I was thinking of a few possible ideas for making the bandit faction more fleshed-out. First and foremost, how to add a way to make them non-hostile. By default they should be hostile to survivors, but players could have a few means to get in their good graces. First…
Part 1: Criminal Scum
Certain professions could have a profession trait that marks them as a former member of the criminal element. Convict, gangster, maybe bionic assassin etc. More mild options could be used for the scoundrel, biker, or other classes that MIGHT have been on the wrong side of the law pre-cataclysm, but might not have. Bionic thief might be an example of a class that SHOULDN’T be infamous already, because they shouldn’t have been caught.
The main effect would be giving you a negative reputation with other factions, especially the old guard. In exchange, the Hell’s Raiders would be nudged closer to neutral.
Part 2: Expansion
Next would be giving them actual dialogue trees, and adding non-hostile reactions to a player character. The big thing here is that a bandit camp should still be highly likely to shoot you on sight UNLESS you’ve been told to head over there and meet the boss. Bandit cabins, the scout ambush in that quest, and the bandit informant should maybe be more open to talking to a nefarious character by default.
The bandit informant might even be a good starting point for a bandit quest chain. You get asked to rat him/her out. This could give players the opportunity to find the informant and warn them, opening up the option of helping them gather intel and misdirect the person trying to sniff out said informant. One option might be to rat out someone innocent that’d make a good patsy, thus alleviating the outpost’s suspicions at the expense of some unfortunate loner.
Another alternative might be to make contact with the group that ambushes the refugee center scouts. Not sure of the setup for such a quest, but it could either be an alternative starting point for the quest chain, or the next quest after assisting the informant.
Part 3: Meet the New Boss
The inevitable next step will be getting the coordinates to a bandit camp, to get additional quests from the bandit leader. Just as the Old Guard want to eventually send you after the Hell’s Raiders, your missions will likely lead to eventual conflict with the Old Guard. It might start with sabotaging the refugee center’s operations, preventing them from securing the ranch, or any number of things that’d make them realize who you’re working with, leading to conflict.
Either way, there’d be a turning point where you’ve alienated the refugee center NPCs, and thus been forced into hostility as a result of your actions. At some point, wiping out the Old Guard and claiming either the refugee center or the ranch to use as a bandit outpost might be an option, with bandit ranch missions being a dark mirror of the existing ranch missions.
Part 4: I Can Has A Posse?
Recruiting some of the random bandits might be nice, obviously. A few might also have random personal quests, similar to the average loner NPC. Aside from typical “go kill the jabberwock” or other generic quests, other options might include bringing them supplies to fix up their ride, raiding a bank or other place of interest because they have intel on good loot, or even hunting down bounty hunters that are tracking them.
