The great outdoors...

[Inconsequenti-AL]

I'm in the finishing stages of some campaign design at the moment. It's somewhat city based, although I realised there's going to be a fair bit of outdoor travel.

I was looking to fill it with some wilderness encounters. I'm intending to drop these in on a 'livening the game up' basis rather than randomly.

Some of them will be combat, some non combat... A few that bring up difficult moral choices would be great. So, if anyones got any ideas it'd be great!

If it helps, the general flavour of the setting is medieval Spain. Some of it is temperate. Some hot, dry and dusty... Nobility and chivarly with a healthy side order of religious/cultural conflict.


Here's one I thought of earlier:

The PCs meet a caravan consisting of a dozen caged slaves, 6 rather cowardly guards and an arrogant but incompetent overseer. The slaves will beg for help from the PCs, claiming they have been seized from nearby villages.

The overseer can't be bothered to speak to scum like the players and will dismiss any of their concerns as 'stupid whining'. If it comes to a fight, the guards will flee and the overseer will fight, convinced of his own immortality!

The problem is that the slaves are actually hardened convicts, sentanced for their vicious crimes. If freed, they will begin a reign of terror on surrounding settlements. They were due to be delivered to a local noblewoman, who will be extremely displeased that her property has been stolen. If her overseer is killed, she will not be pleased.

 

[diaglo]

another problem i see...if the slaves are criminals...and the overseer is supposed to be tough or work for some high and mighty lady...make sure they aren't too tough or the lady and overseer too well known.

cuz the PCs may have heard about some of the crimes or may even know about the lady or overseer and avoid helping the criminals altogether.

you will also need to give the names for each of the NPCs involved and the towns they claim to come from.

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

another problem i see...if the slaves are criminals...and the overseer is supposed to be tough or work for some high and mighty lady...make sure they aren't too tough or the lady and overseer too well known.

cuz the PCs may have heard about some of the crimes or may even know about the lady or overseer and avoid helping the criminals altogether.

you will also need to give the names for each of the NPCs involved and the towns they claim to come from.

Some very good points! Definitely things I would address before using it. Although, I'll admit I hadn't thought of the players recognising the criminals...

It was meant to be a rough idea to throw out if I had a party wandering the wilderness and wanted an encounter. Hadn't fully fleshed it out yet.

I'm basically looking for outdoors encounters that are different to the usual wandering monster/trader stuff.

 

[Henry]

VERY good site for out of the ordinary encounters is

http://www.qraid.addr.com/BladesofHarn/HarnWorld/Encounters.html

Encounters written for the Harn system, but which are not fleshed out with stats, but instead with just the ideas. Sadly, there used to be a downloadable PDF version, but it has been removed. However, it's still available as HTML at the link above.

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

VERY good site for out of the ordinary encounters is

http://www.qraid.addr.com/BladesofHarn/HarnWorld/Encounters.html

Encounters written for the Harn system, but which are not fleshed out with stats, but instead with just the ideas. Sadly, there used to be a downloadable PDF version, but it has been removed. However, it's still available as HTML at the link above.

That's the sort of thing I was looking for. The Prophesy is a particularly amusing wilderness one... assasinating drunken hermits.

Thanks a lot!

 

[diaglo]

you could always visit Harn:

www.columbiagames.com