Blacktop Saints

5 min read

Blacktop Saints

Overview

A racing nomad clan allied with the Pacifica Confederacy, encroaching on Ziptown’s territory. Practical people at heart — they build and maintain roads and collect tolls, framed by their own associates as simply “their way of living in this post-crash world.” Obsessed with racing above all else.

Known Facts

  • Maintain and toll roads near their camps; build a racetrack near every settlement
  • No formal race schedule — the culture is informal: show up, socialize, ask who wants to go fast
  • Host “danger races” at night — sanctioned races where guns and other non-explosive weapons (flamethrowers, smoke and tear gas, caltrops) are permitted; explosives are banned outright. Per Ledger (Session 08), cars can be beaten up but not destroyed; the Duke Boys (Session 09) say vehicles do sometimes get destroyed
  • Struggle to find takers for their danger races — the format is more popular in concept than in practice
  • Reportedly building a new race car nicknamed “the General”
  • The Duke Boys are members; allied with the broader Pacifica Confederacy, which is trying to re-establish government along the West Coast after the First Corporate War
  • Love cheap synth beer
  • Have been steadily expanding territory up the West Coast, described by Pacifica Confederacy affiliates as aggressive about it; treat Ziptown’s boundaries with respect so far, but matriarch Mira Stojanovic fears that won’t last
  • Racer Peaches of Ziptown has raced them regularly: 11 wins, 9 losses as of Session 08

Session 09: the camp

  • About eight miles north of Ziptown, roughly fifteen minutes by car
  • Not a typical nomad camp. It has tents, shacks, and scaffolding, but it’s covered in Pacifica Confederacy emblems (flags, painted trucks), and uniformed Pacifica men, some armed, walk alongside the nomads. There are guard towers and a relaxed atmosphere: children playing, laundry hanging out
  • Pacifica has brought clean water (a water purifying station, cobbled together from an old washing machine), power, and a central camp network. The network is 20–25 years out of date, sloppily assembled, has no real sysadmin, and is barely secured. Much of the camp’s other tech is ancient, dust-covered hardware of uncertain function
  • Run with more order than a typical nomad camp. Visitors are halted at the guard tower and taken to “management,” meaning Ledger, before anything else happens
  • Race time is announced by a big red button on a pillar terminal that sets off lights across the camp. Nearly every gang member leaves to watch, leaving only a skeleton crew of Pacifica guards
  • Occasionally hit by small raider attacks, which Pacifica has shot down quickly. Security around the camp is otherwise lax
  • Holds the orbital engine “Baby Girl” on a trailer in the middle of camp, maintained by their mechanic Ezekiel Washington

History with Pacifica

  • The Saints were hired for a lifesaving supply run through the Sierra Nevada (the “Donner run”) and were ambushed by an unknown nomad clan in “creepy ass face paint.” They won, but their vehicles were wrecked
  • Pacifica found them and, instead of taking advantage, bailed them out with medical supplies and fuel trucks. The Saints have been tight with Pacifica ever since
  • Afterward, Pacifica asked the Saints to recover an orbital engine from a crash in Northern California. That engine is now a cornerstone of the relationship
  • The deal: the Saints build roads for Pacifica across the West Coast and keep charging tolls on them, and Pacifica helps them build faster than ever and mostly leaves them alone to race. Members insist Pacifica is “not a megacorp”
  • Organizationally referred to (by Ledger) as the “Blacktop Saints Union”

Racing

  • Despite the name, they don’t race on pavement much. Their tracks are dirt courses they build themselves, and their dream is proper paved racetracks, which they believe Pacifica will help make real
  • Danger races: at night, weapons allowed, explosives banned. Others set up new obstacles each time, so the track is never the same. No test laps. Vehicles sometimes get destroyed, but people usually don’t die. Stakes are usually goods, and bigger stakes draw more outsiders. As of Session 09 there hadn’t been one in a month or more
  • Session 09: the Duke Boys lost a daytime race on their home track to Mr. Zip in front of most of the camp, one of the better races the crowd had seen in a while. A danger race is now expected “soon”

Open Questions

  • How large and organized is the clan beyond the racing culture?
  • What happens if Ziptown and the Blacktop Saints end up in open conflict over territory?
  • Do they know the crew ultimately wants Baby Girl?
  • Who were the face-painted raiders who ambushed them in the Sierra Nevada?
  • Could the crew drive a wedge between the Saints and Pacifica, as Mr. Zip floated?

Relationships

Appearances

  • Session 08 — Introduced by name; the crew scouts them via Mira Stojanovic, Peaches, and Ledger; plans a standard race first, with a danger race held in reserve
  • Session 09 — The crew visits the camp; Mr. Zip beats the Duke Boys; Kenny hacks the camp network and locates Baby Girl; a danger race is agreed for “soon”

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