I like your ideas, my only gripe is that this Texas wasteland you created...well, the factions seem to lack much depth. What are their ideologies? By what means do they rule? What do they believe? That type of stuff.
Hey
ElloinmorninJ,
Sorry that I have not responded to your question yet but this quite a challenge for me to tackle to write down in a few sentences because I have a tendency to overdo any answer.
Also the discussion of the last couple of weeks have made me sort of "go back to the drawing board" because some of the feedback made me wonder if I could do something different.
At least I can answer your question partly
The (new) Texas Rangers - they are all about preserving law and order, protecting regular people from bandits, slavers, mutants, rogue robots (Angels), helping people with survival (hmm should I scrap this), and preserving ideals of democracy while trying to help civilization to rebuild.
The Black Hats - The Texas Rangers but much more extremist in their outlook and way to achieve their goals. They also believe that they should deal with any groups or factions with ideologies or goals that conflict with theirs, with military means if necessary.
While the Black Hats wish to bring back democracy like their regular counterparts the Black Hats believe that most of the people in the Texas Wasteland are not ready for self rule yet, and instead they want to install a stratocracy with themselves in leading positions.
The Followers of the ATLANTIS - an organization made up of post humanist cyborgs led by the pre war artificial intelligence ATLANTIS that in some regards is a little bit cult like.
The organization wants to start a new age of science and technology and seeks to acquire the means and the resources to do so. The Followers also believe that humanity should embrace the machine and become a race of cyborgs that are better suited to survive and thrive in the wasteland.
They are mostly known for the technology and services they trade in.
The Angels of the Apocalypse - a rather extreme Christian fundamentalist cult whose leaders believe that the destruction of the old world civilization is to blame on humanity straying away from God and becoming obsessed with materialistic things, in particular science and technology.
They want to convert the inhabitants of the wasteland to their faith and cleanse the world of advanced technology, making people live according to their laws.
Despite their anti technological stance the Angels do use advanced weaponry and some technology. To purify themselves for having to use these they engage in activities like self flagellation to cleanse their souls of their sins.
They see mutants as either abominations (such as Super Mutants) or victims such as Ghouls though carrying the taint of science and technology.
Because the Angels lack advanced means of manufacturing they rely on a lot of forced labor; people they have designed as sinner such as those who know about pre war science and technology who can redeemed themselves of their evil/wicked ways by aiding the Angels' cause through hard labor.
The scientists of Clone Station - their goal is to preserve pure human genetics to ensure that pure humanity can one day reclaim Earth.
Though it sounds that it makes the scientists of Clone Station much like the Enclave the scientists are not hostile towards outsiders or have any plans to exterminate them.
Through their work and research the scientists hope in time to eliminate or cure the possible mutations the current human population may have (caused by mutagens such as radiation) and restore the species to its pre-war baseline form.
To ensure that the scientists themselves to don't pass any possible mutations on to any offspring they increase their population solely through cloning which also allows them to limited their own numbers.
Later on I also thought about that the Clone Station scientists seek to preserve pre war animal life and plant life, or trying to adapt it to the conditions of the wasteland through genetic engineering.
Or that they seek to produce useful research that could help with rebuilding the Texas Wasteland, turning it from a radioactive dustbowl in a more fertile land.
I also played with the idea that the scientists sought to clone the most capable, intelligent, and talented individuals from the past such as statesmen, scholars etc, who like their original counterparts could help with rebuilding.
There is a bit of an overlap between the Texas Rangers and the Lone Star Confederacy. Both would have the same goals in general; helping people survive, rebuilding, promote trade and relations between settlements, fight the anarchy and chaos in the wasteland, and protect the population from outside dangers.
Main difference between the LSC and the NCR in the West was that the LSC was based an a lot of the foundings or principles of the Confederacy of the United States (minus the slavery), rather than a centralized government each member, settlements in this case would in general rule and administrate their own territory as they want, but would come together to decide on matters such as national laws and regulations (laws that for example are in effect in the areas between the settlements), cooperation regarding trade, aid during emergencies, and state defense (in case some neighboring power decides to expand into Texas)
While this all sounded great on paper, ensuring every settlement a degree of autonomy and fair representation in the parliament, in general it did not work out that well.
Lone Star itself, the capital, is an economic and military powerhouse. It was founded by wasteland survivors and Vault Dwellers who were brought together by the Texas Rangers.
Having the numbers, the resources, and the knowledge, these people founded one of the most advanced cities in Texas, providing goods and services other settlements would come to depend on.
Eventually they would even found their own army in order to protect their borders and keep bandits, mutants, Angels, and the System (if I use them) at bay.
But Lone Star would have more power and influence than any regular LSC member and be able to influence other members to their benefit.
One of the major industries of Lone Star is the Lone Star Armory, probably the biggest weapons and munitions manufacturer in Texas that employs a great deal of people and which goods and services are in much demand.
In order not to slow down its growth and the profit it was making the LSC would be very selective in which members it would allow to join, excluding those settlements that would be a drain on it. These settlements would not enjoy the economic and protective benefits of the LSC.
The LSC also sought to absorb the Texas Rangers into their organization, making it part of their law enforcement and military.
But the Texas Rangers organization refused, its leadership did not want those settlements and communities that could not join the LSC and could not afford its the price of its protection undefended and prey to the various hostiles in the wasteland.
The Texas Rangers would also have a personal reason why they would not want to get political, a great shame from the early days of the organization that still haunts its leadership.
But now that I think of this again I am kind of playing with the idea that I should either merge the Texas Rangers with Lone Star, they being part of the founders and the protectors of the settlement. (so not Texas Rangers but Lone Star Rangers)
Or I am playing with the idea that perhaps Lone Star is sort of like a company settlement. Lone Star Armory is not just its biggest business and employer, it is also its government, landlord, police, utilities provider, tax collector, and protector.
The city would be run by the LSA and other companies and businesses that have stores and factories here. Edit: oh and perhaps shareholders.
Rather than citizens the inhabitants rather are employees, and a certain degree of productiveness or usefulness would be required for an employee to live here.
Perhaps their leadership's philosophy would be that rather than a democracy that a government and a nation should be run like a business. That it encourages the most capable and talented to lead.
Food for thought.
There was also this group I called the Bliss Bringers who were sort of like a hippy commune, a little bit like the vagrants of Fallout 2, though in a way they were also a little bit like a cult too.
Their founder or one of the founders would be a chemist or someone with some chemistry knowledge who had found some pre war pharmaceutical research by Med-Tek regarding an experimental drug called Bliss that Med-Tek was developing for the military.
Bliss was intended for soldiers and officers suffering from mental ailments and PTSD caused by experiencing extensive fighting and seeing people around them dying in terrible ways.
Bliss was to relief patients from the shock they were experiencing or suppress it so much that it would no longer affect a patient any more.
Problem was, the current version of Bliss has some flaws. It either suppresses people's more negative feelings emotions completely until the drug wears off or could have the complete opposite effective and cause people's mind to be completely overrun by negative emotions such as anger, making them go berserk.
The Bliss Bringers would be using plants from the Bloom to produce the drug and sell it to anyone who wanted to suppress their bad memories or feelings but still remain normally active.
I had the idea that some unscrupulous people such as business owners and the Cartel want to have the recipe for Bliss. The business owners wanted to use it to keep their disgruntled employees under control (people who are badly paid, have to work in dangerous conditions, etc) while the Cartel simply wanted to have both a new product and eliminate someone moving in on their drugs trade.
The Bliss Bringers themselves would have a camp or a settlement somewhere in the Bloom or near it where other than manufacturing Bliss, and perhaps growing food for themselves, are pursuing their own personal goals, or do whatever activity members want to do when they are not doing their part for the community.
But
Atomic Postman after reading my ideas for the Bloom suggested perhaps a group or a faction that seeks to spread the Bloom across the Texas Wasteland and neighboring states in an effort to make the South green again.
The drawback of this is is that the Bloom is a toxic mutant jungle, it produces dangerous mutant lifeforms, and some of the plants also prey on humans.
I have been thinking about making the Bliss Bringers into a more cult like group which I call the Bloom Tenders, though I am not really sold on the idea but neither did I think the Bliss Bringers were that good either.
They are a little bit more eco extremists/terrorists who believe that the old humanity caused the destruction of most of the natural world with their civilization and wars, and that the survivors continue to damage mother earth or Gaia.
The Bloom Tenders want to restore nature to its rightful place or something, believing that the mutations of the plants have given them the ability to protect themselves from those who would use/consume them or destroy them, the insects that feed on the mutant plants and are mutated through that providing another layer of protection.
Perhaps the Bloom Tenders use Bliss in order not to be attacked by the Bloom's plants and creature population.
Dammit. I did not mean to make this such a long text again.
