The Brotherhood of Steel...are they good guys or insane fanatics.

[Green Raven]

Im trying to be good this time.

Last time I rebuilt a guild of assassins from the ground up, became a cannibal, and helped a vampire kill the sun. My go to companion was a deranged clown, and I had a hell horse as my steed. I murdered everyone I could find who trusted me, bec a sword told me to. I didnt kill the clown, though. He was too much fun to have around.

So this time Im going full boy scout. Join the minutemen, always negotiate before shooting, protect and serve.

I came across the brotherhood when they were being assualted by Ghouls. Naturally, I ran to theyre aid. Now they want me to help them...so if anyone can tell me more about these guys id appreciate it. Please. (Charisma check)

[ManDudely]

Don't bother with the minutemen unless you want to spend all your time going from settlement to settlement solving all their little problems. There is nothing else to the faction but endless rescue missions.

The Brotherhood are not really the 'good guys', they're the 'win at all cost' guys. But at least they're interesting. Their outlook is fanatically militant, they want to be the only faction in all of humanity that posesses advanced technology with no intent on using it for anything other than war and oppression of the already struggling populace.

[Sentient_Toaster]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/KnightTemplar

[Astasia]

None of the factions are really good or bad, the minutemen are probably the closest to good though. The other factions have their own agendas, which might be good or noble on paper, but they will do anything to succeed, at any cost. All of them are willing to, and do, kill innocents because of their ideals or plans. The minutemen try to be good, but they are a bit naive and don't understand what's going on, which leads them to do things that could be considered bad.

It's not a story about good and evil, it's a story about war, and conflicting sides.

[Mr.Hmm]

They are both insane fanatics and good/bad guys to me :P

Still I like them so i side with them on my 2nd try.

[leadmecca]

You have to study the history. They are post apoc U.S. military that grew out of the feeling of some responsibility at unleashing monsters on the wasteland, so they feel their duty is foremost to cleanse the wastes of all mutant life and raiders and not allowing another apoc event to ever happen to mankind again. They have a short tolerance for intelligent ghouls/mutants, and possibly now certain synths. They leave the Capital wastes and Commonwealth settlers mainly to themselves while they go off doing what every they do (usually badly without the PCs intervention) They usually have no problem conscripting outside the brotherhood but expect results (which with the BoS leaves one thinking how do they keep losing so many soldiers)

The BoS would rather control technology in the good fight rather then let anyone else have it just in case that person creates a ghoul army or wants to enslave parts of America with some super weapon. They do have inside detractors that believe they shouldn't be so xenophobic. A lot of players think of them as facists and jack booted thugs but they are actually far from it. Mostly a lot of hot air and little action. They get thrown in as being like the Enclaves little brother when they are actually just like the Boomers except right now they aren't isolationists because Maxson is on some sort of really hardcore crusade for certain reasons. Taking the fight outside of DC and to who knows where.

Suffice to say, if the BoS had to collaterally kill a huge settlement like say Diamond City for some odd reason, they probably would. They also probably would kill any survivors to keep it hush hush. I think they would if the threat was large enough. So... they still have a great capacity and military resources to do some really awful things I think. I haven't seen it happen though, but as we have heard time again, with great power (knowledge) there must also come great responsibility. Let's hope lil boy Maxson becomes very responsible.

Sarah Lives! Ad Victoriam!

[Scorpion62]

I have to disagree with KONFL about the minutemen. I fould their quests of saving the settlements fun.

[lemons4sail]

There really isn't a good or evil faction in any of the fallout games. The BoS wants to save humanity by making sure that they don't misuse technology, but they think that *they* are only ones who can properly handle said technology. All of the factions have good yet conflicting interests.

[ManDudely]

Originally posted by Qabu:

All of the factions have good yet conflicting interests.

Basically this. But of all the factions you only become the leader of the Institute, potentially able to influence the future course of the faction. You're just a pawn to the others.

[BaronZen]

useless fanatics, i am finally doing the max fusion quest for the institute, never seen a t-60 armored guy fly from a corner to the other with a gauss headshot like now; they was like: "no prisoners!" - die, "fire at will"- die, scratching my armor paint with their phewphew lasers - die.

Only serious bos is Danse, gave him a full x01 armor with a furious gatling, but oh well Bos exiled him, bad to them!

[Klingenmeister]

Originally posted by Sentient_Toaster:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/KnightTemplar

This! ^

[JUST SOME DUDE]

It depends. In Fallout 1 they are good but also evil. They would send those who want to join they would give them a mission that would kill them. It was to retrieve an artifact from this radioactive place. In Fallout 2 they don't appear a lot. However they appear good, but like Fallout 1 they are still heavily isolated. The commonwealth chapter is very good, but they seperated from the Brotherhoods isolation ideals, thus creating the outcasts. In 4 they commit genocide towards ghouls who are non ferral and friendly Super Mutants. While in real life a robot is a robot so it should be destroyed, but in Fallouts world they are like humans so yeah. I would give them a karma rating out of 100 48/100.

[Ben]

All factions are just laws of other men. You are the only one who can decide what's good and evil, every other outlook is just experience from another point of view so neither are truely wrong or right. What I am saying is, be part of the junkies, do jet and be good. =)

[Ficelle]

BoS

We protect humanity against itself, and better for everyone to accept it
Tech, we take it, because we are the only ones able to deal with it
Humans, ok, we protect them, but better they dont stand against us or arent inbetween us and our objectives
Non humans, all have to die because they are the enemies, no discrimination at all
We have spoken, now obey the rules

Yeah, they fight for the greater good, but mostly for their greater good or their vision of the greater good

They are not evil to be evil, their goal is somewhat good, but their way is the fanatic military dictatorship way

[Iceman]

Originally posted by (TMF) CaliforniaZombie:

All factions are just laws of other men. You are the only one who can decide what's good and evil, every other outlook is just experience from another point of view so neither are truely wrong or right. What I am saying is, be part of the junkies, do jet and be good. =)

Gosh I love Californians - you guys are the best!

That aside, I don't play Fallout 4 without mods - originally, you were supposed to be able to become leader of the Brotherhood or Danse does so as well, but that was cut content. There are mods on the Nexus that bring those options back. What is unbelievable about how Fallout 4 is written is that the Brotherhood would wipe out the Institute instead of harnessing its technological know-how and hoarding it. They were grabbing books from a derelict library and reading pre-war books before - now that they hit the Sierra Madre of pre-war knowledge and scientific advancement, they're going to do a Strong smash on it? Some of the most inconsistent and frankly, insane writing I've ever seen. I don't care who says what, I see Bethesda's Fallout as an alternate Fallout universe, like say an Earth-2, whereas Obsidian has the Earth Prime of the Fallout Universe.