30 Raiders

1. Raider Terry

Raider Terry is a simple man. Aggressive and foolish, interested in money and drugs, sex and getting to live another day. His politics are anarcho-nihilist, and his religion is the gun and the blade. While generic in many ways, Terry is a strong man, a survivor, and violent. The last mistake many people make is making fun of his name, because people die of dissing Terry.

2. The Swordsman

The Swordsman is a front and center raider, trusting in armor and steel to carry him through the fight and into glory and loot. To the Swordsman's credit, if he survives, he gets both in spades. He is also playing a dangerous game, swinging a sword in a world with guns and bombs. He is a juicer, sucking down combat stimulants and painkillers, ignoring flesh wounds, and carving his way through soft targets like the knife he is. Swordsman takes his cut of the loot after the raider bosses but before everyone else.

3. The Gunsmith

The Gunsmith is a functional raider, typically near the back of a fight if even present. His role to the gang is simple, he makes and repairs guns. A raider gang with a gunsmith have better weapons, a larger supply of ammunition, and more confidence in their gear. Gangs without a gunsmith tend to have rusted and lower quality equipment and are as likely to be raiding for what they can take from the dead as much as what the people they are attacking have to protect. 

4. The Apothecary

The Apothecary is a raider who knows their way through a med-kit and a chemistry station. They can make drugs, treat non-lethal injuries and illness and generally act as a raider-doctor. Apothecaries are never involved in raider actions, unless the gang has such a surplus of such skilled people that their value in keeping raiders in a single fight is more than their value being kept back in a stronghold cooking meth, and distilling alcohol.

5. The Elder

The Elder is a rarity, he is an old man. Old people don't last long as raiders, and few raiders get the luxury of growing old. As such, the Elder is a calculating and vicious man, and has learned to temper his rage and bloodlust. He is a dangerous foe, a strong leader, and being older and more seasoned, isn't so ruled by primal urges for murder and vice. 

6. Teech

Teech was a highly educated man before being forced out of polite society and into the hands of the raiders. Instead of being murdered as was generally expected he became something of an anomaly, respected by raiders. He was educated, and smart, but he wasn't soft, and the reason he was exiled drew accolades from the raiders. He taught them things, like medicine and making explosives, and they protected him. Eventually he became Teech, and was leading them. Teech's raiders aren't like other bands. They are precise, methodical, and efficient. They like traps, ambushes, improvised weapons and IEDs, and they have functional high tech weaponry and cybernetic assets like cyborgs and functional robots.

7. The Knucklehead

The Knucklehead is a raider engineer/technician. Unlike the Gunsmith or a clocksmith, the Knucklehead is an armorer. He can salvage and rebuild power armor suits, and keep them running. As a man who can make and fix power armor can just as easily put it on and use it, Knuckleheads rarely are victims or prisoners inside raider gangs, but tend to be leaders, or in a supporting role to whomever is the leader. Not all raider bosses who have power armor are Knuckleheads, but almost all who do have someone who is, or are looking for one.

8. Quarterback

The Quarterback is a hell of a raider, and has two nasty surprises for anyone who tries to mess with him and his gang's interests (those interests being drugs, alcohol, and sex). He has a functional suit of power armor with some home made modifications for close quarters combat. He also has a functional atomarfaust, a fissile powered anti-mech weapon. The QB is an aggressive and foolhardy foe who fully believes in the strength of his armor and the yield of his atomic grenade launcher, both of which are legit. He is always hunting for armorers, munitions experts, technicians, and blondes with huge cans and submissive attitudes. Among other raiders, he is considered reliable, and a valuable asset as a centerline or supporting force.

9. The Judge

The Judge is a raider who has a specific and strong ethical code, as well as a gang that adheres and supports said code. The Judge always takes new people to court to see if they meet his exacting demands. Those who pass can join his gang, those who fail accept punishment. In real life he is a psychopath who has a highly bent personal code who tortures people into agreeing with his code and accepting it, or they are slain or maimed. The things the judge considers criminal often have no real world implication and can be as insane as picking the wrong sports team or the wrong flavor food pack, or as serious as political or religious affiliation, or certain deeds committed. 

10. The Rag-Man

The Rag-Man is a raider spy. He is charismatic and controlled enough to enter settlements and deal with normies and softies without revealing what he is. This allows him to do honest trading, gather information, pass information to allies inside settlements, and so forth. When the time comes, the Rag-Man is the knife who silences guards, deactivates defenses, and opens gates for his brethren to storm in and start the pillaging. Despite the name, many Rag-Men are women, or even children.

11. Cutler Steel

Cutler Steel is a cruel man, and to make this point clear, his preferred weapon is a long handled knife. The weapon was forged for a man in power armor to use, in the manner of a WWI trench knife. He has a suit of raider salvaged power armor, and only uses guns when there is a battle to be fought. In scraps and skirmishes, he prefers the knife and carving up his foes. His preference is to wound but not outright kill his foes so he can drag them back to his fortress to die at his leisure.

12. Tourettes

Tourettes is a raider with a bad case of Tourettes, hence their name. Without therapy or medication, the verbal and physical tics have gotten worse, so that at some points the only thing said raider can do is jerk in a violent repetitive fashion and machine gun bark noise and obscenity. When in control, they are a bundle of raw nerves and anger, looking for the meds that will let them calm down for a little while, have a bit of piece. 

13. Bad Luck Betty

While her name isn't actually Betty, her luck is bad, and its near the end of the line. Bad Luck Betty started as an ambitious woman, not willing to be a victim or a raider's whorepiece, she armed herself and threw herself headlong into fights. This earned her a reputation as being psycho, along with a steady appetite for combat drugs and stimulants. Such overly aggro raider gangs seldom last long.T With supplies and equipment running low, the gang threw itself into a suicide attack, deciding to rather meet Death fighting rather than wait for disease and starvation to take them out. They won the fight, and now have food and some gear, but now Bad Luck Betty is in charge. So many of the gang's leaders were wiped out in the fight, and now she leads a remnant of wounded and exhausted psychopaths. Her luck is still terrible, and the dice are rolling again.

14. The Toll-Keeper

The Toll-Keeper is a raider who's gang has the advantage of holding a bottleneck in a trade road. Pay the toll and you can go. Heavily armed parties pay little or nothing, while sole travelers, the toll is 100% and sometimes their life. 

15. The Fireman

The Fireman once worked inside a tower, an upright man engaged in anti-propaganda and censorship, now exiled. He has taken his zeal and married it to a suit of raider armor and a sexualized fetish for fire and flamethrowers. He has a gang that likes to burn heretics and have fire festivals.

16. St. John

Also known as the Rigger, or Sinjin, St. John is more than a raider, he's a man with a real machine. More commonly Sinjins drive military vehicles like tanks and hovercraft, a few have aircraft or mag-rails, while the elite have scrap mecha or frankenmechs. Outside of the machine he is cocky and arrogant, assured of his value to the gang as much as he is not interested in being a leader. He's a mercenary raider for hire, and his machine is rigged so that if he dies it blows up, or if its a mech, it goes on a rampage.

17. The Bard

The Bard is a musician, he likes the accoutrements of the rock star lifestyle. He is still a musician, but his music is now more Screamo-Punk than anything like it was before. His gang is more a traveling music festival, with more theatrical torture and murder than a normal festival, but downright civil compared to most raiders. Oddly, the Bard is sought out by various interests and bootleg streams of their concerts are a hot commodity in the Towers.

18. Jerry-Rigger

The Jerry-Rigger is a popular man. He has a unique skill, he's a handyman. Jerry-Rigger specializes in getting antique generators running, obsolete solar systems making power again, and even doing insane things like rigging up the power core of a fallen mech or hover-panzer to power a building or an entire camp. Electricity is his (or her) jam. As such, Jerry-Rigger has ample tools and equipment, and a free pass to move from raider camp to camp, nothing like a man who can keep the lights on, and ice for the good booze.

19. Tall Man

The Tall Man doesnt have to be tall, or even a man. They seemingly stand head and shoulders above other raiders and gangs because their raiding and pillaging has gained them something valuable. Tall Men capture dead factories, and breweries, medical labs, and other structures and put them back in service. Without Tall Men, the raiders who lack in ammunition and drugs, beer and antibiotics. As with the Bard, some of the things that are made by Tall Men have become commodities back in the towers. A bottle of domestic lite beer might cost a little as a cred a bottle, made in house from chemical mixers and flavorants. A bottle of Tall Man lager, made in questionable facilities could be dozens or even hundreds of creds a bottle. Good money for the 3rd men, chinpira, or fixers who manage to score a case or two.

20. Trigger Boy

A Trigger Boy is a raider mercenary for hire. Unlike Raider Terry, Trigger Boy can control himself enough to be accepted in regular fringe society. The common conceit is that Trigger Boys are like locust. As long as they aren't hungry and there aren't too many of them, there isn't a problem. They have a good reputation as mercs, as far as that goes. But too many in once place, they become a gang, and then its a heavily armed and organized gang with a penchant for machine guns and trilby hats.

21. Heavy Metal Harley

Heavy Metal Harley is a rarity, she is a female raider who is also the leader of her own gang of miscreants and murderers. She has accomplished this feat through two things, personal charisma and an infantry support Gatling gun. Facing Heavy Metal Harley is difficult, as she favors defensive fighting, heavy weapons, and the use of ambushes, mines, and chemical weapons. Being on her good side can be beneficial as her and her gang are versed in keeping said heavy weapons in working order as well as running a bullet factory.

22. The Courier

The Courier is an unusual raider. He can go anywhere, be anyone. He isn't a face dancer, but he's close to it. Using drugs and self hypnosis he changes personas with ease, becoming a different person with his own key words. As such he can pass through biometric scanners, and even places where parapsychic mentalists can taste the minds of people they see. He delivers his goods, or picks them up, and leaves, with none the wiser.

23. The Exile

The Exile comes from a secret society or organization to spend time in the raider community. They will have a major protective force, access to cutting edge equipment that might be 'rubbed in mud' to conceal what it is. Exiles have auton bodyguards, cyborg commandos, and an escape plan, but tend to do things that the average raider cant. Common Exile tasks include repairing sophisticated machinery and equipment, providing high end drugs, or gathering data on what is going on in the wastelands, both in terms of human studies and general science. After X amount of time or data, the Exile gets to come back home.

24. The Mafioso

Organized crime still exists, and has been allowed to exist for various reasons. The Mafioso is a middle man, someone with ties to an organized crime group under a tower or in some civilized place. They are a go between, shuttling goods back and forth, keeping both sides happy. This is a tenuous job, because being around raiders is contagious, eventually old allegiances and loyalties fade, and the raider ethos takes over. More than one Mafioso has been put down for going mad dog, and more than one mafioso cell has turned raider in the middle of a geofront.

25. Maori Jane

Maori Jane is familiar with intimidation, and a bit of history about the Maori peoples, their facial tattoos, and their ceremonial dances before battles. As such, the members of her gang have facial tattoos related to their rank in the gang and their deeds. Before fights they do loud war chants and war songs, beat on metal drums and shields with their guns and melee weapons, and generally make a lot of noise. They can largely get away with this because they are as heavily armored as you can get before actually suiting up in power armor, and they have something unique, apothecaries in their ranks.

26. The Prettyboy

The Prettyboy is a handsome young man. Under the appearance lies the heart of a cold and cruel person who delights in causing emotional abuse, torture, and coercing people into doing the worst sorts of things. 

27. The Corpse

The Corpse is a raider who lost their face, likely a large amount of their body, and maybe even their life. They are still up and active, but only through the application of incredibly criminal amounts of cybernetic modification and horrific drug use. On the positive side, the Corpse can take a hideous amount of punishment, feel no pain, and have few remaining human desires or emotions. One the negative side they are omnicidal, and require near constant maintenance to keep them from dying. A Corpse wants to die, and they want to take as many people with them when they do.

28. Build-A-Bear

Build-A-Bear is a weird raider, in that they are more a role than a specific person. The first man who was Build-A-Bear was infected with rabies and likely other diseases when he created his teddy bear armor. It is predominantly heavy welded raider armor, but he has a mascot helmet that is linked to the suit. It has basic electronics and advanced optics as well as the option for SmartGun support. After the first man died of his illnesses, the gang of raiders he gathered around him elected a new leader to wear the furry bear headed armor suit and assume the mantle. The most successful Build-A-Bear was a woman who lead the gang to settle in the ruins of a college, where they made a stronghold, recruited new members and all but build a hyper violent anarchist community. The identity of the current Build-A-Bear is unknown but considering the changes in leadership it is assumed that it is no longer the woman who made this gang into a serious power.

29. Splicer

The Splicer is a raider who has had access to cosmetic genetic augmentation, so functionally the same a Raider Terry, Splicer has some animal traits, highly unusual hair color, or some other mod that makes them visually different. Splicers tend to run in their own gangs, and segregate away from other raiders. They generally hunt for more gene mods and want to push their own evolution as far as possible, with a weird desire to become what amounts to trash can transhumans.

30. Death Commando

The Death Commando is the likely the worst sort of raider to encounter. Before they became raiders they were military men and women. Heavily trained in warfare, tactics, logistics, weapons, the use of armor, vehicles, mecha, and worse. Now as raiders they are leaders, their gangs can become armies, and as they gain power, they become more inhuman, trading flesh for more cybernetic upgrades, emotions for weapons or communications gear, and childhood memories for combat protocols.