That's something i've always loved about interplay's fallouts. The Apocalypse as Western thing is there, but a lot of it is an excuse to introduce the character to all these zany societies and their problems. Hey, the miners are all hepped up on fentacoke and it's killing people! Okay, just bob on over to gangster controlled new reno, participate in a war between rival gangster families, rig some boxing matches, kill the jackass making jet, go back to redding and... "hey champ. Uh... so thank you for stopping jet, but now that you're back could you maybe look at the giant carnivorous aliens infesting the mines?

I think redding had a labor dispute thing, too.

Also, in the first FO the had a cut epilogue beat for The Den. If you helped the sheriff take down the crime boss the city would stagnate under the sheriff's rule. If you helped the crime boss the city would grow as people kept visiting and they'd eventually outgrow the crime boss on their own.