Powder Gangers

The  are packs of criminals from the eastern parts of the New California Republic.

Van Buren Origin
When NCR attempted to expand east, they needed railways to carry supplies to distant locations, especially places ripe for colonization. For this task, The New California Republic used criminals from their Black Canyon prison who were approaching the end of their sentences. Unfortunately, when NCR started to have financial problems, payments to the workers started coming up late or short. Eventually, the workers decided to take matters into their own hands, seizing the work stations and all the blasting powder they could find. They became powder gangs, blowing up any and all caravans and railways they came across.

Background
When the NCR expanded eastward into Nevada they created the NCR Correctional Facility and brought their prisoners there. Over there they made the facility near the train tracks and the convicts would work on repairing and expanding them. As explained by Powder Gangers, no correcting was done. Only manual labor. So the convicts decided to take things into their own hands and took over the facility using the dynamite the NCR had given them access to, therefore becoming the Powder Gangers.

New Vegas
In the town of Goodsprings at the Prospector Saloon, a powder gang ganger named(Joe Cobb) is seen threatening to burn down the town if Trudy does not hand over Ringo. If the player talks to Trudy she will mention that Ringo stumbled into town asking for a place to lay low after powder gangers ambushed his caravan. If the player chooses to help Ringo he will state that he doesn't believe the two of them alone can take on the powder gangers, he suggests they enlist the help of Sunny Smiles as he believes she will be the most willing to help. Once this is done, she suggests that the player should recruit Trudy as many of the townsfolk look up to her and would be more willing to help fight off the powder gangers. She then tells the player to talk to Easy Pete and Chet, then to Doc Mitchell. The player doesn't have to get Chet, Easy Pete or Doc Mitchell. Once the player defeats the powder gangers they will receive an idolized reputation in Goodsprings and a variably negative reputation by the powder gangers (ranges from shunned to vilified). If Ringo survives he will pay you with 100 caps an tell you that if you go to the Crimson caravans base of operations in New Vegas, he will repay you with a larger sum of caps

When the player heads to Primm, the NCR officers and troopers will send him to Hayes. Hayes will tell the player that some convicts escaped from the NCRCF (NCR Correctional Facility) and have killed guards in Primm that weren't able to escape. Since then they began ransacking the area. He tells them that they call themselves Powder Gangers because they've taken to using explosives meant to clear boulders as weapons, but killing them will not affect your reputation with the Powder Gangers because the convicts who staged the attack on Primm are not actually Powder Gangers. They have taken Primm's deputy, Deputy Beagle hostage in the Bison Steve hotel. The Courier defeats the escaped convicts in the hotel. The Powder Ganger leader is wearing a hockey mask, protecting his face from gun attacks and leather armor, he wields a meat cleaver and moves fairly fast (this is wholly dependent on your level, as the Convict Leader can be clad in Metal Armour and wielding an Incinerator if you have explored and levelled prior to reaching Primm). The player will successfully rescue Beagle if he survives the Convict's kidnapping. Beagle will explain how he got trapped or give information on the Khans that Benny was with (player must pass a speech check to get the information).

Many are found at the Jean Skydiving due to it being near the NCRCF. The NCRCF is run by the Powder Ganger Eddie. Eddie first tasks the player with taking out a Powder Ganger who is not listening to him called Chavez. Once Chavez is out of the way, Eddie tells the player to deal with a suspicious merchant who is hanging around their territory. The merchant is actually a bounty hunter looking to ambush Powder Gangers. The player can tell him to leave or shoot him down. He then sends the player to Primm to find out why the NCR hasn't made a big fuss about their breakout.

Oliver Swanick, from Nipton, too used to be a Powder Ganger until he won the lottery. In Nipton there are Powder Gangers crucified on crosses and near death. If they are removed from the crosses then they will die. There are also heads on poles. The Powder Gangers are in these states because Caesar's Legion member, Vulpes Inculta put them on a crosses. Vulpes implies that the Powder Gangers are degenerates who need to be punished as they were Nipton's troops.

Locations

 * Black Canyon Prison
 * Bison Steve Hotel appear as Convicts but described by townfolk and NCR Rangers as Powder Gangers.
 * New California Republic Correctional Facility
 * Powder Gang Camps: North, South, East and West

Appearances
The Powder Gangers appear in Fallout: New Vegas. They were going to appear in Van Buren, the canceled Fallout 3.