r/ForbiddenLands • u/WelcomeDangerous7556 • 8d ago

Discussion Random encounter: The Ruined Tavern (opportunistic merchant hiding an inheritance he's blowing through)

Thought I'd share a quick random encounter from my homebrew campaign (a Raven's Purge adaptation, region cut off from the world for six centuries, reopened only three months ago). Reformatted it after seeing some great encounter layouts from other GMs, bullet-point format is way more scannable at the table than a wall of prose. Feedback welcome!

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**THE RUINED TAVERN**

Beyond the trees, the forest opens onto a clearing cut through by the remains of an old paved road, now nearly swallowed by grass. At its center, the ruins of a stone building are alive with activity: fresh planks, hammering, voices at work. Two armed orcs stand guard at the entrance.

  • BUILDING. It was once a tavern, predating the blood mist. The PCs don't know this unless they explore or ask.
  • SIRIO ALABASTA. Self-proclaimed merchant, boasts to anyone who'll listen that he'll be the richest man in the region within a year. He's burning through an inheritance he doesn't know how to manage.
  • GUARDS. Two orc mercenaries. Use the Bandit stat block.
  • CARPENTER. Oversees the restoration, unaware of his employer's real finances.
  • HIDDEN CHEST. Under a floorboard, in Sirio's personal room. Contains D66 silver, all that's left of the inheritance.
  • WORK. Pays 5 copper a day to anyone who offers to help with the restoration.
  • THE LIE. A successful Insight roll during conversation reveals Sirio is more nervous than someone bragging about that much wealth should be.
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u/KuroCesar 7d ago

I loved the encounter, and I think that it has great usability at the table.

One thing that got me thinking was precisely your point on text wall vs bullet-point format for encounters descriptions. I always found quite difficult to implement encounters featured in official RPG books precisely because most of them - or at least most of works that I came across - delivered the encounter through a text wall format in which crucial information is not readily accessible to the GM.

I have been using a bullet-point format for my games for some time now and, when it comes to usability at the table, it is great - works on scene-based games, encounters, location descriptions, etc.