Red Legion – A Fallout 4 Roleplay Experience

The Brotherhood of Steel is broken, betrayed by an outcast from within their own ranks. All that remains of the Institute is a smoking crater where the CIT campus used to stand. Rumors the Railroad were involved circulate on the airwaves. Some hope the Commonwealth has finally returned to its natural state of chaos. Yet of late the Scavvers are nervous.

Unknown figures in blood red Power Armor have been sighted, arriving and departing the mainland in a lone Vertibird which disappears toward Spectacle Island. And when the night is dark and fog thick, blurred lights shine in the mists above the Atlantic. A specter of grandeur in the east, some say. Others fear another shadow is about to befall the Commonwealth.

Below you’ll find a rather extensive written and visual account of my first and only Fallout 4 roleplay. But first some context: after playing the basic character flavors (stealth, melee, ranged), gameplay had grown stagnant so I set myself a new goal: I’d roleplay a BoS recruit who is cast out and joins the Railroad to take down Maxton’s Brotherhood – a rather simple character arc, but one which intrigued me. I would fight only with heavy weapons, laser pistols, grenades, and melee bashes while always using Power Armor, a playstyle that would require – and allow – me to advance aggressively without becoming a slave to melee range. The playstyle, look, and feel of the character would also be reminiscent of the Outcasts from Fallout 3; my inspiration for the RP.

By Level 30 that story arc had been completed and my build had proven functional (though I did screw up initial stats). But something else happened: I saw a post on Reddit about turning off the HUD. So I did that and only traveled on foot or with the Railroad’s Vertibird. From one minute to the next I was completely immersed in FO4, something which hadn’t happened before. Before long the original roleplay evolved and two new powers were born in the Boston Wastelands: the Red Legion and the Razorgrain Communes. The story of their creation is related below, broken down by settlement in order of aquisition.

Communa Warwick

Originally a small mutfriut farm run by the Warwick Family, the settlement would be the first in the Boston Wastes to ally itself with the Legion when its soon-to-become founders arrived by Vertibird at Level 30 – a timely arrival as a Raider assault began at that perecise moment.

Warwick Gates

With the raiders vanquished, the Warwick family was all too eager to support the Outcast’s cause: building a greater future for the Commonwealth, one free of any force which still believed in Old World values – or sought to exploit them. The settlement quickly transformed into a walled and fortified farmstead. A vertibird landing zone was cleared, the plantation expanded, and behind the walls of Warwick a new form of local governance emerged: the commune.

Three weeks later, Warwick opened its sealed gates to trade caravans, becoming both the first Commune loyal to the newly formed Red Legion a major supplier of purified water. Today the Homestead is protected by three guard posts, two on the perimeter and a third fallback position in case the gates are breeches. The sleeping quarters are known to be cramped, a fact that recent arrivals at Warwick often complain about.

Vertibird LZ & Trading Zone

RP wise this settlement’s history was a defining event as I was simply carting supplies from Red Rocket to Warwick (it was the only location I had except Sanctuary and Red Rocket, and the others had no initial population). I had no idea the Raiders would be there and I was AFK redditing when we arrived. The formative moment was me hearing a rocket whoosh past the vertibird as we set down and the second hit the engine nacelle, exploding just as McCready and I hopped out.

There was gunfire all over (me still encumbered with all the junk and unable to move) and McCready laying down serious fire, almost as though he knew I couldn’t get into position. The raiders were running all over. Settlers were shooting like wild. Rain hammered down through the entire gunfight. It was just too atmospheric to ignore and as a result I decided to continue the original RP, which eventually led to what I now call the Red Legion.

Basecamp Specacle

A short hop from Warwick and safe from attack due to its remote location, Spectacle Island was an ideal location for the Legion to set up their base of operations. By Level 33 a chem-addicted yet talented fighter named Cait had been recruited to the cause, and reconnaissance of the location was successfully completed.

Legion Lieutenants Cait (left) and McCready (right) at Basecamp Specacle

Construction crews were dispatched from Warwick and, within a week, a vertibird landing pad and barracks were constructed near a wild Razorgrain field. Several levels later, Basecamp Spectacle would be extended with a second sleeping quarters, four water purifiers, and an improved concrete landing pad. Due to its strategic importance, few outsiders are allowed to visit Spectacle Island and at least one Legion lieutenant in iconic red power armor is always present on the Basecamp’s perimeter.

Mess area beside Barracks; view across Vertipad

I apologize for the lack of expressive images; the location proved impossible to take shots and I screwed most of ’em up anyways. It was the first real settlement I custom built and it was bad. AI pathing is completely screwed in most of the area and bleurgh. It looks okay from the outside but it’s not really cool enough to warrant more pics.

RP wise however Spectacle was another milestone, giving rise to a new idea: the Legion would expand along the coast from the east, emerging from the mists and rain to establish farms, and those would fuel an extensive push westwards – which later evolved into two major campaigns, as we’ll see. Also, I realized that ‘east’ and ‘red’ fit nicely into the communist stereotype.

That, coupled with the huge razorgrain field around the vertipad, gave rise to the idea of establishing ‘Razorgrain Communes’. I also decided my my player character had become communist-inspired after the Great War, having seen the imperialist mentality that caused it in the BoS. Basically, Spectacle Island sealed this Roleplay for me.

Communa Nordhagen

With Spectacle Island secure, the Red Legion began to set its plans to claim coastal settlements and dominate the water trade in Boston into motion. Nordhagen Beach would be the second settlement to join the Razorgrain Communes, though rumors persist that this occured at gunpoint – or gattling laser point to be exact.

Walled Mutfruit plantation at Nordhagen

Nordhagen was expanded twice since joining the Communes: once to add the Seaview Restaurant and again following a Raider attack to link the walled area with the water purifiers at the beach. Despite its colorful past, Nordhagen has become known as a popular tourist desitnation amongst both inhabitants of the Communes and the Wastelands at large.

From a RP perspective, Nordhagen was boring. I built it quickly to expand and ignored it until I decided to build the restaurant, which was done with little care. Later I came back to grab a stack of water only to have the settlement attacked by Raiders (including a missile launcher and fat man). Thankfully the fat man’s only shot hit a wall but, due to my initial laxness, I’d neglected to link the main settlement (around the shack) with the three water purifiers at the beach, all of which were wrecked.

This experience led me to redesign Nordhagen and Warwick so as to avoid losing critical machines during a time when my RP ddn’t allow me to buy shipments of materials (the Red Legion was still an unknown at this time and had no trade route to anyone in any city). Also note that although no Razorgrain is visible in this image, there is a large field of it outside the walls, which is why I decided to call these places Razorgrain Communes. I just couldn’t cover all the food requirementswith grain at the time so I kept the mutfruits within the walls.

Communa Kingsport

Following the sucess at Nordhagen, the Legion continued north toward Kingsport Lighthouse. The residents (now believed to have been cultists of Atom) refused to submit despite repeated warnings by the Legion’s assault team. It is said the resulting firefight lasted less than a minute, the defiant locals cut down by gattling laser and gauss rifle fire in short order.

Walled front entrance at Kingsport

The location was quickly secured, fortified, and transformed into a thriving yet isolated mutfruit and corn plantation. Its inhabitants speak of cramped living quarters but otherwise appear happy. They seldom have contact with the world beyond their walls however, possibly due to the prevalence of Super Mutants raiding in the area, or perhaps because they are ill at ease with outsiders.

Walled compound as seen from Sniper’s Nest (Lighthouse)

Much like Nordhagen, Kingspoint was hastily thrown together so that I could finally move on to the really cool part: the conquest of the Wastelands with the help of Minuteman artillery. That was my RP’s goal at the time: forge an alliance with Preston and establish forward artillery posts. We’ll get to that in a moment.

Prior experience in building had paid off by the time I took Kingsport and the defenses were good from the outset (no one’s managed to get inside yet, unlike at the other settlements, all of which ended up in chaos after their first raid). There are six guard posts (but only two guards so I could focus on food production) out front. I realized this would keep the settlement safer as there’d be a chance of early warning when attacks came. I later added the sniper nest on the lighthouse for shits and giggles.

To my surprise, when I came back to take these pics, the settlement got raided by Super Mutants (again), and the sniper on the lightouse actually worked as intended! Laser beams came stabbing down even at considerable range. I didn’t think the NPC AI would be able to handle it but clearly I was wrong.

Red Legion continues in Part II: Saragus/Bunker Hill Campaign