World information:

Mutants

Mutated humans:

The Great War led to a drastic increase in mutations, in a large part due to the strongly increased background radiation or through the FE-Virus. In some cases the cause is not quite clear – or both causes are involved.

Ghouls: Ghouls are humans that received a brutal dose of radiation and depending on the interpretation, either had the great fortune or  misfortune, not to die. Instead, they lost most of their hair (in some cases all of it), their skin dried up and fell of in parts, so that blank muscles are visible in some places. The rest of the skin has a definite green tint on most ghouls.
Ghouls are sterile and can't reproduce, but on the other hand, since 2077 no ghoul has died of old age.

A special case of ghouls is the Glowing One, that received so much radiation that they glow from the inside and has become a kind of living conduit for radioactive radiation. All ghouls have a special affinity to radioactivity and like to settle in areas in which non mutated humans can barely survive, like the Glow or like in Gecko in a not especially well shielded nuclear reactor.

Feral ghouls are humans, that not only mutated to ghouls, but lost their whole mind either during this transformation or during their long life and have become little more than feral animals. Basically, they are crazed, flesh eating zombies.

Super Mutants: Super Mutants are humans that have been mutated by the FE-Virus developed before the Great War. FEV was developed in parallel to powered armors, to enhance the combat power of soldiers. In certain ways, the experiments were a great success: the mutated people became giant, musclebound creatures that could hold the heaviest weapons in their bare hands, had insane endurance and a “natural” resistance to poison and radiation. The big disadvantage of the mutation is, that Super Mutants are one and all sterile. Oh, and most of them have won a lot of
muscles, but lost a lot of intelligence, too.
The few Super Mutants that were created before the Great War in the Mariposa Military Base did not survive the shutdown of the experiments (see also early history of the Brotherhood of Steel). Only when Richard Grey, better known as the Master rediscovered the FEV in the ruins of Mariposa, mutated and then began his quest to improve humanity, the first permanent generation of Super Mutants was created. Those Mutants dispersed in all winds, after the Vault Dweller destroyed the Mariposa Military Base and killed the Master.

The second generation of Super Mutants was created, as the Enclave put a large number of slave workers into the ruins of the Mariposa Base to get to the FEV, as they had their own plans for it.

Nightkin are very special Super Mutants of the first generation. They did not lose their capacity for thought to the FEV and thus became the elite force of the Army of the Master. In their time there they had access to the best weapons and other pieces of equipment, among them nearly boundless access to Stealth-Boys. The continuous use of Stealth-Boys had two effects on the Nightkin: for one thing, their skin turned from green more and more to blue and for the other, the Nightkin all developed mental problems. Those reach from relatively small problems, like little compulsion disorders or talking to themselves up to complex, continuous hallucinations and delusions.

Mutated animals:

Mammals:

Brahmin are maybe the most useful animals of the Wasteland. Originally, they were imported cattle from India, that were distinguishable by a loose skin flap at the neck and characterized by extremely high endurance in hot, dry climates. They were mostly imported to create tougher milk cows through cross breeding. Only the cows of a single large farm survived the Great War, even though strongly mutated: each and every new born cow had two heads, sometimes even a male and a female head (very few brahmin even have the other sexual characteristics of both genders).
The Brahmin was quickly dispersed all across the Wasteland as a useful animal in all ways, be it as a pack brahmin, as a source of meat and milk or as a draft animal for plows.

Many rats have survived the Great War completely unmutated, apart from the fact that most “unmutated” rats have grown a lot, which might as well be due to natural causes. Mole rats however, are highly mutated rats, that can often be found in caves, mines and great cellars. They are
as long as a man, as high as a child and really ugly and dangerous omnivores. They nearly look like common, if giant, rats. Only their tail is but a pale shadow of a true rat's tail.

Saurians and other egg laying creatures:

Named after one of the places they settled, the Wanamingo Mine in Redding, Wanamingos are probably the most bizarre creature that mutation has brought forth. Probably due to a combination of radiation and FEV these beings look extremely bizarre. Just as if they came from another star.
They are usually midnight black, have an aerodynamic body that ends in a great mouth with pointy needle-teeth, they walk on two legs that end in a two toed foot and have tentacles, attached to the middle of their sides, with which they grab their prey and lead it to their mouth.

Deathclaws are very, very, very highly mutated Jackson chameleons. The average deathclaw is a hair over two meters in size, has scales that can even stop bullets and two, muscular arms that end in brutal claws. Deathclaws are without a doubt one of the gravest dangers for single people or
small, not well armed groups. Luckily, there are many, well armed groups that hunt deathclaws, when they show themselves – and even despite their deadliness, they aren't very intelligent animals. There are however rumors about experiments of the Enclave to raise the intelligence of deathclaws, with help of the FE-Virus. How much success the Enclave had with that is unclear.

Deathclaws, auch Todeskrallen genannt, sind sehr, sehr stark mutierte Jackson Chamäleons. Die durchschnittliche Deathclaw ist ein Haar über 2 Meter groß, hat Schuppen die sogar Kugeln stoppen und zwei in gewaltigen Klauen endende, muskulöse Arme. Deathclaws sind zweifellos eine
der größten Gefahren für einzelne und kleine, nicht gut bewaffnete Gruppen. Glücklicherweise gibt es zahlreiche gut bewaffnete Gruppen die Deathclaws jagen, wenn diese sich zeigen – und Deathclaws sind trotz aller Tödlichkeit nicht allzu intelligente Tiere. Allerdings gibt es Gerüchte
über Experimente der Enklave, mit Hilfe des FE-Virus die Intelligenz von Deathclaws zu erhöhen. In wie weit die Enklave damit Erfolg hatte, ist unklar.

Geckos are, similar to deathclaws, mutated saurians. The resemblance ends there. Mutated geckos come in three variations: common geckos, also called silver geckos are fully grown about half a meter in height, they walk on their hind legs and have a mean bite, even though the small mouth
kind of puts a lid on that. Golden geckos on the other hand, are up to 1.2 meters in height and have a much stronger and more dangerous bite. Fire geckos are the by far most dangerous geckos, but luckily also the rarest: they grow up to 1.5 meters and they actually spit fire. Their skin is a bluish
shade of black. All three gecko sorts are hunted for their skin and meat. In fact, in pretty much every bigger settlement in the Wasteland there is at least one small booth where Gecko kebap is being sold.

Insects:

Giant ants are, as the name implies, really big ants. They don't look different than normal picnic killers, just a lot bigger. Some tribes grow up to thirty centimeters in size, others reach one meter 80 in length. Rumors have it, that east of the rockies there actually are giant ants, that spit fire. But there are a lot of rumors about the east in California.

Praying mantises are, just like giant ants, just bigger versions of the unmutated version. Between twenty and fifty centimeters in size, they are relatively dangerous. A bit too large to comfortably stomp on them – and way to narrow to simply shoot them.

Roaches survived the war to no one's surprise without any trouble. Whether due to the massive supply of food that existed after the 23rd of October, 2077 or due to radiation, FEV or a bit of all the above, but the Wasteland knows some massively big cockroaches. They are about 10 to 15 cm high and 40 cm long – and a lot more yucky than before the War.

The rest:

Centaurs are horribly disfigured creatures, that in some measure, should stand with the mutated humans. In fact, they used to be human, but thanks to FEV, they are now in no way similar to humans anymore. Now they are disfigured, bear sized things with six human arms and legs and two deformed heads. They are resitant to radiation and are often – but not always – found near radiation sources. The Army of the Master used them as a kind of replacement for dogs, which is why centaurs are often found with groups of Super Mutants.

Floater are FEV mutated flat worms. They crawl on the hind part of their body, the front part forms a kind of ring. A large tongue can snap out of the departure of the ring and grab onto their prey. Floater, like centaurs, were used with pleasure, by the Army of the Master and are often found with
centaurs.