Rolling State

Once, as Nomads, your people crammed into huge, ragtag fleets of cars, vans, buses and RV's, following the road as you sought out food, jobs and spare parts. You were despised by the rooted city dwellers, the gaijo, who doled out scraps and spat on you while you picked their crops, tended their junkyards. You were hounded by other nomadic outcasts; the Raffen Shiv; the bikegangs; feral beasts who looted your homes and killed your kinsmen.

Mostly for fun.

But that was yesterday. Now you ride to scout and protect your Tribe---the huge rolling pack that is both home and nation to a few thousand like you. Whether it's Big Apple, El Layor, Little Seattle, each Tribe is a self contained town on wheels, supporting mobile factories, trade-centers, defense-command tanks and living modules as it rumbles ever onward. The Tribe can amass enough firepower to obliterate a small city. Its web of aerodynes, battlecars and roadbikes range far beyond sight to destroy any remnants of the Raffen Shiv or dirtgrubber army that might cross your path. And your people have ranged out into space. In massive clouds of orbital workshacks, Cargo Cruisers, mobilized space-stations and cobbled together, vacuum sealed debris aglomerations pulled by shuttles, your altcult roams the Earth Sphere, willingly displaced but answering to no authority save your own.

You're no longer victims.

Now you're a force to be respected—and feared. Like a modern day cowboy, you ride to protect the wagon train. But you've got a gun, a bike and the attitude to back it up. You're no longer "just a nomad."

Now you're a Roller.

Background

The Rolling State Altculture developed out of the scattered Nomad packs of the early 2020's. After an abortive attempt to make a home in the ruins of abandoned Chicago, the seven Nomad "nations" were driven out of their new home by the fierce battles of the Fourth World Wa r. Led by their charismatic leader, Santiago Aldecaldo, the Nomads decided to put what they had learned about megastructural engineering to good use, essentially looting Chicago and putting the resources of the city on wheels, then rolling out with them. From this beginning developed a culture strong on technical competence, independent action, close familial ties and the need to be constantly on the move. With the Great Migration of the Universal Century, your road raging cousins made the jump into space. The even greater lack of government controls or intervention seemed like a perfect match were it not for the rigors of living in orbit. It took a long period of adjustment before the resourceful and determined Nomads adapted fully to life in space.

Turf

There are now roughly a dozen Tribes supporting a total population of around 126,000 between them worldwide and in space. Most are banded together in groups of 5 to 8,000. Tribes support themselves by providing manufactured goods, technical support and infrastructure rebuilding services for non-mobile populations.

On Earth, in addition to their massive road-rolling Tribes, Rolling state communities in the developed world are based out of smaller city units called Combis (after an Australian term for mobile caravans). Combis use multiple wheels or ducted fans to travel the main freeway arterials of Arcologies and Megacities at speeds up to 80mph. While not as large as a true Tribes, Combis are still large enough to support several extended families, with garage facilities for five or six vehicles.

In orbital space, the Rolling State, curiously just referred to as "The State" (or "those Damn gypsies") field huge, mobilized asteroid bases cobbled together by laser-mining asteroids and connecting layer upon layer of orbital workshacks, derelict BattleCruisers from the One Year War, Mech servos and vacuum-proofed cargo containers, even empty fuel tanks as living and workspace and plying the whole irregular lump around the Orbital space.

Cultural Memes:
• Family is the most important thing.
• Your word is your most important possession.
• Your Tribe is your family.

Cultural Tr a i t s

The most prominent characteristics of Rolling State members (or "Rollers") are a fierce streak of independence and self-reliance. Loyalty to your specific family clan is paramount, closely followed by loyalty to your Tribe; most rollers are known by their family name and city in fact (i.e.: "I'm Jackson of the El-Lay Santiagos.")

Alliances & Antipathies
• Solos: Dirtgrubbers, all of them. How can anyone stand to live in those blasted-out, rubble strewn rabbit warrens they call cities?
• Zoanoids: They were fellow Nomads once, but this bioengineering thing is going too far. I mean,are they still really human anymore?
• Rip: Like us, they are wanderers and kindred souls. They're almost family, except for that weird animal thing.
• Evoluder: What kind of sickos put their kids brains in robot bodies? Wipe em out or get them back into real bodies again.
• OLYMPUS-POSEIDON: The ultimate dirtgrubbers, spending all their time cowering in big Dome-Forts, pretending they're better than the rest of us.

Lifestyle

Where you live: You live in a cabin module aboard one of the mobile homes (or a Combi). If your still unmarried, your "mod" is little more than a cube apartment among many in the wall of the Combi, incorporating a tiny bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, and workspace. One end is a roll up door leading to the garage level; the other end has a single small porthole that looks out on the Road. If you're married, your cabin is larger, with several adjacent rooms, one of which looks out into either the garage level or the central marketplace level.

What you wear: Earth toned pseudo-leather riding clothes (jackets, dusters, pants when on the Road. These are self-repairing and have a typical SP of 8-10. In the Combi, you like to wear colorful silks and nylons in ethnic prints from a variety of cultures. Either way, you also wear a lot of large, clunky metal jewelry, which incorporates commos, weapons and other useful devices.

What you eat: On the road, you eat pemmican or other dried, high energy foods, mostly in compressed food bars. You also favor a high energy tea called chak that can be brewed hot or cold. In a pinch, you can kill, dress and prepare game; deer, dog, roadkill— whatever's handy— you often carry small cooking pots and spices just for that purpose. In your Combi, meals are prepared in common and eaten from huge, handmade serving platters that entire families gather around.

• How you hang: In the Combi, you like to gather for long story telling sessions (tall tales) that involve ceremonial drugs and drinks. When you're on the road, you often drop in to see concerts
at the Parker's places, or nightlife in the CityZones. And since it only takes an imagination and dice, you play a lot of roleplaying games while on the road.

Typical Roller Gear
Hyperspanner: This is a very large wrench with adjustable heads on each end. The handle also includes a power multiscrewdriver with 25 kinds of heads and a full socket set.

Messkit: Self-heating cookware, spice container, nested into four containers about the size of an old fashioned VCR tape. Good for roadkill stew.

Campbag: Contains a popup all weather tent armored to SP20, inflatable mattress and sleeping sack. Folds down to the size of a fanny pack.

Typical Roller Weapons

• Nano Accelerator Rifle: Solar charged (or in rare cases), nuclear powered railguns. They can shoot any ferrous material—nuts, bolts, bullets. If you run out of bullets, its internal nanites will strip and reconfigure almost anything they can find and reshape it into a slug (leave your nanogun around long enough and it will eat your car fender). Takes about 2 hours to make a 10 round clip from a good metal source. Rollers love them because they are self repairing, self cleaning, and almost never run out of ammo (as long as there's something the gun can strip metal from).

R...+0...N...N...A...4d6...NA...1...VR...1600M

• Peacemaker: Similar to the “sixguns” of the Old West, but on a massive scale, the Peacemaker is designed to penetrate armor with high-power .44 AP slugs. Six shots, but every one counts.

P...+2...J...U...6d6...6...1...UR...300M

•Fission Blade: A metal blade with slots cut into the edge to release nano viral dust. The dust attacks the body through cuts, tearing apart the cell structure in a form of high tech gangrene. The nanites will keep going until killed by a counter virus or a pulse of EMP. Fission blades are one of the few ways to make sure a Roller (with his high regenerative capabilities) stays dead, dead, dead.

MEL..-1...N...U...3d6*...NA...1...VR...N
*+1D6 PER TURN (three rounds or 10 seconds)

Typical Roller Transport
• Roadcars: Automobile-type vehicles with 2,4 or 6 wheels made of adaptive plastic for better handling. Hydrogen or electric powered. Battlecar versions have an SP of 30.
TOP SPD: 150MPH
CREW: 4
ACC/DEC: 15/40
SP 8
SDP: 40
MANEUVER: +1

• Roadbikes: Two wheeled equivalent of Roadcars. They are faster, more durable, and equipped with offroad shocks.
TOP SPD: 200MPH
CREW: 1
ACC/DEC: 25/40
SP 10
SDP: 15
MANEUVER: +2

• Combis: 3 story multiwheeled vehicle the size of three semi-trailer trucks joined together. Used by Rollers as mobile bases and trade centers. Can support ten or twenty people, as well as garaging for several bikes or a couple of roadcars.
TOP SPD: 90MPH
CR E W: 15
ACC/DEC: 15/40
SP 30
SDP: 1200
MANEUVER: -4

• Street Panzer: Small, high speed fan tank, armored, with one large antivehicle weapon.
TOP SPD: 100MPH
CREW: 4
ACC/DEC: 20/10
SP 90
SDP: 300
MANEUVER: 0
WEAPONS: ONE 14MM ANTI TANK RIFLE, 12.7 GATLING

Cybertech:

Adaptive Nanosymbiosis: Implanted nanotech nodules (look like tiny bubble-like gems grafted into the skin) that provide superhuman powers of healing, resistance to disease and enhanced reflexes. Adaptive nanites are specialized microscopic machines that knit damaged flesh together, kill off invading poisons and parasites, and encapsulate/neutralize drugs and poisons. With Adaptive Nodes, Rollers can go on practically forever, recover from severe damage, shrug off most poisons and diseases, and imbue their technology with like abilities.
Advantage: heal from almost any damage, have unlimited endurance, resistance to poison and disease, and to give these abilities to special inanimate objects.