[Fallout series] You are a ghoul right after the Great War.

[Rossum]

It is October 4th of 2077 and you are still alive. Miraculously so not only because of your age (advanced medicine has made extensive lifespans rather commonplace) but also because the whole world was just recently destroyed in a massive atomic war. Everyone saw this coming, the global population was unsustainable, the environment was pretty much exploited past the breaking point, human ethics had long since been overtaken by human technology, and all the sociopolitical problems of civilization had just sort of piled on top of eachother with no realistic ways of solving any of them.

Oh, and not only has every government been building huge Vaults to protect its citizens from the nuclear apocolypse but research performed by numerous third party labs has discovered that all the weird preservatives, genetically modified viruses, hyper-advanced medicines, and constant exposure to mildly radioactive soft drinks has made it so a good percentage of peoples simply wouldn't die if their city got nuked!

That's where you are now. The Great War has struck, nukes were launched by some foreign country, your home city was just flattened and is literally glowing with radioactive fallout, and all your skin has fallen off. But despite the fact that your skin fell off and there is a definate greenish tinge to your mutated flesh, you are still alive. Heck, you're feeling pretty darn good and all that radiation gives you a nice warm tingly feeling when you roll around in the ashen dust and glowing green slime. From what you remember of the studies performed by those scientists, its possible that you will be able to live for at least 300 years before you suffer anything like old age.

However, you aren't alone.

Of the people who were in your area, at least 60% of them are dead (mainly those who were burned up by the heat or crushed by debris).

30% have been turned into feral ghouls. They are like you but clearly insane (could either be the shock, random chance, or they didn't have enough weird genetically modified foods in their diet to survive a nuclear explosion). Many of these are behaving irrationally but harmless, just doing random stuff with no visible attempt at hostility, but there are a few of them who seem bent on hurting or destroying things. The violent ones tend to ignore other ghouls (or at least the ones who did attack other ghouls got killed when their victims struck back) but might attack surviving animals or humans if they find any.

8% are ghouls who retained their sanity (like you). For the most part these act just like any survivor of a major disaster would, though their own mutated existence and the presence of so many feral ghouls around them might break their lingering sanity. If a normal ghoul goes insane then they effectively become a feral ghoul. You have no way of knowing at this time if a feral ghoul can be made sane again.

The remaining 2% are still humans, most likely huddled in some underground tunnel or area where the radiation hasn't killed them yet. You don't know the exact details of the process that turns humans into ghouls, but you do know that there are medicines available to heal damage from radiation exposure (cancer hasn't been a problem for the last 20 years and you can buy anti-cancer pills for about the same price as headache medicine). The medicine does put stress on the kidney and liver so its still a good idea for humans to avoid radiation regardless.


On a more global scale, you know that a good number of people (who aren't you) were able to get spots in one of the Vaults that would keep them safe until the radiation clears. Many of the current species of animals and plants will likely die out but there are some genetically modified life forms that might be able to survive. You haven't made contact with any government or military personnel, but then again the world is currently bathed in radiation and most of the 'survivors' running around on the surface are feral ghouls.

At any rate, it will quite a while before normal humans are able to safely roam the surface of the Earth but it looks like you and your fellow ghouls have enough time to do stuff before that happens. Assuming nobody starts sending out killer robots to exterminate everyone then the ghouls rule the Earth for now.

What the heck do you do?

----

Note that I've only really played Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas where I can apparently run across several ghouls old enough to survive the Great War and live another 200 years or so despite the dangers and there are feral ghouls all over the place. This little rar is kind of working on the theory that the days after the war had lots and lots and lots of ghouls running around but alot of them died of various causes over the following decades. Some normal ghouls may have gone feral and maybe some feral ghouls became sane. There may be robots roaming around as well, but I doubt that things like Deathclaws or mutated animals would be very common for the first few decades or years.

You and your fellow ghouls have to eat and drink but radiation isn't a problem for you (and I think most germs would be nuked by now). You are also sterile so civilization needs living humans to replenish its numbers. For the sake of simplicity lets say that feral ghouls are about as intelligent as humans with mental problems or perhaps rather smart dogs. Radiation can also power and heal you, so the feral ghouls could sort of be perpetual motion zombies as long as they hang around some radioactive areas... but they will need nutrition if they are to stay strong and (relatively) healthy.

[Interlord1]

I would probably try to organize a defence for the vaults until people come out. normal humans are needed for society, so Keeping them safe is a priority.

[FaxModem1]

Well, if I remember correctly, ghouls don't need to eat or drink, they do however sleep. Assuming that's the case, after I get over the end of the world and my no longer being human, I start working on plowing the soil and removing the radioactive top layer so that the humans can settle in more comfortably once the radiation in the air dies down. I figure doing that for 3-4 hours a day, assuming it doesn't wear out my decayed body and make flesh peel off. After that, I'll try and find as many books as possible and preserve them, after all, we'll need those for the world to start on its right footing again. Anything from a children's book to a Engineering manual. I think I'll put them next to the Vault entrances. That should be another 4 hours out of the day.

After that, I'll read the books I've found. Got to keep myself entertained, and besides, if I'm effectively immortal, I might as well become the expert on everything. I'll do that until I get tired and then sleep. Rinse and repeat.

I figure after a few years, I will have swept a lot of the radiation away from the area, brought a huge quantity of the world's knowledge to a safe place, and when and if the people from the Vault step out, I can help them rebuild.

Of course, there's still the feral ghoul problem and the question of whether or not the Vault near me is a control Vault or not.

[Enigma]

I'd stay away from humans as they at best barely tolerate ghouls and at worst kill them, feral or not.

[Bounty]

I see no reason to think ghouls are less intelligent than humans. The ones you meet throughout the games seem smart enough.

Find other sane ghouls and set up a community. Good thick walls should keep the ferals out, and we'll have at least a few decades to figure out ways to be useful to Vault-people so they don't destroy our settlement outright. With little or no need for food we can focus on learning how to provide the other basics for civilization - pottery, tools, pre-built shelters, maps of the new world. Once enough of the ferals die or move on we can start scavenging the cities for raw materials, trinkets and salvage.

I don't think ghouls should go out of their way to cater to the Vaults. As far as your average citizen knows before the war, the Vaults contain everything needed to kick-start the reconstruction of the world, and just because as a ghoul I look like a half-eaten corpse doesn't make me any less of a person with the right to make a decent life for myself.

When people start coming out of the Vaults they'll find a primitive, strange, but essentially civilized and friendly society they can trade with and learn to survive the Wasteland from. The real problem will be finding ways to co-exist once the non-ghouls start to outnumber the ghouls themselves.

[Aaron]

I have a fair collection of food, ammo and assorted stuff here, so I guess I gather it up and go for a wander. Feral's don't bother normal ghouls (though I have no way of knowing this at the start) so it's basically just a question of fending off any desperate animals or surviving standard humans. This is a chance to see different parts of the world, if I can get there.

When I'm done? Maybe settle in the Diefenbunker outside Ottawa.

I don't have much interest in helping out the Vault survivors, so I may just wander till I get killed. Everyone I know is dead and gone now and I'm a hideously mutated freak.

[Solauren]

I would round up the 'normal' ghouls, and start killing off the feral ghouls.

Then, do my best to clean up the area around the nearest vault.

Leave a sign at the vault entrance explaining what we've done, and that 'we might be freaks, but at heart, we are still human'.

Do my best to keep the area around the vault clear and safe for recolonization. Do what I can to encourage this to happen.

I have no real future anymore (well, sorta), but the human race does.

I'd like to think I could end up with a statue of myself that says "even in undeath, he was still one of the good ones'.

[WesFox13]

Hmm, Well first thing I would do is try to find the other ghoul survivors and try to make a viable community in my little corner of the "Cascade Wasteland" and try to clean up the feral ghouls in the area. When one of the vaults finally opens I'll leave a little note or some kind of sign explaining what we have done and that we are a friendly and kind community and we would like to help if possible. I'd also try to collect books; mainly agriculture, science, engineering, chemistry and some works of fiction too in order to educate the surviors. Heh I might even make a pseudo-Steampunk culture in my community or be called the nice but eccentric fellow in my community.

[The Yosemite Bear]

begin an apocalypse log. (perferably full lovecrafian horror sytle)

[PainRack]

Find and enjoy the nice glow from a nuclear powerplant, aka, Fallout 2 Gecko.

I'm not too sure about whether Ghouls don't need to eat or not. I seem to recall Harold from Fallout 1 saying that he eaten something but... meh.

Useful to humans? Ahem. Said nuclear powerplant aka plotline for Fallout 2. Now, to make sure those smary bastards from Vault City don't try to invade, set up booby traps and rig the plant on a self destruct to blow.

You want to bathe the Earth in another round of radioactive fallout bitches?

[The Yosemite Bear]

oh and attempt to breed housecat companions for myself and my fellow ghouls, once I have them strong enough to deal with the local rat population, I rename them "Schrodinger's Breed"

[SWPIGWANG]

Tragic: the Garnering

I rest my case.

[The Yosemite Bear]

gotta invent more post apocalyptic nursery rymes so that our children can spook out the smooth skins centuries later.

I mena what's scaryier than an impossible to kill ten year old ghoul child singing "we all fall down"

[PainRack]

Ok Yosemite... that was seriously freaky:D Great job!

[The Yosemite Bear]

your welcome the brain bleach is on isle two.

[aieeegrunt]

Do Ghoul children grow up, or are they stuck in a child's body for eternity/casually murdered.

[The Yosemite Bear]

funky aging, (they grow up slowly, and are immortal unless slan, or commit scuicide, but since most ghouls are sterileit's kinda different for them.