Historical Events - Building Level

Building events are events that occurred within the last 1d6 days. It is what the building occupants are gabbing about. The GM shouldn't bother pre-rolling them, just roll when the characters enter the building in question.

Mundane Buildings

Table 1: Generic Building Events

1d6	Event
01	Criminal Activity
02	Famous Visitor
03	Fire
04	Infestation
05	Sickness
06	Tax Collector

Table 2: Merchant Guildhall

1d6	Event
01	Increased Taxes
02	Infighting
03	Prosperity
04	Renovations
05	Rival Guild problems
06	Unfair Practices

Table 3: Mundane House Events

1d6	Event
01	Buried treasure/relic
02	Fight with neighbor
03	Fire
04	Foundation Shifting
05	Haunting
06	Vandalism

Table 4: Inn Events

1d6	Event
01	Famous Visitor
02	Fighting
03	Food/Drink shortage
04	Strange Guest
05	Suddenly Popular
06	Thefts

Table 5: Player's Guild Events

1d6	Event
01	Fire
02	Empty performances
03	Fire
04	Packed performances
05	Prima Donna
06	Visiting Troupe

Table 6: Shop Events

1d6	Event
01	Busy Day
02	Embezzler
03	Protection Racket
04	Robbery/Burglary
05	Slow Day
06	Shoplifter

Table 7: Smithy Events

1d6	Event
01	Deadly Accident
02	Exotic Metal
03	Forced Commission
04	Supply Problem
05	Special request
06	Valuable Ore

Table 8: Stable Events

1d6	Event
01	Crazed horse
02	Emergency request
03	Famous Visitor
04	Horse Thieves
05	Predators
06	Stable Fire

Table 9: Tavern Events

1d6	Event
01	Brawl
02	Contest
03	Notorious Visitor
04	Protection Racket
05	Rousing Performance
06	Taproom trouble

Table 10: Thieves Guild Events

1d6	Event
01	Big Heist
02	Crackdown
03	Crime Spree
04	Entrapment
05	Mutiny
06	Rivalry

Religious Building Events

Table 11: Lawful Temple Events

1d6	Event
01	Ceremony Request
02	Healing Request
03	Important Visitor
04	Minor Miracle
05	Sacred Ritual
06	Scandal

Table 12: Militaristic Order Events

1d6	Event
01	Competition
02	Duel
03	Famous Alumnus
04	Scandal
05	Spoiled Student
06	Unexpected Guest

Table 13: Monastic Order Events

1d6	Event
01	Holy Day
02	Inquisitor
03	Productive Day
04	Scandal
05	Travelling Priest
06	Visiting Relic

Table 14: Scholastic Order Events

1d6	Event
01	Bookworm Infestation
02	Famous Scholar
03	Fire
04	Strange Visitor
05	Rotten/Burned Books
06	Stolen Books

Magical Building Events

Table 15: Alchemist Events

1d6	Event
01	Accidental Poisoning
02	Affliction
03	Astrological Problems
04	Discovery
05	Explosion
06	Poisoning

Table 16: Caster Tower Events

1d6	Event
01	Arcane Breakthrough
02	Catastrophic Mishap
03	Concerned Citizens
04	Dangerous Surge
05	Desperate Visitor
06	Mysterious Item

Table 17: Magical Academy Events

1d6	Event
01	Bitter Student
02	Experiment Awry
03	Explosion
04	Hazing Incident
05	Magical Backfire
06	Unexpected Grant

Government Events

Table 18: Castle Events

1d6	Event
01	Grand Feast
02	Inadequate Defenses
03	New Servant
04	Offensive Jester
05	Training Drill
06	Uprising/Mutiny

Table 19: Mercenary Company Events

1d6	Event
01	Brawl
02	Duel
03	Mutiny
04	Rivalry
05	Scandal
06	Schism

Festival Events

Table 20: Secular Festival Events

1d6	Event
01	Competition
02	Dancing
03	Skilled Musicians
04	Stage Collapse
05	Sweaty Pox
06	Wild night

Table 21: Religious Festival Events

1d6	Event
01	Apostate punished
02	Blasphemy committed
03	Image problem
04	Portent
05	Popular Ritual
06	Schism

Historical Events - Settlement Level

Monthly Events are events that take place on the settlement level. That is the village or town.  Everyone in the settlement is probably aware of the events. Whenever reasonably possible the GM should try to link the events to Kingdom Events and Seasonal Events and/or reorder them to make sense.

• Roll 1d4 to determine how many events occur each season.

Then for each event:

1. Roll 1d4 to determine the season
2. Roll 1d8 on the Event table
3. Roll1d6 on the Table the corresponds to the result of Event table.

Table 1: Events Table

1d8	Event
01	Arrival
02	Departure
03	Conflict
04	Conflict
05	Guards/Nobles/Gov
06	Guards/Nobles/Gov
07	Other
08	Other

Table 2: Arrival/Departure

1d6	Event
01	Ambassador/Emmisary
02	Bard
03	Caravan
04	High Level Cleric
05	Specialist
06	Tax Collector

 

Table 3: Conflict

1d6	Event
01	Noble Feud
02	Guild War
03	Social Clash
04	Religious Clash
05	Thieves War
06	Wizard's War

Table 3: Guards/Nobles/Gov

1d6	Event
01	Alcoholic
02	Hunting Accident
03	Missing Patrol
04	Patrol Accident
05	Rivalry
06	Training Accident

Table 4: Other

1d6	Event
01	Crimewave
02	Disease/Sickness
03	Holy Man Emerges
04	Livestock Rustlers
05	Founding of Chantry/School/Order
06	Fire

Unfinished Business
Some events, if not dealt with, could/should lead to events the following year at the GM's discretion.

Historical Events - Seasonal Events

Seasonal Events are events that take place on the provincial level. That is the Shire or County.  Everyone in the realm is probably aware of the events, and neighboring realms if the Shire or County shares a border as well. Whenever reasonably possible the GM should try to link the events to Kingdom Events or other Seasonal Events and/or reorder them to make sense. If there is no war that year and war results on the province level it's a local issue.

• Roll 1d4 to determine how many events occur each season.

Then for each event:

1. Roll 1d4 to determine the season
2. Roll 1d8 on the Event table
3. Roll1d6 on the Table the corresponds to the result of Event table.

Table 1: Events Table

1d8	Event
01	Other
02	Other
03	Natural Events
04	Natural Events
05	Visitation
06	Visitation
07	War
08	War

Table 2: Other

1d6	Event
01	Accident
02	Baby Boom
03	Birth
04	Corruption
05	Death
06	Haunting

 

Table 3: Natural Events

1d6	Event
01	Bad Harvest
02	Bad Weather
03	Excess Taxes
04	Flooding
05	Injustice
06	Landslide

Table 4: Visitation

1d6	Event
01	Bandits
02	Famous Person
03	Monster/Maneater
04	Notorious Criminal
05	Vengeful stranger
06	VIP visit

Table 5: War

1d6	Event
01	Major Incursion
02	Minor Incursion
03	Major Battle
04	Recruiting
05	Troop Movements
06	Uprising

Historical Events - Yearly Events

When creating a sandbox the GM should create some history to make the place real. The color that makes things a bit more believable, that is where Historical Events come in. I would recommend going back at least 5 years to detail history and forward one year. Going forward?

Yes, going forward. The GM knowing what's going to happen in the near future means they can have oracles predict the future, or foreshadow events to create a build-up as the historic event gets closer and closer. Events for the future, if appropriate, should be written up as Events. That is temporary changes to all of the encounter tables including possible associated adventure hooks. This might be part of the foreshadowing, maybe the characters will notice.

Of course not ever Event will change the encounter tables and the GM should be flexible to take character actions into account. If the characters do something that might change or kill the event the GM should do just that no matter how much work went into preparing the thing.

These following tables assumes a 12 month calendar with four seasons of three months each. You can make a more alien world but it's really not worth the bother, even Tolkien used the well known months in the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.

Yearly Events
Yearly Events are events that take place on the national level. That is the kingdom, emperor or whatever.  Everyone in the realm, and in the neighboring realms as well. Whenever reasonably possible the GM should try to link the events and/or reorder them to make sense.

• Roll 1d4 to determine how many events occur each year.

Then for each event:

1. Roll 1d12 to determine which month
2. Roll 1d8 on the Event table
3. Roll1d6 on the Table the corresponds to the result of Event table.

Table 1: Events Table

1d8	Event
01	Noble Business
02	Natural Disaster
03	Peace
04	Peace
05	Religious
06	War
07	War
08	War

Table 2: Noble Business

1d6	Event
01	Birth
02	Death
03	Feud
04	Marriage
05	Scandal
06	Visitation

 

Table 3: Natural Disaster

1d6	Event
01	Earthquake
02	Famine
03	Fire
04	Heat Wave
05	Plague
06	Storms

Table 3: Peace

1d6	Event
01	Nothing Happens
02	Nothing Happens
03	Nothing Happens
04	Ruins Discovered
05	Fashion Trend sweeps the nation
06	Trade Route Opens

Table 3: Religious Events

1d6	Event
01	Major Celebration
02	Minor Celebration
03	Inquisition
04	New Leader
05	Heretical Leader
06	Purge/Schism

Table 4: War

1d6	Event
01	Civil War (Nobles fighting)
02	Dynastic War (Royals fighting)
03	Holy War (Recruiting/Crusade)
04	Peasant Revolt/Uprising
05	War, invading other
06	War, Invaded by others

When creating a bunch of events it helps if the GM has a list of names appropriate for nobles as well as the name of the realm, Shire/County/ and settlement.

Best of the Web - Dave's Maps, Bookmarks, and Random Caves

Dave's Mapper
I've never really liked the examples I've seen because they always create a hodge-podge of maps made from different artists, I have no imagination that way, but Dave's mapper has a button in which you can create a map only by a select artists. Of course they had that feature, I just didn't look. It's pretty awesome. I'm a fan now.

Bookmark Map?
Dungeoneering has an interesting idea in the post Bookmark Dungeon: Shrine of Odolric the Cruel.
A dungeon map on a standard 2"x6" bookmark. In this format you can move the card to wherever you have the appropriate room descriptions.
Instead of having a removable cover with map the way they did it in the old days. I guess any size printout map could work the same way but this seems extra cool to me for some reason although the shape would be a challenge.

Random Cave Maps
Delta's D&D Hotspot has an interesting post called Cave Dice on using 6-sided die to generate simple caves.

I like this as it allows a GM to rapidly create a small cave lair in the wilderness.

I ran across something I thought would help make a slightly larger system. Brialle pips. In most cases the pips indicate  tunnels/corridors but as in Delta's Cave dice a group of four (as in g and q) indicate a chamber.

Roll 1d4 to determine how many braille letters to use, then roll 1d20 that many times to determine which letters.

Table 1: Braille Caves

1d20	Braille Letter
01	a
02	b
03	d
04	e
05	f
06	g
07	h
08	i
09	j
10	l
11	n
12	o
13	p
14	q
15	r
16	s
17	t
18	v
19	w
20	y

Lastly roll 1d4 to determine the vertical connections between the letters:

Table 2: New letter is...

1d4	Above/Same
01	Same level
02	Same level
03	Below
04	Below

And roll 1d4 to determine the nature of any vertical differences:

Table 3: Connection is...

1d4	Above/Same
01	Hole in the floor/roof
02	Drop/cliff
03	Steep but navigable slope
04	Shallow slope