Beyond Boulder Dome is a major fan-mod for Fallout: New Vegas by RJHelms84.
Before the War, the Boulder Dome was created to be an "Ark" meant to shield the world's best and brightest from the horrors of the impending nuclear apocalypse. And shield them it did. 200 years later, the scientists awake to a strange terrifying wasteland and a disease that only special bio-suits can protect them from. The disease has gained the attention of the New California Republic and the Brotherhood of Steel, who each see opportunity in the chaos in Colorado.
Enter The Courier, who answers an ad for employment in the Old Mormon Fort and gets roped into the goings-on. The Courier's choices will shape the fate of Colorado and determine the fates of everyone inside the Boulder Dome...
Similar to Autumn Leaves, Beyond Boulder Dome is a fully-voiced mod that boasts the length of a DLC, with a whopping three entire worldspaces to play around in with unique characters, customized enemies and new weapons and armor.
Beyond Boulder Dome contains examples of the following:
- Actually a Doombot: Doctor Johnson will seemingly attack you near mod's end after you deal with Elder Guile/Captain Despot in the Dome Control Room. Searching the body reveals it to be an android duplicate. The real thing has long-since ghoulified and now leads a survivor hamlet in one of Colorado's cavern systems.
- Adaptational Heroism: The Brotherhood of Steel in Colorado is written similarly to how they were depicted in Fallout 3; a group of well-meaning warriors that put aside their internal dogma to stabilize the region. They're nothing but helpful to The Courier and the region at-large, even being responsible for the cure to Seltsam Syndrome. The only exception is Elder Guile, who's using you to prop him up as king of the region.
- Adaptational Villainy: The mod's representatives of the NCR inversely are significantly more ruthless compared to their counterparts in the Mojave, which they're aware of. They consist of multiple Death Squads led by Captain Despot whose sole motivation for being in Colorado is the extermination of anything and anyone they believe has the Seltsam Syndrome and justify it it with their sheer dedication to their country. Other highlights includes the ghoul-unit in Nova Industries that captures people and forcibly ghoulifies them For the Evulz.
- Animal Testing: The Brain Center was lacing people (and eventually chimpanzees) with chems and drugs to create a hyper-intelligent specimen. Lester was the only success.
- At Least I Admit It: Captain Despot and his right-hand are fully-aware of the extremism associated with their crusade against the Boulder Dome but aren't ashamed of it; seeing it as Necessarily Evil.
- Big Bad Ensemble: Captain Despot and Elder Guile.
- Big Good: The Brotherhood of Steel appears to be this, wanting to control the Dome for the benefit of the people of Boulder and even having a working cure for Seltsam Syndrome. Their Elder however is just a two-bit conqueror.
- Cane Fu: Deadpan wields his cane like a sword in combat.
- Creepy Monotone: The ZAX Supercomputer in the Boulder Dome (secretly a super-smart monkey) talks like this at all times, due to what he sees as a Death of Personality.
- Edison Blake in "Monster Blood" is overly blunt and draws out everything he says as if he's rehearsing it. That's meant to tip you off that's he's the killer.
- Deadly Gas: The gas pockets in the Military Compound
- Deadpan Snarker: The aptly-named Deadpan, a Ghoul author and potential companion. Sardonic wit is his default setting.
- Pierce doesn't hesitate to point out his superior's inflated ego-trips despite him standing right next to him.
- Decoy Getaway: The killer in "Monster Blood" planted Paladin Clawden's knife on the crime scene (complete with fake blood samples) to make him seem like the culprit.
- Destructive Romance: The victim of the murder being investigated by the Brotherhood was in a relationship with a domestic abuser that beat her regularly. Said abuser is not the killer.
- Disproportionate Retribution: The NCR's response to the Seltsam Syndrome isn't to look into a cure or quarantine the Dome but to murder everything inside.
- One of the primary quests of the underground town of Boulder is to catch the "Gremlin" terrorizing the place. The quest's "good ending" sees Connie being exiled from the town into the hostile wilderness over what are essentially harmless pranks. Justified in hindsight however, as helping the Gremlin results in a Deathclaw infestation.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: The leader of the U.S. Forces in No Mans Land is a tyrant who's so consumed by his urge to play hero that he'll accuse anyone that talks back to him of being Communist and even resort to murder to play up his war-fantasies.
- Eagle Land: Exaggerated with the contingent of Ghoulified U.S. forces you meet upon reaching Colorado. Their commander Eli is a raving lunatic that sees Communists everywhere and still thinks the war's going on 200 years after. You can use his hero-complex to make him spearhead relief-efforts if you play your cards right.
- Despot's unit is Type 2 and then some. He'll brush away any attempts to talk him down with I Did What I Had to Do and repeats ad nauseum that he's doing everything "for his country." If he isn't dealt with before you cure Sarah, he'll interrupt her and Johnson's reunion and kill her.
- Elite Mooks: The Death Squads in Outer Boulder are some of the strongest enemies in the region.
- Eternal Engine: In contrast to the clean-looking upper laboratories, the innards of the Boulder Dome resemble a massive factory complete with maze-like pipelines and gears constantly at-work.
- Evil Versus Evil: The leaders of the major factions are a Drill Sergeant Nasty and a Brotherhood of Steel Elder who seems well-intentioned but actually wants to make himself king.
- Evil Wears Black: Outer Boulder's Death Squad companies all wear black reaper-like armor.
- Fair-Play Whodunnit: One of the first quests you receive involves putting to rest a murder mystery that has the chapter split despite them already having a suspect locked up. Turns out the killer was exactly who they already thought it was. Then they escape, and it becomes an actual chase.
- False Flag Operation: The Metalhead Raiders pretended to be fellow scientists to be let into the Boulder Dome. Thankfully, the actual scientists caught wise and locked them within the Dome's lower bowels.
- Fetch Quest: Deadpan asks for 10 pencils and Connie asks for 10 pre-war books
- Friendly Zombie: Compared to the Mojave, Colorado appears to host a vast Ghoul population. Most of them are approachable to some degree (the residents of the Boulder settlement are outright friendly) and the ones that aren't friendly stand out.
- New companion Kate is a freshly-Ghoulified human.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: The mod hypes up the Boulder Dome as a toxic place that gets anything not wearing special armor killed. You don't need said armor whatsoever while you're in there.
- Enforced with the Courier's attempt to talk the guard stationed at the entrance to Nova Industries. Trying to use your high NCR reputation as leverage gets you outright laughed at. Your Reputation in the Mojave doesn't mean squat in Colorado.
- Genre Savvy: The quest "Monster Blood" plays with this. note The two suspects you talk to are a stalker that speaks in Creepy Monotone and a wife-beater respectively. The evidence overwhelmingly favors the abusive Paladin as the suspect... which is what the killer's banking on for his get-away. The quest plays with the player's insistence on questioning and doubting everything, not realizing the problem's solved itself until it's too late.
- Girls with Moustaches: Curious Caroline (the vendor hanging near the Boulder Pit Stop) is very proud of the natural beard she totes.
- I'm a Humanitarian: One of the new enemies of Boulder Dome are Mutant Cannibals, humanoid pack-creatures so numerous they can pick whole settlements clean.
- Kindhearted Cat Lover: Deadpan takes in the mutated cat Lucy despite it having eaten the pet cat he'd been protecting since the bombs dropped.
- Lack of Empathy: Lester implies this as a side effect of being linked to the Dome for so long.
- The Lost Lenore: Doctor Johnson's wife Sarah is kept in cryogenic stasis in his room and has remained as such for almost 200 years. In a cruel twist of fate, she's also Patient Zero and the reason why Seltsam Syndrome's in Colorado at all.
- Machine Worship: The Metalhead Raiders practice it, worshiping the ZAX Supercomputer within the Dome. Little do they know they're worshiping a monkey.
- Meaningful Name: Elder Guile is his namesake, revealing himself as Evil All Along near mod's end.
- Deadpan is one of the mod's new companions. Guess what he's like.
- Mood Whiplash: The goings-on in Colorado don't shy away from darker themes, even if you have Wild Wasteland. Things get weird however when you discover the ZAX Supercomputer powering the Boulder Dome isn't a computer at all, but a hyper-intelligent chimpanzee whose brain is hooked to the place.
- Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: The Brain Center's Doctor Bree advocates for culling all of the failed chimp-experiments wandering the Center.
- My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Subverted. Lester says he doesn't care if you murder his fellow apes in the Brain Center, though he'll note his chest "feels lighter" if you set them free instead.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Captain Despot isn't the name of anyone with your best interests in mind.
- Optional Party Member: To obtain the cat companion, talk to the emancipated cat located in the Brotherhood Catacombs with Deadpan in the party.
- Patient Zero: As far as the Boulder Dome is concerned, Doctor Jonson's wife Sarah is this.
- Plotline Death: Any NPC that asks for your help against mutant cannibals will, without exception, be slaughtered by a few once you report back to them.
- Post-End Game Content: The Companions you meet in Colorado can accompany you back to the Mojave.
- Red Scare: Exaggerated with Eli, the commander of the U.S. side of the Ghoul-trenches in the first area. Eli's still antagonistic toward the Chinese and accuses anyone with even an opposing thought of being Communist. His right hand Pierce knows full-well he's a loon and urges you to be diplomatic about things.
- Replacement Goldfish: Deadpan can adopt the wild mutant cat that ate his own pet, even giving it said pet's name of "Lucy."
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: If Captain Despot kills Sarah during her reunion with Johnson, the latter will go feral and attack everybody.
- Robosexuals Are Creeps: Deadpan will express interest in FISTO at the Atomic Wrangler.
- Silly Reason for War: The U.S. and Chinese Ghoul remnants you encounter when you enter Colorado are only still "fighting" because Eli's hero-complex prevents him from admitting the war's over. Actual fighting might erupt if you make the wrong choices...
- Sprint Shoes: The Perk you get from recruiting the mutant cat Lucy doubles your running speed.
- Staged Shooting: The two "sides" of the Ghoul trenches in No Man's Land take fake potshots at each other to appease the only person that actually still wants to fight and don't actually hate each other anymore. One of the very first side-quests involves you sending an apology from someone that accidentally scored a real shot.
- Underground City: The Ghoul town nested within a cave in Outer Boulder is one.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: It's heavily implied that Doctor Johnson sneaking his wife into the Dome before the security systems were primed is what infected the Dome scientists with Seltsam Syndrome during their stasis.
- Team Pet: You can recruit the mutant cat Lucy, who ate Deadpan's old cat.
- The Virus: The Seltsam Syndrome. Remarkably little is revealed about the virus itself, but its sheer infectiousness is enough to have every faction scared. Based on what tidbits we do get, it's Ghoulification on steroids that literally breaks the body down. The scientists' Environmental suits are keeping it at-bay...somehow.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Both Elder Guile and Captain Despot will become hostile once you have obtained the dome for them.
- Zombify the Living: The NCR unit in Nova Industries is kidnapping and ghoulifying people.
