Encounters: Events

Few games even try to create variety in the random encounters tables, something I think is essential in a sandbox. The world changes and responds to events and so should encounter tables. That's what Events are. Events are happenings momentous enough to cause at least some of the encounters tables to change, at least temporarily. Other things might change as well depending upon the event. Each event should list how the event is triggered and what changes occur.

Predictable Events
Some events are entirely predictable. The kind of things announced by criers and gossips that even foreigners will be well aware the event is coming up. These are events good folks might look forward to and bad folks might try to disrupt. Some examples:

• Royal Wedding - Huge influx of folks into the settlement where the wedding will be held in the days prior. All crowd numbers tripled. Activities on the Guards sub-table will be vigilant.
• Weekly Market - Encounters in most districts are treated as if nighttime except in and around the market. Crowd numbers in the market are tripled.
• Winter Solstice Festival - Chaos cult activity spikes as the idiots try to end the world, again. New sub-tables are filled with folks looking for missing friends/animals, and kidnapping.
• Spring Equinox Festival - Lusty celebration of life with food and dancing and courting and the inevitable rivalries. New sub-tables for the duration, tables are now full of fights, duals, and romantic encounters.

Random Events
Some events appear randomly (as far as players are concerned). They might even be initiated by character actions. The GM should decide which and when ahead of time and foreshadow the event as appropriate. Some examples:

• Peasant Uprising - Crowd tables would provide higher numbers, most results on the main encounters table would be Special Encounter and the Special Encounter table would be fun of raging hordes looting buildings, surrounding others trying to entice hiding nobles to come out and face the mob.
• Brutal Snowstorm - During day time the Night time crowd and Encounters tables are used to show how everyone stays inside. Nobody is out at night at least no crowd table is used. Cold rules apply to anyone that goes outside.
• Noble Birth - Tax holiday leads to merry-making. All crowd numbers doubled. Prices (if you can find a store that is open) might be deeply discounted. Rebels might become more active.
• Fire - Fire burns up a building or block or copse of trees and it is moving quickly. Smoke and asphixiation rules apply to anyone near to the fire. Fire damage rules apply as well. No natural animal encounters will occur for 24 hours as the animals have mostly fled.
• Alarm, Guards called out - The Intruder Alarm gong is ringing and the security patrols and general alertness of anything in the area will be increased. This sort of thing works nicely in a dungeon type scenario. Any type of encounters will be guards, in larger numbers, and they will be aware.
• Gang War - Two bands of thieves are fighting a secretive war. Bodies are turning up everywhere. Normal crime is down, crowd size is half normal, and the guard stick to the better parts of town hoping the thieves kill each other off.
• Trade Fleet in Town - Drunken merry-making. All crowd numbers doubled. All new Sub-tables include lots of drunken fights.

So that's what an Event is. At some point I'll write up a series of Events to round out the various encounters tables I've already created.