Lombardi Family
In General
Atlantic City's resident Mafia.
- Blue Oni, Red Oni: With Concerta being the Blue Oni to Quentino's Red.
- Heir Club for Men: Of the "agnatic succession" type, as typical of traditional mafia. This caused problems when Don Quentino proved to be sterile.
- Lowered Recruiting Standards: The Family dropped their "Italians only" recruiting policy after the Great War, as it was no longer practical due to how many people lost their lives in the war and its aftermath. That said, most of the Family's capos are still Italians due to them having been around since before the war.
Concerta Lombardi
Voiced by: Kathleen Garrett
The sister of the Lombardi Family's don Quentino Lombardi, and the de facto leader of the Lombardi Family in Quentino's absence.- Authority in Name Only: Inverted; despite having no formal position within the mob due to its patriarchal nature, she is ultimately the real power behind Don Quentino's throne.
- Behind Every Great Man: Even before Quentino fell ill and disappeared from the public eye, it was always Concerta who was the true mastermind behind the Lombardi Family's rise to power.
- The Consigliere: Owing to the mafia's longstanding patriarchy and misogyny, Concerta never touched the reins of power directly, instead guiding Quentino's actions by whispering in his ear.
William Bertucci (a.k.a. "Billy Beltbuckles")
- Authority in Name Only: His official job title is "Chief Operating Officer", but in practice he's more like a glorified bookkeeper.
- Embarrassing Nickname: His nickname of "Billy Beltbuckles" stems from the fact that he wears about 50 belts to avoid being pantsed again like Sal did to him earlier in the job.
- Literal-Minded: Doesn't understand why a gun is called an "automatic" when it doesn't load itself.
- Minion with an F in Evil: He is really not cut out for life in the mob; not only is he very sensitive, he can't even bear to kill insects, much less people.
- Nepotism: Only got his job as the Family's accountant because of his father's high-ranking position in the mob.
- Not What I Signed on For: Billy was hoping his job would be a "cushy" position that only focused on book-balancing, cost-cutting and "maybe a few white lies", and was horrified when the Family's de facto leader Concerta started asking him to outright falsify accounts to cover up excessive medical and medication bills, as his father never told him about that side of the job.
- Organized Crime Sidequest: The "Tax Evasion" expedition he presides over is this.
- Villain Respect: Despite fearing harassment by their auditors, he is otherwise quite grateful for the Munis' governance, as they keep the city running and keep all the casino's customers alive.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Only took the Family's accountant position to appease his father.
Salvatore (a.k.a. Sal "Sticky Fingers")
- Dirty Coward: Prefers to hang back in Quentino's Night Club while his associates (including the Resident) do the dirty work of raiding the casino, because of all the unwanted attention Billy has attracted from the Showmen and the Munis.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Gets sour because he feels the Family doesn't appreciate his talents.
- Embarrassing Nickname: "Sticky Fingers", which is not a figurative nickname, as one would expect of a thief or pickpocket, but a literal one; his hands are prone to sweating, which leaves his fingers literally sticky once the sweat dries (though he denies this and insists his doctors told him he doesn't sweat any more than average).
- Ignorant of Their Own Ignorance: What keeps him at the bottom of the mob's food chain.
- Inadequate Inheritor: While his father was one of the most respected members of the Lombardi Family before the Great War, Sal is nowhere near the mobster that his father was and commands far less respect as a result.
- Never My Fault: He refuses to believe his prank on Billy was cruel or improper or that it may have even permanently traumatized him, instead insisting that Billy is far too sensitive for his own good.
- Prank Gone Too Far: He pantsed Billy early in his job in an attempt to get him to loosen up, but Billy's pants ended up sticking to his hands, so when he went to pull Billy's pants down, he accidentally pulled them clean off instead, and the resultant embarrassment may well have scarred Billy for life.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Claims he metaphorically runs the joint in spite of his low-ranking position.
Gene
A chemist who produces Devil's Blood for the Lombardi Family.
- Getting High on Their Own Supply: Is addicted to the very same Devil's Blood chem she makes for the Family.
- Prisoner's Work: The Lombardi Family keeps her captive and forces her to make Devil's Blood for them.
Quentino Lombardi (UNMARKED SPOILERS)
The recently-deceased don of the Lombardi Family.
- Getting High on Their Own Supply: Became addicted to and subsequently suffered fatal withdrawal from the very same Devil's Blood chem that served as the Family's financial lifeblood.
- Law of Inverse Fertility: His sterility caused a Succession Crisis in the mafia, as his obvious successor Concerta could not officially become don due to the Family's patriarchal nature, resulting in him naming Antonio Russo as his successor.
Atlantic City Municipal Government (a.k.a. "Munis")
In General
The civilian government of Atlantic City.
- Enlightened Self-Interest: The nature of their uneasy alliance with the Lombardi Family and the Showmen; the Munis provide Atlantic City with security, trade and working utilities, while the mob and the Showmen provide entertainment and pleasure to attract tourists and caravans to the town.
-
Spiritual Successor: While it has its roots in Atlantic City's pre-war government first incorporated in 1854, the post-war Municipal Government is technically a new institution. - Worthless Yellow Rocks: The city's stockpiles of cash became this after the Great War once the economy shifted to bottle caps as currency.
Mayor Timothy Lane
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: His violent retaliation against the Lombardi Family's attempted raid of his farm ultimately led to him becoming Atlantic City's new mayor.
- Benevolent Dictator: Despite usurping the position of mayor from Carly Day, he and his wife Frieda did such a good job of restoring Atlantic City to prosperity that the other Munis think very highly of him, seeing his government as the pillar that keeps Atlantic City from collapsing.
- Call to Agriculture: Inverted; the collapsing government of Atlantic City forced him to leave his farm and move into politics.
- Cornered Rattlesnake: When a raiding party sent by the Lombardi Family tried to shake down his farm for their harvest, Tim fought back and killed all but one of them.
- Deadpan Snarker: When asked how he became mayor, he initially jokes that he convinced his livestock to vote for him.
- I Did What I Had to Do: His reasoning for usurping Carly Day as mayor; he knew that the city was on the verge of completely collapsing due to Day's mismanagement if he didn't do something.
- Married to the Job: To the extent that his wife Frieda jokes that sometimes it feels like she and Tim are less of a couple and more of a throuple along with the city.
Frieda Lane
Voiced by: Tiana Camacho
Head of the Muni divisions that provide power and water to Atlantic City. She is also the wife of its mayor, Timothy Lane.- Career Versus Man: Reconstructed. Rather than force her to choose between him and her career, Tim promised to pay for her engineering degree with the profits from his farm, a promise he fulfilled after their marriage. This paid off in spades, as Frieda's engineering background proved vital in maintaining the farm's equipment, as well as purifying the farm's soil of nuclear fallout after the Great War, and later in getting the city back up and running after Tim became mayor.
- High-School Sweethearts: With Tim.
Buttercup
Clickhere to see him in his power armor.
A former gang member who is now the head enforcer of the Munis' Internal Revenue Service. Appears in the expeditions "Tax Evasion" (where he serves as the final boss) and "The Human Condition" (where he provides additional tasks to the player).
- Appropriated Appellation: His nickname of "Buttercup" dates back to his gang days, when he bludgeoned a rival ganger to death with a Giddyup Buttercup toy horse from a nearby toy store. He still keeps the toy as a memento above his fireplace.
- Better as Friends: Appears to be his attitude towards his relationship with Anna Barone. Despite turning down her romantic advances, he still takes her out for drinks from time to time, and even brings her severed Overgrown heads and other combat trophies as tokens of appreciation to inspire her and remind her she's a warrior. Deconstructed somewhat in that Anna is still bitter over Buttercup rejecting her romantically.
- Evil Debt Collector: He's an ex-ganger turned tax collector. Played with in that the people he's collecting from are mobsters, so one could argue he has something in common with Deadpool, in that he's "a bad guy paid to fuck up worse guys".
- Improbable Self-Maintenance: Mayor Tim's wife Frieda is at a loss as to how Buttercup maintains his muscles when he has so little protein in his diet.
- Intimidating Revenue Service: A more literal example than most, as it's Buttercup's job to physically intimidate the Lombardis and the Showmen into paying up if they shortchange the Munis on taxes.
- Ironic Nickname: Don't be fooled by his soft-sounding nickname, he is a brutal and ruthless IRS enforcer.
- Married to the Job: To the point that he turned down a date from Anna Barone by literally saying so.
- Not Worth Killing: He is very aware the Lombardi Family have set Billy up as a fall guy, which is why he offers to leave peacefully for the time being if bested in combat. Downplayed somewhat in that he is more than willing to kill Billy otherwise.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: His real name is never revealed.
- Terminator Impersonator: His appearance and Implacable Man persona resemble that of Arnold Schwarzenegger's characters from the Terminator franchise. Lampshaded in the game's script notes, which alludes to Mayor Tim "speaking fondly of Buttercup, the tough Terminator-esque head of the IRS".
Anna Barone
- Bad Cop/Incompetent Cop: She notes with some amusement that while the Lombardis and the Showmen are supposed to enforce the peace in Atlantic City, they only end up being good at that when it's "civvies having a drunken fight or some street thug trying his luck", and most of the time they usually end up fighting amongst themselves instead.
- Heel–Face Turn: Originally descended from mobsters belonging to the Lombardi Family, she has since quit the mob and joined the Munis.
- You Can't Go Home Again: Despite the fact that the Lombardis are working together with the Munis to govern the city, they still considered Anna's defection to the Munis an offense against the Family and have declared her a wanted woman. Her mother even sent her a letter warning her against showing her face in the Casino Quarter again.
Pete Rutledge
- Honest John's Dealership: Defied; he earnestly insists on selling legitimate goods at legitimate prices. He refuses to sell stuff that Fell Off the Back of a Truck like the Lombardis do, nor is he a Shady Scalper like the Showmen.
- No Hero Discount: While he will compliment the player if they assist the mayor through the expedition "The Human Condition", he will not offer them a discount for doing so.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Resents the fact that the Munis have to work with the Lombardis and the Showmen to keep the city running; he denounces the Lombardis as glorified chem dealers, and the Showmen as "homicidal clowns" with "a song and dance routine".
Sloane Cao
Voiced by: Ell
The head of the Munis' Forestry Division charged with fighting the Overgrown.- Deadly Euphemism: Vin refers to her job of keeping the Overgrown out of the city as "street cleaning", but her work is actually more along the lines of monster hunting.
- Refuse to Rescue the Disliked: She despises the Lombardi Family so much that on least one occasion she neglected to report an Overgrown infestation in the Casino Quarter. This earned her a rebuke from Mayor Tim when he found out.
Carly Day
The previous mayor of Atlantic City.
- Abdicate the Throne: According to current mayor Timothy Lane, after the Lombardis tried to raid his farm he marched straight into City Hall and demanded that Carly either start doing her job, or move aside and make room for someone who will, and she chose the latter. In reality, she refused to do either, forcing Lane to execute her on the spot and start running the city himself because no one else was willing to do it.
- Mayor Pain: The "Incompetent" flavor. She delegated the city's management to professional administrators while she sat back and enjoyed her free time in office in the hopes of coasting to a cushy retirement. This backfired on her when most of her staff was killed by flooding in the wake of the Great War and she was forced to bow to the demands of the Lombardi family.
- Take This Job and Shove It: When she was forced to revoke her employees' extra rations due to dwindling taxes and supplies, one of them angrily tendered her resignation along with a curt "Go fuck yourself".
- While Rome Burns: Wrote off the specter of imminent nuclear war as "hullabaloo", and even after the bombs dropped and the city was flooded, she did nothing to address the city's issues apart from rationing its food stockpiles.
- 0% Approval Rating: Her lack of popularity due to her ineptitude meant that no one stood in Timothy Lane's way when he deposed her and offered a new way forward.
The Showmen
In General
Voiced by: Joshua David King (male), Carolina Hoyos (female humans), Sara Secora (female ghouls)
An organization of artists and performers that controls the Atlantic City boardwalk and the adjacent aquarium, hosting shows and gladiator games there.- From Nobody to Nightmare: They went from a mere family of performers to a full-blown member of Atlantic City's governing triad, alongside the Munis and the Lombardi Family.
- The Dreaded: The Lombardi Family both respect and fear them for their reckless and dangerous attitudes and stunts, with Sal even likening them to "a pack of starved, rabies-infected hyenas".
- The Show Must Go On: The whole reason for their existence.
- Truce Zone: Established by Mother Charlotte to provide a safe place for other performers, giving them the necessary support and protection to hone their craft.
- Unlocking the Talent: One of their core beliefs is that everyone is capable of unlocking their own potential.
Veracio Cruz
- A Taste of Their Own Medicine: When he broke free of his raider captors, he tortured them the same way they had tortured him: first by breaking their bodies, then their spirits, before finally killing them and making his escape.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: He was originally just an average wastelander, but being captured, tortured, and starved to near-death by raiders inspired him to create the Game to discover humans' limits by testing their strength and willpower.
- Large Ham: Invoked; he deliberately behaves in a showy, larger-than-life manner to shake people out of the tedium of their daily lives.
Mother Charlotte
Voiced by: Debra Cardona
The leader of the Showmen residing in the Aquarium of the Atlantic, who crowns the Game's champions as Sensations before sending them back to the boardwalk.- Found Family via Work: She leads the Showmen as a mother does her children.
- Like a Son to Me: Treats Veracio as if he was her own flesh and blood, even if the rest of the world would consider him a monster.
- Parental Substitute: Many of the Showmen see her as a mother figure, as she has helped them deal with the loss of their birth parents, their livelihood, or even their very will to live.
The Rose Room
In General
- Family Business: The Rose Room is run by the Russo family, formerly of Atlantic City.
- First Day from Hell: The nightclub's opening day ends in disaster when hitmen from the Lombardi Family kill the on-stage musician and open fire on the Russos.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: With Abbie Russo being the foolish sibling and her brother Vin being the responsible sibling.
Antonio "Tony" Russo
The head of the Russo family. Husband of Evelyn and father of Abbie and Vin.
- Break Her Heart to Save Her: The reason he started pushing Abbie away from him as she grew older; he was convinced that letting her get too involved in the mafia, with its misogynistic culture and lack of opportunities for women, would only end in disappointment.
- Scatterbrained Senior: He appears to suffer from dementia, as he is often detached from reality and has difficulty holding a train of thought for more than a few minutes. This is later revealed to be a case of Obfuscating Disability to throw would-be attackers off his trail.
Evelyn Russo
A professional singer. Wife of Antonio and mother of Abbie and Vin.
- The Heckler: Her opening performance was jeered by a wasteland scavenger in the audience who claimed her singing was putting him to sleep.
- White-Dwarf Starlet: The Great War cut her singing career short, as not only was everyone focusing on survival, but the lounge music scene was soon overshadowed by the death-defying Showmen, forcing Evelyn to join them as a performer just to keep up.
Vincenzo "Vin" Russo
The bartender and de facto manager of the Rose Room. Son of Antonio and Evelyn and brother of Abbie.
- Beleaguered Boss: Being the only responsible member in a family of otherwise irresponsible people, it's basically fallen to him to keep the Rose Room and the rest of his family afloat.
- Disappointing Older Sibling: Antonio regarded him as this after he joined the Munis, accusing him of "frolicking in Muni land with imaginary unicorns and rainbows".
- Heel–Face Turn: Much like Anna Barone, he left the mob and joined the Munis when he got older.
Abbie Russo
The youngest member of the Russo family. Daughter of Antonio and Evelyn and sister of Vin.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Played for Drama. She became rebellious in her teenage years in response to Antonio pushing her away, which eventually backfired on her when she started taking the exclusive designer drug Devil's Blood to spite her father and became severely addicted to it as a result.
- Parental Favoritism: Zig-zagged. She was the favorite of her father Antonio when she was young, but he later started pushing her away in her teenage years.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
- If Antonio isn't serious enough about being there for Abbie and actually acting like a father to her, she will refuse to go back to Appalachia after taking the Devil's Blood antidote, insisting on staying behind in Atlantic City to make a new life for herself there, away from her dysfunctional family.
- If Antonio falls back into old habits and takes an excess of pure Devil's Blood to sell on the black market, Abbie goes one further by angrily refusing the antidote and spitefully disowning the mob, her blood family, and Atlantic City before disappearing into the wasteland.
No Faction
Jeremiah Hopkins
Voiced by: Bill Butts
A travel agent from Atlantic City currently residing at the Whitespring Refuge, promoting Vertibird expeditions to his home town.- Recruiters Always Lie: The situation in Atlantic City is far more complex and dangerous than what his sales pitch implies.
- Stepford Smiler: Much like Pat Myers from Nuka-World On Tour, he is enthusiastic in spruiking the Vertibird expeditions to Atlantic City, but sometimes nervously mutters when not directly being paid attention.
The Batsuuri Twins (Juchi & Jullian)
Voiced by: Suzie Yeung (Jullian)
The long-dominant champions of The Most Sensational Game.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: They first entered the games on the same standing as any of the other entrants, but their uncanny skill, fitness and coordination resulted in them dominating the Game for several events straight.
- Parts Unknown: It's unclear where exactly the twins originally come from.
