Wasteland Runners

Wasteland Runners are those people who scavenge and forage throughout the wasteland to make a living. Well-armed and mobile, they skirt the radiation zones, avoid the Raiders and do jobs for Strongholds here and there.

Runners provide an important service within the Wastes. By scavenging the ruins of the Old Cities, they are able to bring back materials and components for people to rebuild. There are many bits of pre-fall technology that can still be used and when it's a matter of replacing some random spare part of a machine that pumps or purifies the water for a Stronghold, that becomes rather important.

Runners are an odd sort, they know that there's work out there in the Wastes and most of them would like nothing better than to hang up their wheels and just settle down somewhere but there's something about the freedom and risk of the open road that appeals to them. Runners are a cautious lot. They tend to never stray too far from their vehicle even when they are in the protected confines of a stronghold. Sure enough, the second that they become complacent and forget themselves, trouble will be waiting for them. They tend to travel alone or maybe with a companion depending on the size of their vehicle.

## Runner Life

The rules of being a Waste Runner are simple:

1. Get in
2. Get the goods
3. Get out

There's no discussion, no contimplation or care. They tend to avoid areas with people because that makes the first rule harder and can make the second and third rules nearly impossible. Few of them have a 'cause' or a 'mission', they have jobs. They need stuff - Strongholds have stuff so they go out into the wastes to get whatever the stronghold needs in exchange for what they want.

## Values

Cash, of nearly any kind, is meaningless to a Runner. They deal in 'hard' currency; goods. Runners value three things:

1. Fuel
	1. There aren't many gas stations out in the Wastelands so finding fuel can be difficult at best. Sometimes you'll find a trading post that has been able to turn out some kind of usable fuel source (if your engine can take it) but a lot of times the Runners have to 'Go where the gas is'. So that means dealing with either Scrappers who were somehow able to find a bit of untapped gasoline or Traders who picked it up through means you'd probably rather not know.
2. Ammo
	1. Ammunition is, curiously enough, not too difficult to find. Though many of the corporate security forces are starting to embrace 'unconventional' weaponry there's still a huge market for hot lead. It's not surprising to see ammo cases out in the wastelands with brands like Phoenix Arms or Tempest Arms on them.
3. Food / ##ter
	1. Grub comes in one of two forms: the pre-packaged stuff that people get from the Chrome cities: Food Bar or Soup Cube or something that you might hunt out in the wilds.
	2. Water, however, is a difficult resource to find. The wastelands were, after all, mostly a desert BEFORE the fall to begin with. Water, in some areas, has become its own currency, called a Hydro which is approximately one liter of water.

...and it's generally in that order.

## Variety

Runners are part Trapper, part gold miner, part courier. If you need to get something from somewhere or to somewhere - find a Runner. That being said, it's difficult to be good at everything so most Runners will specialize within particular areas and cultivate those talents into marketable skills.

* Scrapper: A Runner who specializes in scavening material from the ruins of old cities.
* Scout: Those who hire themselves out as escorts and things to people who (possibly foolishly) wish to go somewhere in the Wastes.
* Courier: The 'True' Runners - they specialize in getting cargo (or something) from one place to another. Couriers or simply 'Runners', are said to be how the whole profession got started - people looking for work who had a fast vechicle, enough weaponry to keep themselves safe and a job.