I'm creating random tables for city adventuring in my current project, Cha'alt: Fuchsia Malaise.  It's an eldritch, gonzo, science-fantasy, and post-apocalyptic campaign setting.  Besides the usual d100 table of random things/people encountered in a city, what would you like to see in there?

Thanks,

VS

Interesting encounters with the various Factions of the City.

Scenario Hooks that could be used to generate scenarios.

Long-lost items of importance.

Oooh! A public works, city park seen theough this "eldritch, gonzo, science-fantasy, post-apocalyptic" lens. Ooh and a Promenade, where people go to see and be seen without a cover charge! And 'Fuchsia Malaise'-specific street vendors and neighborhood festivals! (Maybe grenade vendors peddle about in pushcarts that play 'ice cream man' music? :eek: )

Paragraph-length wandering encounters & static locations on a d100 table.

All good suggestions!  The fuchsia malaise vendor with ice cream man music was especially flavorful.  Haha.  Thanks, guys.  Feel free to keep 'em coming...

VS

I'm trying to think of what I've actually found useful in the past.

Hm.. I'm reminded of the level-of-fog table from the DCC Lankhmar rules. Lankhmar is known for its creeping, pea-soup thick fogs, and there's a table for generating how cruddy the weather is at the moment. This is relevant mechanically and isn't just window-dressing because thick fog shifts what a band of thieves need fear on the streets: less the city watch, and more their fellow criminals. Mainly, though, it just makes it easier to skulk around. So yeah, basically, random "weather" that affects whatever it is that the PCs will be doing in the city.

Drugs seem important for this setting. What about a random table of hallucinatory trips? I'm imagining these working kind of like visions from a fortune-teller, and they come true at an unexpected time.

If a trade in advanced tech is a thing in this setting, I'd like a table of merchants. Possibly with a Reputation system, so the PCs have to contend with high prices, inconvenient barter, and limited stock until they establish themselves better. But just a regular list of merchants, names, and characteristics relevant to selling or buying from the PCs that also add a bit of flavour would be fine too.

For city adventuring I'd want city scores: heists and jobs and so on. I need three main things for that:

1. A table that would tell me how the PCs can get this information, and how good it's going to be based on, you know, where it's from. Drunken bar-talk is unreliable, while known contacts hiring PCs or informants tipping them off are safer bets.

2. A big table of scores with locations and NPCs involved.

3. Complication table to throw into any of these situations.

I don't know, just some ideas.

Non-encounter encounters.
Meaning really trivial events that might happen to enhance the flavor of the world.
Such as

Walking past an argument/discussion about local politics/events.

Strange looking animal, maybe a cat or something wearing an odd collar with a marking of a local personality.
Maybe it slinks past the characters, or is running from something or chasing something.

Someone emptying out a bin or sewerage from above.

A possibility to find loose mundane items that may or may not have significance (up to the GM)

Those are great suggestions, guys.  Thank you!

VS

Some kind of random city resident/family table for when players just walk up to houses out of the blue. An easy way to make a person with a hookish motive on the fly.

1d100 things conspicuously absent from the city.

I did an entire RPGPundit Presents issue about 100 Strange Features of Towns and Villages, all based on medieval details of real towns or local legends or traditions.

Quote from: RPGPundit;1117020I did an entire RPGPundit Presents issue about 100 Strange Features of Towns and Villages, all based on medieval details of real towns or local legends or traditions.

That looks pretty interesting. Have you thought of putting out local towns and villages for different eras and genres (like ancient Ancient World or Science Fiction)?

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;1117180That looks pretty interesting. Have you thought of putting out local towns and villages for different eras and genres (like ancient Ancient World or Science Fiction)?

Well, maybe, but in this product it was for the purposes of Medieval-Authentic material.

Quote from: VengerSatanis;1115980I'm creating random tables for city adventuring in my current project, Cha'alt: Fuchsia Malaise.  It's an eldritch, gonzo, science-fantasy, and post-apocalyptic campaign setting.  Besides the usual d100 table of random things/people encountered in a city, what would you like to see in there?

In addition to the staples:

- Midkemia Press' Cities @ http://www.midkemia.com/HomePage/Products.html; it was also adapted to Sanctuary in the Thieves World boxed set from Chaosium
- Gabor Lux's Nocturnal Table @ https://beyondfomalhaut.blogspot.com/2019/07/module-nocturnal-table-now-available.html
- Matt Finch's City Encounters (OOP) @ https://rpggeek.com/rpgitem/49181/city-encounters-swords-and-wizardry
- 1e DMG and D3's Erelhei Cinlu city encounter tables

you'll want to check out:

- The Citybook series from Flying Buffalo
- Pavis and Big Rubble from Chaosium
- "Irillian" in White Dwarf 42-47 and Best of Scenarios Volume 3, and compiled by Kellri @ http://kellri.blogspot.com/ (right-nav links)

The former are already-fabulous random city encounter tables, the latter for good city-based inspiration.

Allan.