🗑️ Scavvers (Scavengers)
“This here’s a Night City tollway. Gotta pay to play. Some nice hardware you got there.”
Scavengers aren’t a gang — they’re the desperate homeless who squat in the ruined city zones left behind by the War. They scour treacherous debris for salable items: copper, platinum, old tech, abandoned weapons. Many die doing so. The urban battlegrounds have been picked over for seventeen years, and scavvers are constantly forced to dig deeper into unsafe terrain for anything of value.
📋 Overview
| Aspect | Details |
|---|---|
| Type | Unorganized survivors / opportunists |
| Territory | Combat Zones, Hot Zone, ruined city blocks |
| Organization | None (loose, desperate groups) |
| Danger Level | Low to Medium (desperate, not strategic) |
| Motivation | Survival |
🏚️ Where They Operate
Scavvers go where nobody else will:
- Combat Zones — picking through rubble of the 4th Corporate War
- Hot Zone — the most dangerous scavenging ground; Maelstrom sends scavvers in waves, knowing most won’t come back
- Tent cities and abandoned buildings in south Night City
- Back alleys — setting up improvised “tollways” to shake down passersby
- Hundreds of scavvers die monthly in South Night City alone
📊 Types of Scavvers
Not all scavvers are the same:
Independent Scavvers
The majority — lone homeless or small groups picking through ruins for copper wire, platinum contacts, old tech. They sell what they find to ripperdocs, weapon dealers, or scrap merchants. Most die to structural collapses, radiation, or other scavvers.
Maelstrom Pipeline
Maelstrom organizes scavver operations on an industrial scale:
- Maelstrom entices scavvers with the chance to earn gang membership
- They run them into the Hot Zone for salvage — maybe one in twenty survives
- Survivors face “Tests” — pseudo-mystical rituals designed to weed out the weak
- The rare graduate becomes a full Maelstrom member
Smart Scavvers
The rare breed that survives long-term:
- Watch fights play out from a safe distance
- Learn how the winners operate
- Pick over the dead when the dust settles
- These are the ones who become genuinely dangerous
💰 Operations
| Operation | Details |
|---|---|
| Scavenging | Copper, platinum, old tech, weapons from ruins |
| Looting | Stripping corpses after gang fights |
| Tollways | Blocking alleys and demanding payment from passersby |
| Selling | Scrap to ripperdocs, gun dealers, junk merchants |
| Maelstrom labor | Running Hot Zone salvage for a shot at gang membership |
🎲 GM Resources
Using Scavvers
As Atmosphere: Scavvers are a constant reminder of Night City’s underclass. They’re background — rifling through dumpsters, hauling scrap on improvised carts, sleeping in doorways. Their presence tells players where they are on the social ladder.
As Obstacles: A scavver tollway blocks the Crew’s shortcut through a back alley. Pay up, talk your way past, or fight desperate people who have nothing to lose.
As Information: Scavvers see everything. They know which buildings are occupied, which routes are safe, and where the bodies are buried — literally. The right bribe (or threat) can make them invaluable guides.
Stat Blocks
- Standard: Use Boosters; replace Rippers with Light Melee Weapon
- Maelstrom Scavver: Dedicated mook stat block (DGD)
- Appear in waves — first group may flee, second is angrier
Adventure Hooks
- A scavver found something valuable and doesn’t know what it is. Now everyone wants it
- A Maelstrom “Test” just killed three scavvers. One survived and knows what’s inside the Hot Zone
- Scavvers are stripping a building that still has people living in it. The tenants want them gone
- A scavver tollway is blocking access to a critical location for the job
🔗 Related Topics
(Sources: CRB p.309; Tales of the Red: Streetstories “Staying Vigilant”; DGD Maelstrom + Zoners chapters)