Fallout Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Fallout Wiki

I like to think you have enough sense to do the right thing. The rewards for doing so are immense... as are the punishments for not doing so.

Robert Edwin House, typically known as Mr. House, is the enigmatic ruler of New Vegas and a central character in Fallout: New Vegas.

Background[]

Biography[]

Robert House was born on June 25, 2020,[3] and grew up around Las Vegas, Nevada,[4] but was orphaned at the age of two when his parents died in a freak accident involving an autogyro and a lightning strike.[3] Cheated out of his inheritance by his half-brother, Anthony,[Non-game 1] he nevertheless managed to achieve attendance to the Commonwealth Institute of Technology and later went on to found RobCo Industries in 2042, at the age of 22. Under Robert's leadership, it soon became one of the most profitable corporations in the world, owing mostly to the young House's considerable technical genius and business acumen, regarded by his peers with envy and by the tabloids as the nation's most infamously eccentric businessman.[3][5] House himself claims that at age 30, just eight years after his company's founding, he had amassed a net worth of at least 30 billion dollars.[6]

Through his considerable wealth and power, Robert gained controlling interests in a myriad of other businesses, among them REPCONN Aerospace,[7] the Lucky 38 Hotel & Casino on Las Vegas Boulevard, and the H&H Tools Company, the family business that would have been his before being usurped by his half-brother (although the factory on the outskirts of Vegas was still under the elder House's control in 2077).[8] However, along with Robert's fame came a level of scrutiny over elements of his peculiar personality. A scandal emerged when he dated a starlet, but their private time was only ever spent with him scanning her brain and making her dress in different outfits, a story that captured the interest of foreign tabloids like El Periódico de las Aburridas.[9]

Another use of House's time while running his company was regularly designing and running mathematical paradigms based on global political and socioeconomic conditions in an effort to predict future events. By 2065, these projections led him to the inexorable conclusion that the world would be engulfed in a nuclear war within fifteen years.[10] Armed with the knowledge of his projections, House devoted the duration of it making preparations to ensure the city of Las Vegas would survive the apocalypse and that he would live to see the world after the war.[10] While the primary goal of his countermeasures was to disable incoming nuclear warheads, House included contingencies for directly destroying any that managed to get through.[11] As for House himself, he took equally drastic steps to pave his way to the world of the future: placing his physical body, itself enhanced, within a life-support device, removing House the mortal man from the world permanently.[12] while his brain was wired directly into his vast information network via an enormous supercomputer.[13][14]

Integral to the successful execution of House's plans was the platinum chip, containing a vital OS upgrade for his Securitrons and the laser defense network. The chip was to be delivered in the afternoon of October 23, 2077, but a miscalculation of mere hours by House prevented its arrival in time.[15] 20 hours before the chip's scheduled delivery, the Great War occurred, resulting in the chip being lost in the ruins for the next 200 years.

Forced to work with an inferior OS, House endured numerous system crashes yet ultimately was able to protect Las Vegas from most, but not all of the nuclear warheads aimed at the city. The strain on his systems however nearly ruined everything House had worked towards, but he persevered in the end.[11][16][17] Even so, still forced to rely on the downgraded software over the course of the coming 200 years, House was in almost constant battle with inefficient systems, frequent crashes, and even a long span of several decades left in a coma, allowing the remains of Vegas to be picked over by the wasteland it sat in. But Mr. House would not fall, instead fated to rise eventually.[16]

Post-War status[]

Mr. House is the mysterious overlord of the Strip. He controls his small empire from the confines of the Lucky 38 casino, where no other living person has set foot for over two hundred years.Loading screen

House regained consciousness from his coma in 2138.[Non-game 2] Instead of immediately revealing himself, he opted instead to wait for certain signs and bided his time. Eventually, he entered the world stage once again in 2274, when Securitrons under his command emerged from the Lucky 38. This action was prompted by the detection of New California Republic scouts arriving at Hoover Dam. In order to establish his rule, he enlisted the help of raider tribes living in New Vegas (who renamed themselves as the Three Families: the Chairmen, the Omertas, and the White Glove Society) and rebuilt the city, establishing it as the Free Economic Zone of New Vegas and styling himself as its president, CEO and sole proprietor, just in time to welcome the arrival of the New California Republic Army's advance forces. In exchange for help with Hoover Dam and permission to use the defunct McCarran International Airport as its headquarters, House signed the New Vegas Treaty, ensuring cooperation from NCR and, for a time, protecting the Strip from annexation.

By 2281, House's efforts led to the establishment of New Vegas as a major power in the Mojave Wasteland through lucrative treaties and trade deals with the nearby New California Republic, guided by his aims to use the Republic's conflict with Caesar's Legion to further expand his control of the region. In all that time, House continued to reside in the Lucky 38 and control the Securitrons that roam New Vegas as his envoys. At some point after emerging from stasis, House made an offer to the residents of Vault 21, a gamble for ownership of the Vault which he won, followed by stripping it of all useful technology, and had planned to permanently seal the Vault away by filling it with cement.[18] However, House was convinced by Sarah Weintraub to leave the top section of Vault 21 as it used to be while allowing her to convert it into a hotel (all the casino equipment was already there from the vault experiment) to serve visitors to the New Vegas Strip.[19]

Even after bringing some of Vegas' luster back to the wasteland, Mr. House's top priority remained re-acquiring the platinum chip from its decades-old resting place. For years before the NCR's arrival, House spent cumulative millions of caps on scavenger teams and prospectors to dig it out of the ruins of Sunnyvale.[20] This massive expenditure ultimately paid off in 2281 when the platinum chip was found after 204 years. Mr. House contracted the delivery of it to the Mojave Express, and to cover up the importance of the package, he arranged for a layered plot involving multiple couriers, most carrying packages with miscellaneous junk items to throw off potential risks,[21] additionally paying mercenary teams to screen the routes to be taken.[22]

Yet again, however, the platinum chip's delivery was halted. While being carried by Courier Six to New Vegas, they were intercepted by the Chairmen's leader, Benny around Goodsprings after he was informed of the chip's existence and the route by the modified Securitron Yes Man using a backdoor into House's datastream. Benny intended to leverage the chip as a means to gain control of the Strip and make it an independent power in the wasteland, free of his employer's machinations.[22] Though not initially aware of Benny's involvement, House learned the truth after a Securitron, Victor, he had planted in Goodsprings had reported back to him on the chip's theft.[23] Incensed at the betrayal, as he considered Benny a potential protégé as his right-hand man able to achieve tasks he alone could not, House nevertheless had to mask his knowledge of Benny's duplicity until the time came that he could act on it through a new agent.[24] After learning through Victor that the Courier had survived the ambush and was making their way from Goodsprings to the Strip. Mr. House began planning to invite them into the Lucky 38 in hopes of using their want for revenge on Benny to reclaim the platinum chip at long last.[25]

Personality[]

I have no interest in abusing others, just as I have no interest in legislating or otherwise dictating what people do in their private time. Nor have I any interest in being worshipped as some kind of machine god messiah. I am impervious to such corrupting ambitions. But autocracy? Firm control in the hands of a technological and economic visionary? Yes, that Vegas shall have.

Mr. House is a very reclusive individual, although this is largely due to his fragile physical state, which forces him to remain sealed in the Lucky 38 control room. His unwillingness to allow his life's work to be ruined by the folly of what he perceives as an increasingly unstable world has cemented, in his mind, the fate of democracy and human civilization itself. His contempt for most post-apocalyptic institutions, from bottle caps[26] to the various factions, stems from what he perceives as humanity's inability to learn from its past mistakes.

Mr. House seeks to restore New Vegas to its pre-War glory as a crown jewel of technological innovation and a bright neon paradise of business and fortune. Having experienced pre-War Vegas first-hand, he has long been enamored with the city's beauty and grandeur. His vision of autocracy and disillusionment with democratic society stems from his resentment towards the attitudes and actions of the increasingly desperate pre-War United States, whose decline was precipitated by the failure to adequately research and develop alternative technologies. His ultimate goal is to guide civilization's progress and forge a new future for mankind, free of the corrupting influences of the past.

His own strategies and decisions are largely based on mathematical calculations, and he is confident in his own ability to succeed.[27] He styles himself as an "autocrat," viewing New Vegas as his rightful dominion, and is dismissive of other factions vying for control, comparing them to "two snarling dogs fighting over a curve of bone." He further disparages both groups as nothing more than "regurgitations of the past" drawing parallels between the two as attempts to revive past civilizations rather than offer a palpable future. He derides the NCR as a "society of customers" led by scheming leaders who wish to take Vegas out from under him, while showing disgust at the Legion's practice of slavery, technophobia and general brutality.[28]

Focused only on achieving his goals, he has little interest in monitoring or controlling the lives of others. He allows the casinos autonomy, and is largely reliant on the few information networks at his disposal and his Securitron patrols to maintain order. He takes great pride in his achievements, seeing himself as a visionary and his own life as the embodiment of great leadership. He takes great interest in the Courier, seeing them as a valuable asset to be utilized for overcoming obstacles too challenging for his other agents. Though their relationship is mainly professional, Mr. House comes to regard the Courier with respect and shows appreciation for their services, should they choose to help Mr. House. The Courier's success equates to his own success in judging them capable, inviting them to continue aiding him in his increasingly ambitious goals.[13][29]

Relations with other factions[]

Interactions with the player character[]

Interactions overview[]

Interactions
Icon quest starter
This character starts quests.
FO76 ui icon quest
This character is involved in quests.

Quests[]

Effects of player's actions[]

  • Upon his death, the quest The House Has Gone Bust! will simultaneously trigger and fail, and the note A tragedy has befallen all mankind will appear in the player character's inventory.
  • If the player character takes Mr. House out of his stasis chamber, he will ask them why they have ruined his plans and he will react differently depending on what they tell him.
    • If told they did it in the name of the NCR, he will belittle them for working for them, declaring them "snakes," and call the Courier a "sad, misguided whore."
    • If told they are acting on behalf of Caesar, he will be horrified at the prospect of slavery being humanity's future.
    • If told they did it for Yes Man, he will tell them their "vanity project" is doomed for failure.
    • If saying it was "just business," he will retort by saying that they should have worked for him if what they wanted was personal gain.
    • Finally, if the player character says they did it just because they didn't like him, he will call them a fool for letting their feelings about him jeopardize humanity's future.

Other interactions[]

  • Mr. House plays a major role in the game. The Courier hears a lot about him while traveling, but upon reaching New Vegas, they are invited via Victor to visit House in Lucky 38. There, he provides vital information about Benny and the platinum chip and allows the Courier and their companions to use Lucky 38's presidential suite as a safehouse.
  • Mr. House has an interest in the collectible snow globes found in the game, and will pay handsomely for each.[30] The snow globes can be given to Jane in exchange for 2000 caps each. Snowglobes found in Sierra Madre (Dead Money), Big MT (Old World Blues), Zion National Park (Honest Hearts) and the Divide (Lonesome Road) will automatically be removed from the player's inventory and replaced with 2000 caps (with the exception of the Sierra Madre snow globe, which adds 2000 Sierra Madre chips). Once the Courier has sold a snow globe to Jane it is placed on display (on a mantle) in the Lucky 38 presidential suite. However, if the player kills Mr. House, the snow globes will stay in their inventory and Jane will disappear.
  • The Courier can also attempt to pickpocket Mr. House, but he does not yield any items.
  • Mr. House counts as an abomination for the Abominable challenge. Because he is considered an abomination, shooting him with the flare gun results in the "The abomination panics and flees!" message, but nothing else happens.
  • House is one of the characters that the player character must eat in order to earn the Meat of Champions perk.

Endings[]

This section is transcluded from Fallout: New Vegas endings. To change it, please edit the transcluded page.

Narrated by Ron Perlman

# Slide Voice-over narration In-game condition
1
House end slide 01
Mr. House's Securitron army took control of Hoover Dam and the Strip, pushing both the Legion and the exhausted NCR out of New Vegas. Mr. House continued to run New Vegas his way, a despotic vision of pre-War glory. The streets were orderly, efficient, cold. New Vegas continued to be the sole place in the wasteland where fortunes were won and lost in the blink of an eye. Complete The House Always Wins for Mr. House.

Notes[]

  • Another portrait of Robert House, similar to the one in the House Resort, is found in House #00 of Higgs Village in the add-on Old World Blues. It was punctured by several knives, most likely by Doctor 0, who has an intense hatred for House.
  • If Mr. House is disintegrated by an energy weapon, the stasis chamber disintegrates with him. The same event occurs when using a plasma weapon.
  • From information contained on the terminals in the H&H Tools factory, it is gleaned that Robert House's half-brother, Anthony, used underhanded means to wrest his inherited share of the family business from him after the death of their father.
    • In one entry, Anthony calls Robert his "bastard half-brother." It is unclear whether he is insinuating Robert was a bastard child (a child born outside of marriage) or if he is simply using the term as a broad insult.
  • Mr. House is given the nickname "Not-At-Home" by the Omertas for his tendency to remain ostensibly neutral in Strip affairs.[31]
  • In the G.E.C.K., there is a version of Mr. House as a human before the war, although he has no mustache and his hair is gray, rather than black as it looks on his computer.
  • House cannot be targeted in V.A.T.S.
  • If the player character kills him using the Ranger Takedown with any kind of displacer glove, Mr. House and the stasis chamber will flip over, causing a lag or freeze.
  • When killed, the player character loses Karma, despite House's Neutral Karma.
  • If the player character speaks to Ulysses after the end of Lonesome Road, they can tell him if they have killed House. At first he is indifferent and wonders what will happen to Vegas and the Three Families now that House is gone, but soon after he states that it's for the best.
  • House is alluded to several times in Fallout 4.
    • Approaching Deezer in Covenant while having Deacon as a companion will trigger a dialogue in which he says "Command override. Vocal audio House, Robert. Access core programming." Deacon claims that this is House's personal security override code and that he won it in a poker game.[32]
  • House is mentioned in the RobCo Auto-Cache terminal in the Fallout 76 update Wastelanders.[33] Additionally, the H&H Tools logo can be seen on the default texture of the Auto-Axe added in Expeditions: The Pitt.
  • While Mr. House's stasis chamber is being opened, The Courier has the option to speak with him. Doing so will drastically speed the process up, with the chamber opening and Mr. House being propped up in under a second, rather than the 10-15 seconds it normally takes.
  • In Fallout 76: Mutation Invasion, the cultist Brother Scarberry mentions that an elder of the church implied the man behind RobCo to be "lacking in the soul."[34]

Notable quotes[]

Appearances[]

Robert House appears only in Fallout: New Vegas and is mentioned in Fallout 4 and Fallout 76.

Behind the scenes[]

Rene Auberjonois booth

Mr. House's voice actor, René Auberjonois, in the voiceover booth

  • Cut content Mr. House had another female programmed Securitron named Marilyn who is based on the real world Marilyn Monroe, but the character was cut. However, she appears alongside Jane in a card from the deck of cards of the Collector's Edition, as in real life, Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe were contemporaries. The texture file for her "face" is still in the game's files, and there's a reference to her in the G.E.C.K. Also, after meeting Mr. House, Veronica will say she's "surprised he only had the two robot sex slaves."
  • There is a cut compromise with House to convince him to not destroy the Brotherhood of Steel in The House Always Wins V. Joshua Sawyer stated that this route was cut because it made no sense for Mr. House to spare the Brotherhood. He and John Gonzalez discussed the situation, and agreed that it would be in-character for Mr. House to not tolerate the Brotherhood. Additionally, it would be a more difficult and compelling choice for the player to make.[Non-game 3]
  • Mr. House is the King of Diamonds in the deck of Vault playing cards included with the Collector's Edition of Fallout: New Vegas.
  • In casino parlance, "the house" refers generally to the gambler's opponent, the casino itself, as in the idiom "the house always wins."
  • The challenge A Slave Obeys requires the player character to kill Mr. House with the 9 iron or Driver Nephi's golf club. This is a reference to the video game BioShock, where the player beats the antagonist Andrew Ryan to death with a 9 iron while he repeats the words "A man chooses, a slave obeys." Both characters were based in part on Howard Hughes and share other traits.

Developer quotes[]

[Question: How would you describe Mr. House's Ideology? I know that he's rather authoritarian when it comes to political freedoms, but what about on economic issues? He was my favorite character in the game, and whoever wrote him did an outstanding job.]

He's also authoritarian on economic issues within certain boundaries. In the same way that a fascist government would exert authority on the various production/capital resources involved in a market, Mr. House exerts his authority on The Strip's operation. Ultimately, he wants The Strip to be (extremely) profitable and to retain independence from NCR/CL. However, he does not want the families to be independent from his authority, so he does what he can to keep them under his thumb. He doesn't want to micromanage what they do, but he also knows that allowing them to do whatever they want could eventually lead to the downfall of his authority or fighting between the families (which would also undermine his authority).

Really, the main area in which Mr. House is "liberal" is in personal consumption and behavior. As long as it makes him money and doesn't create instability or feuding on The Strip, he allows it.
Joshua Sawyer's Formspring on Robert House's ideology

Developer context[]

Historical and political context[]

  • The lore of Robert House is a pulpy, folkloric satirization of the esoteric legacies of Howard Hughes and Walt Disney, critiquing these figures' politics and ambitions while indulging in urban legends pertaining to them. House's portrait resembles both men, and Hughes had a habit of raising his left eyebrow in photographs.
    • Hughes was a reclusive millionaire with ties to the real world Las Vegas Strip.[Non-game 5]
      • On the first floor of House Resort hangs a large portrait of Mr. House standing in front of an enormous, bipedal robot. The portrait is based on a real-world photograph of Howard Hughes standing in front of a Boeing 100A aircraft in 1934.[Non-game 7]
      • Jane, House's Securitron companion, is a reference to real world actress Jane Russell, who worked for Hughes' production company for several years.
      • House's demise due to "microbes" is an ironic fate in light of Hughes' infamous germophobia.
      • His mummy-like appearance in the life support chamber is based on Hughes' radical change in appearance later in life, when he was photographed with long, sharpened index fingernails. Hughes grew a wild beard, which became whispy and white, resembling House's cobweb-like facial hair.
    • House's project of preserving the Strip as an autonomous city-state parallels Disney's vision of EPCOT as a self-sustaining "city of tomorrow." EPCOT ultimately became a very large amusement park.
      • House's life support machine parallels the urban legend that Disney's brain was cryogenically frozen.
  • As outsized depictions of authoritarian capitalists, both House brothers satirize libertarianism. This is the primary theme of Robert's script, and informs everything from his hatred of taxes to his latent misogyny and psychosexual subtext. The matter of Anthony's all-consuming conspiratorial worldview and abuse of power over his employees is likewise an expression of this theme.

Bugs[]

  • PCPC Playstation 3Playstation 3Playstation 3 Xbox 360Xbox 360 A Medicine check of 35, gaining XP each time, can be accessed in Mr. House's dialogue repeatably. [verified]
  • PCPC Activating Mr. House fails to start dialogue, rendering him useless (the mainframe). This might be the result of resetting ally status of Securitrons when they are hostile due to a faction error with Vault 11 robots. To fix this, enter the following commands into the console: setally 1267AB 0001B2A4, resetquest 00147885, setstage 00147885 5, setobjectivedisplayed 00147885 1, prid 001264c5, setdestroyed 0. [verified]
  • Xbox 360Xbox 360 The dialogue ending "at Fortification Hill" may cause a crash once he is finished talking. [verified]
  • Xbox 360Xbox 360 The stasis version of Mr. House will sometimes break, turning invisible. [verified]

Gallery[]

References[]

  1. The Courier: "Tell me about the plan."
    Nero: "We call it Racket, and it is going to show Not-At-Home and every other fucker in our business just what the Family can do."
    (Nero's dialogue)
  2. The Courier: "Actually, I took the Dam, General Oliver - with Mr House's backing."
    Lee Oliver: "You know I won't surrender the Dam and certainly not to the ghost man of Vegas and his new right-hand-of-the-week.."
    (Lee Oliver's dialogue)
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 A tragedy has befallen all mankind
  4. The Courier: "What was Vegas like before the war?"
    Robert House: "It was a place of splendor. As magnificent as today's Strip may seem, it's but a shadow of the neon paradise that was Las Vegas. I grew up not far from here, and though I traveled the old world extensively, I never found another place like it."
    (Robert House's dialogue)
  5. The Courier: "What, my Pip-Boy?"
    Doctor 0: "*How dare you bring RobCo tech in here! What, are you showing off? How great Robert House and his biiiig company are?*"
    (Dr. 0's dialogue)
  6. The Courier: "Attack me and you risk destroying the Chip."
    Robert House: "By the time I was 30 years old, I was a billionaire 30 times over. I founded and ran a vast economic empire. Do you really think I'm going to let an upstart come into my home and ransom my property to me? I spent two centuries searching for the Platinum Chip. It's my invention, my property - mine. Now be a good courier and deliver it!"
    (Robert House's dialogue)
  7. The Courier: "REPCONN's history. "
    Tour guide: "REPCONN's illustrious history began way back in 2054, shortly after the famous Delta XI rocket was completed and launched. REPCONN's initial focus was on the development of fuel to be used in orbital propulsion in response to the energy crisis of 2052. Sad times, indeed. The company really took off when RobCo purchased REPCONN in late 2076 to develop unmanned rockets to explore the solar system."
    (Tour guide's dialogue)
  8. Lucky 38 VIP keycard
  9. The Courier: "Maybe there's a connection. Can you remember anything else about Robert House?"
    Raul Tejada: "I remember there were some weird stories about him, especially near the end. There was a tell-all in El Periodico de las Aburridas by a starlet House dated. She said they never, um... don't make me spell it out, boss. Anyway, she said all he wanted to do was scan her brain and make her dress up in different outfits."
    The Courier: "That's sickening."
    Raul Tejada: "It was quite the scandal, at least in the Latin-American tabloid journalism market."
    (Raul Tejada's dialogue)
  10. 10.0 10.1 The Courier: "You say that you saved Las Vegas. How?"
    Robert House: "By 2065 I deemed it a mathematical certainty that an atomic war would devastate the Earth within 15 years. Every projection I ran confirmed it. I knew I couldn't "save the world," nor did I care to. But I could save Vegas, and in the process, perhaps, save mankind. I set to work immediately. I thought I had plenty of time to prepare. As it turned out, I was 20 hours short."
    (Robert House's dialogue)
  11. 11.0 11.1 The Courier: "What preparations did you make to save Las Vegas?"
    Robert House: "On the day of the Great War, 77 atomic warheads targeted Las Vegas, Hoover Dam, and its surrounding areas. My networked mainframes were able to predict and force-transmit disarm code subsets to 59 warheads, neutralizing them before impact. Laser cannons mounted on the roof of the Lucky 38 destroyed another 9 warheads. The rest got through, though none hit the city itself. A sub-optimal performance, admittedly. If only the Platinum Chip had arrived a day sooner..."
    (Robert House's dialogue)
  12. The Courier: "I've never heard of the place you're talking about."
    Elijah: "Big Empty's a treasure box, a scientific graveyard of Old World misery. Like the Sierra Madre... there's treasures there, sleeping. Some, awake. The Holorifle, the Saturnite alloy... the hologram technology, hibernation chambers, Securitrons, the collars... ...even the suits attached to those things stalking the Villa... that's only the surface of what's there. Right now, the Sierra Madre is what I want."
    (Elijah's dialogue)
  13. 13.0 13.1 The Courier: "You appear to be a computer, not a man."
    Robert House: "Don't let the video screens and computer terminals fool you. I'm flesh and blood, not silicon."
    The Courier: "The lifespan you're claiming is impossible, except for ghouls and super mutants."
    Robert House: "[SUCCEEDED] I see you've made a study of the topic. My knowledge of the science of longevity would fill several text books... Perhaps, after a decade or two of economic reconstruction, I can commercialize these technologies and offer to others, such as yourself."
    The Courier: "How have you stayed alive all this time?"
    Robert House: "Let's just say it was very... costly. But I was willing to make the sacrifices longevity entailed, financial and otherwise."
    (Robert House's dialogue)
  14. Lucky 38 terminal entries; control room terminal, Disable Cerebral Interface
  15. The Courier: "Why didn't the Platinum Chip arrive on time?"
    Robert House: "The Platinum Chip was printed in Sunnyvale, California on October 22nd, 2077 - the day before the Great War. It was to have been delivered by courier the following afternoon... but by then, the world had ended. The Chip contained vital software upgrades, but not just for my Securitrons. Every aspect of the missile defense grid would have been upgraded, too. Given that I had to make do with buggy software, the outcome could have been worse. I nearly died as it was."
    (Robert House's dialogue)
  16. 16.0 16.1 The Courier: "How did you nearly die, defending Vegas?"
    Robert House: "Software glitches set off a cascade of system crashes. I had to take the Lucky 38's reactor offline, lest it melt down. For nearly five years I battled power outages and more system crashes until I finally managed to reboot my data core with an older version of the OS. I spent the next few decades in a veritable coma. But I survived, obviously - and eventually thrived."
    (Robert House's dialogue)
  17. The Courier: "Can you tell me anything about Mr. House?"
    Raul Tejada: "Just how old do you think I am, boss? Because I can pretty much guarantee I'm older than that. Let me tell you a story from before the Great War: Everybody knew Robert House. He was a genius. A superstar. Founded RobCo at 22, dated Hollywood starlets, the works. They say he saved Las Vegas. I was in Mexico City when the bombs dropped. Even from there, we could see House's defensive rockets shooting down the incoming missiles. Everybody assumed he died in the War. Maybe he did. But his robots are still out there, roaming the Wastes. And now, a Mr. House rules New Vegas."
    (Raul Tejada's dialogue)
  18. Sarah Weintraub: "All right! Please, follow me. We'll head into the vault right away. This bunker protects the entrance to the vault - solid stone outside and thick steel on the inside! Above us there's the control center for this level of the vault's life-support systems, electric grid, radioactive shields and all that jazz. Don't get lost! My vault has many corridors and rooms - although it is no longer symmetrical, after Mr. House threw us out. This is the main game-hall. Here we settled the big disputes among the vault's levels. Chosen representatives gambled against each other here. The winner earned the right to settle the dispute as wished by the collective. We used to have such parties in this diner! A bitch to clean later... but well worth it! This hall leads to our guest rooms. You can use the first room on our left. But no snooping next door! That's my room, always was. Down there is the game room! Each side of the vault had one... but the other is filled with concrete now. Okay, that wraps it up. I'll see you soon!"
    (Sarah Weintraub's dialogue)
  19. The Courier: "What does Mr. House have to do with Vault 21?"
    Sarah Weintraub: "Mr. House has everything to do with Vault 21. He tried to get us out before he filled it with concrete. I almost went ape! So, we convinced him - okay, Sheldon and I, right? We convinced him to leave the top level mostly intact!"
    (Sarah Weintraub's dialogue)
  20. The Courier: "What do you know about the courier Benny shot?"
    Yes Man: "I knew he/she was carrying the Platinum Chip! And I knew right where Benny should wait for him/her! That's why Benny put me here! To monitor Mr. House's data transmissions. They're all encrypted, of course - but I'm quite a decrypter! Did you know that Mr. House spent 812,545 caps hiring salvage teams to find the Platinum Chip- just in the last year alone? Of course you didn't! Or that there were seven couriers, but six of them were carrying junk? How about their exact routes, and the mercenary teams that screened them? I knew all that. Pretty smart, huh?"
    (Yes Man's dialogue)
  21. Mojave Express delivery order (6 of 6) and Mojave Express delivery order (4 of 6)
  22. 22.0 22.1 The Courier: "If the Chip's so valuable, why use a single courier to transport it?"
    Robert House: "You realize you were just one of many couriers, the rest of them dummies, so to speak? Add to that many thousands of caps worth of mercenary protection to screen your avenue of approach. Had I used an armed caravan to transport the Chip, I might as well have been announcing to the world "this is important. Attack this!" I didn't want to attract the attention of groups like the Great Khans or the Brotherhood of Steel. Alas, the real threat was closer to home."
    (Robert House's dialogue)
  23. The Courier: "Why didn't you intervene sooner when Benny ambushed me?"
    Robert House: "Why didn't Victor intervene sooner, you mean? Goodsprings is a bit too far away for me to reliably control a Securitron agent by remote. I can send and receive packets of data, at best. Victor's combat algorithms determined the proper course of action. Benny and his thugs were more than a match for a lone Securitron. When he alerted me, I instructed him to approach the site after Benny and the others had departed."
    (Robert House's dialogue)
  24. The Courier: "Tell me about Benny."
    Robert House: "Benny has led the Chairmen ever since I recruited his tribe seven years ago. Until his recent misbehavior, I'd planned to make him my protege. Maybe if I'd begun grooming him sooner, none of this would've happened..."
    The Courier: "What use would you have for a protege?"
    Robert House: "To achieve my aims, I require a capable human agent to perform certain... tasks. I knew Benny was ambitious, even ruthless. But I believed he would do the job, so long as he was incentivized appropriately. Obviously, I miscalculated his drive for supremacy. But in any case, you've come along - a more-than-suitable replacement."
    (Robert House's dialogue)
  25. The Courier: "What terms are you offering?"
    Robert House: "My only concern is the recovery of the Platinum Chip. What happens to Benny, I leave to your discretion. When you bring the Chip to me, I will pay you four times the delivery bonus stipulated in your contract. How's that?"
    (Robert House's dialogue)
  26. The Courier: "I have a right to know more."
    Robert House: "That's simply not true. I am the only person to hold any rights pertaining to the Chip. I designed it, and I paid for it - dearly. To develop that Chip, I spent a sum of U.S. dollars - not the bottle caps that pass as currency these days - but a sum beyond counting. For decades, I paid salvagers to comb the ruins for it. And when it was finally discovered, tens of thousands of caps spent to have it brought here. We know how that turned out. Complete your contract and it will be the last time I pay for the Chip. Save your questions for then."
    (Robert House's dialogue)
  27. The House Always Wins
  28. The Courier: "In the meantime, you'd rule Vegas as some kind of dictator?"
    Robert House: "I prefer the term "autocrat." I would rule as a chief executive. I would not answer to a board of directors or any other entity. Nothing to impede progress. If you want to see the fate of democracies, look out the windows."
    (Robert House's dialogue)
  29. The Courier: "Say you keep control of New Vegas. What happens next?"
    Robert House: "New Vegas is more than a city - it's the remedy to mankind's derailment. The city's economy is a blast furnace in which can be forged the steel of a new rail line, running straight to a new horizon. What is the NCR? A society of people desperate to experience comfort, ease, luxury... A society of customers. With all that money pouring in? Give me 20 years, and I'll reignite the high technology development sectors. 50 years, and I'll have people in orbit. 100 years, and my colony ships will be heading for the stars, to search for planets unpolluted by the wrath and folly of a bygone generation."
    (Robert House's dialogue)
  30. The Courier: "What's the deal with the snowglobe collection?"
    Robert House: "What of it? I enjoy them. There's something about a little diorama set inside a glass dome that I... find pleasing. If you run across any out in the wastes, turn them in to Jane. She'll compensate you."
    (Robert House's dialogue)
  31. The Courier: "I think I'm going to keep this for a little while."
    Cachino: "All right, all right. I can't stop you, but I think we can help each other out. I know Not-At-Home and the NCR would be happy to get some dirt on the Family. I can help you get that dirt, and you got me by the short hairs."
    (Cachino's dialogue)
  32. Deacon: "Let me try something. Override code. Gamma 3 Delta Tango Cinnamon."
    Deezer: "Psst. Hey, mister. Do you want a cold delicious... lemonade?"
    Deacon: "Command override. Vocal audio House, Robert. 'Access core programming.'"
    Deezer: "You're really missing out. Enjoy a longer, healthier life with: Deezer's Lemonade."
    Deacon: "Ah, too bad. I won those codes in a poker game once. Hasn't worked yet."
    (Deacon's and Deezer's dialogue)
  33. RobCo Auto-Cache #001 terminal entries; System registration terminal
  34. Brother Scarberry: "An Elder once implied that the one behind RobCo was lacking in the soul."
    (Scarberry's dialogue)

Non-game

  1. Fallout: New Vegas Official Game Guide Collectors Edition p.305: "[2.06] H&H Tools Factory
    Long before the war, H&H Tools Company provided Nevada and California high-quality robotics equipment. Owned by the half-brother of Robert Edwin House (the founder of RobCo, and—were it not for the 200 year gap—the same man who lives in the Lucky 38 Casino). When their father was killed in an accident, the elder brother swindled Robert out of the family fortune, and assumed control of the company.
    Robert went on, through his dealings with RobCo and their lucrative contracts, to become one of the wealthiest men on earth. His half-brother meanwhile, became increasingly paranoid, seeking to guard himself against a vengeance that never came, and inflicting all manner of strange HR rules on his workforce. The remains of this factory still stand, surrounded by husk-like remains of North Vegas' industrial area."
    (Fallout: New Vegas Official Game Guide Collector's Edition Tour of the Mojave Wasteland)
  2. Fallout: New Vegas Official Game Guide Collector's Edition p.454: "2138: Mr. House regains consciousness."
    (Fallout: New Vegas Official Game Guide/Behind the Bright Lights & Big City)
  3. Q&A session with Josh Sawyer during a live charity stream. (reference begins at 10:26:23)
  4. Joshua Sawyer on Twitter: "He created and wrote House, designed the families of The Strip, and wrote many major characters, including House, Caesar, Benny, Yes Man, and Vulpes Inculta. He also wrote Ricky and Stella in Honest Hearts as well as all of the Survivalist/Randall Clark logs. 3/8"
  5. 5.0 5.1 Question: "Was Ayn Rand by any chance part of the inspiration for Mr. House? He seems very much like her type of heroic businessman and laissez-faire capitalist."
    Joshua Sawyer: "He was most heavily inspired by Howard Hughes. John Gonzalez created and wrote all of Mr. House's dialogue, so he might be able to offer more detailed insight."
    (Joshua Sawyer Formspring posts/2011)
  6. J.E. Sawyer: "The Courier carried his/her delivery from southern NCR, toward the Hub. We intentionally left the Courier's origins and the exact nature of the initial transaction vague."
  7. Hughes Boeing 100A photo
Major antagonists
Advertisement