Victor Presper

 is a non-player character who was to appear in Van Buren, serving as its main antagonist.

History
Victor Presper was born and raised in the area formerly known as Shady Sands, now known as NCR. He spent many of his years as a scientific advisor to President Tandi before his disillusionment settled in – a disillusionment fueled by the Caravan houses that ate away at NCR. He and the others effectively grew frustrated with Tandi, the BoS, the caravans, and everyone else. They just wanted to start over by wiping the slate clean. Presper needed military help, so he persuaded all of the disgruntled NCR Army personnel into helping him. Even though the NCR Army was winning the war against the Brotherhood of Steel, morale was low due to the sheer number of causalities suffered. For every Paladin the NCR took out, they would lose ten or more soldiers with leather armor and a bad rifle. The army was also preoccupied fighting against powder gangs, which were essentially created because NCR didn't have enough money to pay its railway workers.

Presper noticed a report to NCR by a scientist named Goddard noting the locations of old-world power facilities and sent him out again to investigate certain areas in the old America's southwest. After Goddard returned, Presper and a small team of soldiers investigated Boulder Dome, finding it in need of repair but containing excellent labs and a fully-functioning ZAX unit. When his breaking point finally came, Presper became determined to find a way to rid the world of chaos and human impurities, and discovered his savior in the Limit 115 virus. Through extensive research, Presper discovered the history of Limit 115 and its genocidal potency, and also discovered a viable means to cleanse the world. Using ULYSSES, the Tibbets quarantine prison, and a ballistic satellite known as B.O.M.B.-001, the way to human planetary domination and order became clear. He needed to get to B.O.M.B.-001 and use the nuclear weapons to clean the filth and wretch that currently occupied the surface.

Over the next few years Presper invited or sent scientists and students to the Boulder Dome, where he explained his idea to remake civilization. Those who refuse are put in cold sleep, using technology the original Dome scientists developed to aid space travel. Presper knows he can use the CODE (Challenge, Opportunity, Discipline, Ethics) technology developed there to convince them to help him when the time is right.

In 2249, when things started to fall apart out in NCR, Presper sent out his last team of scientists and grad students. Agnes, a fellow NCR scientist and frequent diplomat from the scientific community to the government, was the leader of the expedition. Using her skills and a "diplomatic immunity" pass she carried, she made her way to Hoover Dam. Two days later, the NCR Congress building was destroyed, presumably in a conflict with the Brotherhood of Steel.

Presper and his followers released the New Virus in the remote areas near Boulder and Denver. It was close enough to the quarantine prison to spur ULYSSES into action, but not near enough to huge populations to start a general panic. Then Presper’s men would stage an attack on the prison which would allow everyone to escape. This event would start a countdown of sorts for missile launch on B.O.M.B.-001. ULYSSES would asses the viral spread, try to gather up the escaped prisoners, and once 90% of the prisoners had been retrieved, launch nuclear missiles to "clean & prevent" any further infection. By the time this happened, Presper had planned to be on, and in full control of, B.O.M.B.-001, and reprogramming targeting solutions to clean the areas he wanted. Humans of his choosing would wait out the second nuclear holocaust in the Boulder Dome, until the day came where he declared the Earth safe for pure blood humans once more. The only thing that really was a time consuming factor for his plan was figuring out the launch codes on the satellite. But Presper knew he was more than intelligent enough to eventually figure it out. After all, he was far more intelligent than the monkeys who originally programmed the launch computers on B.O.M.B.-001, or so he thought.

SPECIAL

 * EPIC VILLAIN: SCIENCE BOY: 30

Importance - Epic


 * ST - 04	FAIR
 * PE - 10	HEROIC
 * EN - 05	AVRG
 * CH - 04	FAIR
 * IN - 10	HEROIC
 * AG - 07	VERY GOOD
 * LK - 08	GREAT
 * Hit Points: 179 Hit Points (29 + 5*30)
 * AC: 7%
 * AP: 8+2 (10 AP)
 * Melee Damage: 1
 * Damage Resistance: 0
 * Sequence: 20
 * Critical Chance: 8%

Shtick: Presper is a "quiet" mad scientist, and he is considered to be an end-game-level-threat on par with the Master from Fallout 1, and his stats reflect this. He is the smartest man on Earth except for possibly the player.

Karma: Presper is at 0 Karma.

Equipment: Super PIP Boy monitors his health, acts as a motion sensor, and has a programming attachment built in that allows him to instantly create and download his own programs. Needler Pistol: (4 AP, 2-12+12 with Penetration that cuts Armor in Half), with 3 HN Piston-Propelled Needles in the chamber filled with tranquilizer darts. He also carries a Multi-Tool, a Radio, and a Flashbulb Projector with a Bulb that has six flashes remaining, with the command: HALT action loaded into the punch card.

Presper would much prefer to spar with words than with bullets.

Skills: 75% Small Guns, 5% Big Guns, 25% Melee, 25% Unarmed, 45% Missiles, All Sciences 250% (or whatever the % mechanism is), 250% Game Theory.

Traits: All science traits. I mean, all of them. - Presper accrues double the fatigue as if on half-rations, because he is fighting sleep all the time. He is secretly afraid of being asleep, and he will do anything to prevent being tranquilized or knocked out. (3) Multi-Tasking - as long as two separate tasks are within reach, Presper can proceed to do both at half his normal skill percentage with independent hands. He could code two computer programs, for example, or work out a math theorem in his head while shooting someone with his tranquilizer gun.

Perks (5): Cinematic Epic Bonus Perk: Smartest Man on Earth Except for PCs that, well, makes Presper the smartest man on Earth except for potentially the PCs, Mad Scientist which allows Presper direct input from the GM to perform his twisted actions, Action Boy (2) gives him a +2 AP on all actions, Inventor (+25% to all invention rolls), Master of Sciences, and all other Science-related perks

Early design
In Chris Avellone's initial plot outline for Van Buren, doctor Matthias "Huxley" Presper was a pre-War scientist, the co-creator of the ZAX supercomputer, as well as a Scientific Advisor to the pre-war president.

In this early version, Presper went into hibernation a few days before the nuclear holocaust, woke up in the Boulder Dome, and emerged into the world to discover (to his surprise) how much "civilization" survived, before he wakes up the rest of the scientists frozen beneath the Boulder Dome. Presper is the only person left alive who knows all the passwords and control schemes for the Zax computer and various other super-weapons across the world and it was intended that the player’s actions in the various towns serve to convince Presper whether he should wipe all life from the planet before waking up the rest of his colleagues. Of course, the problem becomes that Presper and his crew are carrying the New Plague virus that struck to the US shortly before the war broke out (the virus that they had to develop FEV to counteract), so as soon as Presper gets out of the Boulder Dome, the more communities he has contact with, the more people become infected and die.

Appearances
Presper was to appear in Van Buren, the canceled Fallout 3 by Black Isle.