A modder known as Blurbs has built one of the stranger Red Dead Redemption 2 experiments yet, swapping out sled dogs for the child character Jack Marston. The result has more than half a dozen copies of Jack sprinting across the map while Arthur Morgan rides behind them, dragged along on a boat and later a snowboard.
How the Jack sled dog mod started
The idea did not begin with Jack at all. Blurbs first tethered a group of horses and other animals to a boat with Arthur sitting inside, then started looking for ways to move faster. While wondering aloud which land animal was the quickest, a viewer suggested using the child Jack Marston instead, and Blurbs decided to try it.
The setup ends up with Arthur sliding along inside his boat while several copies of Jack run in front, pulling him forward like a team of sled dogs. At one point a single instance of Jack gets stuck on the front of the boat and tumbles head over heels on a loop next to Arthur, while the remaining Jacks keep dragging both of them across the terrain.
From boat to snowboard
After moving past the boat scene, Blurbs kept experimenting, including a mod that let Arthur fly and another that turned him into a snowboarder. For the snowboard version, a board was attached to Arthur's feet so he could slide down a snowy hillside and pull off jumps and tricks.
When that ran its course, Blurbs replaced the board with Jack and used him as the new sled surface, describing the creation as something sitting between whimsy and darkness, and calling the whole concept an "intrusive thought."
Other ways Blurbs has changed Jack Marston
This is not the first time the modder has reworked Jack into something far from a normal child. Earlier creations have repeatedly put the character in absurd situations across the game world.
| Mod | What happens |
|---|---|
| Jack as a sled dog | Multiple copies of Jack run ahead and pull Arthur on a boat, then a sled. |
| Jack as a throwable weapon | Jack is turned into a tomahawk that takes out enemies, sticks to a tree, and ragdolls to the ground. |
| Drunk NPC mod | Every NPC becomes extremely drunk; Jack staggers and falls flat on his face during a fishing trip. |
Blurbs has a track record of these kinds of stunts, having previously recreated a Mortal Kombat-style fatality inside Red Dead Redemption 2. The drunk NPC mod sent characters staggering through cutscenes and tumbling off cliffs, and the throwable Jack version landed well with other players who found the ragdoll physics funny.
What this means for players
These creations are not part of the base game. Red Dead Redemption 2 released on October 26, 2018 from Rockstar Games, and Blurbs' experiments run on PC through community modding tools rather than any official feature. They are made for streams and short videos, so there is no built-in way to use Jack as a sled dog in a standard playthrough.
For now, the experiments remain one modder's running joke, and the audience that follows along keeps suggesting new directions to take them. Given the pattern so far, Jack will likely be at the center of whatever Blurbs builds next.