So in this topic we'll be making little "mod cocktails" with DUST to stir up our DUST experience into something else entirely. So the idea is that we combine a bunch of mods to form a unique theme.

OP is a smoothskin and will begin with these:
Mad Max Theme
- Dragbody's Heroes of the Apocalypse for Mad Max himself: http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/58717/?
- Mattell's Wasted Cars for that scrap-built post-apocalyptic car: http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/57084/?
- Some mod to increase raider presence, maybe DFB random encounters?
- the Fury Road inspired Mutants and Ghouls by kylef88 right here in GUN's public releases
- a dog companion of your choice

Borderlands Theme
-BLIND - Borderlands Inspired Numeric Damage for that authentic Borderlands damage display: http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/59528/?
- DVAted's Krieg Companion for those wonderful meat-bicycle rides on a hot wasteland evening, right here on this site if you're an approved member
- Custom Robot Followers 2 Claptrap Edition for a voiced Claptrap companion: http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/59898/?
or
- Claptrap Securitron Companion, which ever you like better: http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/59708/?
- Mad Moxxi and Friends for some associated outfits: http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/50081/?
- Borderlands Buzzaxe for making your very own meat bicycles: http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/54659/?
- Dragbody's armor collections also have Borderlands armors, if you're approved

Also, quick question to make this theme better, is there a mod that adds the Borderland Psycho armors to Fiend leveled lists? That would definitely be the icing on the cake for this theme. I could make the mod myself if a mod author provided me with the armors and permission, if there isn't one out already.

Post your own themes or suggest something to make my ones better! I'll be posting new themes if I make up any.

I do remember seeing a bandit mask and outfit mod somewhere but I don't remember where. But other than that there is also the Borderlands Buzzaxe which is very awesome.

@SwedishMudkip

Forgot about that one, thanks! I'll add it to the list.

http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/59997/?

This makes the Courier in DUST a companion, he used to be hostile, and would shoot on site..

I would also recommend these two mods to improve your gameplay experience.

Dust Bug Fixes - http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/59616/?

Killable Ghosts - http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/59675/?

Thanks to Dragbody we have a huge amount of Armors and clothing wich we can spread through the wasteland,and what I find even better,we can mesh them up to create "new" versions of the armors.
With that said,here are the more game changeing mods I am using with Dust :

Vicious Wastes,really like the Bleeding feature adds some immersion.Also it comes with some other really nice features (wich however make the game harder).
http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/56671/?

Also I am using Project Nevada alongside it,so I can tweak even more things like the timesacle,radiation gained,hunger thirst sleep incrase etc etc without having to open up the Geck that often .

Also I like having a high recoil on my guns so I'll have to Tapfire or Shoot in short bursts like in most modern Fps games (or just compensating for the recoil,but I like the others more haha)
I'm using the Medium .esp plugin as all others are too much in my opinion.
http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/46433/?

Those three mods combined with the Ak & AR 15 mod and a mod that increases thr global damage makes most of the Ak's perfect DMR's.

Increasing the Weapon jamming makes maintenance / repair much more important,using Project nevadas alternate repair system alongside this.
http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/46433/?t

And if you are tired from Finding always the same food items I'll get this mod,once one gets rid of the food healing effect they add a little immersion either.
http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/40457/?

This mod was mentioned in Dust's description to be used alongside Dust (made by the same author)
It Makes the Wasteland more Apocalyptic by adding more barricades and stuff to the wasteland (wich can be used as cover in most cases,so you'll live a little longer)
http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/55696/?

An enemy AI overhaul is also useful,as lets be honest the Vanilla Enemy AI is a little goofy.
http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/39058/?

Using something that gets rid of the Hud,like IHud or whatever it's called is also pretty much fun to be used alongside Hitmans Ammo and Condition checking mod.

Something Really cool I like to do with dust is use it in conjuction with dynamo ENB and tweak it's setting so that it looks just like mad max