Powder Gangers

The  are packs of criminals from the eastern parts of the New California Republic. During the plot of Fallout New Vegas they have recently gained independence during a revolt against prison guards led by Samuel Cooke, however after the revolt Samuel left the NCR Correctional Facility and traveled to the nearby Vault 19. After Cooke leaves another Powder Ganger known as Eddie takes control and soon after begins dealings with the Courier in the quest I Fought the Law.

History
The Powder Gangers are all convicted felons serving hard time. They come from locations throughout the New California Republic. Since their successful takeover of the New California Republic Correctional Facility they have spread up and down I-15 effectively closing it to travel and commerce. Consequently there is a back-up of caravans at the Mojave Outpost with other New Vegas bound traffic detoured to I-95. Pockets of escaped prisoners can be found in many locations along I-15 as described subsequently.

Background
When the NCR expanded eastward into Nevada they took over the old Southern Nevada Correctional Facility in Jean, and created the NCR Correctional Facility. The facility is located near train tracks that run parallel to highway I-15 and the convicts were used to maintain and expand them. As explained by Powder Gangers, no correcting was done - only manual labor. So when the majority of NCR troops guarding the facility were called away to patrol the Colorado River, the convicts decided to take things into their own hands and took over the facility using improvised weapons and explosives made from small amounts of dynamite they had stashed away.

Goodsprings
In the town of Goodsprings at the Prospector Saloon, a powder gang member named Joe Cobb is seen threatening to burn down the town if Trudy does not hand over Ringo. If the Courier talks to Trudy she will mention that Ringo stumbled into town asking for a place to lay low after powder gangers ambushed his caravan. (The remains of his caravan can be found on I-15 guarded by scavenging Powder Gangers.) If the Courier 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 Courier to talk to Easy Pete and Chet, then to Doc Mitchell. The Courier doesn't have to get Chet, Easy Pete or Doc Mitchell. Once the Courier 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 and tell you that if you go to the Crimson Caravan base of operations near New Vegas, he will repay you with a larger sum of caps.(There are 2 quests which can be completed here, Ghost Town Gunfight and Run Goodsprings Run, the first involves killing Joe Cobb whereas the second involves helping him take over the town.)

Primm
When the Courier heads to Primm, the NCR officers and troopers will send him to Lt. Hayes. Lt. Hayes will tell the player that some convicts escaped from the NCRCF 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 a splinter group operating on their own. They have taken Primm's deputy, Deputy Beagle hostage in the Bison Steve hotel. The Courier defeats the escaped convicts in the hotel. The Escaped convict leader is generally wearing a hockey mask or combat helmet and combat armor. He/she(gender and race is random) wields a Heavy incinerator (Fallout: New Vegas) if you have explored and leveled 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 Great Khans that Benny was with (player must pass a speech check to get the information).

Jean & NCRCF
Many are found at the Jean Sky Diving 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. Johnson Nash will tell the player who can then choose to ally with the Powder Gangers and stop the NCR from taking over the facility or kill Eddie and stop the Powder Ganger threat once and for all.

Nipton
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 a Caesar's Legion member, Vulpes Inculta, put them on crosses. Vulpes implies that the Powder Gangers are degenerates who need to be punished as they were Nipton's troops.

Locations

 * Goodsprings led by Joe Cobb.
 * Powder Ganger Camps: North, South, East and West
 * New California Republic Correctional Facility
 * Jean Sky Diving
 * Crimson Caravan ambush site on I-15 east of Goodsprings.
 * Vault 19
 * Primm in various locations on patrol and headquartered in the Bison Steve Hotel. They appear as Convicts but described by townfolk and NCR as Powder Gangers.
 * Near the Nevada Highway Patrol station.
 * Nipton, all crucified and near death. They cannot be released alive, and the Courier can only kill or ignore them. Killing them there does not affect your reputation and counts toward various Challenge perks. Boxcars and Oliver Swanick can be found, in the General Store and leaving respectively. Oliver Swanick will tell an approaching Courier that he won the lottery and is no longer with the Powder Gangers. Boxcars's legs are damaged beyond use, and he will not leave the chair he sits in.
 * Enslaved Powder Gang members at the Legion Raid Camp in the quest Booted.

Appearances
The Powder Gangers appear in Fallout: New Vegas. They were originally going to appear in Van Buren, the canceled Fallout 3 project by Black Isle Studios.