Fatherhood V2.0

Fatherhood brings young Jack Marston into free roam as a protected companion. Jack automatically follows whichever supported protagonist you are currently playing as: Arthur Morgan or John Marston

If you enjoy this mod and have kids, I ask for no donations. Instead, turn off your rig for an hour, head outside, and play cowboys with them.

Don’t just mod your game—mod their childhood.

FATHERHOOD
Young Jack Companion for Red Dead Redemption 2
Version 0.4.8 – Jack Outfit Presets Experimental
By Gnarly Bastard Mods

OVERVIEW

Fatherhood brings young Jack Marston into free roam as a persistent companion for Arthur Morgan or John Marston.

Jack follows the active player across the world, rides behind them on their horse, reacts to danger like a child instead of a gunfighter, and can exchange simple voiced greetings using Red Dead Redemption 2’s existing dialogue system.

The goal is not to turn Jack into another armed follower. The goal is to create a quieter, more personal father-and-son experience while exploring the open world.

FEATURES
• Young Jack automatically joins Arthur or John in safe free roam.
• Supports both Arthur Morgan and John Marston.
• Jack naturally walks, jogs, runs, and catches up depending on distance.
• Jack retreats behind the player when weapons are drawn.
• During combat, Jack attempts to remain farther away from danger.
• Jack is unarmed and protected from normal damage and targeting.
• Jack rides behind Arthur or John on the player’s horse.
• Uses the game’s native passenger mounting and dismounting tasks.
• Includes fallback recovery if mounting or dismounting becomes stuck.
• Jack regroups near the player after a fall or horse crash.
• Basic voiced greeting exchanges with Arthur or John.
• Keyboard and controller dialogue support.
• Eight built-in young Jack outfit presets exposed through the INI.
• Optional random outfit selection with individual preset filtering.
• Automatic removal during missions, cutscenes, death, arrests, protagonist transitions, and other unsafe states.
• Duplicate protection when a story-controlled version of Jack is nearby.
• Detailed diagnostic logging and recovery behavior.

NEW IN VERSION 0.4.8

Version 0.4.8 adds an INI-controlled outfit preset system for young Jack.

Choose one fixed preset from 0 through 7, or use random mode:

[JackOutfit]
OutfitPreset=-1

Values:

-1 = Random enabled preset
0 = Preset 0
1 = Preset 1
2 = Preset 2
3 = Preset 3
4 = Preset 4
5 = Preset 5
6 = Preset 6
7 = Preset 7

Random mode can be filtered:

AllowPreset0=1
AllowPreset1=1
AllowPreset2=1
AllowPreset3=1
AllowPreset4=1
AllowPreset5=1
AllowPreset6=1
AllowPreset7=1

Set an unwanted preset to 0 to remove it from the random pool.

The game identifies these outfits numerically and does not provide reliable descriptive names. Test presets 0 through 7 to find the camp, cold-weather, and other appearances you prefer.

DIALOGUE

Stand near Jack while:

• On foot
• Unarmed
• Outside combat
• Not mounting, falling, swimming, or in another unsafe state

Then press:

• G on keyboard
• R3 / Right Stick Click on controller

Arthur or John will greet Jack, and Jack will attempt a short voiced response.

The current public dialogue system is intentionally simple and primarily consists of greeting exchanges. It does not yet include long conversations or custom voice files.

A short tutorial may appear once after Jack first spawns. The mod does not display a repeating “press G” message every time you approach him.

CONTROLS

G Talk to Jack
R3 / Right Stick Click Talk to Jack with controller
F7 Display and log status
F8 Enable or disable Fatherhood
F9 Force Jack to attempt mounting the current horse
F10 Reload the INI and reapply Jack’s outfit
F11 Remove and reset Jack

REQUIREMENTS
• Red Dead Redemption 2 Story Mode
• ScriptHookRDR2
• A working ASI loader

This mod is intended for Story Mode only.

INSTALLATION
1. Close Red Dead Redemption 2.
2. Extract the archive.
3. Copy the following files into the main Red Dead Redemption 2 directory beside RDR2.exe:

JackMarstonCompanion.asi
JackMarstonCompanion.ini

4. Launch Story Mode.
5. Load as Arthur or John in normal free roam.
6. Stay outside missions and cutscenes for several seconds while Jack spawns.

Do not install multiple versions of Fatherhood or JackMarstonCompanion at the same time.

UNINSTALLATION

Delete:

JackMarstonCompanion.asi
JackMarstonCompanion.ini
JackMarstonCompanion.log

Removing the mod does not intentionally modify save data.

IMPORTANT SAFETY NOTE

Use a spare manual save while testing script mods.

Do not rely only on your single main Story Mode save. Back up your Red Dead Redemption 2 save files before installing experimental builds or combining multiple script mods.

KNOWN LIMITATIONS

• Version 0.4.8 is an experimental outfit branch.
• The stable development baseline remains Fatherhood v0.4.4 Player-Ready.
• Dialogue is currently limited mainly to short greeting exchanges.
• Young Jack’s original voice bank was authored primarily around Arthur. While playing as John, an automatic ambient reaction may occasionally address the player as “Arthur,” especially after an injury or horse crash.
• Jack rides in the standard rear passenger position. Front riding and the mission-style assisted mounting animation are not included.
• Some horses, terrain, saddles, coats, and other mods may affect mounting alignment.
• Jack may temporarily disappear during missions or story-controlled scenes by design.
• The numerical outfit presets may not all produce clearly different appearances in every game state.

COMPATIBILITY

Fatherhood is designed as a standalone ScriptHookRDR2 ASI.

Compatibility cannot be guaranteed with mods that:

• Replace young Jack’s model or MetaPed data
• Control companion groups
• Override horse passenger behavior
• Force player model changes
• Modify mission-state detection
• Spawn another Jack companion

If Jack does not appear, test Fatherhood by itself on a clean ScriptHook setup before reporting a conflict.

TROUBLESHOOTING

Jack does not spawn:
• Confirm that you are playing as Arthur or John.
• Leave missions, camp activities, cutscenes, shops, and transitions.
• Wait several seconds in open free roam.
• Press F8 once in case the mod was disabled.
• Press F11 to reset Jack.
• Check JackMarstonCompanion.log.

Jack will not mount:
• Stop the horse near Jack.
• Allow him time to approach.
• Press F9 to request another mount attempt.
• Avoid steep terrain, deep water, narrow interiors, and active combat.

Jack’s outfit does not change:
• Edit OutfitPreset in JackMarstonCompanion.ini.
• Save the file.
• Press F10 in game.
• Test numerical presets 0 through 7.

Dialogue does not play:
• Stand near Jack.
• Be on foot and unarmed.
• Leave combat.
• Press G or R3.
• Wait for the dialogue cooldown before trying again.

Jack is missing during a mission:
• This is intentional. He should return after the game reaches safe free roam.

LOG FILE

Fatherhood creates:

JackMarstonCompanion.log

The log records startup, configuration, protagonist detection, Jack spawning, outfits, following, protective states, horse behavior, dialogue requests, recovery, and manual controls.

Include the complete log when reporting a technical problem.

Credits:

GnarlyBastard90