Brian Chapin is a developer who worked at Bethesda Game Studios as a quest designer and writer on Fallout 3, Fallout 4 and Fallout 76.
Career[]
Work on the Fallout series[]
Chapin was a primary writer on the main quest line of Fallout 3, as well as the quests in the Mothership Zeta add-on.[1] He also worked on Fallout 4, in which he wrote for Shaun[2] and Travis Miles.[3] Chapin was also credited on Fallout 76 as a quest designer and writer.
Other work[]
Chapin has worked at Bethesda Game Studios since 2002, where he has also contributed significantly to the development of The Elder Scrolls series and Starfield.
Employment history[]
| From | To | Company | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Present | Bethesda Game Studios | Designer |
Credits[]
Fallout series[]
| Year | Title | Credited as/for |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Fallout 3 | Quest Designer |
| 2015 | Fallout 4 | Quest Designer & Writer |
| 2018 | Fallout 76 | Quest Designer & Writer |
Other work[]
| Year | Title | Credited as/for |
|---|---|---|
| 2002 | The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind | Quest Designer |
| 2006 | The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion | Quest Designer |
| 2011 | The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim | Quest Designer |
| 2018 | The Elder Scrolls Blades | Additional Writer |
| 2023 | Starfield | Lead City Designer |
External links[]
- Writing the Worlds of Bethesda (Fallout For Hope - May 14, 2023)
References[]
- ↑ Interview at TalkingAboutGames (archived)
- ↑ Writing the Worlds of Bethesda (reference starts at 1:03:43):
Brian Chapin: "It's a tough call, I think I'm gonna go with... meeting Father in the Institute in Fallout 4. That was... Emil, I don't remember how many revisions of that conversation we did over the years. That was a big piece of it. But then also for me, it was super important, I was like 'Listen... we gotta let you shoot him.' We have to handle, like, what if you don't wanna deal with this? What do we do? We have to let you get away with it. And I'm really glad that we took the time."
Kenneth Vigue: "Yeah, that was a very unexpected moment for me."
Emil Pagliarulo: "Yeah, we knew when we were doing the game that the kid was Father. But we didn't really know how we were gonna write that. And then like, Chappy, you spent a lot of time just thinking about it and talking about it. Taking it seriously, like wow. It was... yeah, oh boy."
Brian Chapin: "And that was definitely a case where, like, we did some revisions, we did some drafts of that. And then once we cast the role and we had that to work with. Then we could kinda go back and say, 'Alright, well now I know what he sounds like, how can we use that to our advantage?' And I think that helped a lot." - ↑ Writing the Worlds of Bethesda (reference starts at 1:05:33):
Brian Chapin: "I don't even have to think about this. It is 100%, it is Travis Miles from Fallout 4. So that was Emil's idea that he handed to me, and was like, 'Listen, we got, we need the radio DJ, and he has like, no self-confidence.' And I was like, 'I'm sorry, what?' And... so I spent a lot of time writing that, and then we got... at that point, y'know, that was when all of the characters were being - all of the voice recording was being done out in L.A., with a few notable exceptions. Present company included. And we would get auditions back, y'know, and it was this sort of secretive process where we weren't exactly telling people what they were auditioning for. I think somebody, maybe Mark Lampert, actually wrote up an entire separate thing for them to read that wasn't directly related. We got a list of like, 18-20 auditions back, then they would say 'Who do you want to go with?' And I was going through the list... and I was like three quarters of the way through, and nobody was getting it. It just... it was either like a bad Jerry Lewis impersonation, like 'Wo-hough!' Or just like overly afraid or whatever... And it was maybe like the second-to-last one, five seconds into it, 'that is the voice that I have heard in my head as I was writing it.' And that was Brendan Hunt, who everyone now knows and loves as Coach Beard in Ted Lasso. But it's those moments where I've been hearing something in my head as I write it, and somebody else can read it for the first time in the recording booth and it comes out exactly the way I'd heard it. Those moments are absolutely priceless and I love Travis for that."