNobodyToNightmare: To the Khans the NCR is an example of this. The republic started out as a small rural town that was constantly threatened and raided by them back in the original Fallout. By the time of New Vegas, the grandchildren of the very people that they bullied have driven their tribe to near extinction. Interestingly, the best option for the Khans is to accept their loses, and leave the Mojave to do their own bit of nation building.

** In the end it turns out to be a case of [[invoked]]StrawmanHasAPoint. Since Caesar made it clear that he intends to one day invade and destroy the NCR, meaning that war with the Legion is unavoidable and by being in the Mojave, the NCR also manages to protect the locals against the Legion as well. Also, if you spare the Brotherhood in the Yes Man ending but make them negotiate a truce with the NCR first, [[spoiler:without the NCR to keep them in check, the BOS will go around harassing travelers to take away any technology that they have. It is sightly better than what happens if you don't negotiate a truce first, in which they actively attack travelers and capture HELIOS One, but it is still an act of open aggression for no real reason on the Brotherhood's part.]]

* HoldingOutForAHero: Because of a combination of contradictory orders, bureaucratic red-tape, and General Oliver's focus on keeping the vast majority of NCR troops around the Hoover Dam, the NCR can't get much done without the Courier's assistance. They need his/her help to get supplies, train their medical personnel, repair kitchen appliances, interrogate prisoners, catch spies, whip underperforming squads into shape, assassinate raider leaders, carry out diplomatic missions, and even retake whole towns that have fallen to the Legion. If the Courier does not do these things for them, they simply never get done, as reflected in the WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue.
* InformedAttribute: Zig-zagged. One of the loading screen messages states that the NCR typically punishes crimes with death; however, as shown with the Powder Gangers, they a fully-functioning correctional facility prior to the Courier's arrival and re-arrest the escaped Powder Gangers in a certain ending instead of killing them. They'll still send hit squads after you if you get on their bad side, though (albeit with a three-day grace period).
* {{Jerkass}}: The ranger hit squads that pursue low-repped Couriers. Most players who go against the NCR in their playthroughs can't decide whether these rangers are intimidating or just extremely annoying and arrogant Jerkasses.
* KickTheDog: Numerous times, mostly by collecting heavy taxes from their citizens and militaristic expansionist policies.

** Their arrival in New Vegas also destroyed the economic independence of many independent caravans in New Vegas by bankruptcy or by gunpoint of hired mercenaries from Crimson Caravan. In addition the uptick in tourism meant a high turnover of drug/gambling addicts on both ends of the spectrum that Freeside and Westside's sex trade is made up of ex Gommorah sex workers who didn't get addicted and refuse to work at Gommorah.

* PetTheDog: If you help the NCR to take control of the Mojave, they have a large share of this.
** [[spoiler:If you make the Kings declare a truce with the NCR, the republic will not only cooperate with the Kings to help the local people, they will also allow Freeside to remain independent.]]
** [[spoiler:Out of all the major factions (not counting Wild Card, of course), the NCR is the only side that will agree to have a peaceful solution with the Brotherhood of Steel. If you help the two sides to declare a truce, then they will work together and become the peacekeepers along the New Vegas highways. Mr. House was originally supposed to include an option for a truce, and a mod makes use of the dialogue still embedded in the game.]]

** [[spoiler:The best ending for the Followers of Apocalypse is only available if you make them cooperate with the NCR. In which they will be able to leverage NCR resources into expanding their ability to care for the less fortunate citizens in New Vegas. Originally it was unavailable due to a bug in the game's programming, but has now fixed by the last patch.]]
** Along with the Followers they're the only faction in the series to treat Ghouls as equals. With a few exceptions like Sergeant Astor (who can be convinced otherwise) Ghouls are treated as normal people to the extent that most of Camp Echo's garrison are Ghouls, along with high ranking members of their infrastructure like Keely and Bert Gunnerson. Unfortunately under Kimball's administrations values have regressed somewhat though this mostly means that ghouls and Super Mutants tend to be Rangers rather than be part of the main army.

* UnreliableNarator: Boone's testimony and more notably [[AllThereInTheManual All Roads comic]] shows children and their mothers trying to flee Bitter Springs as they were killed contradict Bitter root's account that the civilians were killed because attacked the NCR.

* JerkassHasAPoint: If you take the Wild Card ending and successfully bluff him out of attacking you, he'll have a brief conversation with you criticizing you for thinking you have what it takes to build a nation (build roads, train troops, maintain trade routes, etc.). At first this may just look like Oliver being, well, Oliver, but when you think about it, he does have a point about a random self-appointed package courier not being the best person to run New Vegas, or about you not having the resources to maintain a nation-state. The ending slides (specifically for the Followers) reveal that, even if you took the best possible options, he was completely right.

Fantastic is the "scientist" in-charge of the HELIOS One facility for the NCR. He wore out his welcome quickly, but still manages to maintain his position over actual genius Ignacio Rivas from the Followers of the Apocalypse

* OpportunisticBastard: According to his stats he's not nearly as dumb as he looks as he has 7 in Luck[[note]]which in this game governs how well a character can see patterns and well... how lucky you are[[/note]], meaning he's pretty sharp about finding ways how to weasel his way into something that will benefit him (but not nearly enough to capitalize greatly on it). {{spoiler:No better example stands than if the NCR is wiped out at the plant, when the Legion rolls in to take it over, Fantastic ''butchers'' Ignacio and aligns himself with the Legion simply to keep himself alive.]]

Fantastic is the "scientist" in-charge of the Helios 1 facility, who lied about his credentials to get were he is.

* AssholeVictim: May be invoked during gameplay. If the courier kills him, even if it's not a stealth kill, nobody in Helios One will become hostile and there will be no infamy with the NCR.
* BlatantLies: How he got his job. He'll also claim to be responsible for restoring Helios 1, even though The Courier did most, if not all the work.

* DirtyCoward: [[spoiler: If the player uses Archimedes 1 to wipe out the NCR troops at Helios 1, then return to the then Legion occupied facility, they will learn that he ''murdered'' his assistant Ignacio and joined the Legion, just to save his own skin.]]

* GameplayAndStorySegregation: He's regarded as an idiot by everybody else in Helios One, including Ignacio Rivas and the NCR trooper guarding the entrance, and it shows, to the point he may even consider a courier with low Intelligence (3 or below) as someone smart and articulate. Besides all that, his stats shows that he actually has 6 in Intelligence. That's arguably justified by the fact that he was savvy enough to BS his way through a job interviewed that required qualifications he totally lacked. Credit given where credit's due, doing that would certainly require a degree of smarts even if Fantastic is [[BookDumb uneducated]]. He does, however, have 2 in Charisma, despite his attempts at smooth talking with other people about his "credentials", so the "idiot" part of him does somewhat make sense.
* {{Jerkass}}: He's arrogant, egotistical, and when the player manages to bring the plant back to full capacity, he'll take most of the credit for the operation.

* OpportunisticBastard: According to his stats he's not nearly as dumb as he looks as he has 7 in Luck[[note]]which in this game governs how well a character can see patterns and well... how lucky you are[[/note]], meaning he's pretty sharp about finding ways how to weasel his way into something that will benefit him (but not nearly enough to capitalize greatly on it).

* TooDumbToLive: It's obvious that he has no idea what the hell he's doing and if the player didn't step in, he'd probably got everyone killed eventually, one way or another. Even when the Courier has an Intelligence of 1, he'll ''still'' believe that they're there to take his job even when they say "Me take job because me am smarter".

The commanding officer of the Military police detail stationed at Camp [=McCarran=], Boyd is married to an unknown husband and is an avid smoker. She's responsible for monitoring suspicious activity regarding soldiers on-base and the control tower. Also in charge of keeping tabs on the base's suppplies, Carrie retains a sarcastic and laconic demeanor in spite of (or perhaps because of) the amount of work on her plate. At the time the player encounters her, she is in the process of trying (and failing) to get information out of Silus, a Legion Centurion who oddly enough, has willingly surrendered to NCR troops, but is refusing to cooperate.

* ActionGirl: She ''is'' a soldier after all.
* ByTheBookCop: A very reluctant example, as she is trying to interrogate Silus while upholding NCR regulations on treating prisoners, even though Silus's [[{{Jerkass}} personality]] is making it very difficult. If the player gets too rough with Silus during the interrogation, she'll become hostile, in-spite of her disdain for him.

* GoodCopBadCop: The player has the options of helping her pull this on Silus, since you're not an NCR soldier and there for, not restricted by the same regulations as she is.
* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique: What Boyd intends you due to Silus, [[TakeAThirdOption but if you choose to use your words instead]], she'll be even more impressed.
* LoopholeAbuse: Why she requests your help.

One of Colonel Hsu's most trusted subordinates, Curtis is in charge of the investigation into the suspected Caesar's Legion spy at Camp [=McCarran=].

* ButHeSoundsHandsome: Downplayed variant when [[spoiler:he calls the [=McCarran=] mole, himself, "slippery".]]
* HiredToHuntYourself: He's in charge of the investigation into the Legion spy at Camp [=McCarran=], yet [[spoiler:he himself is the spy]].
* KlingonPromotion: Possibly. [[spoiler: He mentions that it usually takes four years to be promoted to Captain, but he was promoted in three-and-a-half years because he made sure there was an early vacancy. Considering he's the Legion spy, it's very likely that he killed some NCR captain in order to speed up his promotion.]]
* ManipulativeBastard: [[spoiler:Curtis rose to the rank of captain in three and a half years. He mentions that the process normally takes four years, though he sped it along by [[KlingonPromotion arranging an "accident" for an existing captain, creating an "early vacancy" that Curtis proceeded to fill]]. He also took advantage of Hsu's trust to be put in charge of the monorail inspection crew so he could plant a bomb there.]]
* TheMole: [[spoiler:Sent to New Vegas four years before the start of the NCR-Legion War as a spy for Caesar's Legion, Curtis used his post and Hsu's trust of him to sabotage NCR operations and increase NCR casualties by reporting plans and troop movements to the Legion over radio.]]
* WalkingSpoiler: Given the fact [[spoiler:he's the Legion's mole, Frumentarius Picus]].

!!!Camp Forlorn Hope

[[folder:Major Joseph Polatli]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/joseph_polatli_fonv.jpg]]

->''"It's no picnic, I'll tell you that much. My troops are out here every day dying for the NCR, but they've left us out to dry."''

Major Polatli is the stressed and overworked commander of Forlorn Hope, that has to constantly try to salvage an unsalvageable situation, despite being low manpower, medical supplies, ammunition, food, and water, on top of high casualty rates and very little support from the higher ups. By the time the Courier comes into the camp, his and everyone else's morale has been long since sapped away.

* DespairEventHorizon: By the time the Courier find him and the rest of the camp, they are more or less at this point and only miracle worker can help them. Good thing The Courier's just that.

* AntiHero: Either an UnscrupulousHero or NominalHero depending on your viewpoint. She's brutal when it comes to dealing with the Republic's enemies, but many of those enemies do deserve the treatment, and a lot of her misgivings are proven right unless you do everything perfectly. Plus, her main enemy is the [[BigBad Legion]]. Nonetheless, she's a large part of the problem, and some of the best endings for the Mojave require working ''around'' her.