Overland Random Encounters

 

Diary of indie game developer put out an interesting short video on YouTube the other day, discussing long journeys and how adding cool locations along the way can add colour and options to four game. It set me thinking about Random Encounters, about what they can be, and how they can enhance your solo RPG experience.

I recall when I first started playing RPG’s, (Tunnels and Trolls was my introduction to the hobby), my games were simple and perhaps somewhat naive. I would create a table of wandering monsters, usually of about 11 (2d6) creatures with a 1 in 6 chance of an encounter each turn (about once per day for overland travel, or every time the characters moved in a dungeon). My games back then we all about bashing monsters over the head with a big axe.

It wasn’t long before I started wanting something more from my games. I started playing Traveller both with a group and solo, a game which does not lend itself to just bashing things over the head. I started creating random encounter tables that included NPC’s which the characters could interact with, for my solo games there would be secondary tables to determine how these NPC’s reacted.

For a long time, that was all my random encounters consisted of, lists of monsters, creatures and NPC’s. It was only when I came back into the hobby about 10 years ago after a break of a similar number of years, that I started realising random encounter didn’t just mean wandering monsters.

Encounters of the location kind

Many of my solo adventures and campaigns involve my characters undertaking journeys, often lasting many days and I have two perfectly acceptable ways of dealing with travelling long distances.

The first, and least fun, it to just have the characters arrive at their destination. I can simply note that the companions travelled north for seven days and have now arrived at the ruined tower of Belgoth. This works well if I just want to get right into the main part of the game.

The second, and the one I tend to go for, is to work out how far away the ruined tower of Belgoth is and play through each days travel, rolling for things such as weather, terrain and random encounters several times a day, depending of the rules I am using. but usually once during the day and once at night.

Nearly every RPG core rulebook contains rules and some tables dealing with random encounters, and one thing of note is that the tables often include difficult terrain to cross, bad weather to deal with and fantastic locations to explore (or not as the characters desire), and even if such tables are not included, its really easy to create your own.

I find the Beyond the Wall and Other Adventures supplement, Further Afield, a very good starting point for creating random encounter tables. The book has two appendix with useful tables, one has eight sample regions each with a basic d6 random encounter table, the second has three d8 tables allowing you to create interesting minor locations on the fly.

Its easy to expand the d6 encounter tables, turn them into d8 tables by adding wandering monster encounters and minor location encounters. You can then create secondary table for wandering monsters and use the three minor location tables in appendix III to generate cool locations.

If you don’t own Further Afield, after all if you don’t play Beyond the Wall why would you own it, it’s simple and fun to make your own tables.
For your random encounter table include things like getting lost, very difficult terrain such as deep ravines or wide fast flowing rivers, extreme weather such as a violent storm or hurricane strength winds as well as wandering monsters and fantastic locations.

Your secondary wandering monster table could include interesting NPC’s the characters could interact with, even fantastic locations such as a goblin lair which you could have the characters avoid but make a note of it and mark its location on your map, these goblins could cause trouble for a nearby village in a later adventure.

Fantastic locations table can be very simple, just pick 6 possible sites, for example.

1. Ancient Barrow
2. Stone Circle
3. Ruined Tower
4. Remote Tavern
5. Mystical Glade
6. A small Cave

Your characters don’t have to investigate these sites, but they can, again, just make a note of their location and use them in a future adventure.

The idea really is to make your encounter table, your game world and your game richer, colourful and interesting. So the next time you design a random encounter table, don’t just make it a list of wandering monsters, add locations into the mix.

Adventure on.

Lowlife 2090 - Weasel & Kid Sinister, part 5

 Toolbox  

Lowlife 2090 RPG by Pickpocket Press.

Lo 90 Solo by Parts Per Million.

All images created using NightCafe Studio AI paint it for you.

 

With the conclusion of each scene I roll 6 sided dice, I started with 20, each time a 6 is rolled, that die gets removed, when thee is only 1 die left, the characters will have run out of time.

At the end of the first scene in the last post I had 11 dice left, rolling them 4 came up 6, so the dice timer was down to 7. Rolling the 7 remaining dice at the end of the second scene resulted in no dice coming up 6, so I remain on 7 dice.

Spark

  Round up from last session

 

Rook and Weasel went to talk to Nashu, sister of the apparently kidnapped Enli. Nashu refused to believe that her brother would be fool enough to gamble and run up large gambling debts at the Vermillion Curtain Casino.  Gaining no further clues about missing Enli they headed home.

 

Shona and Kid Sinister visited the Vermillion Curtain Casino.  Here they met Bohr, who had sent Enli a message threatening violence if he did not clear his gambling debts.  Bohr implied he did not know the whereabouts of Enli.  I don't allow Red Herrings in my solo mystery games, so I took it that while Enli may indeed have a big gambling debt with Bohr, Bohr was not the kidnapper.

Shona and Kid did get more clues.  Enli often visited the Vermillion Curtain with a friend called Spark and attended private gambling sessions, he also lost a lot of the time and lost big.

 

  Shona receives unexpected aid.

Shonas has the talent 'unexpected aid'.  If she makes a Cha Check a contact reaches out to her with some helpful information about the current mission and I think at this point the characters need some helpful info.

Shona Cha is 18 so she needs to roll that or less on a d20. She rolls a 3, a great success.

I roll a d4 to see which of Shona's contacts gives the information to her.

1=City Exec, 2=Crime Boss, 3=Entertainer, 4=Detective.  Roll =4 so its the detective.

 

Out of the blue, Shone gets a call on her cell from a private detective contact she has.  He tells her a girl he knows, Geneva, works behind the bar at the Vermillion Curtain, said Shona was asking about a man called Enli.  He tells Shona that he believes Enli has gone into hiding, owes too much Cera to the wrong people.  He suggests if she wants to contact Enli, she should start by talking to Spark, his best friend and he tells her that Spark lives in a block of flats located down some back street of the Munroe district.  He also tells Shona she better get to Spark quick because there are others who want Enli found and know where Spark resides and they may not care if Spark lives or dies.

 

  An incident looking for Spark

 

The four characters take the subway to the Munroe district. Arriving at the station near to the Vermillion Curtain Casino, they discover the security guards are checking id of everyone entering the district.  The characters all produce fake id and somehow they are all allowed out of the station without any further searches.

 

As they make their way to the address they have been given for Enli's friend Spark they find their way blocked by a group of gangers.

 

Roll 3d6 to get the number of gangers = 6.  thankfully fairly low dice rolls.

Rolling d20 on the Example Gangs table in Lowlife 2090, I roll an 8 = Shenzu Slapjacks.

 

The characters are blocked by 6 Elves, each armed with Swords and two have KB Raider pistols.

 

At this point I load a street map into Owlbear Rodeo to aid in playing out what happens next.

Def 11/2 (light vest), HP 9, KB

Raider +3/2d6+1, Nat 19: 1d12, S13 D10 C10

I10 P10 W10 Ch10 L6, Mv 10m. Cell (Sys 10)

Knife, bat, chain, etc. At least one has a dose

of a random drug; 1d10: (i-iv) Gozer , (v-vi) Iris ,

(vii-viii) Jink , (ix-x) Brox

 

The combat is brutal, Shona is the first casualty, taking 7 hits from one of the gangers armed with a KB Raider, with only 8 hp to begin with Shona is badly hurt and keeps out of the fight for the most part.

 

Weasel draws his knife and gets into a melee with two of the gangers, he takes 8 damage but as both gangers have taken damage from being hit buy Kid Sinisters Sarb Enforcer, Weasel takes them both out.

 

The second ganger with a KB Raider hits Rook twice, she takes a total of 6 damage. He also tries to finish Shona but she is behind cover and he misses her.  Rook manages to take him out before he can fire again. Kid Sinister takes a fourth ganger out, his Saab Enforcer is deadly.

 

With only two gangers still standing one makes a run for it into an open building and gets away, the other is trapped between Weasel and Kid Sinister, Kid makes him talk.

The ganger tells them that Spark paid them to take the characters out, stop them from getting too close to Spark.  They let the ganger go but tell him if they ever meet him again he wont live to tell the tale.

 

Seeing both Shona and Rook badly injured, Weasel tells them to head back to Foundry Bay and rest, he and Kid Sinister will visit Spark and find out whats going on.

 

 

  Spark comes clean.

Weasel and Kid get into Sparks place.  Spark admits he wrote the ransom notes.  Enli had gambled his part of the fortune his parents left him away and then some.  But it is too late to get Enli, he has paid the people smuggler Hif Klomo to get him out of Mendoza City.  By now Enli will be well beyond any ones reach, even Spark does not know how to contact him now.

Kid Sinister wants to finish Spark then and there but Weasel decides to take him to Enli's sister to explain it all to her.  

She tells Weasel that she will pay 5 times her original offer if they can track down her brother and bring him back.

Weasel says he will speak with Shona and Rook and think the offer over.

At this point I am going to leave Weasel, Kid and Mendoza City. I enjoyed my time with them and I do like Lowlife 2090.  I know I will visit Doza again soon.  

Next up on Chainmail and Sword, I head back to the fantasy adventure of Beyond the Wall and the Bay of Spirits setting.  

I hope to see you there and until then

Adventure On.

Lowlife 2090 - Weasel & Kid Sinister, part 4

Cyberpunk subway 

Toolbox  

Lowlife 2090 RPG by Pickpocket Press.

Lo 90 Solo by Parts Per Million.

(all images created using Nightcafe Studio AI program)

 

It was important to impose a time limit on the characters' attempt to find either Enli or his kidnappers. I did not want the game just to go on and on until they solved the case.

I took a sheet of lined paper and numbered the lines 1 to 20. Each time the characters found a clue to what had happened to Enli, I wrote the clue down.  If the characters collect 20 clues without finding the solution, the game ends and the characters fail their mission.

Besides the above, I started the game with 20 d6, at the end of the first scene I roll them all and remove any that turn up 6, at the end of each subsequent scene I roll all the remaining dice and remove any that land on 6. If there is only one dice left, the game ends regardless of how many clues have been found. Again this would result in the characters failing the mission.

At the end of the last post, the characters had found 7 clues and were down from 20 d6 to just 11. Time is starting to run out.

 

Round up from last session 

Having been told by Nashu Kamshunir (an acquaintance of Rook, one of my PC's) that her brother, Enli, had been kidnapped. Having paid one ransom demand, rather than the release of her brother she has received a second demand for the same amount.

The characters have agreed to find her brother and started their investigation by going to Enli's apartment.

There they find a threatening message on his computer from someone called Bohr who Enli seems to owe a large amount of money to and some betting chips from a casino called 'The Vermillion Curtain Casino'.

This leads the characters to suspect Enli has run up gambling debts he has been unable or willing to pay, resulting in Bohr kidnapping him.

Read Part 1 here

Read part 2 here

Read part 3 here

 

  Making use of contacts

After a night in Neros Nook, a bar in the Foundry bay where Shona works as a singer, the four characters meet up in the morning to decide what to do next.  They are low on information and so the first step is to see if any of their contacts can shed any light on the kidnapping of Enli.

 

Lowlife 2090 includes rules for asking contacts for help and information.  Each character starts with a number of contacts and I will randomly select one for each character to attempt to contact in the hope of getting more info on the case.

 

Shona has 5 contacts, a roll on d6 gets a 3, she contacts her friend the fashion model who has a Network Ration of just 9. Shona needs to roll that or less on d20 to get any useful info from the contact, she rolls 6, Success.

 

Shona wants to know about the Vermillion Curtain Casino. her Fashion Model contact tells her it is an exclusive, invitation only, casino.  Her contact is a member and agrees to invite Shone and a friend along to the casino.
Shona now makes a Cha test to see the price she must pay for the help she gets. she rolls 10, success.  

Shona's contact tells her "you owe me for this though batu, repay me by singing at my birthday bash, okay, and I will hold you to that".

 

Weasel has 3 contacts and rolls 1. The first contact on his list is the 'Garbage Collector'.  I roll d10 to get a Network Modifier, another 1. The first entry on that table is "No Chance", Weasels cell phone conversation goes like this.

 

"Hey hoda, its Wease..."  The cell line goes dead.  

Weasel calls again "Hey man its me, Weasel, I was just looking for a little info".

The reply comes back "No" then the line goes dead.

Weasel calls a third time and the before he can speak, the garbage collector says "Sumper, you are toxic, if you want your garbage collected, never call me again, hell, I don't even like you"

A little taken aback, Weasel gives up.

 

Kid Sinister has a similar failure.  He rolls a 5 for his contact, Yakuzi crime soldier rating 11, but rolling a 4 on the Network Modifier table means Kid needs to roll 9 or less for help.  Her rolls 11, a failure, his contact is out of town and not taking calls.

 

I decided Rook should just head back to Nashu's with the new info and see is Nashu can shed any light on Enli's gambling.

 

Shona suggests Kid Sinister should accompany her to the casino, the Exarch could prove useful if things get nasty there.  That leaves Weasel going with Rook to Nashu's place, which he is not too happy about, but Shona insists she wants Kid S with her.

 

  Back at Nashu's.

Rook and Weasel get off the subway near to Nashu's apartment.

 

QUESTION - Is the station busy? (50/50) Roll d100 = 51, YES, but...

QUESTION - Are the guards just allowing people through? Roll d100 = 51, FORTUNETLY, but...

I get three random verbs from the OPEN QUESTIONS tables and get 'to say', 'species', 'drug'.

 

The subway is busy and there are only a couple of subway guards on duty at the subway station exit so they are just waving people through without checks.  As Rook and Weasel make their way out of the station they notice a shabby trem Elf girl tucked into a corner, clearly high on drugs. Three buzz cut gangers are loitering nearby, eyeing her.  

 

QUESTION - do the gangers do anything? (Likely +20%) Roll d100 =(70 +20%) 90%, YES

 

One of the gangers nudges the others and they swiftly make a move towards the Elf girl

 

Rook makes a Perception check, needing 15 or less on d 20 she rolls 9, Success.

 

Rook spots the three gangers making a move towards the trem girl, and one of the gangers has a syringe in his hand.  Rook starts to speak and her green hair stands on end like static as she attempts to cast a Nocratha's Soporific Spores spell in the direction of the three gangers.

 

Rook makes a Will roll(needs 18 or less) to see if her spell works. She rolls a 20 on the d20, a 'Terrible Failure'  She loses 1 Will and must roll on the Dark Flux table unless she uses her one reroll pool die which she opts to do.  This time she rolls 14, Success, she is drained 1 Will (now at 17) and has no reroll pool left but the spell works as intended.

 

The spreads sickly yellow spores out in a 5 feet radius, each of the gangers and the Elf Girl are caught in them,

 

The gangers and the Elf girl must make a luck(Will) roll or fall asleep for 2d6 minutes.  Each has luck 6, Gangers roll, 9, 8, 14 respectively, all fall asleep, the Elf Girl rolls 3 and stays awake.

 

The three gangers drop like stones, sound asleep, unfortunately so do several innocent passers by who got caught up in Rooks magic.  This catches the guards attention and they turn their attention to Rook and Weasel.

Rook rushes to grab the Elf girl, dragging the poor trem to her feet, pulling her towards the street, Weasel is by her side too, "For Feks Sake Rook!  You Fecking stupid Delf Crump, you wants us killed!"

Rook doesn't reply and the three head into the busy street and towards Nashu's apartment block.

 

QUESTION - do the station guards give chase? (very unlikely -40%) d100 roll = (76 - 40) 36%, NO, because...

 

The station guards do not follow, there is no point, CCTV will have picked up the incident and it won't be too hard to pick up an Elf with green hair and a Spriggan.  Weasel knows this and realises that Rook using magic in a public place and putting several people to sleep will have brought the pair of them to the attention of the law.

 

QUESTION - does the trem elf girl continue to walk with Rook and Weasel (50/50) d100 roll = 60, YES but...

 

The Elf girl is clearly high and having a hard time of it, she is shouting, swearing and bringing a lot of attention to Rook and Weasel.  Weasel suggests they ditch her, just leave her in the street, the Delfs been nothing but trouble, Rook though is not going to abandon one of her own kind, after all, she has been here herself.

Rook touches the elf girl, Rooks speaks and again her hair stands on end.

Rook casts the Dr. Rubens Incogitable cure all spell, she makes a will check, needing 17 or less on d20, she rolls 13.  The spell is a success and negates the effect of the narcotics the girl has taken.  Rooks Will drop's -1 again, she is now at 16 Will.  

 

The Elf girl comes out of her bad trip, she looks ill but refuses Rooks offer of help, backing away from Rook and Weasel the girls disappears into the crowded street.  Weasel is pleased to see her go, Rook makes a mental note to try and find the girl again at some point in the future.  The pair do not speak to each other until they arrive at Nashu's apartment.

 

Nashu is at home when they arrive, she is keen to hear what they have found out about her brothers kidnapping.  Rook and Weasel tell her what they found at Enli's place, the threat of violence if he did not pay his debts and the gambling chips from the Vermillion Curtain Casino.  They ask Nashu if she knows anything about Enli's gambling.

 

QUESTION - Does Nashu know anything about the Casino or Bohr? (Unlikely -20%). d100 = (60-20) 40%, No because...

 

Nashu simply does not believe a word they have told her, her brother Enli could not have gambling debts because he would never gamble.  This must be some sort of lie by the kidnappers to put anyone looking for Enli off their trail, or just a plant to discredit Enli.  Nashu refuses to listen to anymore lies about her brother.  Realising they getting nowhere with Nashu, Rook and Weasel leave, both are now in a bad state of mind as they make their way back from the Monroe district to Foundry Bay and Neros bar.

Weasel is just thankful the law didn't pick them both up.

At the Vermillion Curtain Casino.

Shona and Kid Sinister leave the subway at the station nearest to both Enli's apartment and the Vermillion Curtain Casino.  

 

QUESTION - Is the station busy? (Very likely +40%) Roll d100 = (25 + 40) 65%, YES, but...

QUESTION - Are the guards just allowing people through? Roll d100 = 52, FORTUNETLY, but...

I get three random words from the OPEN QUESTIONS tables and get 'to use', 'hanging', 'output'.

 

There are three security guards and a sergeant at the station checkpoint.  This is the busy time of day at the subway station so the guards are not checking papers. The sergeant however is hanging around at the back of the checkpoint waving a metal detector over some of those leaving the station.  As Shona and Kid Sinister go past him, the metal detector alarm goes off.

 

Question - who causes the alarm to go off?  roll d4, 1= someone in front of Kid and Shona, 2 = Kid Sinister, 3 = Shona, 4 = someone behind Kid and Shona.  Roll d4 = 4 Someone behind Kid and Shona.

 

As Kid and Shona pass through the checkpoint, the sergeants metal detector goes off. A (Roll d6, 1 = Dwarf, 2= Elf, 3 = Minotaur, 4 = Skorn, 5= Spriggan, 6 = Human. Roll = 4) Skorn pushes the sergeant over and begins to hurriedly push his way through the crowd and towards the subway exit.

 

QUESTION -  do the security guards do anything to stop the Skorn? (likely +20%) d100 roll = 98, YES and... (+1 intervention point) 

I get three random verbs from the OPEN QUESTIONS tables and get 'heavey duty', 'woman', 'agitate'.

 

The sergeant quickly gets back on his feet, he and one of the other security guards draw their SMG and start to give chase.  Without warning the Skorn pulls out a heavy-duty knife, grabs a young woman and threatens to harm her unless everyone backs off and lets him leave the subway.   The Skorn, clearly agitated, continues to move back towards the subway exit whilst holding his knife to the woman's throat.

In the distance is the sound of sirens, they are getting nearer and within moments a SWAT team seals the exit out of the subway off.

Unable to do anything, Shona and Kid decide they have no option but to wait out the hostage situation.

 

At this point, I decided not to carry on with this scene.  I closed it with the idea that the SWAT team would somehow resolve the situation, but it may take several hours.  Eventually Shona and Kid leave the station and make their way to the Vermillion Curtain Casino.

 

Shona and Kid find themselves outside the Vermillion Casino. The bouncers on the door are two big minotaurs, they check Shonas invite and search them for weapons and drugs.  Telling them to leave their weapons with the cashiers, they are allowed into the casino.

They make their way to the bar. A girl serving there mistakes Shona for a VIP. "Hey, your wats-er-name, I saw you on Late Night Lopez, you know Jake Lopez? I think he is great. Look, my name is Geneva, if you want anything tonight just ask me".  She hands them two drinks, "on the house".

 

QUESTION - Does Geneva know if Bohr is here tonight? (50/50) D100 roll = YES but...

 

Shona tells Geneva that they are here to meet Bohr, is he here and can she take them to him.

Geneva tells them that Bohr will be in tonight but he is not here yet. She will let them know when he arrives.

Shona and Kid head over to the poker table and await Bohr arrival.

They ask the croupier if they know Enli.

 

QUESTION - Does the croupier know Enli? (likely +20%) d100 roll =100 YES and... (+1 Intervention point, now 2 intervention points) 

 

The croupier certainly knows Enli, comes most evenings, gambled big, lost big most of the time and then week maybe two weeks ago he just stopped coming.

 

QUESTION - Did he come here alone? - (50/50) d100 roll = 16 NO...

 

The croupier says he often came in with a friend unless he was attending one of the private games when he came alone.

 

QUESTION - Can the croupier remember his friends name? (50/50) d100 roll = 91 Yes and... (+1 intervention point, roll on intervention table)

 

"sure, he came in with some lifer, he went by the name of Spark.  Maybe Enli thought he would bring him luck or something, never did though."

 

Intervention table roll =  4. Advance scene.

 

A hand takes hold of Kids shoulder, its Bohr, a big Minotaur and two Skorn are beside him.

"I hear you are here to see me, I am here now WHATDOYAWANT".

Kid calmly turns around "We hear Enli owes you money, big money, he owes us too. We are looking for him, thought you may know where we can find him".

The big minotaur laughs "Now where did you get that idea from?  Enli has not been here for a while, shame too, he new how to spend. I hope you find him, if you do tell him Bohr would love him and his hoda to come back to the Vermillion, he is always welcome, now if thats all you came here for, my two friends here will show you both out".

 

Realising that they are not going to get any further info from Bohr, Shone and Kid leave the Vermillion Curtain Casino.  

 

Heading back to Foundry Bay and Neros, Shona mulls things over with Kid. Maybe this friend, 'Spark', can be of help.  Time to question Nashu again, but not tonight.  Until then

 

Adventure On!