illegalyouth: what's your karma? if you're a "good" character, there's a group that sends out contract killers who want to collect a bounty put on your head. i don't know if there is an equivalent for "evil" characters, since i'm concentrating on good karma in my current game. i've already collected two separate contracts for my head on the dead bodies of groups who have attacked me -- some people called "talon."
Weclock: I know about Talon, but Wolfgang is a trader, he is not supposed to attack unless you've done something.
Yes, there is a group if you've been bad, The Regulators.
To me, that's pretty funny, because The Regulators were a bad group of people.
EDIT:
and yes, there are random encounters, even the traders are random.
I once met a trader with a pet bear (i forget the name of them) who had killed a robot and he was all 'you stay away from my robot!!' and I was walking by it and he was all 'that's it, you're dead!' I tried fighting them off but he absolutely wasted me. At the same spot (this is the meresti station) in an earlier game, I came across a deathclaw at level 2.
Weclock - that example peaked my intrest! Do you hink that trader was 'protecting his investment'? Ie: 'I killed it - the parts are mine!'? because if that's what NPC do if you encroach on their 'loot' that would be a cool thing in the game! :)