Childkiller

Childkiller is a Reputation title in Fallout and Fallout 2.

Obtaining
The Childkiller reputation is conferred upon the player after killing children. Although the reputation will display in the character sheet immediately, it will remain inactive until the player kills at least three children inFallout or two children in Fallout 2.

The games only track combat kills made by the player. As such, companions can kill children with impunity, even if the player starts combat with eg. a plant spike. Assassinations made with super stimpaks and planted explosives also do not increment the Childkiller counter.

Each kill increments the Childkiller count by one. In Fallout 2, there are a few kids who increase the child-kill count twice because of a script redundancy (and thus instantly makes the Chosen One a "real" Childkiller). These are Jonny in Modoc, the Slag kids and Curtis in Vault City. Furthermore, killing Myron does count towards becoming a Childkiller despite him not being a typical child.

Effects

 * -30 points to initial reaction of both good and evil NPCs.
 * The reputations will cause bounty hunters to appear on the world map. Found in random encounters, bounty hunters have four distinct grades and scale according to the player's level. They start at leather jackets and hunting rifles and progress all the way up to power armor and miniguns (includes Avenger miniguns in Fallout 2). See Bounty hunter for more details.

Behind the scenes

 * Because of the possibility to kill children, Fallout was denied release in Europe initially, but after removing all children from the game, it was allowed release. Fallout 2 also has no children in European versions, and lampshades this fact through fourth-wall-breaking dialogue in Vault City while talking to Phyllis.


 * Tim Cain commented on the controversy during a developer presentation in 2012.


 * Contrary to Tim Cain's simplified explanation, the children are still in the game, however they've been rendered invisible. Which means the player and bursting attack companions like Ian, can accidentally kill children in Shady Sands--giving you the trait anyway.
 * A new Vault Boy image for the Childkiller title was initially created for Fallout 2 but was never used.