System for Abstracted OSR Settlement Downtime

Downtime in Settlements

Once a party reaches a settlement (village, town, or city), they receive two opportunities as a whole to interact with the settlement outside of buying dungeoneering supplies and selling off loot. Rather than two opportunities per character, it is the party who has these opportunities. A party may choose to spend a week at a settlement to receive a number of opportunities equal to 2+ the number of player characters within the party. Spending this week within a settlement requires each character to spend a sum of silver for housing, upkeep, and food. The amount of silver spent this way determines which events may occur to that character during the week of their residing in the settlement. Any Hirelings, Retainers, and Companions who accompany the party pay their own way.

Art by Ken Fairclough

Author's Note: These mechanics came around because most of my players spent a great deal of time just hanging around town and I had a great deal of difficulty producing content for each day or hour of their time in a settlement. Instead I made a way to produce content at a weekly rate.

The options available to a party within a settlement are as follows.

1. Discover What Lies Past (This Settlement)

Researching information about traveling away from civilization is very important. A character doing this is able to ask a single question about how far away another settlement is (in terms of days of travel), about what kind of menaces lie in what direction (both monster and terrain), or even about the location of a dungeon filled with treasures.

2. Make Friends

A character who chooses to go out and make friends has the opportunity to attempt toroll under Charisma and if successful obtain retainers and has a further 25% chance to meet a friendly NPC.

3. Carousing

By spending at minimum of 100 silver (or another arbitrary value choice by the Referee), a character gains an equivalent amount of XP for going out and socializing/drinking and must roll under Charisma to avoid a mishap.

4. Find Rumors

A character receives 1 + their Charisma Modifier in rumors

5. Sight-see/Relax

A character choosing to relax or sight-see reduces gains an extra 1HP until the end of the next combat, and gets to have the Referee describe some part of the settlement/surrounding area to him and likely give him some lore about the area.

6. Go Shopping

A character choosing to go shopping may either purchase location unique items (such as a barrel of gunpowder) or spend silver on frivolous things (such as an obnoxious hat) in a manner similar to carousing at a rate of 2 silver spent for 1 XP recieved.

7. Rest and Recover

By choosing to engage in recovery a character gains an extra 1HP per level until the end of the next combat, further they are allowed a new save against any condition or disease that they have with no penalty for failing the save.

8. Research/Find a Scholar

By successfully rolling under a third of their Intelligence, a character is able to ask the Referee a single yes or no question (which is to be answered truthfully as the knowledge would be known in setting). Alternatively they may spend 100 silver to simply consult a scholar a single yes or no question.

Weekly Expenses and Their Consequences

The following are different levels for weekly expenses in a settlement.

Destitute: 15 Silver (This is barely a step above homelessness)
Middling: 25 Silver
Comfortable: 50 Silver
Prosperous: 100 Silver
Flush: 200 Silver

Villages are able to suppport weekly expenses up to Comfortable.
Towns are able to suppport weekly expenses up to Prosperous.
Cities are able to suppport weekly expenses up to Flush.

A character may purchase a home for the price of weekly expenses times 30 for any level except for Destitute. They then no longer have to spend that weekly expense at that settlement.

Every week spent in a settlement roll a 1d8. On a roll of 7 or 8 nothing of note occurs; however, for any other value rolled consult the Weekly Event Table relating to that level of weekly expense.

Art by William Henry Pine

Destitute Expenses Weekly Event Table

1	Find Lost Money The character finds 1d6 silver that someone lost here.
2	Misunderstanding Escalating into a Violence The character must save or suffer the effects of a 1d10 severity roll.
3	Awful Disease The character must save or contract a disease taking 1d3 points of damage
4	Jail Time The character is taken away and cannot interact with the settlement.
5	Wandering Monster Encounter The character has a solo encounter with something awful.
6	Cursed The character must save or contract a random curse.

Middling Expenses Weekly Event Table

1	Hear Rumor The character gains 1 random rumor.
2	Free Meal The character receives a ration from a friend.
3	Misunderstanding Escalating into a Vicious Brawl The character must save or lose 1d12 hp and gain notoriety.
4	Minor Disease The character must save or contract a disease taking 1 point of damage.
5	Fined The character must pay 3d10 silver to the authorities.
6	Attempted Mugging The character must save or lose 1d2 random items.

Comfortable Expenses Weekly Event Table

1	Make Acquaintance The character befriends a shop keeper and is able to buy a random item for half price.
2	Misunderstanding of Received Letters/Parcels The character receives something meant for someone else.
3	Well Rested The character gains an additional point of HP until the next combat.
4	Misunderstanding Escalating into a Remembered Insult The character must save or gain a foe and a -2 penalty to carousing.
5	Attempted Theft The character must save or lose 3d20 silver.
6	Arson The character is involved in a building burning in some way.

Prosperous Expenses Weekly Event Table

1	An Exclusive Offer The character is approached by a merchant selling a rare item.
2	Romantic Encounter Someone becomes enamored with the character.
3	Enticing Request A patron reaches out to the character requesting a Quest Item with promise of reward.
4	Auspicious Sign The character sees a good omen granting a +1 to their saves until they fail one.
5	Misunderstanding Escalating into a Future Vengeance The character must save or become hounded by an assassin.
6	Attempted Swindle The character must save or erroneously invest 1d100 silver to a conman.

Flush Expenses Weekly Event Table

1	Invitation to Banquet Receive 200 XP for carousing at banquets of the rich.
2	Make Friend The character gains an NPC as a friend and possible companion.
3	Gifted Item The character receives a gift worth 1d20 silver from someone
4	Offer of Initiation The character receives an invitation to a secret society of some kind.
5	Squire/Apprentice/Intern A hireling wishes to join the character at no upkeep cost.
6	Marked for Robbery The character must save or become hounded by a band of brigands.

Between these options available to characters and the events which fall upon each character, a variety of events are sure to occur to the players. Further the usage of dreadful foreboding mechanics means there are at least three dynamic aspects to a settlement each week.

Dreadful Foreboding Mechanics/Procedurally Generated Antagonists for OSR

I guess this is my Spooky Halloween Post

Author's Note: These mechanics were originally written up for fortified keeps as a way to have a greater amount of interactions. Settlements have a wide variety of things for characters to do, such as carouse or research, but isolated shelters don't have so many options so this chart was made

Dreadful Foreboding Mechanics

I believe that these fortified keeps should be mechanically distinct from other settlements not only by their limited supplies but further in their sense of isolation. I think a way to mechanically reinforce the sense of these outposts as bastions of light encroached by darkness is to emphasize their dwindling resources and increasing social pressures. The following mechanics could easily be expanded to other settlements in order to play up the "grimdarkness" or "horribleness/terribleness" of a setting.

These settlements are isolated and each week spent there should feel more oppressive and unwelcoming. The following is a table with ways to mechanically reinforce that, each week roll a 1d12 and consult the Impending Doom Table below. Unless abated, the dooms continue on week after week. For those with a desire of a gross amount of bookkeeping, they may roll this for every single settlement on their hex map and create a living world.

Impending Doom Table

1-5	Menace: Roll a wandering monster encounter appropriate to the terrain of the hex where the settlement is located. The monster encountered begins to harass the settlement. That week and every week further roll a 1d6 as it corresponds to the Modified Wilderness Anecdote Table. The roll corresponds to what is encountered by a person living in the settlement at night.
6	Xenophobia: Those foreign to the settlement must succeed on a reaction roll in order to enter the settlement. Further those traveling alone within the settlement have a 1 in 6 chance of encountering hostile people and must roll a reaction roll.
7	Hysteria: Anyone staying within the settlement cannot lose trauma points and have a 1 in 6 chance of gaining a point of trauma per week. This applies to every major figure in the settlement, not just the characters.
8	Famish: Rations run low and their price doubles. If this is rolled twice there is a 1 in 6 chance of there only being 2d20 rations left in the entire settlement and panic ensues. Every time after the second that this is rolled, the chance for only 2d20 rations exist increases by 1 in 6.
9	Rot: Though it is a safe place pestilence endures within. Any disease cured instead simply abates for the duration of the character's stay in the settlement. Further any disease deals an additional 1 point of damage.
10	Ruin: The structure of the settlement is eroding and collapsing. In any great confrontation, there is only a 1 in 6 chance of it staying upright and not collapsing. Structures pick the climatically appropriate time to demolish themselves in vast spectacles.
11	Woe: Despair falls on the settlement like rain. Characters resting within the settlement only have a 1 in 6 chance of regaining HP.
12	Harrowing: Great tragedy strikes a random important figure in the settlement and there is a 1 in 6 chance that they die.

Modified Wilderness Anecdote Table 

1	Lair, the monster moves into the darkness within the settlement, (rolling an additional time on this table instead of just once every following week)
2	Spoor, person sights the monster around the outskirts of the settlement
3	Tracks, person finds signs of something moving about at night
4	Traces 1 of something, as normally encountered
5	Traces 2 of something, as normally encountered
6	Monster encounter, roll a reaction check and treat the person appropriately after

Procedurally Generated Antagonist Mechanics

The table above works with the Polite Lands Encounter Tables in a rather unique way. While Fortified Keeps and Villages may be harassed by strange and horrible monsters found out in the wilderness, Towns and Cities will be mainly menaced by human beings. This means that in cities and towns the conflicts will be with people who have specific interests and desires, look at the table below.

Kind (1d8)

1	Traveling Merchant
2	Caravan of 1d6 Merchants and 2d10 Guards
3	1d4 Lumberjacks
4	1d4 Hunters
5	1d6 Farmers
6	1d6 Peasents
7	1d3 Members of the Nobility
8	1d3 Members of the Priesthood

Each of these presents a unique interaction with the Modified Wilderness Anecdote Table and honestly can be used to generate a variety of conflicts in each city in your setting.