Noticing

This post is essentially a dissection of the encounter table. I have difficulty making straight encounter tables that work well for me, so I'm always tinkering with new ideas.

Roll 3d6. This number simultaneously represents both how unusual an event is and how noticeable; we'll call this its Subtlety. 3 and 18 are equally rare, but 18 is very discreet, while 3 is exceedingly obvious. 10 and 11 are the most mundane occurrences. A quick chart, with chance of occurrence and examples (obviously tailored toward a city environment):

3 (.5%) - an open murder, a flash flood, a building collapsing
4 (1.4%) - a hanging, a lynch mob
5 (2.8%) - a public fight
6 (4.6%) - a rich man with his entourage, a skilled bard playing
7 (6.9%) - a mad man talking to himself, a street preacher sermonizing
8 (9.7%) - a servant being whipped
9 (11.6%) - a drunk swaying down the street
10 (12.5%) - a beautiful person, a heated conversation
11 (12.5%) - a deformed beggar
12 (11.6%) - a wanted poster
13 (9.7%) - a merchant selling unusual wares
14 (6.9%) - a woman being beaten in her home
15 (4.6%) - an expensive item hidden on a person
16 (2.8%) - a man passing by linked to his wanted poster
17 (1.4%) - a pedestrian with backwards hands
18 (.5%) - a secret message from assassin to assassin

Let's say that in a bustling, vibrant city, we want a 3 (a striking and rare event) to occur about once a month. Statistically, if we roll on the above chart seven times a day, we will roll a 3 about once every 30 days. So, we can now organize our city's (or any environment's) vibrancy by the number of times per day we roll on the chart.

7 times/day: Large, bustling city (3 rolled once a month)
6 times/day: City
5 times/day: Large Town (3 rolled once every 40 days)
4 times/day: Town
3 times/day: Large Village (3 rolled once every 2 months)
2 times/day: Village
1 time/day: Hamlet (3 rolled once every 200 days)

It's a simple task to make this chart work for traveling hexes as well. Just determine how interesting the given hex is and roll a number of times. In general, deeper wilderness is more interesting, more infrastructure is less interesting (until we hit larger settlements, that is).

Assassins and thieves can roll 1d6 and add this to their wisdom when checking what they notice in an urban environment. Scouts can add 1d6 while in the wilderness.

For a traveling party, whether the party knows about the encounter ahead of time is important. If moving in a line, each character has a penalty to their wisdom equal to their distance from the front of the line (1st position at -0, 2nd position at -1, 3rd at -2, etc.). Then use the resulting highest wisdom. Remember that scouts may add 1d6.

This system is heavy on improvisation. The chart will tell you the rarity of the event, but no particulars about it. Right now, I'm experimenting with breaking down encounters into three categories: Subtlety/Rarity, Type, and Reaction. We've covered the first, obviously. Type can be pretty simple. Here's an example for the wilderness:

1 - Human/demi-human
2 - Humanoid
3 - Monster
4 - Location
5 - Wilderness event
6 - Animal
7 - Resource
8 - Roll again twice

For Reaction, I'm a fan of keeping things simple. For wilderness, roll 2d6 and keep the lower, in civilization keep the higher:

1 - actively seeks to harm
2 - suspicious
3-4 - ignores
5 - curious
6 - friendly

We roll three sets of dice for a wilderness encounter, and we can know how unusual that event is, how difficult to notice it is, what it concerns, and how dangerous or helpful it is. A wilderness example:

Type: Location
Subtlety/Rarity: 6
Reaction: 1

We have a rather unusual (4.6% chance), very obvious, very dangerous place in the wilderness. Off the top of my head, this could be an old haunted battlefield, an avalanche-prone section of mountains, or a poisonous salt marsh.

Another example:

Type: Humanoid
Subtlety/Rarity: 12
Reaction: 3

Ordinary humanoids not givin' a damn. Perhaps some goblins just trying to celebrate their harvest in peace.

Tell me what you think.