Fallout: Cascadia

Role: Narrative Designer & Quest Designer | Tools: Creation Kit, Papyrus, xEdit, GitHub, Notion

Team: ~30+ Modders • Project: Total Conversion Mod

Scenes from a community content showcase video for Fallout: Cascadia. Watch the full developer diary on YouTube.
Quest Lines

I designed and implemented 3 branching questlines across Republic of Cascadia, Orcas Syndicate, and the Red Leafs factions.

Dialogue

I wrote 20+ voiced dialogue scenes with stat checks, moral pressure points, and Pacific Northwest slang variants.

Systems

I built reusable Papyrus encounter scripts for patrol alerts, disguise checks, and region-based faction reputation.

Overview

Fallout: Cascadia is a standalone total conversion mod for Fallout 4, set in a post-apocalyptic Seattle and its surrounding wasteland. As a narrative designer and quest implementer, I help craft original faction questlines, branching dialogue, and world-reactive storytelling that retain Fallout’s moral ambiguity while fitting the Pacific Northwest tone.

Project Context

Dynamic Factions

Tensions emerge from original factions such as the Republic of Cascadia, The Red Leafs and more factions that demand quests that let players weaponize against each other.

Wasteland Storytelling

I adapt Fallout's narrative systems to Cascadia's setting, designing quests and dialogue that leverage highway checkpoints, port terminals, and wasteland routes as interactive narrative spaces where player choices reshape faction relationships and world state.

Cascadian Worldbuilding

We deliver playable neighborhoods that prove dialogue depth, reactivity, and Creation Kit craftsmanship modeled after Cascadia's environment.

Screenshot of a guard overlooking a Cascadian town
I write encounters and patrol barks that make spaces like this feel politically tense and lived-in.
Screenshot of a highway sign pointing toward New Deepwell in the Cascadian wasteland
I use routes and scenes to design waypoints, ambient dialogue, and early choices that foreshadow conflicts in locations and story beats.
My dialogue and quest logic reference scenes dynamically and directly, using layout, lighting, and ambient sounds as hooks for beats and checks.

My Responsibilities

  • Own original factions' quest arcs from pitch to CK implementation, so each faction has a definable narrative spine.
  • Write branching dialogue that blends Seattle slang, NCR politics, and Fallout stat checks (Speech, Barter, Sneak) while staying VO-ready.
  • Script Papyrus encounter logic for disguises, smuggling routes, and faction alert levels, keeping systems reusable for other designers.
  • Seed worldbuilding through terminals, holotapes, and patrol barks that react to player actions across multiple neighborhoods.
  • Coordinate with Level Design and QA to ensure navmesh handoffs, trigger volumes, and quest stages remain readable throughout development.

Goal

Surface Cascadia's civic decay through Creation Kit quests that force players to juggle faction politics such as Orcas Syndicate rackets and Red Leafs austerity, all while preserving Fallout's freedom of approach and keeping systemic states transparent for downstream teams.

Scope & Impact

  • Delivered three branching questlines that chart Seattle’s and Cascadia's factional conflicts.
  • Authored 20+ unique dialogue scenes with stat checks, slang variants, and post-bomb regional references.
  • Built systemic bark libraries and terminal networks for 10+ settlements and regions, covering trade caravans, militia patrols, and metro stations.

Quest Design & Branching Dialogue

Quest Design Philosophy

I center quests around political conflict, faction power shifts, and moral complexity. Here's a sample from my original side quest, "A Bad Hand":

Quest Premise: Johnny Bradshaw, a failed politician indebted to the Orcas crime syndicate, becomes a pawn in a deadly political game. The player must decide whether to protect, manipulate, or eliminate him.

Branching Outcomes: Align with the Hearts and fake Johnny's death; obey the Clubs and publicly execute him; or negotiate a perfect compromise under Granddaddy's watch. Each path alters faction reputation, city stability, and access to unique perks.

Dialogue Design & Structure

My dialogue design emphasizes reactivity, layered choices, and skill-check driven paths. Here's a smart example from "A Bad Hand", a confrontation with Johnny Bradshaw that rewards high Perception:

Player [Perception 8+]: "Your cufflinks. Pretty high-end stuff, seems a bit lavish for a broke man."

Johnny (Surprised, defeated):
"You've got sharp eyes. They're from Alicia Wu, a gift. Meant as proof that Security wouldn't dare touch me... but she's probably set me up from the start. Damned Hearts, always two-faced."

Technical Implementation

Papyrus Scripting & Creation Kit Integration

This encounter script from "A Bad Hand" drives a pivotal branching moment involving Johnny Bradshaw. I implemented it directly in the Fallout 4 Creation Kit using a combination of trigger volumes, dialogue conditions, and scripted quest logic.

What this script controls:

  • Skill-based branching dialogue: The script checks player stats (e.g. Perception, Intimidation) and routes to different outcomes in real-time.
  • Dynamic quest stage control: Dialogue choices update quest objectives, modify global variables, and shift faction reputations.
  • World state manipulation: Fake death sequences are staged using XMarker references, disabled/enabled actors, and custom sounds.
  • Creation Kit Integration: Properties like JohnnyBradshaw, ABH_Quest, and GunshotFX were manually linked in the CK interface by selecting scene objects and populating the script’s properties.
  • Debug trace logging: Integrated trace calls help QA verify branching logic and trigger sequences during testing builds.
Expand to view script inline 

// ABH_JohnnyEncounterScript.psc – Fallout Cascadia
ScriptName ABH_JohnnyEncounterScript extends ObjectReference

;======= PROPERTIES =======
Quest Property ABH_Quest Auto
Actor Property JohnnyBradshaw Auto
Faction Property HeartsFaction Auto
Faction Property OrcasFaction Auto
ObjectReference Property JohnnyCorpseMarker Auto
ObjectReference Property JohnnyFakeCorpse Auto
GlobalVariable Property PlayerReputation_Hearts Auto
GlobalVariable Property PlayerReputation_Orcas Auto
Message Property PerceptionOptionMessage Auto
Message Property IntimidateOptionMessage Auto
Message Property BluffOptionMessage Auto
Sound Property GunshotFX Auto

;======= STATES =======
Bool Property HasFakeKilledJohnny = False Auto
Bool Property HasRevealedOrcasPlan = False Auto

;======= MAIN TRIGGER =======
Event OnActivate(ObjectReference akActionRef)
    If akActionRef == Game.GetPlayer()
        If Game.GetPlayer().GetAV("Perception") >= 8
            PerceptionOptionMessage.Show()
            HandlePerceptionBranch()
        ElseIf Game.GetPlayer().GetAV("Intimidation") >= 60
            IntimidateOptionMessage.Show()
            HandleIntimidationBranch()
        Else
            BluffOptionMessage.Show()
            HandleBluffBranch()
        EndIf
    EndIf
EndEvent

;======= BRANCH FUNCTIONS =======
Function HandlePerceptionBranch()
    Debug.Trace("[ABH] Player used Perception to uncover Johnny's allegiance.")
    ABH_Quest.SetObjectiveCompleted(10)
    ABH_Quest.SetStage(20)
    PlayerReputation_Hearts.Mod(5)
EndFunction

Function HandleIntimidationBranch()
    Debug.Trace("[ABH] Player used Intimidation to force Johnny's cooperation.")
    ABH_Quest.SetObjectiveCompleted(10)
    ABH_Quest.SetStage(30)
    JohnnyBradshaw.EvaluatePackage()
    PlayerReputation_Orcas.Mod(-3)
EndFunction

Function HandleBluffBranch()
    Debug.Trace("[ABH] Player failed all checks, triggering default conflict.")
    ABH_Quest.SetObjectiveCompleted(10)
    ABH_Quest.SetStage(40)
    JohnnyBradshaw.StartCombat(Game.GetPlayer())
    PlayerReputation_Hearts.Mod(-2)
EndFunction

Function TriggerFakeDeath()
    If HasFakeKilledJohnny
        Return
    EndIf
    Debug.Trace("[ABH] Triggering fake death sequence for Johnny.")
    JohnnyBradshaw.Disable()
    GunshotFX.Play(Game.GetPlayer())
    Utility.Wait(1.0)
    JohnnyFakeCorpse.MoveTo(JohnnyCorpseMarker)
    JohnnyFakeCorpse.Enable()
    ABH_Quest.SetStage(50)
    HasFakeKilledJohnny = True
EndFunction

Function RevealOrcasPlanToHearts()
    If HasRevealedOrcasPlan
        Return
    EndIf
    Debug.Trace("[ABH] Player revealed Orcas plot to Hearts.")
    ABH_Quest.SetStage(60)
    PlayerReputation_Hearts.Mod(10)
    HasRevealedOrcasPlan = True
EndFunction

Function ResetEncounterState()
    HasFakeKilledJohnny = False
    HasRevealedOrcasPlan = False
    JohnnyBradshaw.Enable()
    JohnnyFakeCorpse.Disable()
    ABH_Quest.SetStage(10)
EndFunction

Work Samples

Below are examples of my narrative design work on Fallout: Cascadia, showcasing different aspects of my contributions to the project.

Bark Dialogue

An example of the ambient dialogue systems I designed for Cascadia's trading caravans. This barks sheet demonstrates how I created reactive dialogue that responds to player faction reputation, environmental conditions, and world state changes. Each bark includes multiple variations and conditional triggers to create dynamic, living NPCs that feel aware of the player's actions and the world around them.

Branching Dialogue

An example of my branching dialogue design work for the NPC Toby Green in the "Catch and Release" quest. This dialogue spreadsheet demonstrates my approach to conversation design, including skill checks, emotional beats, and multiple resolution paths. The format shows how I organize complex dialogue trees with clear conditional logic and implementation notes for the Creation Kit.

More Writing Samples

If you want to check out more writing samples, visit my Writing Samples page.

What I Learned

Designing for a large mod team reinforced disciplined quest scoping, explicit state tracking, and readable Papyrus script conventions. I learned to structure dialogue and quest logic for maintainability, build systems that remain reactive over long playthroughs, and collaborate across level, scripting, and QA to keep narrative intent aligned with world implementation.