Is the synth kid, Shaun, you meet at the Institute supposed to have the same ethnicities as the sole survivor and his or her dead spouse? I played as a white character, so when I saw that Shaun the synth was white, I wasn't surprised. But then I noticed something wasn't right. That kid looked like all the other kids in the game! So is he supposed to look generic like that, or different? If you play as a black character, will you see a black kid at the Institute, or the same generic kid like all the other kids? Since the Institute uses human DNA to create the synths, their creations should not look generic at all.

For that matter, will the grown-up Shaun (i.e. Father) be black if both you and your spouse are/were black? He should be for the story to make sense, right?

He could be... adopted....


Was it clarified anywhere?

So far, I've been able to tell that, yes, Shaun's appearance is based off of the Sole Survivor's appearance. I had a character who had copper skin and black hair, and so did Shaun, even though Father seemed a bit lighter and, of course, had white hair due to being old (but I guess a good explanation for that would be that I didn't do anything with the SS's spouse, keeping them Caucasian). Another SS of mine had red hair - so did young Shaun. Same with my SS who has dirty-blond/light brown hair. I bet that if you were to make both parents similar (same skin tone) and were to create some crazy, horrid facial features, you would notice it on advlt Shaun/Father. However, I haven't done any extreme characters (no bulbous noses, for example) so I can't confirm this.

I would think that the appearance of Father would be more explicit if both parents had the same ethnicity. So far, my only non-white character has had a white spouse, so therefore, Shaun is mixed and isn't showing his heritage too strongly.

From the Fallout wiki: "The advlt version of Shaun encountered in the Institute will always have the same build, hairstyle, beard, and hair color, but will have a skin tone that amalgams both parents at initial character creation, and will usually have similar eyebrows to the female player character as set during initial character creation."

For me father is far darker than my caracter, Nate is the default white, and he has lived indoor his entire advlt life.

Character know she has not slept with any black guys in the relevant period. Yes it was the Chinese guy with the stealth armor (very practical if Nate come home early ) but she is darker than him to.

Kids color makes more sense.

Think its an giant scam, a bit hard to prove now anyway.

I used an black lady as the base character but then lighten the skin color before creating. Wonder if that had an effect.

i havnt meet advlt shawn yet am interested to see because...

i left Nate as the default, didnt touch him so white

playing female as my character and chose the rosy skin, so white

yet i swear in the prelude the baby shaun in crib was black, well maybe very dark latino but definitely not white as the 2 parents

It seems to me that Nate's default appearance is a little more on the tan side than "white". He actually looks a bit like a stereotypical Italian in ways.

Does having a plastic surgery later in the game (but before you go to the Institute) affect how the young and old Shaun will look?

From what I've heard, no, it doesn't. But you could always see if it does.

seems pretty white to me

this is his default appearance http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Nate,definitely white, you can also just see a bit of nora behind him. his skin tone matches hers

guess being set in boston italian-american would be pretty common

either way the baby was way darker than nate is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay darker