Child



Children are the young inhabitants of the wastes. In Fallout 3, a child is a human character under the age of 16.

Differences between the games
Children are killable in the first two Fallout games. Killing them gives the player character the Child Killer Reputation.

Children in Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas cannot be killed and thus are all marked as essential. Bethesda faced a similar problem when making The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, as they considered adding children to make the game more realistic, but this was controversial – if the children could be killed, Bethesda could be accused of making a child murder simulation. Bethesda's response was to simply make the characters invincible. This once again raised issues, because the tactic would undermine the whole point of children being there, which was making the game more realistic. Eventually Bethesda added children in the interests of realism in Fallout 3, but made them invincible. The only child that can be killed in Fallout 3 is in Tranquility Lane, which is the player character in a virtual reality simulation.

Fallout 3 notable children

 * Arthur Maxson --- The Citadel
 * Maggie --- Megaton
 * Harden Simms --- Megaton
 * C.J. Young --- Rivet City
 * James Hargrave --- Rivet City
 * Bryan Wilks --- Grayditch
 * Rachael --- The Republic of Dave
 * Ralph --- The Republic of Dave
 * Flower ---The Republic of Dave
 * Biwwy --- Little Lamplight
 * Bumble --- Little Lamplight
 * Eclair --- Little Lamplight
 * Joseph --- Little Lamplight
 * Knick Knack --- Little Lamplight
 * Knock Knock --- Little Lamplight
 * Lucy --- Little Lamplight
 * MacCready --- Little Lamplight
 * Penny --- Little Lamplight
 * Princess --- Little Lamplight
 * Sammy --- Little Lamplight
 * Squirrel --- Little Lamplight
 * Zip --- Little Lamplight

Fallout: New Vegas notable children

 * The Forecaster --- 188 trading post
 * Hector --- Westside
 * Pete --- Nellis Air Force Base
 * Tommy --- mentioned only, appears in the add-on Lonesome Road
 * Lindsay --- Nellis Schoolhouse
 * Max --- Freeside

Fallout 3

 * Harden Simms and Maggie, two child-inhabitants of Megaton, disappear from the game if the town is blown up by detonating the atomic bomb. They are presumably killed in the blast.
 * Arthur Maxson, the only child-inhabitant of the Citadel, will disappear from the game if the Citadel is blown up in the final quest of Broken Steel.
 * Sticky, formerly of Little Lamplight, is supposedly 16 years old, but is not essential. Sticky can be killed quite easily, either at the Lone Wanderer's hand or by various wasteland dangers.
 * Timmy Neusbaum of Tranquility Lane is removed when the task to slaughter the residents arises, or when the Chinese invasion program starts. A unique Garden Gnome called "Timmy the Gnome" is placed on the Neusbaum doorstep, indicating that Timmy's Tranquility avatar has been altered. After the player leaves the simulation (after using the failsafe), examining Timmy's vitals verifies his death.
 * Children cannot be targeted in V.A.T.S. However, if they are accidentally injured, they can sustain crippled limbs.
 * Since children cannot be harmed, they will generally not fight the player, even if they are armed. Instead, if attacked, they will flee.
 * The Mister Sandman perk cannot be used on children (with the exception of some bugged game versions).

Fallout: New Vegas

 * The kids running around in Freeside who chase the giant rat have the same voice, regardless of gender.
 * Attacking children results in infamy with the faction they are associated with even though they cannot be damaged.