“Get up without my permission, I'll blast your ass so far through your head, it'll turn the moon cherry pie red. So - let's keep this sweet and polite, and finish our conversation with no misunderstandings.”
Dean Domino, also known as the King of Swing,[1] is a famous pre-War lounge singer and known con artist. Now ghoulified and trapped within the Sierra Madre villa in 2281, Dean plays a key part in Father Elijah's schemes in the Fallout: New Vegas add-on Dead Money.
Background[]
Pre-War[]
Pre-War poster promoting Dean Domino's performance.
His signature song being "Saw Her Yesterday", Domino and his orchestra gave performances across the United States and Europe (including Paris,[2] and had a particularly bad experience in Madrid),[3] including the casinos on the Las Vegas Strip.
He was invited to perform at the Sierra Madre, where he quickly found himself in the shadow of the casino's founder, Frederick Sinclair. While Domino was quite irritated by this, it was the fact that Sinclair, despite suffering several quite severe financial losses throughout the 2070s, still maintained an unwavering optimistic and easy-going attitude that especially triggered his ire. Soon, Domino found himself consumed with jealousy and he became single-mindedly determined to put Sinclair "in his place" by taking everything from him that he held dear.[4] He enlisted the help of his former lover Vera Keyes, a starlet who had caught Sinclair's eye. Domino introduced them to each other as part of his plan to break into the casino vault, where he would take whatever it was that Sinclair had there that was so important.
However, Keyes got cold feet, so in order to ensure her continued cooperation, Domino began to blackmail her with evidence of a Med-X and Super Stimpak addiction, unaware that her addictions were a result of her being terminally ill.
His final gig was to be at the Tampico, but that all changed when the bombs dropped; the security holograms activated and the Gala Event turned into a massacre.
Post-War[]
Domino survived the apocalypse, during which he began to undergo ghoulification. He stubbornly refused to let go of the Sierra Madre's treasure, having become obsessed with it, and so spent the next two hundred years evading and mapping out the casino's security system, while plotting his grand heist, oblivious to the fact that Sinclair had long since discovered Domino's plan and prepared a trap within the casino vault. However, he was captured by Dog, fitted with an explosive collar, and forced to work for Father Elijah in breaking into the casino (and already managed to trigger the Gala event at least once for him).[5] Although his ability to obtain the treasure may have diminished with this development, his lust for it most certainly has not. Nor did his desire for freedom: Dean has killed several victims Elijah tried to use to crack the Sierra Madre, in order to examine the workings of their collars and figure out a way to remove his own.[6]
Needing a replacement for Keyes' part of his plan, Domino finally found an opportunity when Christine Royce was captured by Dog and brought to the Sierra Madre. While she was still out cold, he dragged her to the Villa's clinic and placed her in an Auto-Doc, which he programmed to perform surgery on her vocal cords, altering her voice to sound like Keyes', so she could at some point be used to unlock the vault. It was something of a leap in the dark on his part, as he actually held some doubt towards Royce making the intended recovery from the procedure.
Personality and abilities[]
Domino is a quick thinker, and is quite skilled with guns, specifically pistols, having spent some of his free time back in the pre-War days at the shooting range, and uses a knife for a sidearm.[7] He is very paranoid, setting up many booby traps and hiding several 'secret stashes' throughout the Villa.
Dean has a rather fragile ego, and is very vengeful towards anyone who bruises it, making sure they meet dire consequences down the line. Expressing irritation, aggression, or contempt will earn his ire, as well as challenging his sense of self importance, as he will double cross able partners simply because he perceives their competence a personal insult.[8] His voice has been unaltered by ghoulification; it remains clear as opposed to gravelly like other ghouls.
Interactions with the player character[]
Interactions overview[]
| Interactions | ||
|---|---|---|
  |
This character is essential. Essential characters cannot be killed. Curtain Call at the Tampico | |
  |
This character is a permanent companion. They grant the Unclean Living perk. | |
  |
This character is involved in quests. | |
Quests[]
- Find Collar 14: Dean Domino: The player character has to find and recruit Dean in the Residential District. Once met, Dean will try to negotiate in a position of power, threatening the Courier with an explosive underneath their chair.
- Dean will eventually demand that the Courier follow his orders, with three dialogue responses possible: a Barter 50 check, agreeing to cooperate, or refusing to cooperate. Either succeeding at the Barter check or refusing to cooperate will lock the player into a path that causes Dean to hate them, which negatively affects his outcome at the end of the storyline. Agreeing to cooperate will make him like the Courier.
- Strike Up the Band: Escort Dean to Puesta del Sol south for him to connect a circuit. Once there, Dean will refuse to stay without protection, and the player character must either threaten to break Dean's legs to make him stay, or turn on two friendly holograms to protect him.
- Threatening Dean will also make him hate the Courier, even if one agreed to cooperate with him in the previous quest.
- Curtain Call at the Tampico: The player character has to confront Dean in the Sierra Madre Casino & Resort in the Tampico and can choose to either let him go free or kill him.
- If the Courier has stayed on good terms with Dean (cooperating with him during the first meeting and activating the holograms for him during Strike Up the Band), he will try to help them navigate the Tampico and readily assist them in the Vault robbery plan.
- Heist of the Centuries: If Dean survived Curtain Call at the Tampico, he will assist the player by deactivating the speakers in the Sierra Madre vault during the last fight with Elijah.
Effects of player's actions[]
- There are two interactions during the Dead Money questline (listed above) which will change Dean's attitude towards the Courier, which will be reflected in his dialogue for the rest of the add-on. If one talks down to and/or threatens Domino during these interactions, it will affect his fate at the end of the main quest and make keeping him alive impossible.
- If the player character had obtained Dean Domino's blackmail evidence before talking to him during Curtain Call at the Tampico, he can be further asked about his relationship with Vera and Sinclair. Dean is only willing to elaborate if he is on good terms with the player character.
- If the player character has read the terminal entry "Appointment Calendar" on the chief physician's terminal in the Villa clinic, Dean can be asked about his mention in the entry during the dialogue branch to ask him about Vera. Dean will be slightly surprised but will confirm the record and briefly talk about Vera's chem addictions.[9]
Other interactions[]
- Dean can make Sierra Madre martinis, and can give the Courier the Sierra Madre Martini perk with the correct dialogue choices.
- Low-intelligence characters (3 or below), upon first meeting Dean, will have several options to say nothing more than questioning sounds, like "Hnh?" and "Ummmm.", which achieves nothing but frustrating Dean.
- Dean is the only companion besides Boone whose default clothes can be taken. If his unique clothes are taken and he is dismissed as a companion, he will automatically equip a Dead Money jumpsuit, even though it was nowhere present in his inventory.
- When crouching, he makes a similar comment as Raul about how it's "hell on his knees." When he is smoking and crouching, he won't bend his knees all the way.
- While dismissed at the Villa fountain, Dean may engage in conversation with any of the other companions who are not currently active.
These conversations can also be overheard on the collar radio stations (the 372.12Hz ULF, 546.14Hz ULF, and 631.08Hz ULF radio signals), but there are multiple bugs with these radio stations that may affect this; see the relevant pages for details.- When both Dean and Christine are not companions, they can initiate dialogue with each other (or at least to the extent that Christine can), and Dean will comment on her muteness by saying "You're not much for conversation, are you?"
- Likewise, Dean may engage God in conversation at the Villa fountain, where God expresses his disdain for the ghoul for not leaving the Sierra Madre when he had the chance.
Companion comments[]
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- He has unique idle dialogue for locations around the Sierra Madre:
| Dean Domino's comments | |
|---|---|
| Location | Comment |
| The gate near the entrance to the residential district, if the player already unlocked it | Oh, looks like you already forced the gate. Now, everybody and their mother can walk right in, thanks. |
| Medical district | What are we doing here? We're not going to find a doctor on call at this hour, trust me. |
| Medical district | Place is haunted, got ghosts walking in it. |
| Villa clinic | Watch for Hologram security, not as nice as the lady at the fountain, trust me. |
| Villa clinic, room with the assassin suit | There's a picture, a bunch of headless saps all waiting for the pearly gates. Whoever did this... messed up. |
| Any Auto-Doc in the Villa clinic | Sinclair's little surgery carts. Kept them around for his lady friend. |
| Auto-Docs that line the corridor of the Villa clinic | What, you need surgery done? Let's get out of here... those speakers on the wall are making my nerves do a dance. |
| A broken catwalk in Salida del Sol South | Guess we're going the long way around. |
| Villa police station | The police station... Ghost People love this place, no idea why. Might be the Holograms nearby. |
| Salida del Sol, Campanas del Sol bell tower | I'm not one for church, but there's a bell tower to the north that has a nice view of the Sierra Madre. Well, did, anyway. |
Endings[]
This section is transcluded from Dead Money endings. To change it, please edit the transcluded page.
| # | Slide | Voice-over narration | In-game condition |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  |
Dean Domino, entertainer, singer... thief... had his last show on the Sierra Madre stage. The heist he spent over two hundred years planning fell apart, just as the first, by underestimating his partner's strength. Not long after the Courier left the Villa, the lights in the theater shut off, one by one. Only Dean's Hologram remained on stage, singing silently to an empty room. Still... as consumed as he had been with its riches and ruin, the Sierra Madre had held him captive long ago. |
Dean is dead. |
| 2 | |
Dean Domino, entertainer, singer... thief... explored the Sierra Madre not long after he was rescued by the Courier. Once he left the theater, the Sierra Madre recognized him as a guest, and many doors opened to him. He had to admit, it had been built to last. During his search, he came across the final records of Vera and Sinclair, and realized what happened the night the bombs fell. He felt strangely sad for a moment, and he had no idea why. Shrugging it off, his mind turned instead to where the Courier had come from. Vegas still survived, out there in the Mojave. Its sights, sounds... and casinos, ripe for the taking. So giving the Sierra Madre one last nod and a wink, he set off beyond the Cloud to begin again. |
Dean is alive. |
Inventory[]
| Apparel | Weapon | Other items | On death |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dean's tuxedo Dean's glasses Explosive collar Dead Money jumpsuit (after Gala event if tuxedo is removed) |
Dean's 9mm pistol |
Notes[]
- Dean's Hit Points regenerate slowly over time, similar to Mean Sonofabitch and God.
- Dean is the only Dead Money companion that has a default weapon; the others are unarmed when they are first encountered. He has infinite companion ammo for his pistol.
- Posters of Dean appear in the Mojave Wasteland, such as in the King's room in the King's School of Impersonation and in the Lucky 38 presidential suite, and on loading screens in abandoned casinos, advertising a planned appearance by the singer.
- The Dean Domino song "Saw Her Yesterday" is simply "Something's Gotta Give" when the player character plays the rehearsal recording on the projector in the Tampico.
- Though Dean says that he has learned how to use a knife, he does not have Melee as a tagged skill.
- Dean smokes frequently. When found, he has a lit cigar in his room, and will frequently smoke a cigarette as a companion.
- Despite how much he talks of wishing to stay away from ghost people, his apartment in the residential district is brightly lit up with Christmas lights pointing directly to it.
- Dean has hair in the icon for the Assemble Your Crew achievement/trophy but does not in-game. Concept art featured Dean with hair, as mentioned below.
- Despite not having ears to hold them up, Dean is able to wear sunglasses.
- Dean's tuxedo will show as equipped on Dean's unconscious body upon first entering the Sierra Madre lobby from the Villa, even if it was taken from him by the player character and automatically replaced with a Dead Money jumpsuit. This is because the unconscious Dean is a separate NPC in the game engine, with the Editor ID NVDLC01deanFake.
Notable quotes[]
- "Get up without my permission, I'll blast your ass so far through your head, it'll turn the moon cherry pie red."
- "Used to open in Paris. Paris. Now this."
- "You sure came a long way to rob this place. Guess greed is in the blood."
- "Great, a moron - just what I need."
- "Christ, if that collar blows, I don't know if you'd know the difference, you'd probably still keep walking around with that dumb, blank look."
- "Ah, aren't the trees lovely this time of year, all blooming and green..."
- "He's not dead... it's a trick. Get an axe. "
- "Getting real tired of tourist season. No offense, but you guys are really lowering the bar"
Appearances[]
Dean Domino appears in the Fallout: New Vegas add-on Dead Money, and is mentioned in Fallout: New Vegas and its add-on Lonesome Road.[10] He is also mentioned in Fallout 76, introduced in the Expeditions: Atlantic City update part two, America's Playground.[11]
Behind the scenes[]
Cultural references[]
- Dean Domino appears to be an amalgamation of Dean Martin, an Italian-American singer/actor/comedian, and Fats Domino, an American rock and roll pianist and singer-songwriter. The Dean Domino poster resembles those of Fats Domino.
- When asked about the nature of the ghost people, Dean will attempt to quote (though incorrectly both times) the famous exchange between Hamlet and Horatio: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
- If the player character has Wild Wasteland, Dean will reference Army of Darkness when he kills a ghost person for the first time, saying "he's not dead, it's a trick. Get an axe."
Development[]
Ghoul Dean with hair, concept art from Chris Avellone's GDC 2012 presentation
- Dean Domino was written by Chris Avellone, who wrote all the main characters in Dead Money.[Non-game 1]
- In Chris Avellone's GDC 2012 talk "A 4 Hour Story in 400 Simple Steps: Fallout DLC," the internal presentation used by Obsidian to introduce developers to Dead Money's narrative, themes, and mechanics was featured. This includes some details of Dean's development and his relation to the Sierra Madre.
- Originally, Dean was named Freddy "Nines" Domino. He still kept his final role as a lounge singer and con artist.[Non-game 2]
- The presentation gave some expanded details on Dean's relationship with Frederick Sinclair and the Sierra Madre. In the presentation, Dean is called Sinclair's "right hand man and confidant" who had been trying to ruin Sinclair financially since long before he founded the Sierra Madre. Dean is also stated as having "helped build the Sierra Madre," and that "Travis made him what he is."[Non-game 3][Non-game 4]
- In concept art shown in the presentation, Dean is depicted with a mustache and hair, while he lacks both features in-game. However, the icon for the achievement Assemble Your Crew still shows him with hair.
- Dean is voiced by actor Barry Dennen, who originated the role of Pontius Pilate in Jesus Christ Superstar and its adaptations. Dennen passed away in 2017.
- In localized versions of the game, his voice is dubbed by Gilbert Lévy (French) and Miguel Ayones (Spanish), among other languages.
- One other actor who was initially considered for the role of Dean during casting was Rashawn Underdue; although Underdue was not selected for the role, he was brought back for Old World Blues as the voice of Blind Diode Jefferson since the development team liked his auditions so much.[Non-game 5]
Cut content[]
- Unused script variables in Dean's dialogue indicate that he was originally intended to have more optional dialogue about the villa and his role there from before the Great War. No such dialogue exists.
- Finding any one of a number of notes and/or terminal entries in the Villa would increment NVDLC01DeanDialogue.iVillaConstruction to 1, which was intended to make it possible to ask Dean about the villa's poor construction and possibly his connection to it, though the extent is unclear. The relevant items are the torn journal, the stained page, and the journal in Salida del Sol, as well as the entry "Status Report" on a terminal in Salida del Sol south and all three of the entries on the terminals in Salida del Sol north: "Infrastructure," "Personal Log" (1), and "Personal Log" (2).
- Reading the entry "Chat" on one of the security terminals in Puesta del Sol south would increment NVDLC01DeanDialogue.iDeanWorkRecords to 1, which was intended to make it possible to ask Dean about his mention in the entry, about how he was profiting off of the villa's poor construction.
Bugs[]
- If you kill Dean on a set of stairs, his body might glitch out of the map. [verified]
- Sometimes, when Dean is knocked unconscious, he may never wake up until you restart a save, or enter a new area. [verified]
- Right after killing Dean on the stairs, a message might come up and say: "Dean is dead" over and over even after clicking Ok.[verified]
- If Dean is talked to while he is still marked as "hostile", it will remove the hostile tag, making the quest unable to be completed.[verified]
Gallery[]
Have a seat, and then we'll talk.
Dean smoking his cigarette
Dean's hologram in the Dean's hologram outfit
Found on Vera Keyes' dressing room table
Dean's Secret Stash symbol
Loading screen image
Dean in an intro slide
Pre-War ad for Dean's show
Dean in the achievement image for Assemble Your Crew
References[]
- ↑ Pre-War Dean Domino poster
- ↑ Dean Domino: "Used to open in Paris. Paris. Now this."
(Dean Domino's dialogue) - ↑ Dean Domino: "Hold it together, Dean, you've been in worse jams. Like Madrid. Christ - Madrid. {Tries to calm himself down in the middle of being pinned down.}"
(Dean Domino's dialogue) - ↑ The Courier: "What was your problem with Sinclair?"
Dean Domino: "Problem? All high-and-mighty. Lording it over everyone. Acting so self-righteous, like nothing could touch him. He was the one with the problem. Never got mad at anything. Nothing seemed to shake him. Even after... his life kept getting dragged through the dirt. Always kept looking for the bright, shining future in everything. So... I decided to take everything from him."
(Dean Domino's dialogue) - ↑ 546.14Hz ULF radio signal: "Waiting for the fireworks. Just like last time."
- ↑ Dean Domino: "There's a picture, a bunch of headless saps all waiting for the pearly gates. Whoever did this... messed up."
(Dean Domino's dialogue) Note: NVDLC01DeanDialogueClinicBark - ↑ The Courier: "What weapons are you skilled with?"
Dean Domino: "Not one for fighting if we can avoid it. Still, wasn't bad at the pistol range and over the years, I've learned how to handle a knife... ...and explosives a bit. A bit. Made a lot of mistakes along the way. Still have my fingers, though."
(Dean Domino's dialogue) - ↑ Passing all the Barter skill checks in his dialogues will turn him hostile when encountered in the Tampico.
- ↑ The Courier: "I found some medical records in the Villa Clinic. You brought her in for treatment, right?"
Dean Domino: "The Clinic? Yeah, I did bring her in. Before the Gala... well, before the first Gala Event. A few lifetimes ago. She was a stress case, throat was shot, all nerves. When she wasn't doped up on Med-X or Superstimming her pain away... ...look, never mind. I don't want to speak bad about her. She was a classy woman, good singer, and if she couldn't act her way out of a box... ...she was Sinclair's world, and that's all that mattered. He didn't need to know any of that, any of her history."
(Dean Domino's dialogue) - ↑ Wastewater treatment plant terminal entries; Jackie's computer, Earthquakes Part 2
- ↑ The Rose Room Review
Non-game
- ↑ Joshua Sawyer on Something Awful Forums: "In the DLCs, Avellone wrote all of the characters in Dead Money, some (most?) of the characters in Old World Blues (Travis Stout wrote some/many as well, IIRC), and all of the characters in Lonesome Road (IIRC). He also directed those three DLCs. I directed Honest Hearts and wrote Joshua Graham and Daniel. Travis Stout wrote most of the other HH characters (Follows-Chalk, Waking Cloud, etc.) and John wrote the Survivalist logs."
- ↑ "A 4 Hour Story in 400 Simple Steps: Fallout DLC" timestamp 22:52
- ↑ A 4 Hour Story in 400 Simple Steps: Fallout DLC: "DEAN DOMINO
* Visual Hook: Ghoul in an Elegant, Tattered Tux
* Ghoul, Helped Build the Sierra Madre
* Travis made him what he is
* Got Blasted by Radioactive Leak When Bombs Hit
* Pretends to be a Bomb Collar Victim Like Everyone Else
* Obsessed with Robbing the Casino from Pre-War Obsession
* Has Lived in the City For Most of This Time
* Advantages: Stealth, Gambling, Secretly Knows City and Tricks, Is a "Guest" of the Casino, can "Play Dead" with Ghost People, help avoid toxic effects.
* Disadvantage: Greed, Betrayal, Liar
* Realized Elijah Could be Used to Break Into Casino" - ↑ A 4 Hour Story in 400 Simple Steps: Fallout DLC: "SIERRA MADRE CASINO
* Froze in Time at its Gala Opening
* Been Sealed Ever Since the War
* Apparently Holds a Great Treasure in its Vault
* It is a Monument to One Man's Failure and Loss
- This man, the Founder, was the builder, financier, architect of the Sierra Madre and surrounding area
- He invested the last of his life savings into, what little remained after his financial ruin in the Pre-War years
- Many of these losses were orchestrated by Dean Domino, his Right Hand Man and Confidant
- Was Intended to be the Founder's Chance to "Begin Again"
- The Casino Itself is a Trap for Dean Domino and his Greed, never reached fruition because War Never Changes - ↑ Interview w/Chris Avellone, Jason Fader, and other Fallout: New Vegas devs (2:30:08)
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