Companions Guild

Situation:
Disappointed that you found out they were werewolves on the SECOND quest?
Barely got to know Kodlak?
Didn't care when Skjor died?
Confused as to why you can't get the lower members to follow you when you are the same rank as them?

Solution:
You help out a companion, you gain their trust and them as a potential follower.

After the starter quests of Vilkas letting you hit him and giving Aela her shield from Eorlund...
Skjor hands out quests.

1. Ria
Quest to kill bandits around the back of Whiterun (north-west side). Now she can really "show you the ropes", as your first task is to follow her and go bandit beating.
She could tell you about the different weapon types along the way:
"Maces are slow, but hit hard; you need to use proper timing so as not to expose yourself after an attack. Swords are quick, and are capable of cutting an opponent to ribbons before they can counter-attack. Axes, are good for more than just chopping down trees; Yssgramor, the founder of the companions drove the Elves from Skyrim and Solstheim with his."
"What about daggers?"
"What are you crazy? Go waving a little dagger around near a cave troll and see how that works out! *laugh* Only chance you'd have would be to stab it in the back when it wasn't looking, but that's not particularly honourable".
Kill bandits, quest complete.
"Hey, I think you have a knack for this. If you ever need me to help you out, I've got your back."
Gain as potential follower.

2. Athis
Quest to go retrieve a caravan's stolen cargo from a bandit cave (somewhere close to Whiterun).
Talks to you about tactics on the way:
"When nearing your destination, scout out the area. You want to know what you're up against before you jump in and get yourself killed"
"Take out the weakest first. You don't want them pestering you while you're facing a tough enemy in a long, arduous battle"
"If you have someone with you, try to flank the enemy; but be careful about throwing wild power attacks, lest they move out the way and you accidentally bonk your friend on the noggin."
"Don't get overwhelmed. If you're in trouble and surrounded, retreat back to a narrow space like a doorway and fight them off, one at a time.
Bandits killed, cargo obtained, quest complete
"Not bad, friend. If you want me to lend you a hand in future, you have but to ask."
Gain as a potential follower.

3. Torvar
Quest to rescue aristocrat's daughter from necromantic sacrifice.
"This rich guy's daughter, I hear she's quite the looker"
"Die! You ugly son of a horker!"
"All this dead stuff creeps me out. Not just regular dead bodies, but when they're walking around... Moaning..."
"This one time, Njada said I was so bad at fighting I couldn't hit myself if I tried. I sure showed her; three times! I could tell she was impressed by the look in her eyes. Well, one of them anyway." (Make one of Njada's eyes grey on the side of the scars)
Kill necromancers, free Orcish woman from cage
"*hushed tone* She was supposed to be hot! I'd need to down at least 6 bottles of Honningbrew to *cough* Ahem."
Quest complete
"Not bad, not bad. Hey, if you ever get a quest to rescue a fair maiden from her virginity, just let me know. *laugh*"
Gain as potential follower

4.Njada
Quest to kill the troll east of Whiterun, past the twin towers over the river/near the waterfall (where the the two dead stormcloaks are; also links the explanation as to why you were sent).
"You better be as good as Athis says you are, I don't want to have to carry your sorry ass back to the Jorrvaskr."
"Trolls can be killed in one of two ways; fire, and beating so hard they don't want to come back. Unfortunately, I'm not a damned dragon, so it looks like we'll have to do it the brutal way."
"Doesn't look so tough. In fact, are you sure that's not your mother?"
Troll killed, quest complete
"Well, I guess you're okay. Listen, if you need me to help bash some skulls again, I'm in."
Gain as potential follower

Then you get the quest to get the fragment of Wuthrad with Farkas and be a fully fledged member of the Companions (why would they entrust such an important task to a new initiate before?).
Note* Farkas should be wearing wolf armour because of the Silver hand quote during that quest "he's wearing the armour, he dies".

Kodlak should be in the main hall of the Jorrvaskr for most of the day, instead of being hidden underground and rarely seen.

Hopefully someone else thinks this is a good idea, I've been thinking about it for quite some time.

Yeah the companions guild was underwhelming. The only guild I liked was the thieves guild because I actually had to work for becoming a guild master.

Definitely would be nice. Always disappointed in how soon they revealed their secret.

If this got done, I'd get it in a heartbeat.

Some good ideas here. I've been working on an expansion of the Companions questline, although it's on hold at the moment because of the bugs the 1.6 patch introduced with editing vanilla dialogue. Right now I just have more radiant quests required between each of the "story" quests, and level and skill requirements for advancement. But I do want to add in some additional radiant quests, as well as story quests with more choices that I have sketched out. I had some quests like these mapped out for a bit later in the questline--basically, once you prove yourself individually, you'd have to prove yourself as a leader.

Yeah I feel like you never really got to know the people in the guild, and then you become their leader; just seems strange. Never got to care about any of them (especially Skjor/Kodlak. Finding the book in his bedroom about me after he died I was like "haha cop-out" I'd barely even spoken to him before he kicked the bucket).

The introduction to werewolves is also wayyyyyy too soon.

Also, you can't get anyone to follow you until you are either in the inner circle or guild leader (I can't remember). The whole point and even the name of the guild is about companions, so they should be able to join you (higher ups would be busy, and then able to follow when you're in upper circle).

Feel free to use anything I wrote up top if you like

Oh, and seeing as how it is a mead hall and all.... and they're a brotherhood of warriors...
You SHOULD be able to challenge any one of them to a brawl!
Or have them challenge you.

Of course drinking contests would be fitting too.
Only problem I can see is dialogue.

But being able to do stuff like that would add further to the whole bonding thing, in my opinion.