Help with Random Events in City

I'm after events to happen while the PCs are in town. Something that happens in the street or tavern.
Maybe the PCs have split up and you want something for the group with no plans.

So far I've got

• A cart overturns by the party!
• A street urchin runs by the party chased by a mob of street urchins
• The town crier passes by with important news
• Someone tries to pick the pockets of a PC
• It starts to rain/hail/snow
• Someone gets mugged near the PCs
• A local guide invites the PCs to see an illegal pit fight
• A large crowd starts to form around an outspoken priest
• An angry mob starts to form
• A group of drunken young nobles passes by and insults the PCs

These will probably go into a generator at some point!

What would you have happen in town?

Some things I have used:

Beggars can be the source for news, fights, information, tasks...
Fires break out in populated areas.
Caravans arrive and depart.
Street food always adds nice detail.
Funerals pass thru town on the way to cemetery.
Market stalls offer backdrops for all kinds of things (smuggling, cheating, information, special items).
If in a port town you have the wharves and warehouses and all the business and characters associated with that.
also for ports- river and harbor pilots who have lots of information.
the townsfolk might tar and feather a politician who has been a little outspoken.

your list is great. has me thinking about some good hooks...

Thanks!

~jtk

I've included suggestions from lycanthropejeff with mine in a Something Happens in the City! generator.

It's a bit rough at the mo but I'll update it with more suggestions and a bit more diversity soon.

Added a lot more variety in events and people to Something Happens in the City! generator

Looking for more suggestions involving crime, weather and merchants!

Here are a few I've used recently, or will use before my PCs leave a city to continue their travels:

There's a new drug on the streets and it has some frightening effects, especially on those who die of an overdose.

Gang members accost PCs on entry into a rougher area of town, and tell them they must buy "passes" (e.g. colored arm- or headbands) to travel safely in this quarter.

PCs walk into some large area where local children are playing and are in the way/get involved unwillingly (e.g., a snowball fight after a recent snowstorm).

An apartment building catches on fire and the PCs are close and some of the first to notice the smoke.

While PCs are in a tavern just relaxing a pick-up game of poker starts up at one of the tables.

A PC thief or other with Thieves' Guild contacts is informed someone is poaching in Guild territory and there is a reward for stopping it. Double if the offender is turned over to Guild officials alive.

A lost child approaches any PC who is wearing the holy symbol he/she recognizes (from their parents) and asks for help. The child is lost and can't find his/her family.

In my game, I'm combining points 3 and 4 above; PCs walk into a snowball fight (and likely join in) and just when it gets fun one of the local kids points above and behind the nearest PC and yells, "Fire", pointing out the smoke column to his/her playmates of all ages.

Regarding point 5, I have simplified house rules to simulate poker games in taverns. My rules are based on Seven Card Stud poker and the AD&D2e NWP system but should be pretty easy to adapt to any edition of D&D/AD&D. If anyone is interested, PM me for a copy in .doc format.

Chad Hooper said:

Here are a few I've used recently, or will use before my PCs leave a city to continue their travels:
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Click to expand...

Added these into the Something Happens! in the City generator.

- That column of smoke is due to an alchemist who doesn't really understand his craft yet.
- The Great Chicago Fire breaks out while the PCs are in town (a big city).
- Somebody dumps a chamberpot out of an upper-story window - no 'look out below!" - and splatters a passer-by. That person gets upset.
- The Inquisition comes to town / village while the PCs are there. The chief inquisitor decides to make an example of the PCs (who have no local friends or lords to protect them).
- Festival Week: lots of goings-on and fun expected ! Lot of strangers and wanderers, too.
- A BBEG kidnaps an NPC close to the PCs and transports him/her to a city where the PCs are Wanted by the authorities.
- Two nobles are going to hold a duel or a joust in the Commons (a park) tomorrow at mid-morn.
- The nobles bring friends, some of whom are spoiling for a fight - rules or no.
- A local 'holy woman' finds the PCs and delivers an oracle. She normally draws a crowd of curious onlookers.
- The Authorities are bedeviled by Robin Hood or Zorro or the Scarlet Pimpernel. Somebody concocts a hare-brained scheme involving using the PCs to draw him into a trap.
- The PCs see a 'Reward' poster that looks like one of them.
- The PCs see a 'Reward' poster that looks like a close friend NPC.
- The PCs are mistaken for another group. Somebody they don't know tries to deliver a secret message.
- Road Construction. Good luck getting from here to there, unless you clamber in the sewers / narrow dark alleys.

A trick I use is to check head lines in a city news paper or taken from the news.

• Some one dies and funeral is taken place - streets blocked, traffic bad, lots of pick pockets. Based on the importance of the person, the greater the impact.
• Animal with rabies runs amuck - this could be bad based on your setting, once not that long ago a rabid animal would cause panic in the streets and people to bar their doors.
• Gang fight or bar fight spills into the street.
• Navy come into port or Army comes into town - this means extra people and extra cash.
• Sporting events - people like sports, be creative, things like boat races, rat fights, darts, etc.
• Bards, street performers and crazies.
• Watch/police make a major bust - players see it go down or they are just sweeping the streets of people who look out-of-place, you decide.

Another trick I do is to create a schedule of common events; such as:

• A murder takes place every 5 days - this is based on location and nature of the murder, the bad parts of town, not too much is noticed.
• A noble's house is robbed every 20 days - non-noble robbers just are not that noticed.
• Smuggled goods come into the city weekly - meaning the players may random encounter something going on.
• Smuggled goods leave the city twice a week - same as goods coming in, players may encounter something or even have to work on a time table to move their own goods.
• A child/person goes missing.
• Pay day is every Friday - meaning their is a XX% increase of people in taverns, number of pickpockets at that time.
  

You can get detailed with this.


Don't forget your city has districts and wards. They will have different events based on their nature.

A week of pouring down rain causes the rivers to flood.
- Some buildings have become islands that can be reached only by boat.
- Sandbag brigade working on a temporary dike.
- Roads blocked &c
- Refugees have to wait for the water to go back down. They need food and shelter in the meantime.
- Every so often somebody tries to drive a wagon into too-deep water.
- The water is not clean enough to drink. Somebody does anyways. This could start a local plague, depending on what they 'pick up'.
- A carriage is on a bridge over the raging flood. The bridge fails, placing the carriage and its occupants in peril.
- An area of high ground, now an island surrounded by water. The inhabitants do not have supplies.
- A few river beasties are swimming the shallow water in the streets.

Pc is thought to be lost love one. Or Left an npc at the altar.