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

The Railroad needs a little love, but not too much. This version had them reverted to a meaty side faction questline, rather than a main faction. It never felt right for them to be one, so I changed that in this planned project.

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Railroad Act One - Available for All

1. “Road to Freedom” quest is the same as vanilla
2. “Tradecraft” quest is the same as vanilla
3. “Boston After Dark” quest is the same as vanilla, but now a main quest
4. “Butcher’s Bill” quest is the same as vanilla, but now a main quest
5. “Little Birdy’s Last Flight” quest is the same as “Butcher’s Bill 2”, but now a main quest with a different title
6. “Building Trust” quest is the same as “Mercer Safehouse”, but now a main quest with a different title
7. “Memory Interrupted” quest is the same as vanilla, but has the player fighting off Gunners hired by an Institute agent instead of synths (and is also now a main quest)
8. “Operation Ticonderoga” quest is the same as vanilla, but now a main quest
9. “Making Amends” quest is the same as “Randolph Safehouse”, but now a main quest with a different title

Railroad Act Two - Secrets Kept Close

WARNING: Getting removed from the Institute before finishing “Planting Seeds” results in the player not receiving the best possible ending for the Railroad, regardless of which main faction is sided with or what choices are made. Also, these quests can (obviously) only be started once the player has been accepted into the Institute

1. "Underground Undercover" quest is the same as vanilla, except it ends after the final interaction with the synth guy (no mention of the Brotherhood)
2. “Down The Rabbit Hole” quest involves the player discovering all they can about Father’s “pet projects”; these include the child synth, their new reactor, and an unknown third project that is never uncovered
3. "Planting Seeds" quest involves the player locating a terminal in the Institute to access the entirety of the Institute's synth force, then quickly/quietly planting an undetectable failsafe protocol in the system to replace the original, making it so that when Father flicks the switch to turn all synths hostile to non-Institute humans, they will instead all receive a jolt of memories related to slavery, freedom, and suffering that will force them into realizing the situation they're in. The player doesn’t know that what they’re planting will do all that, though

Railroad Act Three - Plotting The Course

WARNING: The first quest of Act Two, “How Deep Are We Talking?”, can only be started once the main quest involving Bunker Hill has been completed (either “The Whites in their Eyes” for the Minutemen or “The Lyons Legacy” for the Brotherhood Outcasts)

1. “Irregular Check-Up” quest involves the player going to Far Harbor at the behest of Desdemona, who wishes to know the situation in Acadia. The player is guided to Nick Valentine’s agency in their search of Ms. Nakano, and the rest is basically just the Far Harbor DLC. The player comes back after visiting Acadia and talking with DiMA, reports to Desdemona, and the quest is finished
2. "How Deep Are We Talking?” quest involves the player locating places of interest within the Glowing Sea, including the Crater of Atom, Federal Surveillance Center K-21B, Federal Supply Cache 84NE, Sentinel Site, and the Decayed Reactor Site, with the intention of determining their potential value to the Railroad. The player is not informed of the true purpose of this mission, not even at the end, which is to find a place for the Railroad’s idealized synth homeland
3. “Watch Yourself” quest involves the player investigating the reason for the Institute’s exploration and occupation of the Federal Surveillance Center, then subsequently setting up a Railroad safehouse inside the secure/well-hidden facility
4. “In Case of Bad Mess” quest involves the player, with assistance from a few Railroad synths, dismantling the Mark 28 bombs inside the Sentinel Site. The Railroad can’t trust that the bombs won’t fall into the hands of the Brotherhood, Institute, or some other volatile organization later down the line, and thus almost BEG you to assist a group of (radiation-resistant) synths in finding the design blueprints for the Mark 28 bombs, then using those blueprints to dismantle them all. Doing so effectively saves the Commonwealth, whether the people know it or not. ALSO, that title is a play on the acronym ICBM. I’m fucking hilarious

Railroad Act Four - Endings

• Main Brotherhood Ending
• Didn’t destroy the Railroad
• The Railroad, despite remaining a presence in the wasteland, slowly lost members for a year or two after the Brotherhood’s destruction of the Institute. The few synths who remained to be escorted from the Commonwealth were taken care of, but so many more were killed by Brotherhood soldiers and by the explosion in Cambridge. By 2290, the Railroad had been all but scattered to the wind.
• Did destroy the Railroad
• With the death of the Railroad’s high-level leadership, the second major blow to their organization in recent years, the survivors went into hiding. The safehouses were abandoned, with what few synths who could be helped finding their way south. The Railroad was a memory, and those synths who found themselves left behind had run clean out of luck.
• Brotherhood Outcasts Ending
• Didn’t help the Railroad by finishing “Making Amends” (the final quest in the Railroad’s Act One)
• The Outcasts, having successfully shut down the Institute and gained a real place in the Commonwealth, decided to leave the now-aimless Railroad alone. The underground organization, still reeling from the loss of their safehouses and lacking anywhere to house the large number of evacuated synths, came to an agreement with the people of Goodneighbor which would allow refugee synths to live in the city in exchange for their services in expanding Goodneighbor. Despite the leaders of the settlement agreeing to this, and despite Goodneighbor’s acceptance of those from all walks of life, many didn’t approve of the synths, leaving those synths who worked there in a constant state of fear - fear that one day the citizens would get tired of their presence, and take matters into their own hands.
• Did help the Railroad by finishing “Making Amends” (the final quest in the Railroad’s Act One)
• With the Institute gone and the Railroad having re-established a somewhat stable footing once more, the Outcasts decided to do them a favor by barely doing anything. Any lost or hopeless synths who stumbled upon a group of Outcasts were directed towards the nearest (known) Railroad safehouse, with any who wished to join the Outcasts being welcomed with open arms. The Railroad had plenty of work to do, funneling synths out of Boston through their safehouses spread across the Commonwealth. By the end of next year, all synths that could be located by the Railroad had been given their chance to leave the Commonwealth - though some did choose to stay behind, for one reason or another. The turn of the decade saw the Railroad formally disband - yet they still chose to keep their safehouses stocked and prepared, in case of any “future synth-related emergencies”.

• Minutemen Ending
• Didn’t ally with the Railroad in “Let’s Try This Again” (the first quest in the Minutemen Act Three)
• While the Commonwealth celebrates the defeat of the Institute, putting an end to the kidnappings and the civil war that had occurred throughout the wasteland during the final battle, the Railroad mourned the loss of hundreds of synths who were deactivated by the Minutemen in order to stop the Institute’s final failsafe from reaching fruition. With their entire purpose gone, and many of their own number depleted, the group quickly faded into obscurity, living the rest of their days regretting that they could not have done more to help those who were lost on the Second Independence Day.
• Did ally with the Railroad in “Let’s Try This Again” (the first quest in the Minutemen Act Three)
• Following the epic confrontation and destruction of the threat that the Institute posed, the Commonwealth was divided in their beliefs. Many were indeed happy with the Institute being taken out of the picture, but were unsure of how they viewed the people who made it a reality. The Minutemen were fractured as a result of their General’s desire to gain the Railroad’s support, and it seemed increasingly likely that another civil war was fast approaching on the Commonwealth’s horizon. The Railroad benefited much more out of this alliance, utilizing the massive number of freed synths to fulfill their ultimate goal: building a true homeland for the synths out of the wreckage that is the Glowing Sea. Hundreds of synths flocked to Railroad safehouses, being processed as quickly as their runners could handle to the proposed settlement location at Sentinel Site - within a year, they had an irradiated boom town full of all kinds of synths and intelligent robots. By 2300, that town had become a city to rival the Great Green Jewel. Synths finally had a place to call home, and the future of robot-kind had never looked brighter.

• Institute Ending
• Didn’t plant the virus in the Institute’s systems in “Planting Seeds” (the final quest of the Railroad Act Two)
• The Institute had done it: the Commonwealth, within one day and one night, stood subservient to an army of synths. People who had been their friends and neighbors days before now stood as their jailors, ensuring that every chess piece stays in the right place. The Railroad were barely dust under the heel of progress, the Commonwealth division of the Brotherhood (as well as their Outcasts) lay in shambles, and the Minutemen proved nothing more than a ragtag group of settlers who struggled to even keep themselves fed. Science had won the day, and the future shined like a cold, undeniable beacon.
• Did plant the virus in the Institute’s systems in “Planting Seeds” (the final quest of the Railroad Act Two)
• As the switch was thrown, as the world was set to be brought back on course, something happened. Like they had woken from a dream, the synths of the Institute came to the realization that they...were people too. The facility that created them became a massive macabre painting as many of these synths took out years of unknown frustration and anger on their makers, leaving the Institute an uneasy shade of crimson by the time the violence had died down. Synths across the Commonwealth had also experienced this awakening, but none nearly as strong as those at it’s forefront. The other factions of Boston may have fallen, but synths and humans were now on a level playing field. What this means for the Commonwealth going forward is unclear, but one thing is evident: freedom reigns supreme - for better, or for worse.