No Fallout has never let your PC be a ghoul, but would you play as a Ghoul? Bear in mind, this comes with In World consequences:

Some cities would outright deny you access and kill you on sight if you attempt to get in.

Some companions would likely be locked off from you.

Your strength could never go above a certain number.

Perks would be:

Immune to radiation

Special mutant settlements would be more friendly

Special good and bad dialogue involving your PC due to race.

Anyway, would you play as a ghoul with these parameters? What traits would you incorporate to a Ghoul race?

Actually if you want to get super technical... Fallout has let you play as a ghoul. Fallout Tactics multiplayer...

If the option was there I would play it out of curiosity.

All in all though I doubt it would be pulled off in a way that had any negative concequences and there would be some stupid "find a cure" quest, so I don't want the option. But as I said I would play it out of curiosity to pretty much prove my point that it would be a pointless feature.

I would play as one, but some of the consequence are a bit too much for me...cities denying access and killing you on sight? That's a bit too extreme for me. Some companions locked off from you doesn't sound too unreasonable though. Not sure how I feel about limited strength though, I guess it depends on the limit, and what I get in return for having that limit.

Only if the inevitable "Find a cure" quest ended in either failure or embarassing failure, as ghoulification is NOT a disease but an irreversible mutation of genetic code. And only if we don't become a ghoul in game but start off as one. Ghoulification takes years to complete (Fallout 3's [censored] not withstanding.)

But the thing is ghouls throughout Fallout have been universally hated and mistrusted. Some people would try to kill you out of fear. Others wouldn't want you to be around them. NCR being the only real exception but that took over 200 years to happen.

If we the player were a ghoul, dialogue should be pretty much completely different thoughout the game. Different outcomes, reaction and responces, ect.. If the game just acted as if we were a normal person than what is the point? Might as well just get a mod or have another ghoul mask. The odd "Smooth Skin" option or someone calling us "zombie" simply isn't enough.

Oh, I get that part, but as the player character I wouldn't think locking them out of cities like that would make too much sense...unless these are the type of cities/towns/settlements that don't play a very large role in trade.

I would think being locked out of certain quests because of this wouldn't be such a bad idea, but I'm still not too keen on being locked out of cities because of it, unless, as I said, they are more along the lines of minor settlements that don't play a large role in the grand scheme of things (kinda like The Republic of Dave)

Well officially locked out.. there could be ways unique to ghouls to get into the cities. Such as ghoul friendly people smuggling you in, or speaking on your behalf or having area's only for ghouls. Permits, Day Passes and so on like Vault City in Fallout 2. Even disguises. If Fallout 4 put in an option of people not knowing who you are if your face is covered, that would go along way. Of course there would have to be "remove the mask and ID yourself" check points.

Dog nabbit! Forgot about that... well I'm off to go drown my depression in a glass of rum&nuka.

I could probably get along with something like that. I doubt it'll happen anytime soon, but it might be nice to have someday.

I wouldn't use it and I think it shouldn't be added.

You either spend ages making it a meaningful choice, but time and resources are lost. If there's serious problems with the game, making the Ghoul race is going to come off as a very bad decision.

Or it could go the other way and end up like Skyrim, where you're a Human with a re-tex. In that case, why bother?

The problem with making areas (and NPCs) off-limits to ghoul characters is the chance that you could lock players out of the chance to complete quests - you almost have to deny quest opportunities for the idea to make sense. One way to make up for this would be to have quests in more ghoul-friendly areas that are only available to ghoul characters.

One of the things that was kind of jarring about Skyrim was the fact that a big deal was made about how Khajiit were not allowed into any of the cities, and the caravan merchants had to set up shop outside the walls. However, a Khajiit player character could just walk right into the city without any reaction beyond a few snide comments from the guards and other citizens.

I love ghouls, and if it was an option I'm sure I'd try it - but it's not something I'm actively looking for in another Fallout game. I'm content with awesome ghoul NPCs and companions

Lore wise, that is correct. However, game wise, it would be a bad mechanic. Shunned, offer no services, grudgingly offer quest stage completions, some quests or quest lines being blocked are all game consequences I could live with. But, to get into a gun battle with a town not as a result of any in game actions (going against the town, stealing or killing for instance) is not.

And, sure, I would play as a Ghoul.

Well, perhaps there could be a mechanic lock to bar players to supplement a 'run n gun', IE a stat check for the cell the city gate is in 'player check race > player is ghoul > City is locked' when you try to enter a pop up saying 'A guard shoves you and says 'This city doesn't welcome your kind, Zombie.' and escorts you by force out of the city.'

It doesn't matter if players go 'wah! Y I NO CAN KILL!?' Playing as a ghoul should seriously put a player into the position a ghoul would realistically have to face in the Wastes, one such position is denial to some places.

If the choice made an actual difference in how to approach the world and gameplay, and the storyline accounted for it, I would give it a shot.

However, if it came down to minor numbercrunching (I.e. Rad immunity when there's hardly any radiation to pose a threat to begin with, thus devaluing the whole mechanic; or stat limitations when the stats do hardly anything) and few unique "gripes, yer ugly" lines, with the whole locking out of cities concerning a fenced ramshackle with four NPC's and one or two quests... I don't see the point of even bothering implementing it just to dress up the PC and offering a pointless "beast race".

I'm not a fan of race selectionfor Fallout in the first place, but if such was to be implemented for what ever "cool" reason, it needs to be done right without cutting corners.

Someone mentioned resources and time as limiting factors for implementing this, but I don't think those are too much of issues with Beth anymore. It's more about competence, willingness to pursue these paths and setting their priorities right.

No, cause ghouls svck.

If it gave you a unique experience gamplay wise yea, but if it was simply a cosmetic thing for your character... there would be no point.

Yes, but I should clarify that if being a ghoul were to in some way hinder story-telling or immersion, I wouldn't want the option.

For example no ghoul option in FO3 makes sense, no ghoul option in New Vegas on the other hand? It could work there, but ultimately I guess it doesn't exist because it created issues with the Courier's backstory. I'm fine with the devs saying "no because it would hurt the story," but if it's possible, hinders the storyline in no way whatsoever and the devs have the time and resources to add little lines of dialog for ghoul characters in certain situations (AKA no "do you hate the Dark elves too?" being asked of Dark elves ala Skyrim)? I see no reason not to include it.

Getting locked out on quests too extreme? Can't complete all quests? Fallout traditionally had choices that had consequences. Today's audience can't live with nor are able to be accountable for their actions, so I whole heartily oppose this move knowing that if Bethesda were to do it, there would be few if any consequences in order to appeal to the majority that simple want to *do it all*.

Indeed.

Sign of times, we live in the age of fast food and instant gratification afterall.

Ideally being a ghoul would also open different paths as much as it closes them. Anything else is just poor design.

Very true. The door should open both ways.

Only if it actually affected gameplay and had a playable backstory of some sort. It'd be absolutely no fun to play as a ghoul and have nobody react to you... like in Skyrim. "hey, your a khajitt?.. yeah, we supposedly don't let khajiits into cities or trust any of them.. but seeing that you were just a prisoner about to get his head cut off.. We'll all totally trust you and treat you exactly as if you weren't a khajit at all."

Being a ghoul doesn't necessarily have to lock you out of certain content, it would just need approaching in a different way. You may have to go down the route of getting in by stealth/ force, similar to how Roy gets into Tenpenny Towers in Fallout 3.

Of course I would try it out but I'd hope their implementation is properly executed cause if not I'm not playing as one more than once.

And I don't think that any towns should kill ghouls on sight, the timeline has (should have) moved past such extreme bigotry.

So properly implementing them wouldn't be that hard, a few NPC's who's dialogue is a bit tweaked, maybe a dozen or so heavily racist NPC's on both sides of the spectrum, some alternate solutions to quests and unique dialogue trees and finally a different character design so that they fit in with the lore.

The whole "oh you can't play as a ghoul since towns would kill you on sight and open fire on you bla bla bla" is such horecrap, in time people learn to tolerate those that are different and their fear for people different than them will wither away, in New Vegas we see this happening, where ghouls are not shot on sight solely for being ghouls nor are they given extremely negative treatment. So playing as a ghoul is perfectly feasible to me, but there still needs to be some racism here and there, cause not everyone has opened up to ghouls.