Old School Ghoul



Old School Ghoul is an unmarked quest in Fallout: New Vegas.

Activating the quest
Raul Tejada, the ghoul found captive at Black Mountain, must be the Courier's active companion when the player initiates dialogue with Ranger Andy in Novac, Corporal Sterling in Camp McCarran (or Camp Forlorn Hope) and Loyal at Nellis Air Force Base. There is no set order to which non-player character should be approached first, but all three must be spoken to until their dialogue trees have been exhausted. At the end of each interaction, Raul will start a conversation with the Courier that revolves around both his observation of the characters and anecdotes about his history.

Detailed walkthrough
Talk to Ranger Andy with Raul present. The key topics are what he does in Novac ("What do you do here?"), and what happened to his leg ("Did something happen to your leg?" or "What happened?"). Raul must hear these answers, so repeating dialog that has already been heard may be necessary. Learning the takedown move is not necessary, but doesn't hurt. After this, leave the building and wait a few seconds for Raul to run up and talk. Raul will initiate a dialogue concerning the Courier's opinion of Ranger Andy's place as a crippled, older man in a harsh world. The choices made will influence which way Raul decides to proceed at the end of the quest, ultimately affecting the outcome. The Courier has an opportunity to hear part of Raul's story but may skip this portion of the dialogue at no penalty.

The Courier must then travel to either Camp McCarran or Camp Forlorn Hope depending on the completion status of the quest Three-Card Bounty. They then must speak with Corporal Sterling, a 1st Recon NCR sniper stationed with the rest of his squad at Camp McCarran, defending the region against fiends. If the bounties have all already been turned in to Major Dhatri during the quest "Three-Card Bounty", his squad will have been reassigned to Camp Forlorn Hope. After initiating and ending conversation with Sterling, Raul will initiate a dialogue similar to the one held after learning the takedown move from Ranger Andy.

Upon completion of the first conversation, the Courier must travel to Nellis Air Force Base and initiate a similar conversation with Loyal. He can typically be found in either his own house, the hangar with the mess hall or the hangar housing the bomber. After ending the conversation, Raul will initiate a final conversation wherein he ties the stories of the three men the player has met thus far to his own story. He will decide to either return to his gunslinging vaquero ways or relegate himself to a quieter life of machine (and armament) maintenance. The decision at which he will arrive is influenced entirely by the Courier's dialogue responses during the progression of this quest. However, he may be swayed to the other alternative with a Speech skill of 66.

If the Courier convinces Raul to return to the ways of his gunslinging past, then, after completing the final dialogue, Raul will receive the Old Vaquero perk, increasing his rate of fire with revolvers and lever-action rifles by 33%. Raul's outfit will change to the Vaquero outfit, and he will continue to provide the Regular Maintenance perk, which reduces the rate of equipment degradation by 50%.

If the Courier convinces Raul not to return to the way of the vaquero, but to contribute in other ways, then Raul's outfit will change to the Armored Petró-Chico outfit, and the Regular Maintenance perk will be replaced by the Full Maintenance perk, which reduces the rate of equipment degradation by 75%.

Bugs

 * If the Courier has already learned the Ranger Takedown technique from Ranger Andy in Novac without Raul present, this can be corrected by using the console and typing the following exactly:
 * . This must be done in an indoor area. Transition to an outdoor area and Raul should initiate conversation. If that console command doesn't do the trick, try, then talk to Raul and pick his new dialogue option about Ranger Andy.
 * Worth a try if nothing else is working with the Ranger Andy/Raul interaction. If all dialogue options with Ranger Andy have been completed, open the console and target Ranger Andy, or enter . This can reset all his dialogue options by entering . (This will also reset any other NPC dialogue, so be careful!) Once this has been done, close the console and speak to Ranger Andy. He will now talk as if himself and the Courier never met, allowing the Courier to trigger the Raul interaction, once walking outside, if he is a companion.
 * Also, if Raul does not relay more of his story after speaking with Corporal Sterling, a similar console command: may be used . Again, if the previous console command doesn't help one can try and select the dialogue line about Sterling.
 * And, lastly, if Raul is not engaging in dialogue after meeting Loyal, one can of course use the console to fix that as well: will open the "spontaneous" dialogue,  will give the ability to talk to him — "You wanted to say something about Loyal…".
 * It is possible that Raul will engage in conversation with the player about Loyal even if Volare! has been completed and Loyal's conversation tree has been exhausted. This event was triggered just by walking close to Loyal.
 * It is possible that Ranger Andy will not engage in dialog at all, resulting in an inability to progress in the quest. Even though the HUD will zoom in to make it seem as if he is about to talk, the HUD will automatically zoom back out, making it impossible to speak with Ranger Andy.
 * It is possible that the Courier will be unable to talk with Corporal Sterling (sometimes other members of 1st Recon are also affected). He only replies with a generic line without opening dialogue if he is stationed at Camp Forlorn Hope. This happens if the Courier asks 1st Recon stationed in Camp McCarran for help taking down Driver Nephi and kills him solo, so members of 1st Recon are transferred to Camp Forlorn Hope. This may be fixed by spawning Driver Nephi and letting the rangers kill him:.
 * It is possible that talking to Ranger Andy in Novac will not trigger Raul to speak to the Courier. This will make it impossible to start the quest, even if one has not learned Ranger Takedown prior to having Raul with them. Note: this bug may be corrected on the PC version by using console commands. See the section marked "Quick Walkthrough" for details.Using the Xbox, load the the pervious auto save from exiting the bungalow, and then Raul will initiate the dialogue.
 * Raul doesn't start the final conversation after talking to all 3 Characters and receiving all 3 NPC-related dialogues from Raul. To avoid this, the Courier must not talk to Loyal after completing the quest Volare!, when he thanks them for making his dreams a reality; can't initiate the side-quest I Don't Hurt Anymore AND talk to Corporal Sterling; can't talk to Ranger Andy prior to having Raul as a companion. After having Raul as a companion one can talk with Loyal, Corporal Sterling and Ranger Andy in whatever order you want, as long these conditions have been fulfilled. (This was tested in three different playthroughs.) Sometimes, if the final conversation does not occur, it can be remedied by declining to continue listening to Raul's conversation after speaking to the last person, by saying "Not now Raul", and then re-entering the related dialog (on xbox with Corporal Sterling last). However there is another possible alternative do the quest backwards, meaning start with Loyal, then Sterling and lastly Andy
 * PC Users: If Raul won't initiate the final conversation, open the console, click on Raul and try the following commands: followed by  and finally.
 * Note that it's not case sensitive, and you MUST click on Raul before entering the "startconversation" command.
 * There is a possibility that if one fast-travels immediately after exiting Ranger Andy's Bungalow, Raul's dialogue option will not be triggered. Just wait a minute to see if the trigger occurs. Note: This may have been fixed in a patch, as if you "Talk To" Raul, one can scroll down & ask him what he wanted to say after visiting Ranger Andy's, but didn't have the chance to.
 * A known bug occurs with Loyal where he sometimes disappears from the game. If you complete Volare! before recruiting Raul, Loyal may no longer be present at Nellis, making the quest impossible to finish.
 * A known bug occurs with Corporal Sterling where he sometimes disappears from the game. After completing the quest Three-Card Bounty, when Corporal Sterling and 1st Recon should be relocated to Camp Forlon Hope, they all disappear instead, making the quest impossible to finish.