Non-combat, non-trap, non-magic encounters.

[Cor Azer]

My favorite such encounters have been:

Old couple have their wagon struck in mud on the road. The party hummed and hahhed for quite a while expecting an ambush, appraoched the coupel with swords drawn and suspicious eyes glancing everywhere. But 'twas just an old couple with a wagon stuck in the mud.

Pair of young girls lost in the woods, excited telling the party about the baby dragons (kobolds) that chased them).

A bandit charging a toll to cross a road - the kingdom was getting hard up for money to fund a war, and started selling parts of land to various owners, and this guy decided to charge a toll to cross his.

A couple of festivals for marriages and other noblity events. Fun for dancing and contests of skill.

 

[CaptainCalico]

Par-tay!

The main city in my campaign world has a 40-day Party Season every Spring. Ostensibly a religous time where people are supposed to fast in day, the nobles use it as excuse to sleep all day and party all night. This is when deals for the year are made, marriages and alliances negotiated, and the social pecking order is worked out.

The group ranges in rank from commoner artisan to minor gentry, to the son of a Duke, to a prince from a neighboring kingdom acting as an Envoy. The Season provided many non-combat, non-magic, non-trap enocounters invloving navigating the dangerous social waters. They did take a few "road trips" out of town for more traditional encounters, but they once spent half the night negotiating a time for the group to go on one of these trips, because everyone had parties that they just could not miss.