All Roads

***All Roads*** is a *Fallout* graphic novel written by Chris Avellone. The cover artists are Geof Darrow and Peter Doherty (colors), while the interior artists are Jean Diaz and Wellinton Alves. The art style changes when focus is shifted to another character.

It tells the story of some of the characters and events in the week that leads up to *Fallout: New Vegas*. It was created in conjunction with Dark Horse Comics and a hardcover copy is included in the collector's edition of the game.On November 16, 2011, Dark Horse released *All Roads* on Dark Horse Digital and its iTunes app for $2.99.

Avellone's previous experience in comics includes five stories for Dark Horse's *Star Wars Tales* anthology comic and *Clone Wars Adventures* digest comic.

## Story

The story takes place a week before the events of *Fallout: New Vegas*. Benny, the leader of The Chairmen, is preparing to leave The Tops casino for business. He and his right-hand man, Swank, discuss the recent murder of a Singer who performed at The Tops. The singer was killed by Swank using psycho, which Benny takes with him.

Benny meets up with some of the Great Khans whom he is paying to escort him to intercept the Courier. Among the Great Khans are Jessup, McMurphy, and Chance, a mute, towering man who suffers from both drug addiction and trauma after the Bitter Springs massacre. The group heads south from Red Rock Canyon.

On their way, they encounter a small Tribal village that is being ravaged by Fiends. Initially, the group decides to avoid the encounter, but Chance is driven berserk by the sight of fire, which reminds him of Bitter Springs. He heads into battle armed only with his knife. Benny and McMurphy unwillingly join him. They win the battle, but Chance is badly burned and near death. McMurphy and Jessup consider giving Chance some of the drugs they looted from the Fiends to make him live longer, but Benny asks him if he wants to end his life to be with the ones who died at Bitter Springs. Benny leaves him the psycho he got from Swank, which had been used to kill the Singer, who, like Chance, couldn't let go of his past. Chance decides to take it, in an effort to return to the times before Bitter Springs, and dies as a result.

McMurphy and Jessup bury Chance, much to Benny's displeasure, and they head further south with Benny, finding themselves at the Goodsprings cemetery... and close to the Courier.

## Characters

* Benny
* Swank
* Singer
* Chance
* Jessup
* McMurphy
* Great Khans
* Fiends
* NCR Troopers

### Mentioned-only

* Courier
* Tommy Torini

## Creatures

* Dog
* Eyebot

### Mentioned-only

* Cazadores
* Horse

## In-game

* The Courier is the player character in *Fallout: New Vegas*.
* Benny is the antagonist for the beginning of the game and an important character in the main quest.
* Jessup and McMurphy can be found in Boulder City (as part of the main quest) but McMurphy is dead.
* Swank, Benny's second-in-command, is at The Tops casino, as well as mentioned-only Tommy Torini.
* Chance's map, which McMurphy began carving into the ground with his finger can be found west of New Vegas, close to Red Rock Canyon.
* Chance's knife, which he used to finish the map McMurphy started, is located inside Chance's grave along with the Great Khan simple armor he wore at the time of his death.
* Tribal village, where the battle against Fiends took place, can be found north of Goodsprings, along with bodies of murdered tribals, Great Khans, and Fiends. Now inhabited by the cazadores mentioned in the graphic novel.
* Engraved cigarette lighter, which Benny used to light his distinctive cigarettes and which the Khans discussed stealing can be found in Boulder City.
* Courier's grave, in which the Courier is dumped. It was dug by the Khans, though Benny had to pull the trigger, as the Khans refused to do his dirty work.

## Notes

* Chris Avellone has stated that "*We decided not to use the Courier in the book. We want the players to determine how their character looks, acts, and reacts so in the book we focused on the player's adversaries and the folks who want you dead.*"
* While Geof Darrow has no previous involvement with the *Fallout* series, his art helped inspire the look of pre-War cities and the original 10mm pistol is modeled on artwork Darrow created for Frank Miller's comic *Hard Boiled*.
* Swank is dressed in a Grimy Pre-War Businesswear in the graphic novel, while in the game, the texture of the suit was the same as the Dirty Pre-War Businesswear texture.
* Every NCR trooper in the graphic novel that attacked the Great Khans during the Bitter Springs massacre (in Chance's flashback) are seen riding horses, animals that are never seen in the game.
* At the tribal village inside the game there are two Great Khan corpses, despite the fact that none of the five Khans that joined the battle in the graphic novel were killed.
* The account of the Bitter Springs massacre in the graphic novel and that in the game contradict each other, but this could be because of the point-of-view in which it's told and completely intentional.
* Chance's map in-game and in the graphic novel appear entirely different and are located in different locations.

## Behind the scenes

* The name of the graphic novel can be read several ways, either as the common saying "All roads lead to home": possibly referring to the Courier's past, or "All roads lead to Rome" foreshadowing the crossing of the Colorado River for both Benny and the Courier later in the story of Fallout: New Vegas. Alternatively, Joshua Graham also gives another interpretation saying "All roads wind down to the same spot, the grave" when discussing the Divide in *Honest Hearts*.
* Despite Chris Avellone intending to leave even mentions of horses out of *Fallout: New Vegas* and *All Roads* as to not imply that they still exist, the graphic novel was released before anyone working on it noticed that horses appeared.

## Gallery

* Chance's map in-game.
* Chance's knife in-game.
* Chance's grave in-game.

## References

1. ↑ IGN SDCC10
2. ↑ File:StylesAllRoadsE-mail.png