Junkerpunks

Summary

Whether they travel by foot, ship, or rubber, the Junkerpunks are the most pervasive merchant faction in the greater Lone Star area post-Stampede. What started as a Saltwise mercantile armada has expanded inland, with itinerant Rover bands, Diesel Jock clans, and even a handful of Red Star communes now operating under their logistical umbrella. Junkerpunks are bound together by the shared purpose of creating a self-sufficient, prosperous civilization atop the flotsam of the past. While they do trade with the Bravado work camps, they are functionally in competition with the Railway Conglomerate for control of commercial trade in the Lone Star.

The Junkerpunks won a temporary seat on the San Saba Board after the Murder Ball tournament last year and used their influence to establish a new trading port called Drywater. The Drywater settlement lies a few hours walk away from the town of Bravado, just across the lake that covers the remains of Old Bravo. With the political help of Queen Jasper and the Tribes Disparate, their dream of a new home is soon to be a reality. Interdependence means a Free Community is stronger than a Free Individual.

  • NOTE: The Junkerpunks are designed to encourage PCs to undermine and rebel against restrictive political structures for the sake of freedom.

Key phrases

  • Rugged Individuality, Pirates, Explorers Into the Unknown, Hopepunk

Why Should I Join?

The Junkerpunks are an outcast faction on purpose. They choose to march to the beat of their own drum, and favor independence over all else. The freedom of travel, the wind in their hair, and the thrill of exploration drives them forward. They are explorers and merchants, pirates and privateers, renegades and rock stars, but they all have the same spark of freedom burning inside of them. If you want a life of rebelliousness and freedom at all costs, a harder life than most but one not shunned for that difficulty, and a drive to speak truth to power, the Junkerpunks need capable hands and skilled trailblazers of all kinds.

Faction Objectives

  • To Thine Own Self Be True — The type of folk who chug along with the Junkerpunks are here because of the emphasis of individuality, interdependence, and integrity. We are stronger together, because we share these ideals.  No matter the business goals, the zen of the Junkerpunks is that rugged individualism.

  • Compete on Our Own Terms — As the only faction excluded from the San Saba Board, the Junkerpunks have taken that insult personally.  They have become a rival interest to the Board by validating their own merchant power compared to the RRC, or any other trade union. 

  • Heal the World and Create Something Worth Living In — The Junkerpunks are the epitome of “hopepunk”.  They seek to facilitate the healing and reconstruction of their shitty world into something worth living in, no matter the obstacles in their path. The Junkerpunks are set to create a self-sufficient, prosperous civilization atop the flotsam of the past.

Casted Characters (NPCs)

  • Grand Admiral Sinker Swim

  • Medusa Glory

  • The Covemaster

  • Carina Astora, the Saltwise Sweetheart

  • Professor Heavywater

Subfactions

  • Muddy Water Accord  — After the sundering of the Iron Works, several survivors fled to the Spoiled Coast and formed a new home along the Inksea. Ratified in the aftermath of the Iron Harbor, the Muddy Water Accord is an on-going understanding and adherence to the idea that no organization, being, or entity will ever hold dominion over another. The MWA is an agreement between Junkerpunks that states their obligations to one-another and their obligations to the wasteland as a whole as equal to their obligation to their own freedom. The Muddy Waters have assumed direct control of the interests of the faction following the grand party in the Clutch last year, and have pushed the faction into a serious competition of the RRC.

  • Clearwater Accord — The original punks of the Junkerpunks, cutthroat anarchists and pirates. Those unwilling to bend the knee, kiss the ring, or otherwise compromise their beliefs. Unlike those who signed the Muddy Water Accord, they value their freedom and their agency above all else, including the greater-wellbeing of the wasteland. During the party in the Clutch last year, the Clearwaters lost a great deal of influence in the faction after a terrorist attack on the East Line train expansion of the RRC. The de facto leader of the Clearwaters is Carina Astora.

  • Diamondbacks — All along the Spoiled Coast, from the Clutch to the Pridelands lies the territory of the Diamondbacks. This clan is affiliated with the Junkerpunks, and is crewed by map scratchers, sailors, and explorers that try to fill in the blank parts of the map.  The Diamondbacks pride themselves on foraging offroad, avoiding the RRC and allowing them to catalog the flora and fauna of the San Saba reaches like the nerds they are.  Their symbol is an amalgam of a yellow Shell, a red series of hearts, and a green diamond, symbols of the oldcestor pit stops. Made up equally of DJs, Remnants and Rovers, this clan follows a tradition of the Darwin and Sainthood faiths, taking it upon themselves to deal with the megafauna left behind in the destruction of Aggieland.  The heart of Diamondback territory lies in the Clutch, and the Diamondbacks have one of the largest flotillas of oil-burning ships in the Gulf.

traditions of the Junkerpunks

  • Bond of Salt — If a Junkerpunk shares food and drink with someone, it is to take responsibility for them, and often their well-being is more important than a tarnished reputation. If a deal of a Junkerpunk is broken, they will pursue justice and exact reparation until the wrong is satisfied. Furthermore, a Junkerpunk will never break a formal deal that is shaken on under any circumstance. If fate prevents them from keeping their word, they make no excuses, and will seek to right the wrong immediately.

  • The Articles of Code — A loose set of “guidelines” that the Junkerpunks mostly agree upon as the laws of the faction. There are at least ten different parts of the commonly agreed upon Articles, but depending on who you talk to it could be more or less. The Articles cover how to vote on issues as a crew, how to declare a parlay, ways to organize a flotilla, rules for punishing those that break their word, and more. But in a society valuing freedom and equality of the individual, it’s not surprising that there are as many arguments of what exactly the Articles cover as there are arguments over the distribution of cargo between the crew.

  • The Muddy Water Accord — The founding philosophy of the Junkerpunks can be phrased as a few simple beliefs, and the concept that interdependence means a free community is stronger than a free individual.

    • Ships Have Captains for a Reason — A sailor is not a slave if they choose their path, nor are they a slave if they choose to follow a leader.  Structure and hierarchy are not weaknesses as long as they serve a purpose.  When you are at the bar sharing a pint, every sailor is equal.  But in the midst of a storm, you follow the orders of the captain because we ALL sail home when we work with one voice.

    • Each Ship Has a Place in the Fleet, No Matter Where They Sail — Your obligation to the Junkerpunks is equal to your obligation to yourself. Freedom is equally as important as the success of the lowest of us.  We are interdependent on each other for our collective success.  We chose the Junkerpunks for a reason.

    • There is an Honor Amongst Thieves — The Articles of Code are all the structure we need. No organization or entity can control the wastes, or hold dominion over another - this is true. But total anarchy is naive, and having order is not necessarily a bad thing.  People will disagree from time to time, and relying on the survival of the fittest to sort things out hurts us equally in the end.  We need at least some rules we can rely on.

    • Sink or Swim, We Survive and THRIVE Together — We are already the experts at what we do, and we have the resources already. We have the ships, the crews, and the trade routes already.  The RRC and the Board still have to catch up. We just have to leverage what we have collectively to ensure we have a place in the Wastes. We can choose to be better than the Board.

  • Punk Life Chose Me - Most Junkerpunks realize they’re choosing the hard way, the lonely way, and not the most efficient way.  They just don’t seem to care or want to change it by selling out their worth on a dotted line. It is not unusual to find those who claim Junkerpunk avoid, abhor, and alternate from the road and paths most travelled, preferring to mapscratch their way into relevancy by handshake, barter, and deed.

  • Sink Or Swim - More commonly, folks lean on the ‘sink or swim’ motto -- if you dug your own grave, you must climb out of it yourself. Junkerpunks are, after all, a unifying, survivalist group encouraging an assortment of people from diverse backgrounds into one collective body, all working together to keep the ship afloat, that engine purring, and boots on the ground. The means to these ends might vary, but the goals are the same for the majority of Junkerpunks.

Key Story Points

Grand Admiral Sinker Swim

  • The Fountainhead Incident — In a second attempt to garner local support in the face of the RRC, the Junkerpunks intended to invest and divert the Fountainhead into an ‘aqua terraformer’ for the Spoiled Coast. Upon learning the truth and nature of the Fountainhead, this goal was swiftly abandoned. Instead, they worked as rescue and evacuation up until the Incident--if not abandoned Essex all together. Roughly a day later, they returned through the changed waterways to help survivors en masse and recruit new foundlings into their midst.

  • Waking Prime — The Junkerpunks invited themselves to the Waste’s Fair, with a faction led by Medusa Glory and the Muddy Water Accord seeking to join the new San Saba Board.  In a rare exercise of their power, the Chairman purposefully vetoed the decision to include the faction, angering and insulting the delegation.

  • Widow’s Peak — A small group of Diamondbacks has a tradition known as “The Promise”, where once a year during the festival of Winter Lights they travel to the Widow’s Peak.  It honors an alliance formed when the original DJs of the Diamondbacks helped the Lovelace family escape the cryptids that nearly wiped out their settlement a generation ago.  During the most recent Winter Lights festival, the Diamondback crew led by Oil Derrick honored the Promise once more and was present for helping the town learn the lesson the oldcestors missed.

  • Sinker Swim’s Party — With the fortunes of the Junkerpunks in question after being excluded from the San Saba Board, the “grand admiral” of the faction invited folks from throughout the San Saba for one final party to be remembered.  The next day, amid hangovers and regrets, they revealed the faction was broke and penniless, and that something needed to be done.  Despite the Clearwaters attacking the East Line of the RRC with a terrorist attack led by Carina Astora, the faction as a whole decided to embrace their own strengths and compete on their own terms with the RRC.  The Muddy Water Accord has emerged as the dominant subfaction within the Junkerpunks based on this success and the faction is now a serious rival to the fortunes of the RRC and the San Saba Board.

  • The Drywater Settlement Package — In a stunning reversal, Queen Jasper of the Tribes Disparate backed the efforts of Admiral Sinker Swim in petitioning for a place to build a new home. With her backing, the Junkerpunks were able to win a crucial board vote and the support of a major ally in their construction efforts. The small town of Drywater will be reliant on the support of the Tribes for success, but recognizing their need for a home touched something in Jasper’s need to leave a legacy behind.

favored skills & Pfas

  • Melee Two Handed (Blooded Lance)

  • Trailblazing (Gear Head)

  • Sailing (Bluejacket)

  • Biogenetics (Free Radical)

  • Enhanced Movement (Flanker)