Monthly Modder: JosephRussell

Lucien is a community mod who brings some wonderful color commentary to the world of Skyrim.

Learn more about him and his development in this month’s author interview with JosephRussell!

Joseph Russell is best known for his follower mod, Lucien (PC, Xbox, Nexus). Lucien is an Imperial eager to explore the lands of Skyrim, but also somewhat leery of his own capabilities. You can help Lucien follow his own pursuits and become more confident in his abilities.

Lucien is also an expansive follower, and this month we are featuring add-ons that give him additional commentary for popular adventure mods “Moonpath To Elsweyr” and “Moon And Star,” as well as many official creations. If you’re looking for a new companion, Lucien is a great choice, and one who is compatible with several other companions as well!

What are some of the things which inspired Lucien, and did they change across his development?

He started out as a counterpoint to the “awesome warrior” stereotype you often find with followers in the game. The idea of a total nerd trying to survive in Skyrim amused me and I thought I could have a lot of fun with making his character develop over time as he travelled with you. Inspiration-wise, I suppose he draws on elements from several characters (I can think of Doctor Who, Dragon Age’s Alistair and Dorian, and C-3PO off the top of my head). Naturally, there’s a lot of me in there too – especially my stupid sense of humor – but he’s really a lot braver and better with a sword than I am. As I’ve worked on him over the years, the feedback has helped me figure out what works well and what doesn’t for his character, and he’s grown more and more into his own separate, distinct self.

Any favorite moments for Lucien?

The conversations Lucien has with Inigo are my personal favorites. Getting to work with SmartBlueCat writing and recording them was a definite career highlight and it still makes me grin when they play in game. Some of them are incredibly rare and specific so I doubt there’s anyone out there who’s heard them all!

You have continued to expand Lucien, including add-ons so he can react to various community mods and official creations. What’s next for this intrepid Imperial?

Well right now, I’m focused on making Lucien talk about as much of the Anniversary Edition content as possible, since lots of people are discovering that for the first time and I think it’s fun to have a companion with you who comments on what’s going on. I’ve already covered 28 of the Creation Club DLCs and you can find all the links on my website. Otherwise, we’ve got Dawnguard awareness and a third personal quest on the way, plus interactions with mods like Legacy of the Dragonborn and Beyond Skyrim: Bruma in the future. I’m also planning Season Two of Lucien the Dragonborn, my “What-If” YouTube series, and have some other top-secret projects in the pipeline to continue his story outside of the game.

In addition to writing and scripting Lucien, you provide his voice. Do you have any words of wisdom for folks interested in voice acting?

While I’d love to voice act professionally, I don’t have tons of experience outside of Lucien so I’m probably not the best person to ask. For what it’s worth, though, if you tune into my Twitch streams, you’ll hear Lucien’s voice is very similar to my own natural speaking voice. That’s because, since I was going to be voicing thousands of lines of dialogue, it had to be a voice I was comfortable with. Growly, scratchy voices are fine for bit parts but if you keep them up for long periods of time you can really hurt yourself, so stick with something natural and easy if you can. Lots of people say to me “I can’t voice act for my mod, I don’t sound right for voice acting.” Pshh. The world is full of people who talk in all sorts of different ways, why shouldn’t Tamriel be the same? The lore is flexible enough to accommodate any accent at all – and you can always just say your character is from some remote island if push comes to shove – so just give it a shot.

What is your favorite part of modding?

The feedback! Getting to chat to players on Twitch, Twitter, Discord etc. is such a joy, and it’s great to hear what different people see in and take away from the character. Toxic masculinity is a major real-world issue these days which needs to be addressed and I’ve tried to make Lucien an example of a gentler way of being masculine. The little community that’s sprung up around him seems to have responded to that in a really positive way, and it’s led to some really interesting discussions about alternative, kinder and more thoughtful approaches to life, which are lovely to witness and be a part of.

Other than your own, any mods you'd like to recommend?

Inigo, without a doubt! In my opinion, he’s the gold standard of follower modding, and I learned how to make Lucien by studying him. I also owe a lot to the authors of Kaidan, Hoth, and Song of the Green’s Auri for collaborating with me in Lucien’s very early days, and they’re all wonderful characters definitely worth checking out. Otherwise, Interesting NPCs is ridiculously good, both in terms of quality and quantity, Wyrmstooth is a treat, anything by OpusGlass is reliably awesome, and Jelidity’s Creation Club synergy patches are must-haves on the Anniversary Edition. Honestly, I could spend hours listing the rest of my favorites, but I’d better wrap it up there before this gets too long. Thanks so much for having me, bye!

Inigo (Bethesda.net, Nexus)
Kaidan (Bethesda.net, Nexus)
Hoth (Nexus)
Auri (Bethesda.net, Nexus)
Interesting NPCs (Nexus)
Wyrmstooth (Bethesda.net, Nexus)
OpusGlass (Bethesda.net, Nexus)
Jelidity (Nexus)

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