I am aware of course of various alternate start mods. As far as I know, they don't change the main plot. No matter who my "courier" is, I still get the "go kill Benny yada yada" main quest.
I'm curious as to possible story ideas that would allow the courier to start elsewhere, without having been shot in the head. And yet, still ultimately be able to follow the plotline involving the factions of the Mojave, House, NCR, Legion, Independent, etc.
It's difficult because looking for Benny and the stolen platinum chip of course puts the courier on a perfect course to ultimately affect the main factions' struggle for the Mojave. Without that, it would be harder to explain.
Also, I'm limiting my brainstorming to ideas that don't involve needing to re-hire the voice actors for House and Benny obviously.
With TTW and New California on the horizon, it seems all the more relevant (to me, at least) to come up with plots that allow entry to the Mojave without the usual baggage; your mileage may vary of course.

well maybe the player could find a dead courier in goodsprings that has the platinum chip and a note wich says it has to be delivered to the strip. then remove dialogue from house, benny and other NPCs that reffer to you as the courier.

but i dont know tough.

As it stands, we're rail-roaded into
1. Being a Courier
2. Having accepted the mission to deliver the chip (along with a serious threat from Mojave Express if you fail -- check your pipboy.)
3. Being defeated by Benny

All of that happens before we can even take one step forward.

What if the "Courier" didn't take the mission to deliver the chip, and was in fact someone else other than a Courier altogether?

Another Courier would have done the mission, and been shot by Benny instead. Maybe a diary left behind on the dead courier could explain something, without even needing more voicework. A few edits to Benny and some Goodsprings denizens and such, to take out the part of the player character being shot in the head.

Imagine if this new npc Courier doesn't get shot, but being sort of bastard in this example, ends up the one holed up in Boulder trapped by the NCR, instead of the Khans?

I wonder if the story could be told from the point of view of _someone else_ being the Courier delivering the chip. House's faction would take on a completely different light, if the courier was not such a nice guy... and not the player.

Wouldn't it require all the courier's written dialogue to be changed, too?

Also, If you werent the Courier I feel like a lot of the "Lonesome Road" DLC wouldn't make sense...

Yeah i think it would need a lot of work, i say it can be done but it will take a long time to accomplish.

I would definitely try something like this out if it was released. But as others have said, it just seems more practical to ignore the lore.

Yeah Courier dialogue might need some edits too. This isn't a small project, to mod the main plot to be more versatile for non-courier main characters.
Lonesome Road didn't make any sense for (my) Courier so I wouldn't mind. Ulysses was just some crazy guy who mistook my courier for someone else, as far as I was concerned.

What would have happened if somehow Ulysses had been the one to deliver the platinum chip to House, if he'd actually accepted the delivery job?

I never thought about it that way, like Ulysses just might think you're the guy, but you're not the guy, because the guy he thinks is the guy is a different guy, not THIS guy. 


Maybe if the lore was ignored, you could open up the ability to rp as a ghoul, a super mutant, ect. That might be kind of neat, and add to the diversity, and whatnot.

Yeah, although it would require even more thorough dialogue edits, like references to the courier being "smoothskin."  
I'm assuming people will start fiddling with more mods for TTW and New California, which are really, really ripe for this sort of mod, where you're not the courier, but can still somehow participate fully in the faction plots and intrigues of NV.  I think the best plan might be to assume that someone else is actually the courier,in the case of such an alternate start.

edit: Just as a random thought:

Imagine that NV had been written this way in the first place, maybe: That the platinum chip had been lost in the divide of all places, and Ulysses had been sent to get it. If Lonesome Road had happened early in the game rather than later, it would have gotten the player the chip at the end from Ulysses.

Just realized, you could potentially use THIS mod to trash the platinum chip. Then everything you wanted to avoid would probably be avoided anyway? I'd be curious to know if that was effective, or if all it did was break the game lol.

I think scrapping the chip would close off quite a few endings. There might have to be a "nobody wins" ending added.

Sirdanest wrote:

I think scrapping the chip would close off quite a few endings.  There might have to be a "nobody wins" ending added.

Oh that's right, sorry.Too bad I couldn't help. I'll let you know if I think of something, though.