Ghost Town Gunfight

 is a quest in Fallout: New Vegas. It involves the town of Goodsprings and a powder gang led by Joe Cobb. You save Ringo (and the town) and fight off the Powder Gangers through this quest. You may also side with the Powder Gangers and destroy Goodsprings in the Counter Quest Run Goodsprings Run.

Depending which quest you choose to take your Reputation will be affected with both factions involved: the people of Goodsprings and the Powder Gangers.

Quick walkthrough
In Goodsprings the Courier is confronted by a group of Powder Gangers who threaten to blow up the town. The Courier may side with the Gangers and help lead the attack against the town, or help the citizens of Goodsprings. If the Courier aims to protect the town, various citizens of Goodsprings can be enlisted in the fight and will offer several bonuses, such as the use of dynamite courtesy of Easy Pete and a supply of armor and weapons from Chet. Sunny Smiles and the other recruits will then help the Courier in ridding the town of the Gangers. Whomever the Courier chooses to help can be controlled with the companion wheel. If the Courier chooses to help Joe Cobb, they can get equiptment from Doc Mitchell, Chet, and Easy Pete, even though all of them will fight against the Courier, besides Chet.

Detailed walkthrough
The quest starts after overhearing Trudy argue with Joe Cobb and questioning her about the argument, or after Mitchell mentions an issue in the town of Goodsprings.

After taking the decision to help Ringo, he will request that you attempt to enlist more help from the towns folk. You can do this by simply asking Sunny Smiles who will instantly pledge to help you. She provides you with optional objectives however to rally more of the towns people.

In the optional objectives to rally the town of Goodsprings against the Powder Gangers, many townsfolk will need convincing. If the player lacks the necessary skills to pass skill checks, there are many magazines that can help scattered around town. Chet sells Salesman Weekly, the mag needed to get Barter +10 to help with his skill check (Barter 25). The Patriot's Cookbook will help you convince Easy Pete to use his dynamite (if your Explosives skill is at least 25, he will give you the dynamite). It can be sometimes found in the mailboxes around town. Another possible (random) location for the Patriot's Cookbook is within a Duffel Bag inside the gas station. To convince Trudy to join in, either use the Meeting People to get +10 Speech or use ¡La Fantoma! to pass a sneak check of 25 or a speech check of 25. Mitchell will give you 2 doctor's bags in addition to the stimpaks if you mention the Powder Gangers using explosives (30 medicine). You can also enlist Victor to join your side in the fight but he fails to show up. When asking him about this, you will find that he was shut down by an unknown person to keep him from fighting (25 Science).

If you land the killing blow on most or all of the Powder Gangers, you can end up "Vilified" with their faction, making interaction with them difficult later on. Personally killing Cobb appears to have the most dramatic effect. However, if you hang back and let the townspeople do most of the work, many of them can die (depending on the preparations you have made before the fight). Even in a quick battle, it will be difficult to keep Cheyenne alive, since she is very aggressive and takes little care to protect herself from gunfire.

Alternately, it is possible to wipe out the attackers and not end up with the Powder Gangers as hostile - sneak kills with silenced weapons don't affect faction relations, and all of the attackers (including Cobb) can be killed with a sneak critical head shot from a silenced varmint rifle. This may be made easier by picking up the Stealth Boy in the safe of the school. Chet conveniently does stock all the varmint rifle mods, though they are rotated randomly, so it can take some time to find the suppressor and scope mods in his shop. For best results, run from the Gas Station where the battle is announced, catch the Powder Gangers in the flank and snipe the rear man in the group as they walk towards the saloon. Keep headshotting the man in the rear, and it shouldn't be too hard to kill the majority of the attackers without being noticed, even with a relatively low sneak skill. With the majority of the force killed in this manner, the townsfolk are generally able to repel the remaining attackers without causalities. Completing the quest this way will result in a smaller loss of reputation with the Powder Gangers (only as far as "snubbed," instead of hated or villified). This allows the Courier to interact with them (as they're not hostile) and potentially pickup the I Fought the Law quest, even after having killed a few faction members in this quest.

If your reputation with the Power Gangers is hostile you can wear the Power Gangers Armor to fool most of the faction. You will need to either Bribe the First Guard to enter, or pickpocket the key to he installation from this first guard, enter the installation and obtain the quests. (Needs verification - quest giver is hostile and sees through disguise for me. PC, v 1.1.1/update 3.)

Notable loot
Salesman weekly    (Barter)     : GoodSprings, SchoolHouse, under the wooden shelves at the back.

Patriots CookBook  (Explosives) : NCR Correctional Facility, Cell Block A, In the back cell.

Meeting People     (Speech)     : GoodSprings, SchoolHouse, Beside the overturned school Desks on the floor.

Today's Physican   (Medicine)   : GoodSprings, Doc Mitchell's house, On a desk with a typewriter where the game begins.

Programmer's Digest (Science)   : GoodSprings, SchoolHouse, Near the Computer.

Once the citizens of Goodsprings have been convinced to help join the fight, speak with Ringo, who is hiding out in the Goodsprings Gas Station. Sunny Smiles or Trudy will interrupt with the notice that the Powder Gangers have arrived. The battle will begin and you will have to fight 6 Powder Gangers, including Joe Cobb. As an alternative, you can kill Joe Cobb before returning to Ringo, thereby taking out the biggest threat in the fight as he wears some body armor. The gangers are armed with various weapons. It is possible for any of the Goodsprings citizens to die during the quest.

Counter Quest
The counter variant of this quest is Run Goodsprings Run.

Bugs

 * Sunny may turn out to be dead before you talk to her, thus rendering the quest impossible to finish.


 * When returning to the gas station after talking to the townspeople, the door may be locked, requiring a key to open, which apparently cannot be obtained until the mission is over.


 * When returning to the gas station to speak with Ringo to start the fight, Sunny Smiles may appear inside (with no new dialogue), then leave and loiter outside, doing nothing. Also, Ringo will not follow you and, if spoken to again, simply repeats his inquiry regarding the player's readiness to take on the powder gangers.


 * In the midst of the fight, 2 powder gangers may appear as red marks on radar, and even stand in front of you, but cannot be interacted with. In my case, I entered a building, left again, and when I returned to the scene, the 2 immortal but immovable gangers were dead.....as was Ringo.


 * It is possible that the quest may not show up as active in the pip boy, and it will be impossible to progress in it (the NPC dialog will not show up).