Encounters: Thorpe and Village

I've never been happy with typical wandering encounters tables in an urban setting. First they tend to give the impression that the encounter was the only person/thing on the street which is silly in an urban setting. To change that I use an additional roll for crowd size. After all, even if there is no encounter of note there might be a lot of people milling about.

Table 1: Thorpe/Hamlet crowd size

Time	Main
Day	1d6
Night	--

Secondly most encounters tables tend to have a one-size fits all aspect (DMG, I'm looking at you) with massive cities using the same encounter table as a small town. To change that I've customized encounter tables by the ward because the craftsmanship ward should feel different than the dockyards. Also I like the idea of sub-tables that can be the same from ward to ward to save effort, that can be customized to fit a Thorpe if necessary, or just used to give the encounter something to do. Lastly we have Special Encounters which is designed to allow the GM to drop module related encounters into the system.

Table 2: Thorpe Encounters

Day	Night	Encounter
01-05	01-10	Animals (chickens/goats/swine)
06-10	11-20	Animals (dogs/rats)
11	21-22	Beggar/Cripple/Etc (see undesirables table)
12-15	23	Craftsman (see merchant/crafter table)
16	24	Criminal (see undesirables table)
--	25-26	Drunk/Drunks (roll again to see who)
17-20	27-28	Farmer/Etc (see peasant table)
21-30	29-30	Fisherman/monster (see peasant table)
31	31	Foreigner/Barbarian
32-33	--	Hunter/Trapper/etc (see peasant table)
34-35	32-33	Laborer/etc (see peasant table)
36-37	--	Peddler (see merchant/crafter table)
38-40	34-35	Teamster (see peasant table)
41-43	36	Elite (see elite table)
44-55	37-45	Special Encounter
56-00	46-00	Nothing Special

Table 3: Village crowd size

Time	Main	Side street
Day	1d12	1d6
Night	1d3	--

Table 4: Village Encounters

Day	Night/Alley	Encounter
01-05	01-05	Animals (chickens/goats)
06-10	06-10	Animals (dogs/rats)
11-12	11-15	Beggar/Cripple/Etc (see undesirables table)
13-20	16-20	Craftsman (see merchant/crafter table)
20	20	Criminal (see undesirables table)
--	21-40	Drunk/Drunks (roll again to see who)
21-22	41-50	Farmer/Etc (see peasant table)
23-27	51-55	Fisherman/monster (see peasant table)
28-29	56-59	Foreigner/Barbarian
30-40	60-61	Hunter/Trapper/etc (see peasant table)
41-42	62-63	Laborer/etc (see peasant table)
--	64-65	Peddler (see merchant/crafter table)
43-44	66-67	Teamster (see peasant table)
45-50	68-69	Elite (see elite table)
51-60	70-79	Special Encounter
61-00	80-00	Nothing Special

Table 5: Undesirables table

1d6	Encounter
01-02	Racing through crowd (roll again to determine who is chasing them)
03	Working crowd
04	Visible on roof
05-06	Roughing up someone (roll again to determine who)

Table 6: Peasant table

1d6	Encounter
01	Avoiding eye contact
02	Looking for a fight
03-05	On the job
06	Appears to be following

Table 7: Merchant/Crafters table

1d6	Encounter
01-03	Guiding a wagon/cart
04-05	Unloading a wagon/cart
06	Arguing about their business

Table 8: Elite table

1d6	Encounter
01-03	Soldiers from the manor
04-05	Priest and/or acolytes
06	Lord and entourage

And of course the GM should customize each and every table as necessary to fit their campaign.