The Brotherhood Questline (Fallout 4) - How I Would Change It

Here is the Brotherhood questline done in the same format as the previous Minutemen post - also part of that quest project that never went anywhere, but I think this has some fun ideas in it.

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Brotherhood Act One - Available for All

1. “Fire Support” quest, same as vanilla
2. “Call to Arms” quest, same as vanilla
3. “Shadow of Steel” quest, same as vanilla, except the player doesn't meet with Maxson and doesn't hear his speech directly
4. “Tour of Duty” quest is mostly the same as vanilla, but the player returns to whoever gave them the quest instead of Maxson
5. “Show No Mercy” quest, same as vanilla, except the player doesn't speak with Maxson.

Brotherhood Act Two - Prove Your Worth

1. “Welcome to the Team” quest involves the player being placed within a team designed to handle tasks that would be too dangerous or too far outside Brotherhood jurisdiction for normal members; meeting each member of the team is primarily what this quest entails
2. “Far Go Raiders” quest involves the team tracking down, and then neutralizing, a former caravan company that turned to nomadic raiding after losing out against the big-name caravans operating from Bunker Hill
3. “Monsters, Inc.” quest involves the team locating a highly coordinated group of intelligent super mutants who’ve been kidnapping humans for unknown reasons; the Brotherhood fears they could mark the rise of another mutant army, like the one back west in the original Fallout
4. “Rallying Point” quest involves the player setting up an outpost for traders, and those interested in the Brotherhood, within the ruined section of Boston Airport
5. “Untapped Potential” quest involves the team providing extra support to Brotherhood soldiers at Cambridge Police Station as they expand their influence outwards to include the nearby College Square

Brotherhood Act Three - What They Hide Beneath

1. “From Within” quest is the same as vanilla, except includes the formal introduction to Elder Arthur Maxson
2. “Outside the Wire” quest is the same as vanilla, except has the player check their footlocker at the end (which leads into the next quest)
3. “Oh My Stars!” quest involves the player heading to Nuka World on the trail of this unnamed Brotherhood soldier, arriving in Nuka World, and discovering that this soldier is, in fact, Star Paladin Cross
4. “Caged Lyon” quest involves the player searching Nuka World for Sarah Lyons, before finding that she died four years earlier; the player then locates Sarah’s holotags and a list of holotapes explaining what happened to her, brings them back to Cross, and the two have a funeral for Sarah
5. “Open Season” quest, not same as vanilla, but not sure how it’ll work. One way or another, Cross helps you get rid of the raiders and take back the park for the slaves, and then you and Cross travel back to the Commonwealth with a few ex-slaves who wanted to come with you (plus Sarah’s holotags and holotapes). Upon arriving back in the Commonwealth, the group will hole up in the Lonely Chapel
6. “Game Plan” quest involves the player and the group from Nuka World deciding on a plan to gather enough weapons, armor, ammo and supplies to take over the Federal Ration Stockpile using the trap door in the Lonely Chapel; this plan requires the player to travel to multiple military locations across the map to gather everything they’ll need to clear the raiders from the Federal Ration Stockpile
7. “Eviction Notice” quest involves the team from Nuka World using their newly-acquired supplies to swiftly take out the Federal Ration Stockpile raiders, then setting up shop inside the facility; once this quest is over, the player has the choice to either take the evidence of Sarah’s betrayal by someone in the Brotherhood to Maxson, play the tapes over the Prydwen loudspeakers, play the tapes on Diamond City Radio to spread it throughout the Commonwealth, or not use the evidence at all. If you choose not to use the evidence, Cross will understand your desire to keep the Brotherhood intact, but she and the rest of her new team will refuse to work with you anymore.
8. “The Same Page” quest involves the player talking with their team and revealing everything they learned about Sarah Lyons, Arthur Maxson, the Brotherhood, and Cross. The team talks, getting their thoughts out there, providing advice on what the player should do based on their own beliefs
9. “Truth Hurts” quest only happens if the player chooses to reveal the evidence, and involves the player taking the tapes to either Travis at Diamond City Radio, Elder Maxson in the Prydwen, or to Captain Kells to have it played over the Prydwen’s speakers

Playing the tapes over the radio will cause the people of the Commonwealth to doubt the Brotherhood’s integrity, as they learn that this Brotherhood apparently sold its own people into slavery for power

Doing this won’t result in the player being exiled, as there’s no way to trace the tapes back to you, but will definitely make the Brotherhood seem a lot more tense - both inside and out; also affects the Brotherhood ending slides

Playing the tapes over the Prydwen speakers will cause confusion and outrage within the Prydwen, resulting in divisions forming and multiple soldiers leaving the Brotherhood as a result.

Doing this will result in the player being stripped of all Brotherhood rank and barred from ever entering Brotherhood controlled territory again

Taking the tapes to Maxson will surprise, then anger him, as he realizes that he was lied to and used in order to fit someone else’s agenda. He’ll open up more about his past and his childhood, revealing how he felt when Sarah and Owyn died, and then after going through a long ass dialogue conversation he’ll ask you not to reveal this to anyone. He believes in the Brotherhood that he’s helped shape, and doesn’t want to see it collapse

Agreeing to hand him the tapes and Sarah’s holotags will end this quest and prevent you from doing the Outcast questline, and prevent you from any more meaningful interaction with Cross’s team. This will continue the Brotherhood questline much like it was in the vanilla game, just extended a bit.

Not agreeing to hand him the tapes and Sarah’s holotags will result in him barring you from ever returning to the Prydwen or the Brotherhood, and being removed from the Prydwen with all your things (including the tapes and tags)

Brotherhood Act Four VERSION A - Brotherhood Boy, Through and Through

WARNING: Once you go through with the quest “The Battle for Bunker Hill” for the Brotherhood, you are locked into the Brotherhood questline. No more missions can be done for the Institute, Railroad, Minutemen, or Brotherhood Outcasts after this point.

1. “The Battle for Bunker Hill” quest is essentially the same as vanilla, just also available for the Brotherhood. The player and their team, along with a large number of other Brotherhood soldiers, come in to fight off the Institute, then eliminate the synths hiding in Bunker Hill (with the Railroad agents and/or Minutemen militia becoming collateral damage)
2. “Liberty Reprimed” quest is the same as vanilla
3. “Degree of Discretion” quest involves the team (the Brotherhood team) clearing and investigating University Point, attempting to locate what exactly the Institute wanted there - and if it can be of use to the Brotherhood
4. “Blind Betrayal” quest is the same as vanilla, but with two main differences: insights gained on how your team feels about the situation, and then the option of sending Danse to the Brotherhood Outcasts under Cross instead of killing him, sending him to the Railroad or exiling him from the Commonwealth
5. “Spoils of War” quest is the same as vanilla
6. “Ad Victoriam” quest is the same as vanilla, just also includes the entirety of “The Nuclear Option” rolled into it’s quest progression. Basically, two quests merged into one.
7. “A New Dawn” quest is the same as vanilla

Brotherhood Act Five VERSION A - Beyond the End

The ending slides play, detailing the aftermath of your many choices throughout the game, before allowing you one last moment to see the new future that you’ve made.
 

1. “In Brotherhood We Trust” quest involves the player walking out onto the balcony at the tip of the Prydwen, joining Elder Maxson as he looks out on the Commonwealth at night. This takes place four years after the end of the game. The two of you have a very short interaction before gazing at the orderly, but strangled streets of Boston. No gunfire, no explosions, no violence can be heard under the vigil of the Brotherhood. But at the same time, no laughter or joy can be heard either. The night is quiet. And the game fades to black as the Brotherhood flag flies over Boston Airport down below.

Brotherhood Act Four VERSION B - Castaway

WARNING: Once you go through with the quest “The Lyons Legacy” for the Brotherhood Outcasts, you are locked into the Outcasts questline. No more missions can be done for the Institute, Brotherhood, Railroad or Minutemen after this point. If the Minutemen also appeared at Bunker Hill to protect it, then ending the battle for the Outcasts will culminate in the player handing the rank of Minutemen General over to someone else (probably Preston Garvey); this prevents the player from completing two endings at once, as the Minutemen need a leader unswayed by outside forces or other factions. The Railroad, despite not working with the player, are not hostile to you for following the Outcasts path
 

1. “Another Bridge Burned” quest involves the player returning to the Brotherhood Outcasts under former Star Paladin Cross, as there is really nowhere else to go aside from the Minutemen or Railroad. The Outcasts meet together - either being a large force if the tapes were played at any point, or simply the small group that came from Nuka World if not - and plan their next move, which is to make themselves known to the other three factions and distinguishing themselves from the larger Brotherhood by helping the Railroad (and possibly the Minutemen) in the Battle for Bunker Hill against the Institute and the Brotherhood
2. “In This Together” quest involves (some) of the player’s Brotherhood team leaving the Brotherhood to come help the Outcasts, followed by the Outcasts making the trip to Bunker Hill using whatever vertibirds are at their disposal
3. “The Lyons Legacy” quest is basically the same as the Minutemen quest “The Whites in their Eyes”, except the Outcasts are received with much more suspicion by the people of Bunker Hill, the Minutemen, and the Railroad, as very few expect them to be much better than the Brotherhood they know

NOTE: After Bunker Hill, there will be a few new recruits to the Outcasts, and Alex joins the player’s team.

1. “That New Armor Smell” quest involves the team meeting with the Atom Cats and convincing them to ally with the Outcasts
2. “Anne Atomic” quest involves the team looking into a pre-war science experiment that went wrong; trying to figure out what happened, and how to not make the same mistakes; Alex is vaporized after accidentally getting locked into the experiment chamber

NOTE: After Alex is vaporized and presumed dead, members of the Outcasts start reporting strange occurrences around their HQ and in the field. This is, whether they know it or not, Alex attempting to reconstitute himself from the molecules nearby. He essentially became my Fallout version of Doctor Manhattan, but much less powerful and with less reality-warping, spacetime-bending power.

1. “Too Close For Comfort” quest involves the team investigating the appearance of the X-01 power armor in the Commonwealth, figuring out what connection it has to the Enclave - and if the Brotherhood’s old enemies are readying for a comeback
2. “Not So Fast” quest involves the Outcasts rushing to Mass Fusion in order to arrive there before the Brotherhood, allowing time for the player’s team to get inside the reactor, grab the Beryllium Agitator, and fight their way back out once the Brotherhood arrives
3. “I’ve Come To Bargain” quest involves the Outcasts contacting the Institute and proposing a (false) alliance in exchange for the Beryllium Agitator, resulting in the Outcasts being allowed into the Institute; once inside, they’re trapped in a section of the Institute, and the reactor begins running without the original Agitator, as they’d gotten the blueprints for a less powerful, temporary Agitator from Mass Fusion after you left. When all seems lost, the power suddenly shuts off. A voice comes over the Institute intercom, asking for any available engineering personnel to assist in figuring out what caused the outage. The Outcasts escape their now unlocked section of the Institute, and make their way down to the reactor. Some synths are fought along the way, and the Institute scientists that remain out and about are left alive/essential. Upon arriving at the closed door to the reactor room, the player watches momentarily through the nearby observation window as a group of frantic scientists rush for a solution to the power outage, before a bright flash makes everything go white. The flash fades away and vision returns, only to reveal a horrific sight. A green light illuminates the room like a miniature sun, scorch marks cover the walls and floor, ashes of scientists and synths litter the area, and the reactor looks like it exploded from the inside-out. This green light dims just slightly, allowing the outline of a person to be seen, before it dissipates and leaves the room dark once more. With everyone of importance turned to ash and molten metal, the group leaves the Institute behind, making sure that the emergency relay is shut off once they leave. The synth Shaun appears, as in every ending, with the choice of taking him or leaving him behind.

Brotherhood Act Five VERSION B - Begin Again

The ending slides play, detailing the aftermath of your many choices throughout the game, before allowing you one last moment to see the new future that you’ve made.

1. “What We Stand For” quest involves the player walking through the new base of the Brotherhood Outcasts at Fort Hagen, six months after the Institute was rendered inoperable. The Outcasts have had a slight increase in size, bolstered by their steady rise in popularity among the Commonwealth’s people and the steady decline that the main Brotherhood division has been facing in turn. Many of your followers and companions are there (those who could realistically be there), allowing you time to chat with them about the past six months. One notable conversation is with Emily Ortal, who has come up with a theory that Alex may not be gone, but instead simply detached from our physical plane (based on what she saw when he was vaporized, and what she saw in the Institute reactor room). She talks about attempting to contact him in the future, hoping that she can soon find out what actually happened to him. Once you’ve finished talking with companions and other returning NPCs, the player arrives at a door leading into the new operations room for the Outcasts: a circular table fills the space, surrounded by high ranking Outcasts and surviving former members of the Lyons Brotherhood. Star Paladin Cross, now Elder Cross, stands at the opposite end of the room, with a portrait of Owyn and Sarah Lyons on the wall behind her. She notices you, and calls the room to attention. She introduces you to the different people in the room, before announcing that she’s giving you the title of Sentinel. Then, after a short dialogue, the whole room takes part in the formal ceremony to name you the new Sentinel of Steel, with the game fading to black as they chant “For the Commonwealth! For the Sentinel! For the Brotherhood!”

SIDE QUESTS:

1.     “Tactical Thinking” quest is the same as vanilla, but now a side quest