Caravan

Overview

Caravan is a card game popularized in the Mojave Wasteland of Fallout: New Vegas. The player can challenge various NPCs throughout the wasteland to a match of the game, although the casinos on The Strip do not host caravan games, viewing the game as slow paced and unfair due to the player being able to form their own custom deck.

In caravan, a valid deck must contain at least 30 cards. Repeat cards are allowed, but only if they are from different card brands.

The NPC Ringo will give the Courier a starter deck and a tutorial in Caravan. If his quest is already completed, he can be found at the Crimson Caravan.

Objective

Participants win a match of caravan by having a larger "caravan" than their opponent. This is done by building stacks, or "caravans", with values between 21 and 26. Each participant has three stacks, however cards can be placed on either participant's stacks, depending on whether the player wants to help their own caravans or hinder their opponent's. Additionally, cards can only be placed in numerical or reverse-numerical order, however the order can be reversed via face cards or cards of the same suit as the stack's previous card.

Once a stack has a total value of 21 or more, it is considered "sold", however it can still be beaten if the opponent's stack of the same position has a higher number within the acceptable range. Once at least one stack in each position has been sold, the game ends, with the winner being whichever participant has the winning stack in two or more positions.

Cards Values and functions

• Ace = 1
• Numbered card = listed value (i.e., 2-10)

Both simply add the value to the selected caravan.

Special Cards

• Jack: Removes the card it is played on, alongside any cards played on that card.
• Queen: Reverses direction of a stack and changes suit.
• King: Doubles the value of card it's played on. Multiple kings can be layered onto a single card, doubling the value each time.
• Joker played on ace: Removes all numbered cards of the same suit from the table, except face cards and the card it is played on.
• Joker played on a numbered card: Removes all of the same card from the table, except the card it is played on.

List of NPCs that play Caravan

Dennis Crocker and No-Bark routinely bet over 1000 caps, making them the most profitable caravan NPCs in the game.

In the case that a caravan-playing NPC is also a merchant (such as Cliff, Dale, Johnson, Lacey, and Mayes,) purchasing items from them increases the amount of money they hold and are willing to bid. However, all merchants with the exception of Dale Barton will only play five rounds of caravan with the Courier before refusing to play any more.