Raider’s Camp

Overview

The Raiders Camp Zone lies on the broken outer edge of New Vance City, past the stronger lines of the Perimeter Watch. It is not one camp. It is a strip of ruined highways, motels, and scrap fields where raider packs gather between attacks. Patrols avoid it when they can. When they cannot, they move in force and do not stay long.

The zone formed during the Collapse and the first year after. When the city pulled back to raise its walls and light the Perimeter Fires, many people were pushed out or locked out. Some were criminals and warlords. Others were workers, refugees, or deserters who refused the new order. They turned to ambush and theft to survive. The weakest died, joined organized groups like the Gear Rats, or tried to reach the Citadel. The rest hardened into the Raiders described in the core lore: unaligned, violent, and focused on quick gain.

The Raiders Camp Zone is the closest thing these packs have to a homeland. Here they rest, repair, boast, and fight one another. There is no shared banner and no law. Camps rise and fall in days. For most citizens, the Raiders are a distant nightmare. For people who live in the zone, they are neighbors, rivals, and the crew that might turn on you tomorrow.

Terrain and Layout

Most of the zone follows the old highway ring that once fed traffic into the city. The Collapse turned that ring into a maze of wrecks and broken concrete. Overpasses hang half-fallen. Ramps end in drops. Craters mark tanker explosions and air strikes. Raiders use this terrain as cover and know which blind corners favor an ambush.

The landscape shifts between open ground and tight clusters. In some areas the road has been cleared just enough for vehicles to circle around fires and fuel drums. Raiders build low walls from stacked cars and cargo containers and mount watch posts on top. In other areas, tents, rusted RVs, and sheet-metal shacks fill motel courtyards and service alleys. Neon signs from dead highways hang over the paths, sometimes powered by crude generators and sometimes left dark.

Within this band sit several known territories. The Toxic Digs are old fuel yards and chemical dumps, laced with leaking drums and rough refineries. The Devil’s Den is a former roadside mall that now serves as a black market under raider control. The Scorch Pit is a burned-out stadium and parking complex used for tests and public fights. The Bone Yard is a massive scrapyard and vehicle grave where wrecks form walls, towers, and tunnels. These sites change as leaders gain or lose power, but the names stay in use on wasteland maps.

The ground between these centers is cluttered and risky. Bones, rusted scrap, and improvised traps are common. Mines, crude pressure plates, and tripwires guard chokepoints and approach roads. Some traps are new. Others date back to the first months after the Collapse and no one remembers who set them.

Raider Life and Culture

Raiders in this zone do not follow one clear culture, but they share common habits. They mistrust rules, reject distant leaders, and believe strength and speed matter more than plans. Many lost families or homes during the Collapse. Others were born in camps and know nothing else.

Life here is narrow and harsh. Food comes from stolen shipments, raided farms, and stripped caravans. Water is taken from Hydro Hegemony lines, scavenged from old tanks, or bought from smugglers in places like the Devil’s Den. Fuel is prized above almost everything. Packs treat vehicles as both tools and marks of status. Mechanics hold influence because they keep engines and guns working.

Packs form and break often. Some are large families that hardened over time. Others appear after a big raid and vanish after a major loss. Loyalty is shallow. Leaders stay in charge only while they keep their people fed, armed, and afraid to betray them.

Even here there are rough customs. Raiders expect a share of loot if they helped a job succeed. Clear betrayal can mean death, exile beyond the camp line, or sale into slavery. There is also an unwritten rule that raids should target the city, factions, or distant enclaves before turning inward. Packs that prey too often on other raiders become targets for everyone else.

The Shambler Virus is another constant risk. Shamblers roam the outskirts and sometimes stumble into camps. Many groups use pits and cages to pen captured infected or drive them toward enemy lines. Others put down infected relatives as soon as symptoms appear. No one in the zone has the supplies for real care.

Warlords and Power Centers

Most raider leaders lose power fast. A few survive long enough to shape parts of the zone and tie their names to key locations.

Furnace Faraday rules the Toxic Digs, a cluster of fuel yards and dumps. Once an engineer, he survived a major refinery blast during the Collapse and never returned to the city. He now runs rough refineries and fire teams, striking fuel convoys, burning rival camps, and selling fuel to anyone who can afford it.

Glitch controls the Devil’s Den, the old roadside mall turned black market. She lost her family and place inside New Vance and turned to trade and hacking to survive. Her markets serve raiders, smugglers, and Shadow Syndicate brokers who need gear, data, or bodies that cannot move through official channels.

Inferno Iris commands the Scorch Pit, a burned-out stadium and parking stack. Before the Collapse she worked with explosives; now she uses them to tear down walls and convoys. Her crew favors loud, sudden attacks and keeps the Pit busy with tests, executions, and contests that remind everyone who controls the fire.

Ironclad Krell leads a more disciplined band whose camps sit near the stronger barricades. He began as a scavenger, lost an eye in a scrap fight, and replaced it with a rough cybernetic implant. Krell favors heavy armor, clear command, and direct raids on Perimeter Watch posts and weak convoys.

Skullbreaker Kael rules the Bone Yard, the massive vehicle grave. Years of fighting over scrap hardened him, and a shambler took his eye. His gang has turned the yard into a maze of stacked wrecks, traps, and sniper nests and clashes often with Gear Rat crews who want the same metal.

Relations and Story Hooks

No major faction claims the Raiders Camp Zone. The Citadel Council sees it as a danger zone that keeps some threats focused on each other instead of on the walls. They prefer targeted strikes over full wars. When raids grow too bold, the Council sends Perimeter Watch units or hired teams to hit fuel depots, ammo caches, or key leaders, then pull back.

The Solar Guardians view the zone as a danger to their solar fields and power lines. Raider attacks on substations and convoy routes are common. Guardian strike teams sometimes raid into the area to destroy hijacked generators or reclaim stolen gear, but they do not try to hold ground there for long.

The Hydro Hegemony avoids the zone when it can. Its tankers and pipe crews use routes under stronger protection. When they must cross raider territory, they hire escorts or arrange uneasy deals with leaders like Krell or Glitch. These deals can fail without warning.

The Gear Rats have a mixed relationship with the zone. They are more organized than the packs and often look down on them, but they still trade with warlords for parts and slaves. When Raiders hit Gear Rat convoys or scrap trains, the Rats respond with heavy force, especially around the Bone Yard and other large scrap sites.

For campaigns set in New Vance City, the Raiders Camp Zone offers flexible hooks. It can be a hostile route the group must cross, a camp of enemies behind a recent raid, or a source of unstable allies. Groups might rescue prisoners from the Devil’s Den, disable explosives in the Scorch Pit, escort a convoy past Ironclad Krell’s lines, or negotiate a short truce with Skullbreaker Kael. Whatever the task, the zone stays unstable and violent.