Hey, Mr. Postman
“Hey, Mr. Postman” is a single player quest line for Fallout 4 that follows the completion of “Going Postal” on the good ending branch. The Lone Survivor takes on the responsibility of being a postman working with Postmaster Ford to open up another post office in the Commonwealth. They start the quest by engaging with Ford, who needs help in his personal life. He wants help to expand the reach of his post office and to reconnect with Peggie. Help both Ford and Peggie move forward with their relationship and their lives by connecting with them and the important people from their past.
Role
Narrative & Quest Designer
Game Engine
Fallout 4 Creation Kit
Platform
PC
Development Time
4 Months, 2021
Team Size
1 Designer
Hey, Mr. Postman Playthrough
Screenshots
Quest Progression
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This quest progresses through intentional player engagement with the narrative.
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Each character has multiple dialogue branches that the player can choose to partake in.
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As the player gathers information, the full story between Peggie, Ford, and Lincoln unfolds.
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Both opening the next post office and progressing the story between Peggie and Ford require deliberate exploration and socialization by the player.
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Through the player’s actions, they can earn one of four endings.
Player interactions and engagements in game
Branching Narratives
Narrative Goals
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Build a chain quest that continues a story that was started in the “Going Postal” mod.
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Further the stories of the characters introduced in “Going Postal”.
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Introduce three new characters that the player doesn’t know and one character that the player could know from a letter in “Going Postal”.
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New Characters:
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Church, a religious outpost leader, trying to convert wayward Wastelanders to his cause.
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Jag, a non-binary outpost leader, trying to eliminate the threat of raider band.
- Roe Swan, a former raider that wants to build a new future for the Commonwealth with Lincoln’s help.
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Known Character:
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Mercedes, an experienced outpost leader that used her connections to tip Lincoln off about raiders that could be saved.
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Continuing the Story
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Ford
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Goals for Ford:
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Tie up loose ends with Peggie.
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Give him a new goal that fits with the ending of “Going Postal”.
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Give the player agency for how Ford’s story with Peggie ends and where the next post office goes.
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Changes from initial design:
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Each dialogue chain is now a separate conversation that players can go back and choose to interact with.
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The talk about raider employees got broken out as its own conversation.
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This got simplified due to time constraints.
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Both post office locations got moved due to limitations the previous areas posed.
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Initially there were multiple letters going between Ford and Peggie as well as Ford and Lincoln.
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Many of them got cut
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Felt like padding the quest was unnecessary.
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Time management for higher priority tasks.
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Ford's Dialogue Tree
(Click on Image to Enlarge)
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Peggie
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Goals for Peggie:
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Tie up loose ends with Ford.
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Expand her backstory with Ford, Lincoln, and Floyd.
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Humanize her through goals and aspirations for the future.
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Changes from initial design:
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Conversations centering around the later letter exchanges were cut and simplified.
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Dialogue that was initially proposed to be in different conversations got condensed into a single conversation with multiple question branches.
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Peggie's Dialogue Tree
(Click on Image to Enlarge)
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Lincoln
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Goals for Lincoln:
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Reveal more of his history and why he became the person he is.
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Form an emotional bond between him and a found family.
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Introduce light flirtation between him and the player.
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Secondary Goal: Setup the potential to make him a companion in later versions of this quest chain.
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Changes from initial design:
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The flirtatious dialogue chain was cut and simplified into two coquettish lines.
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This accomplished the same goal with less work.
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Asking about who to employ in the Post Office Square route got cut and simplified based on Peggie’s choice instead of the player’s.
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Lincoln's Dialogue Tree
(Click on Image to Enlarge)
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Outpost Leaders
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Goals for Outpost Leaders:
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Reminders for the player to know what they’re doing in the Commonwealth.
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Jag, to facilitate the dangerous location ending.
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Mercedes, to facilitate the safe location ending and reward the player for reading the letter between her and Lincoln in “Going Postal”.
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Church, to be a dead end in the chain, but create player interest in his group.
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Changes from initial design:
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Changed Jag from being male to non-binary.
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Changes the dynamic of the outpost leaders for more interesting interactions.
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Condensed opinion dialogue for Mercedes and Jag to keep their interactions more linear.
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Maintains consistency with how Church’s interaction plays.
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Outpost Leaders Dialogue Tree
(Click on Image to Enlarge)
Player Agency
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Relationships :
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Ford and Peggie’s relationship outcome is influenced by the player’s choices.
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Learning about the history between Ford and Peggie as well as Lincoln’s view on both of them is player driven.
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Knowing about Mercedes before encountering her is a result of player exploration in “Going Postal”.
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Interactions :
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Focused around feeling as natural as possible.
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Socializing with main characters should create situations where they have different things to say.
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Conversations should expand the player’s knowledge of the characters and the world.
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Relationships and Interactions in game
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The Post Office
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Created two spaces that could be viable post offices.
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Hair Salon - Safe Location
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Roe Swan and Peggie can work here.
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Travel Agency - Dangerous Location
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Only Roe Swan, an experienced wastelander, can work here.
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Each space is in a location that could serve a realistic purpose in expanding a post office.
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Players must find these locations themselves with hints from the Outpost leaders.
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Hair Salon backroom space
Open Ending
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Gives room to continue the quest if the designer wants to.
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Allows the player to form their own thoughts about what happens to the characters after.
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Aligns with the existing design for how Fallout 4’s quests function in the world.
Post Mortem
What Went Well ?
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The overall goal of the project was accomplished.
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Better management of dialogue chains through use of global variables.
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Managed to introduce and iterate on all characters that were proposed.
What Went Wrong ?
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Over scoped dialogue by about 100 lines.
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Lost time through attempting to connect two .esp files together instead of initially building the quest on the same .esp file.
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No voiced dialogue lines due to the abundance of dialogue written.
What I Learned ?
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Learned how to properly connect quests together using Creation Kit.
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Value the time it takes to write longer, dialogue heavy quests.
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Communication with stakeholders is valuable to negotiate modifying and cutting features.
