Benny

"From where you're kneeling, it must seem like an 18-carat run of bad luck. But the truth is... the game was rigged from the start."

Benny is the head of the Chairmen from New Vegas in 2281 and a major antagonist of Fallout: New Vegas.

Background
Benny was part of the the tribal gang called the Boot Riders before Mr. House took over. House assigned him and the rest of the tribe to renovate The Tops casino, and gave them a box of suits and ties and told them to call themselves the Chairmen. Benny was for the idea of deserting the old ways, but the tribe's chief at the time, Bingo, wanted to stay nomadic. Benny disagreed, and was challenged to a knife fight by Bingo. Benny won by sticking a knife through Bingo's throat, and became the chief of the Chairmen.

As the graphic novel All Roads opens, he is in palaver with Swank, his second in command, over the assassination of an unnamed Singer who was once a member of his old tribe (his songs were making Benny's men reminiscent of the old ways), with a Vegas (Psycho) overdose administered by Swank. Benny later joins up with the Great Khans on their way to kill the Courier. It is revealed in the graphic novel that Benny is an expert at survival and possesses a high perception of things around him, setting the pace for the group in the hot mid-day sun despite wearing his trademark suit, a choice many would not make when travelling the desert. He demonstrates his perceptive reasoning by identifying the ones responsible for a Burned body they come across while the Khans are still speculating over what it could be, he does this by noticing a clue the others had not, a Fiend helmet lying nearby.

When he offers the fate of the Singer to the traumatized, mute Chance, it is left to readers to decide if it was a genuine gesture of understanding, or if he simply wanted Chance dead to quicken the group's pace. The latter is more likely, as he constantly remarks on Chance slowing the group down and often tries to convince the Khans to leave him behind (they always refuse due to fierce loyalty). He is ultimately forced to shoot the Courier as the Great Khans had refused to do his "dirty work", for which he replied "I never said I wouldn't do the deed myself." settling the initial arguement over the job.

Interactions with the player character


Benny appears in the intro cutscene for Fallout: New Vegas, shooting the Courier.

During They Went That-a-Way, Manny Vargas is the first one to give the player Benny's name, and where he went. When the player gets to the Strip, Ring-A-Ding-Ding starts and Benny is located at The Tops casino, which he runs. The player can opt to shoot him on sight (either with a concealed weapon, or by talking with Swank and passing a series of speech checks, which allows you to bring your weapons inside), or, using the Black Widow perk, follow him upstairs to his room and deal with him there. If the player does not confront Benny here or allows him to escape during the confrontation he will be captured by Caesar and held at The Fort for the player to deal with later. If the player chooses to follow under the rule of Caesar, he/she may choose to end Benny in one of several different ways or to help him escape. Benny holds the unique 9mm Pistol, Maria.

If you have the Black Widow perk, you can use this against Benny several times when confronting him in his casino. You can either set up a trap to kill him in his suite, sleep with him and kill him in his sleep or just sleep with him and let him leave in the morning letting him think of you as his new girlfriend.

If you have the Terrifying Presence perk you can speak through him saying "I have rise out of the grave to put you in it!" Doing so will have him hostile and fleeing and his bodyguards will attack you.

Notable quotes

 * "You're crying in the rain, pally."
 * "Maybe Khans kill people without looking them in the face, but I ain't a fink, dig?"
 * "Real shame you got caught up in this, kid."
 * "Happy now, you twisted bum? Well, I ain't gonna give you the satisfaction."
 * "Lets keep this in the groove, hey? Smooth moves like smooth little babies.."

Behind the scenes

 * A benny is a trump card in trick-taking games, essentially a wild card, and is often represented by the Joker, Benny's card in the Collector's Edition deck.

Bugs

 * Once you have the option to crucify Benny, and you choose to do so, he will end up being crucified outside of The Fort. When you go to his crucifix, you will see two Benny's, one crucified, and the other one standing behind the crucifix. The Benny that isn't crucified can be talked to, and you can also kill him for Maria and his suit. Does not happen every time.


 * If the player meets Benny in the 'comped' Penthouse, they will have the option of having one interaction with him before the being required to tell him "Goodbye". The player may speak with Benny again, this time without interruption, but this bug does tend to break the flow of conversational continuity.


 * If the player kills Benny before talking to him in his casino (The Tops) without getting noticed the guards will continue to stand in their positions as if they were still protecting him.


 * If you have the the Super Slam perk or a weapon that inflicts fatigue damage, it is possible to knock Benny off his crucifix. Upon landing he will continue to act as if on the crucifix, but he will be standing on the ground.


 * If you choose to release Benny and successfully get him to the gate of the second half of the Fort, he will disappear and reappear while running. It is implied that you are not supposed to be able to get him out of the Fort, so this may not be a bug.