TEXT: Random and unexpected events can help give 
  your campaign a realistic verisimilitude. It gives 
  the players the idea their characters exist in a real 
  breathing world and things are occurring outside 
  the scope of their limited perceptions. ey can 
  hear snippets of conversation, witness strange 
  actions that make little sense when you don’t know 
  their context, or have unexpected encounters with 
  denizens of the campaign world. 
  ese random events should be used judiciously; 
  you don’t want to derail the adventurers while 
  they’re doggedly pursuing clues in their quest to 
  uncover the location of the Lost Temple of the 
  Blind Rodent King. But you do want to add some 
  spice when the action slacks off, or the adventurers 
  are kicking their heels trying to figure out what 
  their next move should be. 
  e random events listed in this installment of 
  the GM’s Cookbook take place in settlements, such 
  as hamlets, villages, and cities. ese events are left 
  open-ended; you’ll have to improvise if the players 
  wish to involve themselves in the event but isn’t 
  that when some of the most memorable 
  roleplaying moments occur? When 
  things go off the rails and something 
  unexpected and unpredictable just 
  happens.
  1 
  A wild-eyed man, scurry-
  ing along half-crouched 
  is looking desperately 
  for something on 
  
  the ground. He stops when he sees the adven-
  turers’ feet in front of him and looks up. “Have 
  you seen it,” he demands. If the characters 
  question him he only responds loudly, “You’ll 
  know when you see it”, and scurries off con-
  tinuing his search. 
  2 
  A temple bell is sounding the hour when, on 
  the last sounding of the bell, instead of the 
  expected “bong” the characters hear a shrill 
  scream. Something has befallen the acolyte 
  who was ringing the bell. 
  3 
  A farmer’s cart careens dangerously past, with 
  the white-haired farmer slumped at the reins. 
  4 
  A tailor steps from his shop and begins sizing 
  up a passing adventurer, quoting measurements 
  of the character’s chest, legs and arms just by 
  looking. A passing casket maker overhears the 
  tailor and the two begin arguing about the 
  character’s height and width. 
  5 
  A young man strings his lute and begins 
  serenading a young woman in a second story 
  window. 
  6 
  Two heavily armed warriors escorting a third 
  man in stocks stop the adventurers and ask 
  where the nearest inn is. 
  7 
  An outlandishly dressed artist with easel and 
  pallet in hand stops an adventurer, insisting he 
  be allowed to paint a portrait of him or her. e 
  artist claims it will be greater than the portrait 
  of the Weeping Princess of Willingham. 
  8 
  A sudden gust of wind blows a tumbleweed 
  across the road, where it tumbles into a smithy 
  and promptly catches fire. 
  9 
  A tall man in a large coat, his face hidden 
  behind a wide brimmed hat, stumbles in the 
  characters’ direction. He can be heard repeating 
  “right, right, right” in a hoarse whisper. He 
  manages to step out of the characters’ way 
  before stumbling and falling. e oversize 
  coat spills open to reveal it actually contains 
  three halflings all dressed in the garb of circus 
  acrobats. 
  10 A passing trader warns the adventurers to stay 
  away from the inn up the road with the “sign 
  with a badger on it”. He tells them it’s a den of 
  outlaws and cutthroats. 
  11 A stray dog snatches a cooling pie of a nearby 
  windowsill and drops it at the adventurers’ feet 
  before bolting in the other direction. 
  12 A crow settles on a nearby fencepost and 
  begins pecking at something grasped in its 
  claw – a bloody human eyeball.
  13 A trio of workers, busy repairing the roof of a 
  nearby building, leap to safety as the building 
  falls into a sinkhole. 
  14 A dwarf woman pitches the contents of a 
  bucket containing spoiled fruits and vegetables 
  out a window and it lands in the adventurers’ 
  path. 
  15 A woman who appears to be a drunken wizard 
  lurches from the entrance to a tavern. She 
  pauses in front of the one of the adventurers, 
  languidly circling a finger in front of his face 
  and slurs, “I’m going to cast a spell on you, I’m 
  going to cast a spell on you”.
  16 Two town guards approach the characters 
  and ask bluntly if they’re affiliated with the 
  “Brotherhood of the Broken Crescent”. e 
  guards tell the characters not to start any 
  trouble and proceed to follow them for as long 
  as they stay in town or the rest of the day. 
  
  17 A decrepit old man missing a leg hobbles up to 
  the adventurers, tells them he lost his leg in “the 
  wars” and pleads with them for a few coppers, 
  or something to eat. If the adventurers indulge 
  him, he leans in close and tells them “actually, 
  they took my leg”, and points a bony finger 
  at a group of gnomes who are nearby selling 
  magical salves and tonics out of the back of a 
  dilapidated cart. 
  18 A roguish looking man wearing an foppish hat 
  with a peacock feather in it, wielding a rapier 
  storms up to one of the adventurers, opens his 
  mouth, raises his free hand, and then stops 
  short. He says, “Sorry old fruit, wrong person,” 
  and walks past continuing purposefully up the 
  street. 
  19 A jester standing atop a table outside a busy 
  tavern is telling ribald jokes about maidens and 
  unicorns to a crowd of laughing drunks when 
  the adventurers walk by. He stops his joke 
  to poke fun at the adventurers, pointing out 
  anything out of the ordinary about their dress 
  or characteristics. e jester goes on to belittle 
  some recent mishap or failure the characters 
  endured, listing details with inexplicable 
  accuracy. 
  20 A man bursts up from the doors of a nearby 
  root cellar, carrying various scrolls and 
  parchments. He stumbles, dropping his 
  papers, and shattering his spectacles. He wails 
  “No, no”, pulls a holy symbol from beneath his 
  shirt, clutches it tight and runs flat out for a 
  nearby copse of trees. As the characters puzzle 
  over the papers that contain scribbled notes in 
  a dead tongue, and complicated mathematical 
  formulae, a solar eclipse begins. 
  GM’S COOKBOOK: RANDOM EVENTS #1
  By Michael Todd
  GM’s Cookbook: Random Events #1 is TM and © 2008 Michael 
  Todd. Reference to other copyrighted material in no way constitutes 
  a challenge to the respective copyright holders of that material. Some 
  artwork is from the Image Portfolio series. 
  Big Finger Games, the Big Finger Games logo are trademarks 
  owned by Michael Todd. All Right Reserved. is document is a 
  work of fiction. Any similarity to actual people, organizations, places, 
  or events is purely coincidental.
  
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