Nipton

Nipton is a small town in the southern Mojave Wasteland that was ravaged by Caesar's Legion in 2281. Ranger Ghost, an NCR sniper on the roof of the bar at the Mojave Outpost will ask you to investigate the lack of traffic from their direction, but it may most likely be encountered by the Courier simply because it is on the main road to New Vegas as part of the main quests.

Background
Before The Legion razed the town to the ground, it was populated by gamblers, thieves, and prostitutes under the leadership of Mayor Joseph B. Steyn; the town would service NCR soldiers in the night and Powder Gangers in the day. Steyn had hatched a plan with the Legion to turn over both NCR soldiers and Powder Gangers to Vulpes in return for some caps, but instead Vulpes had the brilliant idea to have a lottery to "save" all of them. The winner was spared, the runner-up was crippled, the third place winners became slaves, the "Lucky Losers" were decapitated for a quick death, the mayor was burned on a pile of tires, and the rest were crucified.

Layout
Upon arrival the player is greeted by Oliver Swanick, an ex-Powder Ganger who won the lottery to save his life. Alternatively, if the player stumbles upon the town hall first, Vulpes Inculta greets you. Venturing through the settlement, the player will see multiple crosses holding the losers of the lottery. The rest of the town is in ruins and burns as you walk the streets.

Outside of Nipton Hall is a crucifix along with skulls on a post and pile of junk on fire. Vulpes Inculta meets the player outside of the hall and tells them to spread the word of Caesar's Legion. After speaking to him the player is granted the quest Cold, Cold Heart. Alternatively, if the player is wearing NCR faction armor, Vulpes and the other legionnaries will be hostile and attack on sight. Inside the hall itself, you will find many Legion mongrels. They are automatically hostile, even if dressed as a member of Caesar's Legion, but do not inflict bad karma when killed.

Nipton General Store has a man named Boxcars inside. If you give him Med-X, he will tell you what happened. Even though Boxcars is crippled from the "lottery", he will still engage in combat if attacked.

Nipton Hotel is a small establishment with four New California Republic (NCR) Trooper corpses dumped unceremoniously inside.

The house with the sand bags in front of Nipton Hotel is heavily booby trapped; there is a frag mine in the corner of the living room, kitchen and the bathroom. Both of those doorways conceal shotgun traps. There is a cage with 3 bark scorpions inside when you enter the house. There is an Easy-Locked safe with a grenade rifle in it; stepping across the threshold will release the bark scorpions. The Average-Locked cabinet in the kitchen contains some provisions. Also, there is a dead legion recruit with a machete, armor, and a helmet.

Nipton town hall

 * Worn Key - Upon entering Nipton Town Hall, directly to the right, behind the counter. Beware of the mine behind the counter near the key. This key unlocks the first door on the right down the hall which leads downstairs to the basement.
 * Big Book of Science at the Town Hall 3rd floor's Mayor's office, on the Mayor's desk.

Heavily booby-trapped house

 * Note titled Declaration of Vital Essence - inside the heavily booby-trapped Nipton home with sandbags lined up in front of it directly east of Nipton General Store "Trading Post".

Other locations

 * Sunset Sarsaparilla star bottle cap - in the wooden house directly south of Nipton Trading Post (General store), on the dresser in the bedroom.
 * Sunset Sarsaparilla star bottle cap - on the main road to the east of Nipton, across the train tracks, inside a wrecked truck with a Sunset Sarsaparilla case. The star bottle cap is laying on top. The traffic cones here are booby-trapped with mines.
 * A larger than usual red plate is on the table right after entering one of the Nipton Houses.

Appearances
Nipton appears only in Fallout: New Vegas.

Behind the scenes

 * The real Nipton is an unincorporated town in California, and is located just west of the California/Nevada state line (a sign showing the border can be found in-game). The Legion Lottery may also be a reference to the fact that Nipton has the highest lottery ticket sales in the California state lottery.
 * There are two signs on the road directly southeast of Nipton: one, facing west, welcomes travelers to Nevada; the other facing east, welcomes them to California. This is a reference to the real Nipton's immediate proximity to the border between the two states.
 * The Legion's sacking of Nipton could be an allusion to Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery", in which the winner of the lottery is murdered by the other townsfolk. This is mentioned by the Caesar's Legion patrol; Mayor Steyn's office corroborates this, as well as the abundance of lottery tickets strewn across town hall. There are also strong parallels between Jackson's story and the social machinations of experiment conducted in Vault 11. Finally, the real Nipton once had the most lottery ticket sales in California.
 * If you have the Wild Wasteland trait and look around in front of a destroyed building near the eastern entrance of the town, you can find the charred skeletal remains of two people named, respectively, Owen and Beru. This is a reference to a famous scene from "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope," in which Luke Skywalker returns home to find that his uncle and aunt of the same names have been incinerated in a similar fashion by Storm Troopers.
 * The Declaration of Vital Essence may be a tongue-in-cheek reference to the film "Dr. Strangelove", in which the character of Gen. Jack Ripper is highly and vocally paranoid about guarding his "precious bodily fluids" and "Purity of Essence". Admittedly, in the film he spoke of his essence as though he were referring to his own vigor "in the bedroom". This may be related because Nipton is a town which thrives through the exploitation of women, by way of prostitution.

Bugs

 * There's a glitch which prevents you from being able to speak with Vulpes Inculta, even when he triggers the conversation. The camera will zoom in on him like it would usually do when initiating conversation, but will then quickly retract, bringing the player back into control. Reloading doesn't seem to fix this issue.
 * Boone or ED-E will not enter the Town Hall (First Floor) but teleports to the Assembly Floor when the courier enters that floor. The particular instance was after we had killed all the legion personnel outside the hall.
 * Sometimes, when fast traveling to Nipton, you may find a crucified prospector instead of a Powder Ganger. He can't be removed from the cross but he can be interacted with. He will most likely be killed by the bark scorpions next time you travel there.
 * Standing near the entrance of the Town Hall may trigger an attack from a Jackal Gang Member. It is unknown whether or not this attack was scripted or if the member had simply walked close enough to detect the character.