12 September 2012

Roadside Encounter Generator: Groups Interacting

I whipped this up to generate some random roadside encounters that feature two groups interacting. Roll on the first table, the second table, and the first table again to get a result like, "Villagers killing knights".

Like any random generator, I think it's good to interpret the results pretty broadly. I might read a result of, "Brigands enslaving villagers" to mean that the party comes upon a town where every few weeks some thugs come to collect protection money and crack a few heads to keep people scared. Or I might just interpret it more literally - a group of slavers rounding up local folk to take to auction.

Table 1 (1d8):
  1. Villagers
  2. Lord & Retinue
  3. Knights
  4. Brigands
  5. Lepers
  6. Madmen
  7. Wizard(s)
  8. Savages (wilderness)
Table 2 (1d8):
  1. Betraying
  2. Worshiping
  3. Enslaving
  4. Traveling to see
  5. Fleeing
  6. Negotiating with
  7. Killing
  8. Being killed by 
Obviously, adjust Table 1 to include groups appropriate to the region and your campaign. You could also repeat some results on either table to make the results more likely. Maybe a war-torn region would have only villagers, knights, and lords on Table 1, and only killing, being killed by and fleeing on Table 2.

Some of the more interesting results I rolled up:
  • Brigands fleeing madmen
    • I quite like this... Maybe the madness is contagious? Maybe the brigands thought they'd be easy pickings, but it turns out the madmen have some kind of wild magic? Lots of possibilities.
  • Savages betraying knights
    • Another interesting one... Perhaps a local guide is leading the knights into an ambush? Or maybe there's a battle going on - a group of savages were fighting on the side of some knights, but are now running away, leaving the knights to certain death?
  •  Villagers being killed by villagers
    • Witch hunt? Inter-village rivalry? Barroom brawl gone wrong?
  • Wizard(s) negotiating with lepers
    • Hmmm... I like this. Why would wizards be negotiating with lepers? Maybe the wizard needs leper blood for a ritual or spell, or maybe the lepers want to settle near the wizard's tower? Maybe the lepers are actually some kind of powerful beings in disguise, or even rival wizards who've gotten sick and need help?

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