Fallout world FAQ

Why does the world look like 1950s even though the Great War was in 2077?
The Fallout series is set in an alternate timeline that diverged from ours in the 1950s. In the 21st century, it looked like the future as imagined in the 1950s pulp science fiction. E.g. instead of transistors you have huge vacuum tube-based computers with artificial intelligence and monochromatic terminals, robotic servants, a pseudo-utopian society based on 1950s values, black and white TV, music from the 1950s considered all-time classics, and most modern musical genres never appearing, etc,. Weapon development was also different from ours and thus plasma and laser weaponry was introduced, 10mm became the most common ammo type, etc. The modern high-tech weapons were never created - instead, weapons based on how people in the 1950s thought 21st century weaponry would look like are used.

How did the Great War start?
.."The situation leading to the war included China invading Alaska, and the United States' annexing Canada. The European Commonwealth reacted to the Middle East's raising of oil prices by taking military action. As the United Nations tried to keep peace, many members pulled out of the UN, and within two months of this the UN was disbanded. This period of conflict was called the Resource Wars. Many smaller nations went bankrupt in the ensuing conflict. The Resource Wars were ended by The Great War. " ... Read more about it in the Great War article. Great War

Why do some ghouls talk about the war like they were in it?
Certain ghouls, such as Michael Masters or Carol talk about the Great war, and what it was like before and during the attack. The reason of this is because when ghouls are transformed, their genetic code mutates, causing them to live much longer than normal humans. People like Michael Masters and Carol were actually born before the war, and were mutated during the nuclear launch/fallout. Not all ghouls were created during the war though. Read more in Ghouls.

What are deathclaws mutated from?
The deathclaws were originally created before the Great War by the United States military, in order to replace humans during high-risk close-combat search-and-destroy missions. They were Jackson's Chameleons genetically modified with DNA of various other species.

The Master also experimented on the deathclaws early on, but his experiments were not very successful, and eventually they were not used in his army. However, some of the modifications he made to their genome refined them into even more dangerous beasts.