Well, there is a better chance of finding an "Intelligent" Super Mutant in New Vegas, but since you said you were shy on the lore, I will help explain Super Mutants in-general to help you, then we will move onto Ghouls. ^^
Super Mutants are the construct of "The Master" a person afflicted with a horrid mutation who melded with a factory system and became a bio-electronic and Bio-mechanical monster who is the main antagonist for the First Fallout Game. He uses vats of toxic chemicals to turn unsuspecting wasters into "Super Mutants." The first generation were intelligent, with just a little below average Human capacity on creation, with the capacity to learn at a slightly stunted rate. After the Master's Defeat the Super Mutants were left with no master, but they felt his work was still to be done(as they were created to think this) and after they counted their losses they left the factory, but with the need to make more Mutants. Many of the Gen 1's took the knowledge and stayed behind, and some moved on to use it in other encampments outside of the Master's Factory and labs, and made new Super Mutants. These new, Gen 2 Mutants were not as precisely made as the Master's own handy work with the Gen 1's, and thus the Gen 2's suffer from a simplified mind and lack of higher skills. They are hard-wired for simple combat knowledge and minimal speech. They can hold sentences, but only for a short time based around simply knowledge and objectives. The Gen 2 were mass-produced in a larger time-frame then the Gen 1's, because the Gen 2's were kept in secret by their more brilliant forefathers. Thus the most commonly seen Super-Mutant outside of the D.C. area is a Gen 2 mutant. Gen 1's, over the years of murder, fighting, raiding, and wasteland living, have become rare and only a few are left and heard of, examples of these would be: Marcus, from Jacobstown, located northwest of the New Vegas Strip in the old Charlestown Ski Lodge. The other would be Tabitha, the Gen 1 Nightkin who until her death, took over and became the leader of Black Mountain. She originally drove Marcus and his men out of Black Mountain and he moved in her murderous Nightkin gang and began terrorizing nearby settlements. Later the Courier along with another Gen 1 Mutant who stayed behind under the guise of following Tabitha, took to the mountain and ended Tabitha's vile Mountain clan, which she had named Utobitha, in her honor.
In the Eastern coast's Capital Wasteland there is another series of Mutants, the Gen 3's. They were created by a rag-tag band of Gen 2's who knew very little of the science they were toying with and tried to use the FEV virus to turn people into Mutants using a Gaseous mixture, rather then a liquid. This caused problems, as the FEV virus effects the genes and everyone is different. Many, many people died, a lot of them became mindless Gen 3's, and only of them ever became what the Gen 2's hoped for out of the process. A single man, Fawkes, became a Super Mutant and his body accepted the FEV so well, he became a Mutant of Gen 1 capability. He retained all of his knowledge from before the change, and hated what they made him, so when the Lone Wanderer found him, he pleaded for freedom from his cell, and in return would help kill mutants and protect the Wanderer with his life. Fawkes was found inside a Vault, over-taken with the Gen 2's and supposedly the location of a G.E.C.K, which is what led our fearless Wanderer to his location.
All Mutants are made from the FEV virus in one form or another, and with each attempt of making new mutants by the lesser forms, a new, and stupider breed of Mutants is created. So, if you wanted to play an Intelligent Mutant(which is something I consider of debate for reasons upon being OP at times, and something we would have to see you prove you can write) in the New Vegas area, you would most likely come from Marcus' Sanctuary, Jacobstown.
On to Ghouls. Ghouls are different then Mutants, as Ghouls aren't made by the FEV virus, and whether one is feral or not is determined by one thing, Radiation. Ghouls are merely humans exposed to large doses of radiation in quick bursts, or in one single burst over all. Though cases in which people became ghouls over a period of time, by being exposed to "waves" radiation has also occurred in one instance."Ghoulification" as it has become known throughout the wastes is the process of exposure to massive doses without dying, by being on the outer-limits of it's reach. Moira is one example of active Ghoulification in-game with Fallout 3. If you become evil and destroy Megaton, and you ever go back to the site of it's rubble. Moira will run up to you at the front gate from down the road and asked you what happened, even though she knows the main problem, and she will appear to you as a ghoul, because she was on the outer-limits of the blast scavenging in the waste, only Atom knows where, and she is a "fresh" ghoul. Her "skin" is red and appears vibrant and healthy, but with the lack of actual "skin" now. If you reveal to her she is a Ghoul, she passes it off with her usual quacky, happy attitude and makes note to you: "I have always wanted to go see Undertown, I bet is neat there." She then turns and heads off, and she can later be found in Undertown living as a Ghoul. In New Vegas, the there are a few instances in which you see Ghouls as a community. There are the Followers who follow the word of a Ghoul by the name of Jason Bright. He claims to be a couple centuries old, a Ghoul formed by the first atomic fire of the War. He as a salesman, and natural has the gift of gab, and in his new "light" he began gaining followers who were ghouls. They believe he was an envoy of a god, due to the fact that he is the only known "Glowing One" to ever remain non-feral. If you help him you remove a clan of Nightkin living in the basement of the RoboCo. Factory he moved into with his followers, and in the end you help him and his followers reach "the great beyond for ghouls" by repairing Rocket Ships and giving him launch coordinates. The developers have said these coordinates "may or may not be the position of the moon.." and many believe this is a reference to the way people in the fifties saw space travel and the possibility of the moon landing. Moving on, the other instance in which you see a "community" of Ghouls is when you go to Camp Searchlight to the Southeast. There you will find the NCR patrolling, from a very safe distance, around the remains of Camp Searchlight, built in the town of Searchlight. If you go into town, you will find Golden Geckos, Radscorpions, massive effects from radiation as you draw closer to the center of town, and Ex-NCR Ghouls left to fight and rot inside the Camp. As the NCR is against Ghoul recruitment, any member subject to Ghoulification is either left behind or killed on sight. In this case the Ghouls fled to the Center of town and used the massive radiation as a shield to keep the NCR back, but due to the great danger gathering around this town, the NCR are ordered to contain and eliminate anything moving out of the town. The NCR men inside of the town before the accident, were either ghoulified or killed when the Legion opened the lids on Nuclear Waste Containers inside the fire department. The quick "wave" of radiation killed the Legion spies instantly and many of the NCR, but left the rest ghouls. Many became feral, but not all of them, as a Squad or so are left non-feral and willing to kill anyone and anything that threatens them.
If you want to play a Ghoul, that is less of a controversy them a Mutant, but just note you won't actively be able to be apart of a major Faction, as they ALL dislike them and will not openly accept their presence. You can obviously be a member of a Ghoul Faction, though none would actually be present in history by the lore's timeline, so one would need to be made up. There are a few position though that you could take as well that would associate you with a Faction. For example in New Vegas, Beatrice the Merc/Cowgirl is a Ghoul working to protect the Followers of the Apocalypse in Freeside.
Holy shit, Silver Fox! A pleasure to see you again. I was in a few of your rps on an old account. I joined your Elder Scrolls Rp with a Mute Khajiit. ^^
