13 items
About this mod
Rescue Baby Shaun from the Institute and take him with you into the Wasteland.
- Permissions and credits
- Changelogs
PREMISE
I appreciated that Bethesda included an option to tell Father you don't believe he's your son, but I was disappointed I couldn't roleplay where that was actually true. I wanted to be able to save my son from the institute. At the same time I did not want to make major changes to the main quest, and I didn't want taking care of Shaun to be a burden to a playthrough. I wanted the option to take him with me, or leave him in the care of a companion, without feeling like he was suddenly taking over my whole gameplay. Therefore, I went lightweight. Upon killing Father in the institute, this quest will fire allowing you to rescue baby Shaun, and take him with you into the Wasteland. Pick him up, equip him in a carrier, put him down, pretend to feed or play with him to get baby noises, and that's it. Lightweight was the goal, with minimal gameplay impact.
CONTENTS
1. A new apparel Shaun item -- In the world, when not in your inventory, Shaun is using an animated model with proper physics. This means he won't stand upright like a creepy doll if you remove him from your inventory (unless you drop him just right?). Instead, he'll fall, can be moved/manipulated, and will also have his own arm movements and blinking eyes, etc. When you pick him up, he gives a happy gurgle. When you put him down, he'll get a bit upset. I wanted a Shaun I could set down that would still have a bit of life. That said, Shaun himself is also equippable from your inventory. When you first rescue him, he'll be equipped into a make-shift baby carrier on your back, which is basically the unused Cait Bandolier from the vanilla files, modified against the Baby Backpack model by LadySpades, and fitted for both male and female sole survivors. Carry your baby with you on your back, as people have done for thousands of years.
2. A short quest -- Kill Father anytime before his natural death and it should appear in your pipboy. You MUST do the killing, not a companion, or the quest won't fire. I couldn't make the quest pop-up a notification in my tests, but it's in the pipboy and runs just fine with quest markers and everything. If you run into any issue here, check you've got ini settings with the recommended tweaks from Bethini. It should run concurrently with Banished from the Institute if you kill Father right away. Be prepared to fight to get to your baby, or be clever about sneaking. It won't be easy to reach Baby Shaun.
3. Two craftable cookery items -- I've added a bottle of milk (1 purified water and 1 baby bottle) to the Beverages of the cooking station, and a rattle (1 purified water and 1 baby rattle). When you use these items, you'll get a small buff (charisma or endurance based on which you use), and Shaun will make noises, in case you were feeling he was being too quiet. They're lightweight, not required at all. Shaun doesn't care if you feed him, or ever put him down, or traverse the wasteland in gunfights and radiation. They're really just for immersion. If you feel like using them, great. If you don't, no biggie. They're there for flavor, not to punish you. Parent how you want. Lol.
LIMITATIONS
This is not a mod about taking care of Shaun. Don't expect the world from this. It's just a silly little roleplaying mod, that really does lean on your roleplaying ability to be entertaining, and just gives you another option to deal with getting your son back in a lightweight, non-imposing way.
A few notes:
-Shaun never grows up. If you want a child Shaun, save the synth Shaun from the institute.
-Shaun has no needs. He has no health, he doesn't need to be fed, and he doesn't need attention. Shove him in a container if you want. Or, pretend to feed him daily with bottles of milk. Roleplay it. I didn't want a mod that punished you for saving your son by making you play Babysitter:TheGame.
-I haven't included cribs or anything. There's other mods that add these, and the post-war one in your own house you can use. Just drop Shaun like any other inventory item (you might need to rotate him around a bit so he's not lying on his face) and he'll lie there and do his thing.
-There's always a baby in the institute now behind the medical desk. If you're not rescuing Shaun the Baby and believe that Father is your son, that's fine. Just imagine it's someone else's baby. There's no name on the incubator except incubator, so that's totally reasonable.
-Equipping Shaun may unequip other armor depending on what slots you're using. Choosing between fashion and your child is hard, but that's how it is. Sorry Shaun-parents :) It is what it is.
INSTALLATION
1. Download your preferred skintone for the baby Shaun models. Skintones are vanilla options only. I did it this way because I couldn't find a way of making Shaun take the parent's skintone dynamically in game, so pick your preference.
2. Extract to your Data folder (manually), or install using a mod manager.
UNINSTALLATION
Remove from mod managers, or delete the following folders/files from your Data folder:
1. Data/Meshes/HRRescueBabyShaun
2. Data/Scripts/Fragments/Quests/QF_HRRescueBabyShaun_01000F99.pex
3. Data/Scripts/Source/User/Fragments/Quests/QF_HRRescueBabyShaun_01000F99.psc
4. Data/HRRescueBabyShaun
FINAL NOTE
I don't normally mod Fallout. I'm bad at quest stuff generally so it's a SUPER simple quest that's relying a lot on the vanilla game to do the heavy lifting for challenge. This was a labor of love and enjoyment, so I apologize if you encounter any bugs. I'm not sure I can help fix things beyond what it already is. That said, I've tested extensively in my game, and it worked as long as you killed Father in the Institute during/after your initial meeting. If Father dies naturally, this should not fire.
It is an ESP. It is loose files. That's how it is. I don't have the time or will to change it when it works just fine as it is. What you see is what you get.
Enjoy! ~Rains
I appreciated that Bethesda included an option to tell Father you don't believe he's your son, but I was disappointed I couldn't roleplay where that was actually true. I wanted to be able to save my son from the institute. At the same time I did not want to make major changes to the main quest, and I didn't want taking care of Shaun to be a burden to a playthrough. I wanted the option to take him with me, or leave him in the care of a companion, without feeling like he was suddenly taking over my whole gameplay. Therefore, I went lightweight. Upon killing Father in the institute, this quest will fire allowing you to rescue baby Shaun, and take him with you into the Wasteland. Pick him up, equip him in a carrier, put him down, pretend to feed or play with him to get baby noises, and that's it. Lightweight was the goal, with minimal gameplay impact.
CONTENTS
1. A new apparel Shaun item -- In the world, when not in your inventory, Shaun is using an animated model with proper physics. This means he won't stand upright like a creepy doll if you remove him from your inventory (unless you drop him just right?). Instead, he'll fall, can be moved/manipulated, and will also have his own arm movements and blinking eyes, etc. When you pick him up, he gives a happy gurgle. When you put him down, he'll get a bit upset. I wanted a Shaun I could set down that would still have a bit of life. That said, Shaun himself is also equippable from your inventory. When you first rescue him, he'll be equipped into a make-shift baby carrier on your back, which is basically the unused Cait Bandolier from the vanilla files, modified against the Baby Backpack model by LadySpades, and fitted for both male and female sole survivors. Carry your baby with you on your back, as people have done for thousands of years.
2. A short quest -- Kill Father anytime before his natural death and it should appear in your pipboy. You MUST do the killing, not a companion, or the quest won't fire. I couldn't make the quest pop-up a notification in my tests, but it's in the pipboy and runs just fine with quest markers and everything. If you run into any issue here, check you've got ini settings with the recommended tweaks from Bethini. It should run concurrently with Banished from the Institute if you kill Father right away. Be prepared to fight to get to your baby, or be clever about sneaking. It won't be easy to reach Baby Shaun.
3. Two craftable cookery items -- I've added a bottle of milk (1 purified water and 1 baby bottle) to the Beverages of the cooking station, and a rattle (1 purified water and 1 baby rattle). When you use these items, you'll get a small buff (charisma or endurance based on which you use), and Shaun will make noises, in case you were feeling he was being too quiet. They're lightweight, not required at all. Shaun doesn't care if you feed him, or ever put him down, or traverse the wasteland in gunfights and radiation. They're really just for immersion. If you feel like using them, great. If you don't, no biggie. They're there for flavor, not to punish you. Parent how you want. Lol.
LIMITATIONS
This is not a mod about taking care of Shaun. Don't expect the world from this. It's just a silly little roleplaying mod, that really does lean on your roleplaying ability to be entertaining, and just gives you another option to deal with getting your son back in a lightweight, non-imposing way.
A few notes:
-Shaun never grows up. If you want a child Shaun, save the synth Shaun from the institute.
-Shaun has no needs. He has no health, he doesn't need to be fed, and he doesn't need attention. Shove him in a container if you want. Or, pretend to feed him daily with bottles of milk. Roleplay it. I didn't want a mod that punished you for saving your son by making you play Babysitter:TheGame.
-I haven't included cribs or anything. There's other mods that add these, and the post-war one in your own house you can use. Just drop Shaun like any other inventory item (you might need to rotate him around a bit so he's not lying on his face) and he'll lie there and do his thing.
-There's always a baby in the institute now behind the medical desk. If you're not rescuing Shaun the Baby and believe that Father is your son, that's fine. Just imagine it's someone else's baby. There's no name on the incubator except incubator, so that's totally reasonable.
-Equipping Shaun may unequip other armor depending on what slots you're using. Choosing between fashion and your child is hard, but that's how it is. Sorry Shaun-parents :) It is what it is.
INSTALLATION
1. Download your preferred skintone for the baby Shaun models. Skintones are vanilla options only. I did it this way because I couldn't find a way of making Shaun take the parent's skintone dynamically in game, so pick your preference.
2. Extract to your Data folder (manually), or install using a mod manager.
UNINSTALLATION
Remove from mod managers, or delete the following folders/files from your Data folder:
1. Data/Meshes/HRRescueBabyShaun
2. Data/Scripts/Fragments/Quests/QF_HRRescueBabyShaun_01000F99.pex
3. Data/Scripts/Source/User/Fragments/Quests/QF_HRRescueBabyShaun_01000F99.psc
4. Data/HRRescueBabyShaun
FINAL NOTE
I don't normally mod Fallout. I'm bad at quest stuff generally so it's a SUPER simple quest that's relying a lot on the vanilla game to do the heavy lifting for challenge. This was a labor of love and enjoyment, so I apologize if you encounter any bugs. I'm not sure I can help fix things beyond what it already is. That said, I've tested extensively in my game, and it worked as long as you killed Father in the Institute during/after your initial meeting. If Father dies naturally, this should not fire.
It is an ESP. It is loose files. That's how it is. I don't have the time or will to change it when it works just fine as it is. What you see is what you get.
Enjoy! ~Rains