Mr. House

Robert Edwin House is the self-styled president, CEO and sole proprietor of the New Vegas Strip in the Mojave Wasteland in the year 2281. House is foremost responsible for founding RobCo Industries and civilizing the New Vegas casino tribes.

Biography
Born on June 25, 2020 (261 years old) to a wealthy Nevada tool magnate, Robert Edwin House was orphaned at an early age when his parents died in a freak accident involving an autogyro and a lightning strike. Cheated out of his inheritance by his half-brother, Anthony, he nevertheless attended the Commonwealth Institute of Technology, and later went on to found RobCo Industries in his hometown of Las Vegas at the age of 22. It would soon become one of the most profitable corporations in the world, owing mostly to House's considerable technical genius and business acumen. He used the wealth and power to gain controlling interests in myriad other businesses. These included REPCONN Aerospace, the Lucky 38 Hotel & Casino on Las Vegas Boulevard, and perhaps, most personally, the H&H Tool Company - the family business usurped by his greedy half-brother (although curiously, the factory on the outskirts of Vegas was still under his brother's control in 2077).

A staunch pragmatist by nature, Mr. House would regularly design and run mathematical simulations based on global political and socio-economic 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. Worse still, his contacts within the military informed him that seventy-seven Chinese warheads were aimed at his beloved Las Vegas. Armed with this knowledge and his projections, House went to work on a secret plan to ensure the city would survive this apocalypse and that he would live to see the world after the war. He programmed multiple mainframes with satellite links meant to disable the vast majority of the Chinese missiles while in flight, then designed an array of high powered laser cannons, which he had installed on the roof of the Lucky 38, to deal with any missile his program had missed. To preserve himself, he took equally drastic steps: his body was permanently connected to an extremely sophisticated life support device named a "hibernation chamber" to take care of his physiological needs, while his brain was wired directly into his vast information network via an enormous supercomputer. Essentially, he became a one-of-a-kind humanoid brain bot, with the Lucky 38 and an army of securitrons serving as his "body."

An integral element of his plan was the platinum chip, which in reality was a combination access card and high capacity data storage device, containing a massive OS upgrade for his Securitrons and the laser defense network. The chip was to be delivered in the afternoon of October 23, 2077. Unfortunately, about 20 hours before delivery, the Great War began. The chip was lost and was rediscovered over 200 years later in Sunnyvale by some of the multiple scavengers hired by House. Forced to work with an inferior version of the OS, he has suffered numerous system crashes and was even forced into a coma by one of the failures before being able to reboot an earlier, stable version.

House regained consciousness in 2138. Biding his time, 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 arrival of New California Republic scouts at Hoover Dam. In order to establish his rule, he enlisted the help of tribes living in New Vegas (later known as the Three Families) and rebuilt the city 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 McCarran Airport as its headquarters, House signed the New Vegas treaty, ensuring cooperation from NCR and, for a time, protecting the Strip from annexation.

Post-war status
House lives in the Lucky 38 and is in charge of the securitrons that roam New Vegas. At some point after emerging from stasis, House won the leadership of Vault 21 in a bet, stripped it of all useful technology, and then planned to permanently seal the Vault away by filling it with cement. At the pleadings of Sarah Weintraub he left the top section of Vault 21 as it used to be, and she converted it into a hotel (all the casino equipment was already there from the vault experiment).

Mr. House is also extremely interested in the collectible snow globes and he will pay handsomely for each. The snow globes can be given to Jane in exchange for 2,000 caps each. Snow globes 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 character's inventory and replaced with 2,000 caps (except for snow globe - Sierra Madre Casino, it adds 2,000 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 you kill Mr. House the snow globes will stay in your inventory and Jane will disappear.

Health
Mr. House is extremely physically decrepit and can only live inside a self-contained life support unit. The Courier has the opportunity to break through his security and see his true form. However, opening his isolation chamber, even for a second, means that Mr. House will not live more than a year due to exposure to outside contaminants.

Ideology
Mr. House, having lived a long and successful life, sees it as his mission to return New Vegas to its former pre-War glory as a crown jewel of technological innovation and the bright neon paradise of business and fortune. Having lived in the New Vegas Strip prior to the Great War, he was was taken in by what he saw as the unstoppable technological progress and an economic boom unimpeded by the problems and unrest that plagued much of pre-War America. Being the founder and CEO of RobCo Industries, he used his vast wealth and resources as well as economic pragmatism to invest in and gain control of all of his immediate business competitors in and around central and suburban Vegas which would act as the epicenter of his vision to transform the city into an archetype of the future.

He spent his next years running mathematical diagnostics and calculations of world events in an attempt to predict the propability of future outcomes. After coming to the conclusion that his beloved Vegas would inevitably be targeted for nuclear annihilation as a result of the Resource Wars, he spent his remaining years prior to the Great War investing the vast resources of his business empire into constructing defenses and rebuilding his home into a fortress that would survive the breakout of war. After redeveloping the Lucky 38 into a personal castle, he would emerge from hybernation and re-establish himself as "chief executive" and autocrat of New Vegas, repurposing his vision from mere business into rebuilding the known world.

His vision of autocracy and disillusionment with democratic society stems from his resentment towards the attitudes and actions of the increasingly desperate and jingoistic pre-War United States, whose decline was precipitated by the failure to adequately research and invest in alternative technologies, with the result of much of the economy relying almost entirely on the steady supply on the rapidly dwindling deposits of crude oil well into the 21st century. This reliable supply was threatened when in 2052 rising oil prices caused a major economic crisis as many small nations entered bankruptcy, which prompted military action as the world powers scrambled for the last remaining oil deposits, initiating the Resource Wars and escalating into the much closer to home Sino-American War. This would, in line with Mr. Houses' calculations, almost certainly spell doom for the city he had invested so much into as well as America as a whole.

In retrospect, he views humanity's capacity for destruction as an obstacle for any sort of attempt at stability and future success, and sees democracy as an expired idea championed by the ignorant who fail to recognize his achievements in preserving not only the last place untouched by the devastation of the Great War, but also the rail in which human civilization can be transported into a new scientific era. Using his technical and scientific expertise, he spends much of his time perusing and analyzing his internal databases to conjure grand plans for developing and commercializing newer technologies, such as space travel and even plans for constructing colonial shipping to be used for the purpose of establishing human colonies on other planets. A brand of techno-futurism he wishes to sell through his personal Securitron army, alongside intricately planned and calculated treaties and alliances with other factions vying for the Mojave, selectively terminating those deemed a threat.

Views on other factions
Mr. House is a rather solitary and reclusive individual with no immediate interest in the outer skirts of Vegas or the Mojave as a whole. His main wish is to continue his venture of recreating civilization under his watchful eye within the controlled and orderly confines of the Strip with the Lucky 38 casino acting as his personal fortress and general base of operations.

New California Republic
His relations are purely a pragmatic strategy to harness their economic capacity through tourism as he plans his own strategy for the incoming conflict at Hoover Dam. Recognizing NCR tourists as an economic factor in the Strip's continuing success and stability, while seeing the soldiers as cannon fodder to both distract NCR military power away from the Strip and a suitable layer of defense against the approaching forces of the Legion while he prepares his own army of Securitrons, enlisting the help of the Courier to retrieve the Platinum chip which would prove crucial in preserving order in the event of the Second Battle of Hoover Dam. His strategy would be to use the upgraded Securitron MK II army to launch a coup against the war exhausted NCR once the Legion has been driven out of the Mojave and secure the Dam, thus depriving the NCR of a major moral point and intending Aaron Kimball to be the scapegoat for this loss; avoiding the breakout of a full-scale war between New Vegas and the NCR.

Caesar's Legion
His relations with Caesar's Legion is that of defensive hostility, while no open conflict has yet been fought between Caesar's Legion or that of either Mr. House or the Three Families, Mr. House recognises the peril Caesar presents to both his own regime and the general wellbeing of all of humanity. Even aiding the NCR through his upgraded Securitron army before turning on them in the event of a Legion defeat.

Brotherhood of Steel
Mr. House displays open contempt for the Brotherhood of Steel, viewing them as nothing more than a militant cell of fanatical terrorists who loot and plunder the technology of the wasteland, while murdering those that resist in an attempt to increase their offensive capabilities. He makes no hesitation in marking them for destruction should the Courier offer his services.

Quests

 * The House Always Wins: Mr. House gives the player character the quest, which leads to one of the final quests, All or Nothing. In this case, the player character communicates with House only through the computer terminal in his office.
 * For the Republic, Part 2, Wild Card: Change in Management, Render Unto Caesar: However, if the player character decides to side with NCR, Caesar or fight for an independent New Vegas, Mr. House has to be killed or disabled.
 * The Moon Comes Over the Tower: Emily Ortal asks the player character to bug one of House's terminals for important medical information.

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 by House, himself, to visit him in the Lucky 38. There, House gives the Courier vital information about Benny and the platinum chip. Also, he allows the Courier and their companions to use the Lucky 38's presidential suite as a safehouse.

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

Behind the scenes

 * Mr. House was written by John Gonzalez.
 * The challenge "A Slave Obeys" requires the player character to kill Mr. House with the 9 iron or Nephi's Golf Driver. This is a reference to the game BioShock, in which the player character beats the game's main 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.
 * In casino parlance, "the house" refers generally to the gambler's opponent, the casino itself, as in the idiom, "The house always wins."
 * Mr. House's personality is based on that of Howard Hughes. His obsession with snow globes is a reference to another work of fiction, Orson Welles' Citizen Kane, itself based on the life of William Randolph Hearst. A snow globe falls from the hands of the dying 'Hearst' in the beginning of the film as he utters the famously cryptic line "Rosebud."
 * Jane, House's securitron companion, is an allusion to the filmstar Jane Russell, who was under contract to Howard Hughes and also his lover for a time.


 * Mr. House had another female programmed securitron named Marilyn (based on Marilyn Monroe) that was cut. However, she appears alongside with Jane in a card from the deck of cards of the collector version, 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." This was likely meant to reference Jane and the absent Marilyn, but the line was never removed or changed.

Bugs

 * A medicine check of 35, gaining XP each time, can be accessed as many times as you want.
 * 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:, , , , ,.
 * The dialogue ending "at Fortification Hill" may cause a crash once he's finished talking.
 * The stasis version of Mr. House will sometimes break, turning invisible.