Adding minor encounters to your heroes’ travels helps your world feel more lived in and normal. Random encounters shouldn’t always be combat or high drama.

Categories

For road travel near wilderness, roll 1d6. For road travel in settled lands, roll 1d6 but treat 6 as “roll twice, ignoring further sixes”.

1. Commoners
2. Tradesfolk
3. Merchants
4. Gentry & Knights
5. Nobles & Officials
6. Creatures

Peasants

1. Laundresses washing clothes in a river.
2. A shepherd watching over sheep (in the countryside) or driving sheep (road).
3. A game of football on the village green.
4. A group of pilgrims traveling to a religious site.
5. A group of country folk merrily celebrating a wedding.
6. A group of country folk somberly burying a loved one.
7. Peasants playing games to pass the time while they keep an eye on their charcoal mound burn or lime kiln.
8. Reeve (lowly supervisor of a manor’s workers) about his or her business.
9. Bailiff (runs a manor) about his or her business with a servant.
10. Yeoman (commoner with land; essentially a farmer) about his or her business.
11. Sheep-shearers washing and/or shearing sheep.
12. A troupe of entertainers traveling to a city for a fair.
13. Peat-cutter (for burning as fuel, in a peat bog).
14. A peddler with a pack loaded with utensils, hand tools, and such.
15. Gong farmer with an empty handcart/handcart full of human and animal waste to spread on a field.
16. Carter hauling the possessions of some merchant family to their new house.
17. Laborers out looking for work (hauling and repairing, and seasonal jobs, like ice-cutting, harvesting, etc.).
18. Sailors on their way to a port to go to sea/returning from sea.
19. Tinker with a handcart to do repairs to pots and pans, knife-sharpening, etc.
20. Armed peasants going to or coming from doing their regular training.

Tradesfolk

1. Ditchers, grave-, well-diggers about their business.
2. Woodman (firewood and lumber) about his or her business.
3. Woodsmen out coppicing or pollarding trees to grow poles or harvesting poles.
4. Gelder (veterinarian) about his or her business.
5. Leech-gatherer (for blood-letting) about his or her business.
6. Miller about his or her business.
7. Miners (metals, salt, etc.) or quarrymen on their way to or from a mine/quarry.
8. A tailor with clothing or a load of cloth to be made into clothing.
9. Thatchers with a load of (reed or straw) thatching in a wagon or (returning) an empty wagon.
10. Masons or bricklayers building or traveling.
11. Waller building a wattle & daub house.
12. Plasterer traveling to or from a job plastering.
13. Limner traveling to or from a job painting or white-washing.
14. Haberdasher with a handcart full of pots and pans, ribbons, thread, buttons, etc.
15. Joiner traveling to or from a building site.
16. Bricklayer traveling to or from a building site.
17. Butcher traveling to or from a manor for some butchery.
18. Basket-weaver with a handcart full of baskets and/or willow or straw to weave.
19. Cooper with a handcart full of barrels and tubs.
20. Blacksmith traveling to or from delivering some work.

Merchants

A merchant caravan and escort on a trade journey. Most of these should include the merchant, two of his children as assistants, one or two servants, and a couple of guards. The more expensive the goods, the more likely a low-level wizard, as well.

1. Cornmonger (grain-dealer) with a load of barley or wheat about some business.
2. Saltmonger with barrels of salt about some business.
3. Metal ore merchant with a load of tin ore about some business.
4. Horse-trader about some business, who tries to interest the heroes in horses.
5. Fishmonger (fresh and salted) with a load of salted fish about some business.
6. Hairmonger with sacks of horsehair for stuffing and fishing line.
7. Jeweler (jewelry strictly made to order) about some business.
8. Grocer or victualer (fruits and vegetables) about some business.
9. Spice merchant (sugar, black pepper, cinnamon, ginger, saffron, nutmeg, cloves) on the way to pick up some spices; heavily guarded.
10. Merchant broker about some business dealing with other merchants.
11. Livestock merchant with two sorry-looking oxen bound for slaughter.
12. Wool-trader about some business with a cartload of wool.
13. Mercer with a load of silk and linen cloth, bedclothes, and other fine textiles.
14. Draper with a load of common fabrics like cotton, linen, and wool for clothing.
15. Glass merchant carting to a city some barrels of glass panes packed in straw.
16. A seller of songbirds with several birds in basket cages.
17. Cheesemaker or cheese-dealer with a handcart full of cheeses.
18. A caravan of nomads with wagons of household goods, plain cloth, and such; their group includes entertainers and even a fortune teller.
19. A charcoal merchant with a load of charcoal under a tarpaulin.
20. A hay merchant with a load of loose hay (animal feed) stacked high in a wagon.

Gentry & Knights

Always traveling with servants.

1. A group of clerks traveling to their college of magic.
2. Several knights of an unknown order escorting a wagon carrying a mysterious object until a tarpaulin.
3. A party of adventurers traveling with a cart that carries a giant falcon’s nest with three great eggs covered in straw to keep them warm.
4. A knight and her squire traveling in service to a lord or lady.
5. Two knights and their servants off to do their service, manning a castle garrison.
6. Three knights traveling together to a tournament.
7. A knight leading a company of mercenaries to raid a rival of his lord.
8. A party of adventurers returning from an adventure empty-handed.
9. A party of adventurers returning from an adventure with a monster corpse in a cart.
10. A group of acolytes traveling home from their monastery for a visit.
11. A hunting party of gentlemen and gentlewomen returning with a wild boar and a deer for a feast.
12. A hunting party of gentlemen and gentlewomen heading out for a hunt.
13. A hunting party of a gentleman or gentlewoman and falconer with falcons.
14. A four-horse coach passing by, containing a young gentleman, two city officials, and a successful playwright traveling to another city.
15. A sickly gentlewoman being driven to the city to see a healer.
16. A master sorceress traveling with her children to a college of magic.
17. Three clerks on horseback returning to their college.
18. A ship’s officer and his manservant, returning home from a voyage.
19. A ship’s captain and two servants, off to inspect her new ship.
20. A gentlewoman and her second riding to a duel with another gentlewoman over a personal matter.

Nobles & Officials

Always traveling with servants.

1. The sheriff and a posse comitatus of local folk searching for an outlaw.
2. The sheriff and several local folk executing an outlaw.
3. The coach of a royal official and her retinue of six servants and assistants.
4. A hayward (in charge of fences and hedges) inspecting hedgerows.
5. A falconer (employed by a noble or church official) exercising falcon.
6. A huntsman (employed by a noble or church official) exercising hunting dogs.
7. A judge and court officers conducting a wager of battle (trial by combat).
8. Woodward or warden (forest keeper) about some business over poachers.
9. A malthouse inspector and servant, riding a circuit of malthouses.
10. An inspector of weights and measures, with a set of official weights by which to certify those of various merchants.
11. Guildmaster and servants on their way to a guild meeting.
12. Two surveyors and a servant, surveying some land.
13. A lord and lady and their servants on a pilgrimage to a holy site.
14. A lord traveling with three knights and several servants to a tournament.
15. A church/temple official with a small retinue traveling to a gathering of officials.
16. A baroness, traveling with a small retinue to inspect some lands.
17. An earl, traveling with a large retinue to the royal court.
18. The monarch himself/herself, traveling with a large retinue.
19. An archwizard’s flying carriage, stopped to water the winged horses.
20. A high priest’s submersible carriage, which splashes into a river and drives up the far bank, the horses unperturbed and the carriage none the worse for wear.

Creatures

1. A dragon wheeling around in the sky on the hunt.
2. A great cauldron of bats that, if followed, might lead to a very interesting cave.
3. A brilliant white stag in the distance that seems to radiate majesty, which is a nature spirit that regards the areas as its domain.
4. Three wild boars snuffling for walnuts in the distance.
5. A magnificent phoenix on the wing.
6. A swarm of small flying insects called dream bugs, which blink in a rainbow of colors and impart pleasant dreams to those who view them.
7. A swarm of small flying insects call augury bugs, which if followed to rest and prayed over, are used by the prayer’s god to reveal a one-word omen about the near future.
8. A fine wild horse called a leopard horse, for its coloration and spots, known for its intelligence.
9. A line of treants making their way across the ridge of a hill.
10. An owlbear in the distance with brilliant white plumage but a blue breast.
11. A pair of small, furry creatures called horned erthcuses that dash into their burrow.
12. A jester marten, known for its parrot-like mimicry, calling the heroes “noisome knaves” and “butter fat fools” and asking “do you want some cheese?” because it wants cheese, and that’s what nearby humans say when they offer it.
13. A giant lizard sunning itself on a rock.
14. A small river teeming with salmon swimming upstream to spawn.
15. A bear gorging on salmon at a river, where they swim upstream to spawn.
16. A huge flock of migrating painted lady butterflies.
17. A hive a giant honey bees in a tall tree.
18. A loud and ominous groaning growl, if pursued, turns out to be a giant toad.
19. A little family of mandrakes that have uprooted themselves and are walking around, looking for a better spot to take root.
20. A roc having snatched up and flown high with a purple worm.