The Travellers are a road gang, but an atypical one. They have no interest in land or staking out their own claim, nor do they really care about the petty violence that seems to be around most gangs. Instead they just seem to move around, doing odd jobs for people and taking Felix for a walk.
Of course it's not as simple as all that. The gang is a gang, and sometimes very good at what it does, and the odd jobs that the gang partakes in includes things like smuggling, piracy, hijacking, the odd assassination, a bit of computer hacking and the like. While they are pretty much an inept bungling group, they haven't failed a mission yet, so they do have Ops, gangs and others on their tail. They also have the odd corporate offical here and there who owes them a favour. However as they often renege on their deals, these favours don't last too long.
The gang have a large price in bounties on them, and individual personalities have a lot more, which could be one of the reasons that they continue moving.
Usually a silent man with more than one nervous twitch - but whether that's due to the fact that he's with this group or from other sources is unknown. He's been a soldier, mercenary and salesman before ending up as the leader of The Travellers, although the term leader is a bit of misnomer as he basically just keeps everyone from trying to kill everybody else, or mainly just from killing Hayes. Flinn is a tranquilliser addict and has a habit of trying to sell things whenever possible. He's generally the fixer of the group. Flinn is having a casual relationship with Syrena, his gunner.
The vehicle that Flinn drives is the Osprey III. It should be noted that the crash suppression system is only fitted to the gunner side of the vehicle which is, of course, where Syrena sits with Felix.
Classification: V8 multi-crew multi-role renegade Weight: 1,955 Cost: $118,500
Max Speed: 124 mph Acceleration: 22 mph Braking: 18 mph Handling: 3, 4 vs. HE
Occupancy: Driver and gunner.
Weapons: 40mm GL (hood), autocannon (turret, with TVSM), smoke and spike passives.
Systems: Charger, crash suppression.
Armour: 3 points each facing, Rear 4 (3 carbon steel +1 carbon plastic).
Stats:
Close combat 1, drive 5, gunner 1, handgunner 2.
Syrena is the female of the group and unfortunately follows all the stereotypes about blonde bimbos, and indeed it seems that the term was invented for her. She initially trained as nurse, but has since turned to other careers such as exotic dancer. However despite the fact that she's a complete air head she's also a member of such dangerous subversive groups as CDSD (Campaign for Death Star Disarmament) and 'Save the Wampa', which makes her a bit mad as well. She also happens to be Flinns gunner but only in the loosest sense in that she sits in the gunner position and sometimes presses the fire button - but whether that has anything to do with combat is unknown. She has a relationship with Flinn, but flirts with everyone and it is no secret that if Flinn wasn't present she would be with Gavin.
She does have one important role in the group though, and that is looking after the lovely, fluffy and completely cute mutant sand dog, 'Felix'. Indeed it seems that she cares more about the dog than the others (including Flinn) and certainly Flinn is so much under the thumb that some missions have almost been aborted because Felix needed walkies, and some missions have been specially planned to raid pet stores for dog food.
Stats:
Close combat 1, drive 1, first aid 4.
Gavin is a large bloke, insane ex-US Marine Corps, and general all round hard guy. He loves guns, killing, guns and his favourite cartoon "Captain Carnage". He's only happy
when talking to his guns, or killing things. He's never with less than three of four guns at one time, and for him, any mission that doesn't include shooting or blowing things up is a complete loss. This has caused an awful lot of missions to degenerate into blood baths and resulted in a huge price on his head. While he likes killing he's not a sadist at all and doesn't revel in torture or wounding - he just likes firing guns at targets, any targets - animals, people, cars, people, and to him, shooting someone to make a point is merely second nature. A very dangerous individual. He has a huge, not very subtle crush on Syrena. He is lacking a lot in the smarts department, but no one mentions this to his face. For some reason, Mad Gav is also the groups main mechanic, which is surprising as he takes things apart better than he reassembles them, but no one's going to argue the point.
He's not a great driver and will not engage in any manoeuvres he might not make, but he makes up for this with his gunnery skills.
Classification: V8 renegade gunship Weight: 1,860 Cost: $113,000
Max Speed: 108 mph Acceleration: 18 Braking: 18 mph Handling: 5 (3), 6 vs. HE
Occupancy: Driver.
Weapons: Missile pod (hood, HE HE HE, SP SP SP), 2 linked autocannon (wings, f).
Systems: Active suspension, passenger cage, reinforced tyres.
Armour: 3 points each facing.
Stats:
4 CON points, close combat 3, drive 2, gunner 3, handgunner 3.
Gavin always wears light armour, and carries enough firepower to make a typical gang look under-armed, including assault rifles, multiple pistols, RPGs, and his favourite, the
.303 Lew-S Mk1 Heavy Blaster laser carbine.
Mad Gav is also the only cybered member of the team. He has the following items installed: Augmented strength (rating 2), body armour (AV 2), reinforced limbs (arms and legs). He has 4 psychosis points, although many would argue that he was born with more than his fair share of them.
Life has not been good to Hayes and probably never will be. He's a failed employee, failed lecturer, and general failure who turned to smuggling to make a living. Unfortunately he double crossed several prominent gangs who now want to make mincemeat out of him, and this could be one of the reasons he hangs around with the group. A little known fact is that Felix is actually his pet, but since Syrena adapted him - and Gavin has a crush on Syrena - he doesn't bring this up. Hayes actually does have bad luck, and this is one reason that no one likes him at all. They think he's a jinx and a curse, and want to kill him. But this is also a good thing for his survival as it means that the group will defend him from others because they want to kill him himselves and won't let others do it. It's true that Hayes has bad luck, but he sometimes he has some short term good luck - like the time when he became the envy of the group by getting hold of a fully equipped, state of the art V12 Interceptor, all legally. However, a week later it was totalled when a rear tyre blow in a freak accident, which then amazingly enough set off an ammunition explosion that destroyed the vehicle. Hayes was lucky to get out alive with Gavin's help - and Gavin has berated himself for being so stupid ever since. Foul play for the destruction of the vehicle has never been ruled out.
As a result Hayes keeps to himself as much as possible, cheating at solitaire to pass the time. The thing that keeps him alive though, is that he is an excellent hacker and is also a very good mechanic who fixes all the mistakes that Gavin makes - although not while Gav is around. Due to his shady past, he does have some very good fast talk and bribery
skills as well.
He drives a motorbike which has just enough firepower to keep him alive, and NOX to let him get away should the going get rough.
Classification: Heavy bike Weight: 460 Cost: $49,000
Max Speed: 121 mph (141 mph) Acceleration: 44 mph (88 mph) Braking: 40 mph Handling: 6
Occupancy: Cyclist.
Weapons: 4.2mm lightweight MG (f), 2x linked 50mm HE missiles (outrigger mounts).
Systems: Charger, NOX.
Armour: 2 points each facing.
Stats:
Biker 4, gunner 1, handgunner 1, mechanic 5.
Hayes always wears his Alien cap whenever possible.
Dinalt is a pervert - no more, no less. If it is flesh and blood (and sometimes other), then Dinalt has either done it, filmed it, or pimped it off to someone else. It is rumoured that he has the entire collection of Playboy and Playgirl magazines hidden away somewhere.
He started life as a medical student but when it was realised just what a pervert he was, he was kicked out and banned from practising medicine for life - before his first year was
even finished. Since then, he become a street bum, tramp, pimp and general no-good for anything low-life. He met up with Flinn and joined the gang after agreeing to 'misplacing'
some huge debts of Flinns. Whilst being depraved, he also looks depraved, and this gives him some great powers of intimidation despite the fact that he's not a bully or sadist
(unless it's required for his perversions).
After Hayes, he's the least tolerated member of the team. He drives a motorbike until he can get himself a decent car of some type.
Classification: Road bike Weight: 370 Cost: $48,500
Max Speed: 105 mph Acceleration: 40 mph Braking: 40 mph Handling: 6
Occupancy: Cyclist.
Weapons: Flame-thrower and reload (f), 20mm Lightweight GL (f).
Systems: Crash bars, oil injection.
Armour: 2 points each facing.
Stats:
Biker 3, close combat 2, gunner 1, handgunner 1.
The Travellers can be found over almost any part of the USA, either as part of a mission, or just roaming. Usually they have several Ops or bounty hunters on their tails, so could
either be in the middle of trouble or just run from/finished with the trouble. The characters could be hired to find them for some nefarious purpose or to try and take them out. Alternately, if the characters are in big enough trouble, they might even hire them themselves. As the Travellers don't usually get paid for some reason or another and usually bug out if the odds really start to get bad, then payment may or may not be a problem...
The Travellers are based on the cartoon strip of the same name (copyright Mark Harrison 83-6) - that ran in early White Dwarf magazines - about a typical group of adventurers set in the Traveller universe.
The Travellers are back, in full colour! http://www.2000ad.org/markus/travellers/
