Mr. House

Robert Edwin House is the master of the city of New Vegas in the Mojave Wasteland in the year 2281. House is responsible for the creation of Mr. New Vegas.

Background
Mr. House was born and lived in the period before the Great War. Before the Great War commenced, it was implied that he attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ("...an institute in Massachusetts"). He was the president, founder, and CEO of RobCo Industries. He supposedly cryogenically froze himself and survived in stasis for centuries before reawakening, which explains his age of 261 years. He is an elusive man, and also played a big part in why New Vegas was not directly hit by the nuclear devastation of the Great War. He reprogrammed one of his Securitrons to fulfill his "needs." Mr. House is also extremely interested in the collectible snowglobes found in the game, and he will pay greatly for each. The snow globes can be given to Jane to exchange them for 2000 caps each.

Shortly before the Great War, Mr. House ordered the "Platinum chip" to arrive to him on the afternoon of October 23rd. However, the nuclear warheads arrived before the delivery came, and consequently, 200 years later, it has still not made it to Mr. House. Mr. House is also responsible for preventing over 90% of the nuclear warheads that were headed in the vicinity of Las Vegas from detonating. It is revealed to the player that Mr. House has spent over 800000 caps in his attempt at retrieving that chip in the last year alone.

He 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 Vault 21 in a bet and has since converted it into a casino/hotel. It is assumed that Mr. House was the Overseer of Vault 21 and buried the vault in cement to hide either secrets or vulnerabilities regarding him. At the pleadings of Sarah Weintraub he left a part of the vault 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 extremely physically decrepit and can only live inside a self contained life support unit. The Courier later has the opportunity to break through his security and see his true, decaying form. However, opening his isolation chamber, even for a second, means that Mr. House will die within at most a year from exposure to outside contaminants.

Interactions with the player character
Mr. House hires the Courier to eliminate local New California Republic activity in order to maximize his influence over the strip.

Mr. House can be killed. When facing Mr. House, turn left. Access the computer terminal and open the door. (This will make all of Mr. House's robots hostile). Go through the door access the next terminal to unlock the elevator. This will take you to Mr. House. If you refuse to give Mr. House the platinum chip later in the game these terminals can be accessed without a Science skill check. Access the next terminal and open the case he is preserved in. You then can talk to him in person. You can leave him there but he will no longer have control over anything or you can kill him which will make you automatically fail all Mr. House's quests. Make note that killing Mr. House or leaving him totally helpless is an act of evil, making the player lose Karma.

Appearances
appears in Fallout: New Vegas.

Behind the scenes

 * In casino parlance, the house refers generally to the gambler's opponent, the casino itself, as in the idiom, "The house always wins."
 * "He's very much inspired by Howard Hughes," says J.E. Sawyer in the Game Informer Fallout: New Vegas preview article May 2010.
 * Jane, House's computer companion is likely an allusion to the filmstar Jane Russell, who was under contract to Howard Hughes and also his lover for a time.

Bug
Talking to Mr. House on the start of the quest "The House Always Wins" you're given the option "Who exactly are you, Mr. House?" He will tell you his background some what and then the option for "You appear to be a computer, not a man," will open, if your medicine is high enough (35) you can choose the option "The lifespan you're claiming is impossible, except for ghouls and super mutants." Passing this will give you +35 xp. You can repeat this step as many times as necessary to level up.

Doing this bug too many times will make your game randomly freeze while in the conversation. so if you do this then save before you do it and save after each level. (This has been fixed on the PC and soon on the consoles)

Additionally, a barter check of 50 can be accessed as many times as you want, giving you 50XP every time you do so.

If you decide to kill or disable Mr.House, Jane (The securitron acting as his wife) disappears, and you can no longer remove snow globes from your inventory.