The gangs of rifts

[Bood Samel]

What are peoples two cents on the various gangs in the rifts books? How have people used them? It seems like a neglected aspect of the game and a good basis for a low power campaign or a city rat campaign.

[Tor]

I loved the ones in Vampire Kingdoms. Off-hand can't remember what other books had them.

[FatherMorpheus]

There are a few Gangs in Kingsdale, the Dregs have a lot of potential for a low power game.

There are also several talked about in Lone Star in the Pecos Empire.

[grandmaster z0b]

I've just spent a while working on some gangs for the Chi-town burbs; not that I'm even 100% sure that the characters will go there. There are black market organisations in Rifts: Black Market but not many street level gangs.

[kaid]

Gangs get covered here and there most books that cover bigger cities tend to cover them to some extant. Lone star I believe covers a lot of the pecos raiders who are some of the bigger and more powerful gangs. Dinosaur swamp info on char also has a lot of gang related info for that region. Overall though gangs unless they get big enough to basically be a black market faction tend to live fast and die fast with them forming growing and fading rapidly. They have covered it enough for GMs to work with.

[Alrik Vas]

I make a lot of my own, mostly juicer gangs because, well, you get the system but you still don't have a job and you need to pay off your debt, so juicer criminals happens pretty often. Most people in cities don't know how to survive outside it (a problem with Rifts' reclamation of civilization), so rather than becoming wilderness bandits, they become gangs and loot, steal, fight and generally make life rough on those around them.

Another book to look into is MercTown and possibly Merc Ops as well. The ghettos in MercTown as well the wanted crooks listed in Ops should give additional information if any is still needed.

[Bood Samel]

Gangs are kinda hard to define in rifts because a gang by the way we think of them are poor disenfranchised urban criminals. You have few cities in rifts and there for few opportunities for gangs to flourish. But I imagine the boundaries between gangs and other groups in rifts to be a lot less defined. Why wouldn't one of the gangs in in say el paso, have ties with one of the pecos bandit groups? Or one be an extension of each other? I could see the hammers in el paso having ties with the first post-apocalyptic Calvary, more so sense they both are tremendously useful for being exploited by the CS as a front group. Also what about decentralized human supremacist groups who agree on that part of the CS but not their politics?

Also in my campaigns I've always had it that the vampire kingdoms funded themselves by being drug growers and traffickers that used gangs, pecos bandits, mercs, etc as fronts for their operations, most of whom did not know who they really worked for. Think undead Pablo Escobar.

[Alrik Vas]

This kind of gang industry makes a bit of sense in the setting. Though I think you can still have independent groups of urban criminals because of the few large cities that exist, there is a substantial amount of dissatisfied citizens, especially in CS territory.

I could see gangs that exist as support and enforcers for body chop shops, for instance.

[Bood Samel]

Cyber-Snatchers are certainly a needed gang for a shady body chop shop. I could see a plot of a good person forced against their will to cyber snatch because they're in debt to the chop shop for a life saving augmentation.

[FrankSerpico]

Which book are the Kingsdale gangs described in?

[Bood Samel]

The juicer uprising

[Tor]

Cat and Dog gangs are best.

Also I like that man-hater leader of the Psykes. Only women can talk back to her!

[Bood Samel]

You know it is said in the books that the escaped and free born mutant have formed their own groups. So while not covered, it is implied rat gangs and bandit groups exist.

[Tor]

Anyone who doesn't make the gang of rats led by that hottie rat with dreads in that Lone Star comic canon has no soul.

[Subjugator]

I loved the ones in Vampire Kingdoms. Off-hand can't remember what other books had them.

The ones in VK are part of what REALLY captured me about this game.

/Sub

[Nox Equites]

Depending on your perspective some of the gangs can't possibly be a strong as the write ups state. The powers that be in El Paso are not bound by our contemporary ideas of justice. In the harsh world of Rifts a family that has more available liquid capital than all the gangs in town can crush the more brutish gangs and have the rest ducking for cover, on a whim. The average citizen would even cheer at the street scum being put in their place. On the other hand. Juarez should have more gang control of the city with the government being so fricking stupid. Even the Black Market is given an awfully large power base given how few people can actually avail themselves of their goods and services. The economy of the setting is wonky.

[sHaka]

I'm forever linking to THIS thread, but a great example of a low-powered, gang-based Rifts campaign

[Tor]

The ones in VK are part of what REALLY captured me about this game.

Yes but does this capture you?

[Subjugator]

The ones in VK are part of what REALLY captured me about this game.

Yes but does this capture you?

The link didn't work.

/Sub

[Bood Samel]

Now if you're gonna use the El Paso and Juarez gangs you gotta look at Jesus Malverde and Santa Muerte-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jes%C3%BAs_Malverde

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Muerte

[Tor]

link didn't work.

sorry, fixed