Random Encounters of The Weird West

A table I've been working on for my upcoming Weird West campaign.

This setting is much less undead gunslingers and steampunk scientists, and more fucked up Lovecraftian creatures with the locals trying to explain them with their own lore. (I'll explain some of The Weird later.) In a perfect world it would have art by Ben Templesmith and be narrated by Tom Waits.

Both positive and negative events are found here. I'll update the list as time goes on as well.

William Anderson "Devil Anse" Hatfield

Weird West Encounters (Roll 1d10)

1.     Ambush! (Roll 1d4)

1. 1d6 bandits attack your posse

2. 1d4 criminals holding up/attacking another caravan

3. Grand theft stallion/stagecoach

4. Trap! Dynamite explodes/a line of gunpowder ignites in front of you. Horses buck you off, rocks tumble, gunfire in every direction.

2.     Flannel Mouths and Friendly Faces (Roll 1d4)

1.   Farmer’s cart broke a wheel. They’ll offer you some food if you help fix it in time for them to make it to the next town.

2.   Gun merchant offers their wares.

3.   Salesman driving a carriage full of “Miracle Elixir.” Roll on the Elixirs chart (or any ol’ Random Potion chart) for the kind. 50% chance its snake oil.

4.   Banished benevolent witch offers to sell or trade their trinkets and ritual components to travelers.

3.     Docile Animals (Roll 1d4)

       1. 1d6 whitetail deer

2. An armadillo

3. 1d4 rabbits

4. A raccoon

4.     Unfriendly Animals (Roll 1d6)

1.   1d6 bighorn sheep

2.   1d4 hawks

3.   1d12 buffalo

4.   1d12 elk

5.   1d4 vultures

6.   1d4 foxes

5.     Violent Animals (Roll 1d8)

1.   Bear

2.   Bobcat

3.   Cougar

4.   1d8 coyotes

5.   1d4 wild boar

6.   1d6 rattlesnakes

7.   1d6 wolves

8.   1d12 scorpions

6.     Frontiersmen (Roll 1d4)

1.   Hunter offers a bet to kill 1d6 animals. (5-6 Docile, 4-3 Unfriendly, 2-1 Violent) Roll on the respective table for the result.

2.   Trapper offers a bet to capture 1d4 Docile Animals. They also sell traps at a modest price.

3.   Herbalist is looking for certain specimens in the wild. They offer payment if the posse can return with them.

4.   Explorers returning with artifacts from caves not far off. They won’t sell their finds for cheap, but they might be willing to part with the map for less.

7.       Escort Mission (Roll 1d4)

1.   Help a sheriff escort an unruly criminal to the nearest town for part of the reward money.

2.   Bring stranded travelers to the nearest town. They can reward mundane items or a monetary complement.

3.   Supply cart upturned, they need to make the delivery to the next town before sundown. They promise either some of their goods or part of the payment for the job. Roll 1d6 for kind of supplies.

1.  Food (meat, vegetables, etc)

2.  Medicine

3.  Ore (coal, silver, copper, etc)

4.  Dynamite

5.  Sugar/Spices

6.  Alcohol

                  4. Traveler claims to be attacked by…things. Get them to town in 1 hour before they turn or things could get ugly.

8.       Duel. Depending on the PC’s Fame/Infamy someone will challenge one of them to a duel. The enemy has the same Dex bonus as the PC’s Fame/Infamy.

9.       Camp.  (Roll 1d4) 50% chance of being attacked in the night by bandits/Violent Animals/The Weird. Roll 1d6 to see how your hosts fare against them. Rolling under and they vanquish the foes, above means you awaken to their screams as the last of them is killed.

1.     Moonshiners drunk on their product have plenty to share, but good luck having their help in a fight. 1 in 6 defense.

2.     Surveyors packing up their measuring rods and maps offer comfort and stories of their explorations under the stars. They pack little weaponry but offer a fine meal of roast mutton to travelers. 2 in 6 defense.

3.     A traveling vaudeville circus offers entertainment and jokes to make the night in the desert a little easier. The food is questionable, but there’s plenty of whiskey to go around. 40% chance they’ll try to steal from the players, either through pickpocketing them while they’re drunk or waiting until they’re all asleep. 3 in 6 defense.

4.     Prospectors’ camp. Weary from a hard day of mining/sifting the river, they’ll offer you mild protection from the night and some lukewarm gruel. 20% chance they struck it rich and will offer more appealing venison stew to eat, but they’ll be paranoid and wary about their new visitors and are prone to kick them out just for looking at them funny. 4 in 6 defense.

5.     US Soldiers set up camp for the night. They’re armed with high-powered repeating rifles, but the any infamous party members aren’t welcome here. 5 in 6 defense.

6.     Hunters of The Weird prepare for war. Their camp affixed with all sorts of wards and luck talismans dangling from tents. Grizzled clergymen offer no solace but their blades and rifles as they snuff out the light and ready to fight the terrors. Players wishing to stay here must swear an oath to their god and perform an initiation ritual. 6 in 6 defense.

10.      The Weird (Roll 1d6)

1.     1d4 devotees of Ithaqua. 1 in 6 chance each could be fully turned Wendigo.   

Wild folk who believe in “Donner’s Promise,” knowingly or unknowingly give devotion to the Old One Ithaqua, and participate in cannibalism in order to obtain protection through the winter months and power over others. Practitioners take on monstrous features and after a year of practice they are unrecognizable from the humans they once were. The Navajo call the fully turned Wendigos. When a Wendigo is slain, it bursts into a swarm of mosquitos before perishing completely.

2.     Skinwalker. Roll again on encounters. One of the people/creatures in the encounter is a skinwalker and will attack when given the chance. At less than half health, the skinwalker sheds their false hide and their true form spills out.

Some magic practitioners have learned how to take the form of any person or animal by ritually killing them and wearing their skin. In this form, they act as the creature until mortally wounded and they are forced to emerge from the hide. Skinwalkers often use scarification and mark their own flesh with wicked hexes that immobilize their victims.

3.     Chupacabra

Utterly furless, muscular wolf-like creatures with slits for eyes and grey spines upon their backs seek nothing more than to drink the blood of its victims.

4.     Black Goat Initiate

Those who believe that reality is but a veil and that true pleasure lies beyond worship The Black Goat and find solace in the northern woods. Some use hallucinogenics to pierce the veil; others study the brains of their lobotomized victims. The magic they use is potent and dangerous, and without any empathy for other beings or themselves they are prone to use catastrophic spells or even dynamite to get closer to understanding the other side.

5.     Mound Beast. (based on the creatures from H.P. Lovecraft’s The Mound.)

Massive, grotesque humanoid creatures described by people who spot them as “ogres.” They tend to dwell near native burial mounds and are highly territorial. The Mound Beasts are capable of ripping victims in half and devouring their intestines. Others have spotted them eating fistfuls of rattlesnakes. Some believe they are semi-sentient and live beneath the burial sites in some sort of civilization that settled here before any humans did.

6.     1d6 Sand Mites. On a crit, Save versus Poison or the mite decapitates you and empties their fresh eggs into your body. In 1d4 turns the eggs hatch, spilling out 1d12 baby mites.

Vicious deer ticks the size of dogs that burrow in the sand and are capable of decapitating unfortunate travelers with their mandibles and laying eggs in their carcasses. The eggs hatch quickly in moist environments, which make wet sand or the flesh of victims the perfect nest.