In a narrative-focused presentation at GDC Online, Obsidian Entertainment creative director Chris Avellone outlined the considerations that went into the development of the four Fallout: New Vegas DLC packs. For one thing, "We had the rare opportunity to know we were actually going to do four of these," unlike most game projects where sequels are not guaranteed, he said.

However, they couldn't carry storylines over. "Each one was a very self-contained short experience" by design; each storyline and setting had to exist in isolation from one another, because the team could not assume that any player would own all four packs. That "short experience" adds up to just 10,000 lines of dialogue across all four, Avellone said - a hard maximum. As a result, Avellone and Obsidian had to pad out the dialogue with "trickery" including mute characters who spoke in hand gestures. "We were only able to get away with that for so long," he added.