Encounter Group #10 Gypsy Truckers

[ArmySGT.]

Name: Gypsy Truckers
Geographical Location: Anywhere
H&M Average:10
H&M Range 4-12
Number found : 2-24
Tech Level: C
Power / Resources : Combustion Engines, some electricity.
Weapons: Firearms in good repair, explosives, and automatic weapons.
Special Attributes: Travel in large vehicles, make their own fuel, and booze.

Description: Truckers travel in Clans. They are the traveling traders who live, work, and party in their trucks. Some have working CBs and use them to communicate with other truckers. There are some who use their vehicles as raiding engines. All would lose any inhibitions in order to obtain a "legendary" fusion power pack.

I never understood that last sentence myself. What good is a fusion power pack to Gypsy truckers? Their trucks are diesel and gasoline combustion motors, presumably their generators are too. They can generate electricity.

What good is a fusion power pack to them?

The Gypsy Truckers are going to throw the Region wide open to the Team. Presumably the Truckers have crisscrossed the are for generations and know the roads, the terrain, and the people in it. If there are other Morrow Teams or rumors of them presumably the Gypsy Truckers have heard of it. So the PD needs to be prepared with his background material and update his PD only Maps. The Players are going to ask alot of questions, if it is too much or the PD isn't ready, make them buy it. Barter away the Teams gold, booze, and ammo if they will part for it for information about the road, deadly nuclear impacts,descriptions of the local Bandits, etc. Then they can worry if the information is the truth, current, and correct.

[mikeo80]

I agree with the last paragraph from ArmySGT. If you have a group that has survivied by trade and travel, they are the best source of information about the surrounding area.

My $0.02

Mike

[Matt W]

The Truckers will also know about anyone who's making new spare parts for their vehicles. Perhaps even new vehicles. Because these are the people they trade with.

There will be legends/stories about the KFS, Oilers, Texans, Maxwell's Militia and anyone else with C technology or higher

[RandyT0001]

Thread resurrection!

So what type of trucks do gypsy truckers drive?
Semis? I seriously doubt that since it requires more maintenance than simple van trucks on 6 or 10 wheels. Semis imply a larger amount of material to be traded than the few modules seem to support.

I think the biggest truck encountered would be diesel powered deuce and half sized military trucks (or equivalent). They carry a decent load, have big tires, are likely to be copied by KFS, the Texans, etc. as a military vehicle so parts are available. Smaller trucks might be copies or variants of the Ford 250 in size (or GMC, Dodge, etc.).

How many people on average per vehicle? Three or four per vehicle seems reasonable to me. That would cover a driver, gunner, and mechanic per truck plus a spouse or child.

I think they would choose diesel over alcohol because diesel has more power per gallon as a fuel than alcohol. Diesel provides more miles per gallon than alcohol and is less likely to be consummed. Bio-diesel can be made from various plant oils without using a heat source whereas alcohol depends on a fuel for distillation.

Of course I have always wondered about the roads the gypsy truckers travel. They have to be more than dirt roads. At the very least they would have to be gravel roads. But who maintains these roads? The first roadways in the US were built by private companies, state and local county governments that charged a toll for their use. Since there is no large government entity like that who maintains the roads between the KFS and the Texans? Then there is the question of crossing the larger rivers of the Mississippi valley. Mostly ferries I suspect, maybe a few bridges on the smaller ones. The old bridges if not maintained (and who will have time to do so for the first forty years after "that day") will have abutments and piers scoured by the rivers as they flow and flood causing their collapse. The first significant bridge built to cross the lower Mississippi River below the Ohio was the Frisco railroad bridge in Memphis in 1892.

[kato13]

Originally Posted by RandyT0001

Thread resurrection!

Resurrect anything you want. We are not a technical site where information becomes becomes stale or outdated. I really like hearing opinions on older discussions.

[Gelrir]

In the current campaign I'm running, most internal combustion engines are gas generator-powered. Some communities use alcohol, or biodiesel, or even petrochemicals in a few areas around oil wells. We gathered up some info on the motoring effects.

Gas Generator Notes

Charcoal is preferred - wood chunks and chips can be used, but are less efficient, make much more tar, smoke and steam, and must be less than 20% moisture content (which means no green wood can be used). Twigs, sticks and bark aren't good, they tend to jam up the hearth; and in fact the charcoal is preferably chopped to specific size pellets. A few places have produced biomass briquettes, mostly for non-military uses. Starting time is usually at least 10 minutes, and the first 5 minutes of startup require a fair amount of user attention; and the gasifier continues to operate for another 20 minutes after stopping. You can restart pretty fast if you've only stopped for less than 2 hours. There's a real danger from the large amounts of carbon monoxide produced; the generator is usually mounted in the open. The Imbert-style generator is typically a galvanized steel garbage can, mounted atop a 55 gallon drum (the gasifier unit); the can and drum have to be kept sealed, but are opened to refuel (releasing hot, toxic smoke). The gas generator needs its own precipitating tank and a cooling radiator.

Diesel engines can be converted to use a gas generator, but either need to input a small amount of diesel fuel with each stroke, or (more commonly) replace their glow plugs with spark plugs, and adjust timing, spark etc. like a gasoline engine. Cylinder heads can be reshaped for greater efficiency.

• energy content: 1 liter of gasoline (0.75 kg) =1.25 kg of charcoal = 2 kg of oven-dried wood or biomass briquets = 2.5 kg 20% moisture wood
  
• charcoal is 208 kilograms per cubic meter
  
• a 200 liter (55 gallon) drum can hold about 42 kg of charcoal ... energy equivalent of 21 liters of gasoline
  
• a 120 liter (32 gallon) trash can holds about 25 kg of charcoal ... energy equivalent to 12.5 liters of gasoline
  
• an empty 32 gallon trash can with lid weighs 7 kg

Ethanol and Methanol Notes

Consumption of alcohol, compared to gasoline is 2.2:1, so the distance you can travel with the same gas tank is less than half. Methanol is very corrosive, unlike ethanol.

[ArmySGT.]

Originally Posted by RandyT0001

Thread resurrection!

So what type of trucks do gypsy truckers drive?
Semis? I seriously doubt that since it requires more maintenance than simple van trucks on 6 or 10 wheels. Semis imply a larger amount of material to be traded than the few modules seem to support.

According to the modules. Semi tractor/trailers. In both "Final Watch" and "American Outback".

These are wheezing, smoking, struggling beasts. Small chance these have good rubber tires, and "tires" made of hardwoods or steel welded onto the rims is more likely. Low, low, low top speed due to the vehicles condition, the tires, and that the road is rutted gravel where a highway once was.

These aren't moving everyday, or often. The come up the road and stop to trade. A diesel rig can carry much, much more than the common traders on foot or horseback. Think of them as snowbirds that only come into the northern States and Canada in July, August, and September; then they turn south to spend winters in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, probably Florida, and even into Mexico. Don't forget coast to coast following I 80 or I 10 for that matter.

This encounter is a "plot tool" for how fertilizer, 90w grease, and motor oil from Texas came to be swapped for manufactured ammunition from Idaho. That someone in saskatchewan is making new mason jars in small batches for canning food if only there were some rubber rings.

Use them as the "one who knows" or "Heard a rumor once" to get the PCs moving in a direction and get an adventure or campaign stated.

They can also be the bad guys, as it states that some of these diesel rigs are used as raiding engines.

Think of all the possible trailer combinations you could have. A 5000 gallon tank of diesel fuel for the Baron of white county. A cattle car full of mexican slaves to work the crops in Canada. A trailer filled with books of all kinds like medicine, farming, and repair. A trailer with 3,4, or 6 large methanol stills that arrives in a town or village and for food, spare parts, and women brews alcohol fuel for the village tractors. A trailer full of tools and parts that is a travelling repair or mechanic that gets a village tractor or large truck repaired and running again. Any kind of shop..... a bakery? That can set on a trailer and operate.