Ghouls

[UnholyShadow]

I remember reading somewhere that all ghouls alive as of Fallout 3 are 200 years old, and that after they die off, there won't be any more. Maybe I'm not familiar enough with the process of becoming a ghoul, but why couldn't anybody become a ghoul now?

[sombrehombre]

In the Fallout Lore, ghouls are produced by high levels of radiation, which kill most. Most were created during the nuclear exchange and radioactive fallout after the Great War of 2077.

 

Originally, they were seen in Fallout 1, where (SPOILERS) the Enclave designed Vault 12 so that its blast door couldn't be shut, and its population were exposed to high radiation, survivors becoming the ghouls of Necropolis. In Fallout 2, there's a Ghoul town of Gecko that surrounds an operating nuclear reactor. I recall there are pockets of ghouls in Fallout 3 near radioactive waste. Whether they're there because that's where they became ghoulified, or simply because they find it restorative, I don't know. GNR's Three Dog talks of ghoulification as a current fact of life, so clearly they're not ALL 200 years old.

 

As an aside, you'll probably note some dialogue glitches that indicate the war was much more recent. As far as I can tell, the date of the setting was pushed forward 100+ years during development primarily for continuity with the popular Harold (Oasis) character.

 

My impression is that during the nuclear exchange, fallout, and nuclear winter of 2077 nearly all above ground humanity died. Some survived by becoming ghouls. The humans you meet in the Fallout games are the descendants of Vaults which opened late enough that they were able to get by without becoming ghouls themselves. Then again, old people are fairly rare, so perhaps a lifetime of eating irradiated foods will cause ghoulification in many susceptible...

 

I wouldn't mind seeing a mod that permitted ghoulification of the player's character through some reasonable in-game process (perhaps surviving with constant severe radiation poisoning for two game days - using plenty stim-paks, would result in the player falling into a coma, and exchanging all his/her charisma for other SPECIAL points).

[UnholyShadow]

Who says ghouls can't be charismatic?

[MaistoHelix]

I remember this mini-quest where a guy is looking for his dad,and when he found him he was allready a Ghoul,then he rested near an irridiated shrine and became a ghoul himself...you can hear his voice change on the holotape...one of the better mini-quests i might add..problem is the timeline,i'm not sure if this happened 200 years ago or in this time..you can hear him talk about trading caravans and how they where attacked by raiders...the tape should have a date but i dont have it on my current character..

 

The room with the shrine is where you find this guy,and he looks sort of fresh,his clothes are still intact and he carries a 10MM,indicating that he is still in a sort of change phase..the room is filled with an scary sound coming from the shrine..if you get near it it measures something like +6 rads..so the ghoulification is caused by direct radiation.

 

So people still become ghouls...remember Moira when you blow up Megaton?

[DJexs]

sorry to say im going to stick with nova with this one extremely squishy things dont get any love

[ElectricMessiah]

Who says ghouls can't be charismatic?

 

And, fwiw, lets not forget we get to see the results of immediate ghoulification of Moira.

Though she looks a little more like a burn victim than a ghoul to me. :)