User:Wanderer from DK/Goodorevil

Ok, you've just stepped outside Vault 101 and now it's time to find out what pays off the most: Being good or being evil. I'll try to give my view on this. Note that any option taken with neutral karma will be regarded too towards either good or evil (if completely evil or completely good pays off worse). For example, I'll count disarming the bomb in Megaton as being under the "good" category, even if you take the 100/500 caps for it (because you don't lose karma). The same counts for being neutral over evil, if that pays off better, I just couldn't think of an example of this. This "guide" assumes that you always win the speech check.

I'll try to count all marked quests, as well as a few unmarked ones. Naturally being good or evil can both land potentially infinite caps, from Lawbringer and Contract Killer. I'm not bothered to pick quests that doesn't have any moral choices (which means I won't mention most of the main questline). I'm not counting Galaxy News Radio (which I won't even mention), Rescue from Paradise and Strictly Buisness as main quests in this. The order of which these quests are written, are in the order I started working on them. Now, without further hesitation, lets get started.

Main quest - unrewarded moral choices
Future Imperfect - telling Amata off about her weight (evil) or having the Tunnel Snakes fuck right off (good) Tranquility Lane - killing everyone as pint-sized slasher (evil) or activating failsafe (good).

There's no reward, other than karma, for any of these actions.

Escape!
There's an optional sidequest, with outcomes:

Good
Saving Ellen DeLoria from Radroaches Reward: Tunnel Snake jacket, EXP

Evil
Do nothing (talk Butch into doing the job himself) Reward: The satisfaction of seeing Butch have trouble with the roaches.

Good
Complete good would either be passing the speech check with Moriarty or telling him that Silver is gone, while having to pay him yourself, but you want caps, you don't want to lose them, so the best not evil option would be:

Killing Silver to gain 400 caps and taking the speech check afterwards. Beating Silver in the speech check, to gain 400 caps and taking the speech check with Moriarty afterwards Reward: 400 caps, if you manage to pull this off, even though it's a hard one. Random loot if you kill her too.

Evil
Having Silver give you 400 caps, then kill her and loot her (100 caps), afterwards beating Moriarty. Yet again, not the easiest way, but pays off.

Reward: 500 caps and random loot if you pull this off.

The Power of the Atom
Naturally, you've cleared up the part of the previous quest that takes place in Megaton, as well as fixing the pipes and starting the Wasteland Surival Guide quest, at least I assume so, as I believe that you're not stupid.

Good
Disarming the bomb, quite simply. Go for the speech check with Simms, as that will earn you 500 caps, the disarm that bitch.

Reward: Megaton house and 500 caps. Not having to travel to and from downtown DC when doing the Wasteland Surival Guide. Possible combat armor in early game, if a certain encounter happens. Downside: A random encounter with Talon faggots being after you. Possibly having to bail your way into Tenpenny Tower

Evil
Blowing up the bomb, again go for the speech check (or Black Widow) to gain the 1000 caps.

Reward: Tenpenny Suite and 1000 caps. Not having to bail your way into Tenpenny Tower Downside: Regulators chasing you, having to travel to downtown DC to work on the Wasteland Surival Guide quest.

Wasteland Survival Guide
Here you have to do a lot of small quests. The rewards depends on how thorough you are.

Good
Completing everything, including all sidequests.

Reward: Survival Guru perk, which can be customized for your own need, as well as the Rad Regeneration perk, generally good stuff, caps, skill books and a discount at all stores in Rivet. Downside: Takes a damn long time.

Evil
Telling Moira that her book is a joke, bad karma and..

Reward: 30% discount at Craterside Supply, her having a high repair skill (highest in the Capital Wasteland, not counting yourself, unless you take the Merchant Empire quest, saving a load of time, Dream Crusher perk.

Naturally, you can complete 8 of the 9 miniquests, I suggest you skip the RobCo part or the library part, and then crush her dreams to get the maximum reward.

Blood Ties
Time to find these almost-vampires and strike a deal

Good
Strike a deal between The Family and Arefu, starting the repeatable quest I Want to Drink Your Blood, giving you 15 caps from every blood pack you bring to the family. Reward: I Want to Drink Your Blood repeatable quest - 15 caps per blood pack. Hematophage perk.

Evil
Kill fucking everyone for the loot. Reward: The loot

Those!
No matter what, you'll get or can get.

Ant Sight or Ant Might perk. Lesko's lab coat. key to Grayditch container.

Good
Having Bryan move in with Vera or Little Lamplight (only the former giving good karma)

Reward: ZOMG, none. (Well, good karma)

Evil
Selling Bryan to Paradise Falls

Reward: 300 caps. (100 if you fail the speech check, but I assume that you don't)

The Replicated Man
Why even be good or evil, when you can get both rewards.

Smart
First asking Harkness To be allowed to kill Zimmer, to gain the A3-21 Plasma Rifle, then tell Zimmer that Harkness is the android for the Wired Reflexes perk. Neutral karma, good rewards and you decide what happens with Harkness. This pays off the best anyway.

You Gotta Shoot 'Em in the Head
No karma rewards to be gotten here, so it's just if you want to kill Strayer, Dukov, Dave and Tenpenny (honestly, i've always gotten those keys with a minumum of fuss, so I don't know if killing any of these, except Tenpenny, will land you bad karma). However, the smart way is:

Passing the speech check to make Crowley admit that the people he wants you to kill aren't actually bigots (except Tenpenny) and he's after the keys. Get the keys and unlock the bomb storage before selling the keys to Crowley for loads of caps, before fast-travelling to Fort Constantine yourself, to retrive the armor. Get the keys anyway you like, but if you want to kill people, you might as well do it with a headshot. While you're at Tenpenny Tower anyway, you might as well have a look at the next quest:

Tenpenny Tower
Can the ghouls move in to tenpenny tower. Reward for all choices, passing a speech check, a chinese assault rifle.

Good
Getting the bigots to accept ghouls, can be done a bit easier by finding the love letter from mr Washington, which will remove 3 out of 5 characters to convince.

Reward: 500 caps, ghoul mask (useful later), Chinese assault rifle

Evil v. 1
Letting Roy Philips raid the tower with his ferals

Reward: Chinese Assault Rifle, ghoul mask

Evil v. 2
Killing off Roy Philips and his friends

Reward: 700 caps, Chinese Assault Rifle.

Note that you can have the ghouls move in, then do the feral raid.

Trouble on the Homefront
Solve the problems in Vault 101.

Good
Provided that you didn't kill the overseer, that is, Amata's father, I'd say the good way is to let the Vault become open. That being said, keeping it closed also can net good karma, as well as the reward

Reward: Modified Utility Jumpsuit, if you decide to open the vault, a random encounter with a Vault 101 dweller, giving you purified water

Evil
Massacre the place or purge the water chip

Reward: Epic sized player housing.

Strictly Business
Let's enslave some assholes, shall we.

Good
Not doing the quest, but rather paying your way in, or walking in, which turns everyone hostile. Reward: None, except more player housing - with its own caravan stop.

Evil
Enslaving these poor fuckers, for 250 caps each.

Reward: 1000 caps, entry to Paradise falls, repeatable quest Strictly Profitable

The Superhuman Gambit
A wannabe superhero and a wannabe super-villain fighting over a town. This is bound to go wrong.

Good
Convincing both parts to quit what they're doing.

Reward: 600 caps, armor of both of them

Evil
Killing or stopping one part, while allowing the other to do his/her "job".

Reward: 400 caps, one armor and one weapon.

Big Trouble in Big Town
Oh god, I HATE this quest. I usually go straight for the police HQ, release the prisoners and then decide what to do. Might as well clear the Ticking Timebomb miniquest while you're at it. Can't be done if you've chosen to enslave Red, unless you release her.

Good
Release both prisoners, afterwards teach the bigtowners to defend themselves.

Reward: 300 caps, lucky 8 ball and free healing, if reviving Timebomb.

Evil
Release both prisoners, taking all their money

Reward: 500 caps, lucky 8 ball and free healing, if reviving Timebomb.

The Nuka-Cola Challenge
Get 30 bottles of Nuka-Cola Quantum, simple, right?

Good
Give the bottles to Sierra

Reward: 1200 caps, nuka-grenade schematics

Evil
Give the bottles to Ronald

Reward: 2400 caps

Agatha's Song
This old lady, using her violin to entertain certain people in the wasteland is looking for a better violin. Before the quest takes off, she'll let you have some weapons and ammo.

Good
Giving her the violin

Reward: Her radio station and the Blackhawk if you bring her a sheet music book as well, provided you chose the right speech option

Evil
Kill her and sell the violin. Can be done after the good part.

Reward: 300 caps + all of the above.

Head of State
Runaway slaves are holed up in the Temple of the Union, they want the Lincoln memorial as their hideout. Slavers are currently in control of that place. This also unlocks the Lincoln's Profit Margins repeatable quest.

Before choosing between good or evil
Get as much Lincoln stuff as possible, and sell it to whoever is the highest bidder. Don't sell the repeater, it's worth more than anyone would pay for it.

Good
Kill the slavers, allowing the slaves to move in Reward: Good karma, dart gun schematics

Evil
Tell the slavers that the slaves are holed up outside Old Olney. Even if your intention is to have deathclaws tear them to bits, they'll stumble across temple of the union and capture the slaves.

Reward: evil karma, dart gun schematics.

Reilly's Rangers
You have to rescue this group of mercenaries.

Good
Saving the rangers, obviously.

Reward: Ranger Battle Armor, the best combat armor in game, or the minigun Eugene. Repeatable quest: Geomapping with Reilly, which can earn you loads of caps.

Evil
Telling Reilly that she's been out for a few centuries or having everyone of the rangers killed

Reward: None for telling Reilly that she's been out for a long time and Ranger Battle Armor and Eugene. No geomapping quest though (I'm not sure about this one, but it wouldn't be logical that you get the geomapping quest for failing).

Stealing Independence
You might want to find the note from Little Moonbeam's father first, to get maximum payoff, if you want to go the good way.

Good
Helping Sydney retrive the decleration.

Reward: Railway rifle schematics + caps for other documents you bring in. With the note from Sydney's father, you'll get her SMG too.

Evil
Kill Sydney or don't let her follow you.

Reward: 400 caps + railway rifle schematics + caps for other documents you bring in. If you kill Sydney, you'll get her SMG too.

Oasis
A cult has been based around the recurring character Harold, now having merged with the tree growing out of his head. See quest desrciption for rewards, no reward if you go the evil way.

Take it Back!
Time to take back the water purifier and end this game

Good
Not infecting the water purifier

Reward: None, directly, but you won't have negative effects from drinking the water, if you have Broken Steel installed.

Evil
Infect the water (and have someone else turn on the purifier not that you're at it anyway).

Downside: Not only is there no reward, too much Aqua Pura will eventually kill you

Who Dares Wins
Do you want to wipe out the Enclave or the Brotherhood? A new moral choice given, as you now surive the purifier incedent

Good
Destroy the Enclave mobile base

Reward: Repeatable quest Blood Brotherhood. A repeatable quest that pays off really well.

Evil
Destroy the Citadel

Reward: Access to the citadel armory, which is filled with nice stuff. Note that the Enclave will still hate you and the BoS will to, naturally.

Lawbringer vs Contract Killer
Raiders can be found anywhere and there's a base of respawning TC mercs. Rivet City guards respawn too, but there aren't as many. TC and Regulator attacks are both repeatable random encounters.

Conclusion
So what does pay off the best? On the surface, it looks like being evil pays off best, but I actually believe that being good pays off better. Looking at the cap and reward payoffs being evil pretty obviously lands you the best stuff, but being good will get you some repeatable quests, which can potentially earn you a lot more caps than being evil ever could.