sounds awkward, shorten it to its first syllable or roll again. You can also generate two results on the first name tables and use them as the first and last name.
Female First Names
First Second d% Syllable Syllable 1–8 Ar a 9–16 Bel la 17–23 Cyn ena 24–30 De ra 31–37 Flor el 38–44 Gin ra 45–51 Heth er 52–58 Jen ga 59–60 Kel ree 61–72 Ler na 73–79 Mel sa 80–86 Nin ha 87–93 Pol thia 94–100 Ver ly
Male First Names
First Second d% Syllable Syllable 1–8 Ar ad 9–16 Ben el 17–23 Cor ib 24–30 Dan ar 31–37 Far ry 38–44 Gar ik 45–51 Har ath 52–58 Jak old 59–65 Ken en 66–72 Lar ren 73–79 Mor ot 80–86 Nick red 87–93 Pal lok 94–100 Vit eld
Last Names
First Second d% Syllable Syllable 1–6 Axe man 7–12 Barrel hill 13–18 Clear star 19–24 Day green 25–30 Ever iron 31–36 Frost view 37–42 Gate wall 43–48 Helm guard 49–54 Ill ward 55–60 Lode mont 61–66 Night son 67–72 Over wall 73–78 Rider back 79–84 Shield ville 85–90 True point 91–96 Under sky 97–100 Water goldAlignment
Random alignments can add a layer of hidden menace to the campaign, as the players can never be sure that a seemingly helpful NPC is good. They can also serve to show that not all evil NPCs are destructive villains. Some are just greedy or self-centered. This table is slant- ed to produce mostly neutral results, with evil alignments the rarest result. You can roll with a +5 or +10 bonus in rough areas of town where evil commoners are more common or in evil cities, while a –5 or –10 penalty produces a much greater tendency toward good. You can
CHAPTER FIVE: City Encounters
CHAPTER FIVE: City Encounters
use the same modifiers to produce a tilt towards chaos and law, respectively. Treat any modified result of zero or lower as a 1 and anything over 20 as a 20. d20 Good–Evil Lawful–Chaotic 1–5 Good Lawful 6–15 Neutral Neutral 16–20 Evil Chaotic
Race
Use the city’s racial profile to determine an NPC’s race. For example, if a city is 80% human, 10% dwarf, 5% elf, and 5% gnome, you can break the racial spread down into a table where a roll of 1 to 80 means human, 81
to 90 dwarf, 91 to 95 elf, and 96 to 100 gnome. Included here is a generic table you can use if that information is not available or irrelevant to the encounter. This table assumes a human- dominated city. You can swap human with a different race if the city’s primary inhabitants are a different race. For example, in a dwarf city, you can have a 1 to 70 result yield a dwarf
and 71 to 75 mean human.
d% Race 1–70 Human 71–75 Dwarf 76–80 Elf 81–85 Gnome 86–90 Half-orc 91–95 Half-elf 96–100 Halfling
Personality Traits
This section is broken down into three categories: good, neutral, and evil traits. Each charac- ter receives one primary trait from the table associ- ated with his alignment and one secondary trait from the neutral table. Neutral characters receive one tertiary trait from the evil and good tables. Good and evil characters have a 50% chance to receive one tertiary trait from the opposite alignment’s table. Optionally, you can generate one trait each from the mannerism and appearance tables to round out the NPC.
d% Good Neutral Evil
1–10 Honest Reserved Deceitful 11–20 Loyal Unreliable Scheming 21–30 Charitable Self-centered Greedy 31–40 Friendly Gruff Violent 41–50 Valiant Unsteady Cowardly 51–60 Energetic Dull Lazy 61–70 Kind Aloof Cruel 71–80 Calm Judgmental Vengeful 81–90 Ascetic Gourmand Gluttonous 91–100 Confident Proud Egomaniacal
Mannerisms
d% Mannerism
1–5 Stutters 6–10 Talks quickly 11–15 Slow and thoughtful 16–20 Excitable and energetic 21–25 Mumbles, speaks quietly 26–30 Uses flowery language 31–35 Foul-mouthed
36–40 Complainer
41–45 Quiet and withdrawn 46–50 Gregarious, outgoing 51–55 Arrogant, snobby 56–60 Depressed, pessimistic 61–65 Upbeat, optimistic 66–70 Hot-tempered 71–75 Joker, loves to laugh 76–80 Hard to please, critical 81–85 Flirtatious, seductive 86–90 Opinionated, stubborn 91–95 Religious fanatic 96–100 Stern, dour
Appearance
d% Appearance 1–5 Scars, eyepatch 6–10 Bright, flashy clothes 11–15 Dirty, unkempt16–20 Precise, perfectly maintained 21–25 Flabby, overweight
26–30 Scrawny, thin 31–35 Noticeably short 36–40 Noticeably tall
41–45 Stained, unwashed clothes 46–50 Pale complexion
51–55 Warts and acne
56–60 Exotic hair cut (mohawk, shaved bald) 61–65 Body piercings 66–70 Elaborate tattoos 71–75 Missing teeth 76–80 Ostentatious jewelry 81–85 Limps 86–90 Smells bad
91–95 Wears heavy perfume 96–100 Graying hair
Secrets
Some NPCs may carry secrets that add a layer of danger to an encounter. The local bartender may be a spy for an evil lord, while a fence sells the identities of successful robbers to the town guard. There is a 10% chance that a ran- dom NPC has a dark secret that could cause problems for the characters. A character
might work for a group or force that is normal- ly opposed to his alignment due to blackmail or deceit. For example, the constable might allow a local vampire to abduct victims from the city jail for fear that the undead monster might strike at his own family.
d% Result
1–10 Spies for a random faction in town 11–20 Helps an evil monster achieve its
goals
21–30 Helps a good NPC or creature achieve its goals
31–40 Secretly a murderous psychopath 41–50 Informant for the thieves’ guild or a
local crime boss
51–60 Current job a cover for illegal activ- ities
61–70 Member of a secretive, evil cult 71–80 Has powerful friends and contacts 81–90 Has secret (perhaps false) reason to
seek vengeance against characters 91–100 Is a wanted criminal
Occupation
Most of the time, you may already have the NPC’s occupation decided. If the characters enter a tavern, then you know that you need details for the barkeeper and one or two ser- vants. In situations where an NPC’s vocation is not immediately apparent, use this table to cre- ate a background for him. This table is d20 based, making it easy to modify the results to skew them in one direction or the other. The range of jobs is broken down into lower class (1–14), middle class (15–18), and upper class (19–20). By using a negative modifier, you can skew the results towards lower-class work, while a positive modifier pushes it towards the higher-class end. In a working/lower-class area, use a –5 modifier. In a middle- or upper- class neighborhood, apply a +5 modifier or roll 1d10+10 to determine a random NPC’s occu- pation. Each profession also lists a class and a range of levels. d20 Result 1 Laborer (Com 1d2) 2 Farmer (Com 1d2) 3 Teamster (Exp 1d3) 4 Smith (Exp 1d3)
5 Dock worker (Com 1d4) 6 Sailor (Exp 1d4)
7 Soldier (War 1d4) 8 Carpenter (Exp 1d4)