John Cassidy[1] is a veteran wastelander that has marauded and gallivanted since the turn of the 23rd century, until his failing health forced him to eventually settle down by opening a bar in Vault City by 2241. He appears as a potential companion of the Chosen One in Fallout 2.
Background[]
Adventuring days[]
An old man with deep wrinkles by the mid-23rd century, John Cassidy's exploits as a veteran wastelander took him to some of the worst places of the wasteland, with the scars to show for it. These "trophies" of the adventurer's life include marks from a knife attack in 2203 and old entry wounds from taking a bullet or several in 2195, 2199 and 2201 separately. He also mentions having once gotten a metal plate implanted in his skull and lost an eye, which he replaces with a fake.[2]
Slinging drinks in Vault City[]
Cassidy eventually had to give up the adventurer's life and settle down in Vault City sometime before 2241 when a congenital heart defect flared up, leaving his body on the verge of organ failure if he had continued. As a result of his condition, Cassidy requires regular cardiac booster shots to keep his heart working properly, essentially leaving him stuck in Vault City as no other place for miles around has the medical advancement necessary to help him.[3]
Left with nothing else to do, he opened up a bar, naming it the Spittoon, in the city's main courtyard after paying a hefty fee for a license to sell real alcohol on the premises. While serving up booze to his customers, Cassidy is found to be a pleasant but prejudiced man to talk to, provided the person doing the talking does not get on his bad side, or happen to be the wrong race as he vocally despises ghouls for existing and generally dislikes people he perceives as despicable.[4] He can be direct at times and he has further issues with prejudice towards tribals, but he's stubborn and loyal to a fault when it comes to trusted companions of his. As the owner and bartender, he managed to get by well enough, making enough to pay his rent, the fee for the alcohol license, and still afford his required booster shots from Doc Andrew.
By 2241, however, his business took a hit after Sergeant Stark led a raid on the Spittoon, confiscating his alcohol and detaining several customers. As Cassidy's view of the governance of Vault City was already strained, Stark's raid ended up being the last straw for him as he started looking for any reason to close up for good and skip town.
Later life[]
While it is known that Cassidy met and joined the Chosen One on the tribal warrior's journey to save the village of Arroyo, leaving Vault City behind, to what extent he helped them is unknown. It is known that the two eventually parted ways, with Cassidy wandering for a short period after until settling down again. This time, it was with a tribal woman he had met in his travels somewhere east of the Colorado River, sometime at least before the territory there was taken over by Caesar's Legion. Cassidy managed to discover romantic feelings for her despite his previous reservations about tribals.
Their marriage grew intimate and sometime later, at his ripe old age, John and his wife bore a daughter who took after her father; he picked the child's name, "Rose of Sharon" from "an Old World book about dirt pilgrims" he once read, and gifted her a pendant of a rose flower that he possessed.[Non-game 1] A few years later, when his daughter was young, he decided to leave his family and journey east of California, with his wife and daughter never to see him again as the former eventually passed away. Cassidy allegedly attempted to make his way to the former American state of Texas, breaking south through the territory of the New California Republic and past the city of Dayglow.[Non-game 2]
While his ultimate fate is unknown, by the 2280s, his adult daughter, nicknamed "Cass" has resigned herself to the fact that she will likely never learn the real reason for his departure but firmly believes her father was not the kind of man who would abandon his family on a whim.[5] By the late 23rd century, the Cassidy name became attached to a thriving business once again when Cass built up and ran the Cassidy Caravans group, ferrying cargo between New California and the Mojave Wasteland.
Interactions with the player character[]
Fallout 2[]
Interactions overview[]
| Interactions | ||
|---|---|---|
  |
This character is a permanent companion. | |
  |
This character is a merchant. | Sells: drinks |
Companion[]
- As Cassidy explains, he is handy in unarmed combat and can use spears. However, he truly shines with pistols and rifles. The sawed-off shotgun he has by default is a decent weapon, but his abilities will show the full potential of a hunting rifle or full size shotgun. His skills truly shine with a high end weapon such as Pancor Jackhammer or M72 Gauss rifle.
- Cassidy only has animation frames for unarmed weapons, spears, throwing weapons, pistols, and rifles. He cannot use weapons that use other animations, such as plasma rifles, laser rifles or pulse rifles.
- Giving Cassidy power armor of any kind will boost his Unarmed skill above Small Guns.
- The player character cannot recruit Cassidy if they have less than 4 Intelligence, karma below -101, or the Slaver or Childkiller reputations.
- If the Chosen One uses Jet, Psycho or Buffout on Cassidy, he will immediately die of a heart attack.
- He declares that he is skilled with shotguns and rifles mostly (he begins equipped with a sawed-off shotgun), as well as pistols. He can also use brass knuckles and spears; he claims that he used to hunt with a spear but expresses shame about making him seem like a tribal. At this point, the Chosen One can state they are tribal, after which Cassidy will sincerely apologize and claim that spears are fine weapons used by many of his tribal friends.
- Cassidy can be given heart pills and he exclaims he "feels" better, but the pills have no real effect and goes back to complaining about his heart again.
Location comments[]
- Vault City
- "I hate this place."
- "I was hoping we'd steer clear of this place for good."
- "City of tight-asses..."
- "This place looks worse than Vault City."
- New Reno
- "If I kick the bucket, don't bury me here."
- "Watch yourself around here. The locals ain't too friendly."
- San Francisco
- "Heh. Never thought I'd see San Francisco."
- Enclave dock
- "Never thought you'd keep an old timer like me 'round this long. Let's get this job done and go home."
- Redding Downtown
- "Redding's a mining town. Gold, mostly. A lot of caravans came to Vault City from here."
- Broken Hills
- "Broken Hills is a mining town...mostly uranium ore. It can be a rough place, so watch yourself."
- Places he doesn't like: Toxic caves, Rat caves, Broken Hills underground, PMV Valdez, Ghost Farm, Redding mine tunnels, Sierra Army Depot battlefield
- "Good thing I checked my weapons before I came in here."
Other interactions[]
- Talking to Cassidy in his bar in the Vault City courtyard will reveal his dissatisfaction with life there and how Citizen Sergeant Stark busted up his establishment.
- The player character can confront Sergeant Stark once they become the Captain of the Guard in Vault City and pull rank, so that he pays Cassidy reparations and wipes his record in Vault City. The player character receives $500 and 500 XP in return.
- Cassidy has a fair few interactions with other members of the player character's party.
Fallout: New California[]
 | The following is based on information from Fallout: New California. |
|---|
John Cassidy can be acquired at the shop by any player character that has the Idolized trait. When the player character has him as the active companion and starts a fight, he can be exhausted, adding the ranged trait to the player character's weapon, and gain one reroll in the fight.
When the player character performs the camp action, he will become unexhausted. However, if the player character has any drugs in their inventory at this time, he must be discarded.
Statistics[]
- John Cassidy makes a number of comments as he levels up:
- "It's all comin' back to me now..."
- "Heh. Guess you can teach an old dog new tricks."
- "Looks like all this travelling has paid off."
- "I've learned some new tricks."
| Statistic | Stage 1 | Stage 2 | Stage 3 | Stage 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strength | 06 | 06 | 06 | 06 |
| Perception | 07 | 07 | 08 | 08 |
| Endurance | 04 | 04 | 04 | 04 |
| Charisma | 05 | 05 | 05 | 05 |
| Intelligence | 04 | 04 | 04 | 04 |
| Agility | 06 | 06 | 07 | 07 |
| Luck | 09 | 09 | 09 | 09 |
| Statistic | Stage 1 | Stage 2 | Stage 3 | Stage 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hit Points | 92 | 104 | 116 | 128 |
| Armor Class | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 |
| Action Points | 8 | 9 | 9 | 10 |
| Carry Weight | 175 | 175 | 175 | 175 |
| Melee Damage | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Damage Resistance | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Poison Resistance | 20% | 20% | 20% | 20% |
| Radiation Resistance | 8% | 8% | 8% | 8% |
| Sequence | 14 | 14 | 17 | 18 |
| Healing Rate | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Critical Chance | 21% | 26% | 31% | 36% |
- Note: Unarmed will be tagged when Cassidy is equipped with power armor, as the Strength bonus it confers boosts his Unarmed skill above that of Small Guns.
| Skill | Stage 1 | Stage 2 | Stage 3 | Stage 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small Guns | 105% | 125% | 140% | 160% |
| Energy Weapons | 90% | 100% | 120% | 130% |
| Unarmed | 100% | 120% | 130% | 140% |
| Melee Weapons | 100% | 120% | 125% | 130% |
| Throwing | 70% | 80% | 90% | 100% |
| Barter | 80% | 80% | 80% | 80% |
| Gambling | 80% | 80% | 80% | 80% |
| Outdoorsman | 40% | 45% | 50% | 55% |
Inventory[]
| Apparel | Weapon | Other items |
|---|---|---|
| Leather armor | Sawed-off shotgun | $72 12 gauge shotgun shells x2 Rot gut |
Appearances[]
John Cassidy appears in Fallout 2 and the Fallout: The Board Game expansion Fallout: New California. He is indirectly mentioned in Fallout: New Vegas.
Behind the scenes[]
- Cassidy was designed by Chris Avellone, who later went on to write Cassidy's daughter, Rose of Sharon Cassidy, in Fallout: New Vegas.[Non-game 3]
- Avellone said regarding Cassidy, "[Cassidy] was mostly there because we wanted to do another companion in this location, and I was like, well I don't want to really do another talking head, I already did a lot with Myron, how about I do a much more simpler, just fun combat character, Cassidy, the gun-toting bartender, sure."[Non-game 4]
- Cassidy claims that he was named after a pre-War comic book character, a "mean sonuvabitch," by his father.[6] This may refer to Cassidy, an Irish vampire character with a fondness for whiskey and booze from Preacher.
- Cassidy's name was originally MacRae (Feargus Urquhart's middle name) and it occasionally appears in the game, such as if the player character sells him into slavery.
Pop culture references[]
- Cassidy's dialogue contains numerous pop culture references, including:
- The Final Fantasy series, when he says "Wish I had a limit break..."[7] Limit Break is an ability that has appeared throughout the Final Fantasy series.
- The original Wasteland, with attack taunts ("Gonna grind you into a thin red paste..." and "I'm gonna reduce you to an undertaker's nightmare.", both are direct quotes from the combat system).
- He also breaks the fourth wall numerous times, referencing Action Points (when moving to attack, "*Huf*...I...*Huf*...need more...*Huf*.... action points."), critical hits (when attacking, "Nothing wrong with you a critical to the eyes won't cure."), chance to hit (when an attack misses him, "Missed me by a few % points."), turns ("Yer aim's off. Next turn, it's gonna be your head."), and save games ("Too bad YOU can't reload the game and try again...").
Talking head[]
The fan-created talking head that inspired Cassidy's board game card.
After the release of Fallout 2, a fan-made talking head for Cassidy was created for the total conversion mod Mutants Rising.[Non-game 5] It was later included in the Fallout 2 Restoration Project, an overhaul mod dedicated to fixing bugs, restoring cut content from the game files, re-creating content that was planned but never implemented, and overhauling the gameplay and story based on developer commentary and fan requests. Confusion surrounding which parts of the mod were fan-made and which were taken from the game files led to the talking head being erroneously presented on Nukapedia as official cut content for a significant period of time. In 2018, the Fallout: The Board Game expansion Fallout: New California released a companion card of Cassidy with an official design based on the fan-made talking head. The talking head was also later included as part of the Fallout 2 Restoration Project Updated mod, a modern successor to the original mod, released in late 2020.
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ PRO CRIT.MSG (Fallout 2): "{8900}{}{John Cassidy}"
- ↑ COMBATAI.MSG (Fallout 2):
# target hit in head
"{40807}{}{Thank god for that metal plate in my head, or I'd be dead...}"
# target hit in left arm
"{40810}{}{Dammit! I got knifed in that arm back in '03!}"
# target hit in right arm
"{40820}{}{Dammit! I got shot in that arm back in '01!}"
# target hit in right leg
"{40860}{}{Dammit! I got shot in that leg back in '99.}"
# target hit in left leg
"{40870}{}{Dammit! I got shot in that leg back in '95.}"
# target hit in eyes
"{40886}{}{Thank god that eye was fake...}" - ↑ The Chosen One: "{144}{}{Why are you here if you hate it so much?}"
John Cassidy: "{147}{}{I have a bad heart. Need cardio booster shots to keep it beating. This city's the only place to get real medical care, so I thought I'd settle here, try and make a living.}"
(VCCasidy.msg) - ↑ Interactions with Lenny and Myron.
- ↑ The Courier: "Tell me about your Dad."
Rose of Sharon Cassidy: "Not much to tell. He ended up walking East one day when I was young and never came back. Not a family deserter like some, though. Mom died waiting for him, and she had me to raise. She was sick but she held off dying until I was old enough to be getting into trouble with boys. As for Dad, I figure he just got himself lost or dead. Happens... and I'm not all boo-hoo about it, so save your glass for someone who's crying."
The Courier: "Any idea why he went East?"
Rose of Sharon Cassidy: "Not a clue. When he left, I was too in my crib to understand why, and around the time Mom passed, I was too into my teens to listen. Got his name, got this pendant, and that's about it. Gift from my Dad, along with my name. Rose of Sharon Cassidy. Mom said he got the name out of some Old World book about dirt pilgrims. Name sure sounds sweet, though. Anyway, pendant's a little rose. Originally thought it was one of Mom's tribal necklaces, but no, came from Dad."
(Rose of Sharon Cassidy's dialogue) - ↑ John Cassidy: "{356}{}{Dad named me after some comic book character from before the war. Said he was a mean sonuvabitch, too.}"
(VCCasidy.msg) - ↑ COMBATAI.MSG (Fallout 2):
# attacking
"{40940}{}{Wish I had a limit break...}"
Non-game
- ↑ Joshua Sawyer on Formspring
- ↑ Fallout Bible 5: "9b. Hey thanks for answering. You probobly can't find the other questions because I was at my bro's when i sent em. I asked about what happened to some of the fallout 2 npcs after the game. We know myron gets stabbed by a jet addict ironically in the den. And Marcus goes off to go do some heroics of his own. But what about cassidy, sulik and the EC squadren to name a few."
"Cassidy and Sulik: Can't say, no documentation exists. To be honest, I'll probably leave their fates open, since I don't want to pigeonhole two of the most favorite NPC allies from Fallout 2. I kind of hope that Cassidy eventually got his heart meds, though. At last word, Sulik returned to the primitive tribe for a few moons (months) after breaking paths with the Chosen One, then headed east in search of his sister. Cassidy went on to search for Texas, breaking south through NCR and past Dayglow."
"The punks on the tanker also survived, and they had a great view of the Poseidon oil rig exploding. They eventually into an uneasy trading relationship with the Shi after the destruction of the Hubologists, and the two groups went on to make San Francisco a major fishing and trading center." - ↑ "An Interview with Chris Avellone - game designer, writer, and former 'unlucky schlep'" - Gamasutra (Archived)
- ↑ GameRanx Interview
- ↑ ModDB page for Mutants Rising showcasing Cassidy's talking head
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