OSR: d66 Random Inn NPCs

Here come some faces you could find in an inn or tavern. Geared towards The Owl's Nest.

• Descriptions are minimal. They don't have stats because there shouldn't be a need for them.
• Roll d46 for less gonzo entries. d66 gets you the good stuff.
• The number rolled is the number of patrons currently at the inn. So 31 = 31 people.
• The sum of the pips is the number of different groups. So 31 = 3+1 = 4 groups.

Roll d66

11 - Bartolome (Human) / Skilled Alchemist

• Appearance: Gifted, grizzled, suspicious. Leathers with burnt gloves.
• Description: Is convinced to be a time traveler from the future.
• Wants? To return to the past, where they belong.

12 - Steam (Jotun) / Religious Astrologer

• Appearance: Impeccable clothes. Well-traveled, survivalist, religious.
• Description: Retired high level Cleric (9th). Lost faith after an encounter with a God years ago.
  Now scouts the sky for answers and patterns.
• Wants? Has rumor of a magical abacus and various star charts in the area.
  Would pay great sums for them. And maybe even perform a miracle, for old time's sake.

13 - Zorione (Human) / Potter

• Appearance: Pompous, chatty, erudite.
• Description: Selling handcrafted chess sets (overpriced at 100gp).
  Will play a game of chess, and provide a rumor in passing during the exchange.
• Wants? A meeting with the inn's manager to sell them the chess sets in bulk.

14 - Gerbasi Potter (Halfling) / Goat Shepherd

• Appearance: Young, jovial, anxious. Wears baggy clothes.
• Description: Came here after his father died, overwhelmed, to get a break.
• Wants? Proof that his father's stories about the dryads were true.

15 - Olov (Dwarf) / Mural Painter

• Appearance: Old, very old. Cracks his twisted knuckles repeatedly.
• Description: Used to be a goatherd. Then turned to banditry. To helping treasure hunters.
  New job, new life. Will argue about what colors are in fashion at any chance.
• Wants? To buy a herd of goats, and return to the countryside. But he fears his wife's wrath.

16 - Poza Ironheart (Halfling) / Dyer

• Appearance: Short coal hair. Young and motherly.
• Description: Likes to pinch everyone's cheeks.
  Will argue about what colors are in fashion at any chance.
• Wants? A dog. Or a cat.

21 - Ulrik (Dwarf) / Miller

• Appearance: Oily braided hair. Reddish nose, smells of cabbage.
• Description: Nervously waiting for his lover.
• Wants? His wife not finding out!

22 - Andos (Human) / Cobbler

• Appearance: Looks like a beggar. Walks barefoot, because "I'm not worth my own craft".
• Description: Surprisingly multilingual and cultured.
• Wants?  The perfect pair of boots.

23 - Flint (Jotun) / Rope Maker

• Appearance: Massive antlers on his forehead. Smiley and congenial.
• Description: Carries numerous rope samples of his ropes. The sturdiest and best crafted you've ever seen.
• Wants? A sucker for statues, Flint will buy any fine piece of art.

24 - Latxa Jamjar (Halfling) / Tailor

• Appearance: Strands of grey hair. Clever, alert, reserved.
• Description: Carries a set of tools to do the trade, including sharp scissors. Former spy, wanted by the authorities.
• Wants? A new identity. Or passage to a place VERY far away.

25 - Eleanor (Human) / Hand Model

• Appearance: Middle-aged lady. Seems to float everywhere she walks. All grace.
• Description: Nicest hands, she just bows in greetings, never shaking hands. Level 1 Magic User.
• Wants? An expensive ring. "All this work, and I get to keep none of the merchandise."

26 - Henrietta (Human) / Bankrupt Spice Merchant

• Appearance: From an exotic foreign land. Big and bossy. Hands-on-hips.
• Description: 3rd level Fighter. Commands around, and expects to be obeyed.
• Wants? Gullible investors in her (secretly bankrupt) business.

31 - Rojina (Faun) / Disenchanted Cook

• Appearance: Paper thin.
• Description: Annoyingly outspoken. Knows every flavor and scent, and where it originates from.
• Wants? A job at the kitchens of The Owl's Nest.

32 - Harnof (Dwarf) / Weaponsmith

• Appearance: Thick strong arms.
• Description: Got fired from his cousin's forge after a mishap, where he set half of it on fire.
  Burning his last savings at the Inn.
• Wants? Desperately looking for a job. Any kind will do.

33 - Gilen Nimblefeet (Halfling) /Basket-maker

• Appearance: Old lady, calloused worked fingers. Stoic.
• Description: Loves milk and pork pie.
• Wants? To kidnap the Owl Nest's cook, and taken them to her town. The pies are too dam fine.

34 - Drago Buttercheeks (Halfling) / Barber

• Appearance: PERFECT muttonchops.
• Description: No-nonsense, all work. Has 13 children.
• Wants? The best night of his life.

35 - Olga (Dwarf) / Accredited Food-taster

• Appearance: Braided ginger beard.
• Description: Nods or shakes after a tasting. Stole the proper documentation to be here (eating and drinking for free).
• Wants? A discrete assassination to the rightful owner of her accreditation. Olga fears her farce discovered.

36 - Enara (Human) /Crop Farmer

• Appearance: She's ripped. Skin tanned like leather.
• Description: Jovial, spending hard earned coin in a place she can't really afford.
• Wants? There's a Jelly Troll that settled on the river feeding her fields. She needs someone to drive it away.

41 - Yadav (Faun) / Leatherworker

• Appearance: Tiny straight horns, milk skin, red robes and a dope belt.
• Description: Speaks in one syllable words.
• Wants? A huge carcass in mint condition. They have a gargantuan order from the local Baron to fulfill.

42 - Giadia (Human) / Corrupt Tax-collector

• Appearance: Sophisticated nihilist. Accompanied by d6 guards at all times.
• Description: Addicted to opioids. Confuses the PCs for another renowned adventuring party.
  Has been overcharging the "Unnamed Inn" for months.
• Wants? Easy money. Her appetite for it is insatiable.

43 - Julia (Human) / Map-maker

• Appearance: Large unattended mane. Fingers always covered in different inks. Glasses as thick as windows.
• Description: Loves traveling. 2-in-6 chance of having a particular overland map for sale, no matter how obscure.
• Wants? A new pair of eyes. Hers are failing, and she loves map-making.

44 - Miles (Human) / Rat Exterminator

• Appearance: Muscular, mustached, brawny.
• Description: Cusses a lot. Drinks even more.
• Wants? A cure for their dog's arthritis. "Otherwise, who'll catch the damn rodents?"

45 - Sabiniano (Human) / Fortuneteller

• Appearance: Man in his early twenties, finely dressed. Lovely, sweet, and angelic voice.
• Description: Reads palms and throws the cards for a reasonable fee or meal.
• Wants? A last word with their deceased lover.

46 - Jatsu (Human) / Drunkard

• Appearance: Haggard, mute.
• Description: Claps and drums on the table at every chance. Begs for drinks.
• Wants? To stop drinking. In. This. Place.

51 - Abby (Spiderling) / Silk Trader

• Appearance: Smokes cigars. Bad temper. 4 extremely dexterous arms.
• Description: Treats lackeys and underlings as garbage, clients and investors as Gods.
• Wants? Bizarre books, and to protect their eggs.

52 - Nicoletta (Spiderling) / Clockmaker

• Appearance: Always smiles. Hairy. Missing three out of four arms, replaced by loud but accurate servos.
• Description: Presses the characters on the benefits of having limbs replaced by mechanical counterparts. Even if they're working perfectly.
• Wants? Delicate music and poetry. Long-lasting honest friendships.

53 - Friq (Goblin) /Squid Fisher

• Appearance: Wiry. Smells of fish. Uses a harpoon as a staff.
• Description: Grumpy, seems lost. Likes to search his nose and inspect the findings.
• Wants? To have an automaton, beast, or similar servant.

54 - Peax (Goblin) / Glassblower Apprentice

• Appearance: Malicious. Has three eyes (one of them concealed), and is missing an ear.
• Description: Picks pockets and places the contents on somebody else. Wreaks havoc. Will set the latrines on fire and laugh at it.
• Wants? To get people high as a kite. To delight in absolute chaos and entropy.

55 - Callous (Molekin) / Dung Farmer

• Appearance: Greyed whiskers. Stutters. Smelly shovel used for work.
• Description: Accepts ANY paying job, and is efficient at it.
• Wants? A new set of teeth (preferably golden).

56 - Dartre (Molekin) /High-stakes Gambler

• Appearance: Diminutive, gangly, despicable. Accompanied by d4 enforcers at all times.
• Description: Blood as cold as ice when it comes to deals. Dozens of ongoing bets. Somehow always comes up top.
• Wants? -Gambles will be quests in disguise "Bet you 5000gp you can't kill the giant past the mountain".
  -A gamble worth enough to chip their own soul into the bargain. Did it once before, and won.

61 - Mold (Molekin) /Lead Servant on Leave

• Appearance: Emotionless, delicate. Monocle and expensive discrete clothes.
• Description: Bows deeply after completing every single sentence. Won't drink or partake, but takes copious notes on a journal.
• Wants? To travel, and see the World! But he's a chronic workaholic.

62 - Ataahua (Lizardfolk) / Desperate Diplomat

• Appearance: Scales the color of mucus. Broken accent, jumpy.
• Description: Polite, but fails understanding even the most common courtesy norms.
• Wants? An army to defend the upcoming invasion of their lands.

63 - Armis 3A (Clockwork) / Locksmith

• Appearance: Dented tin body, form of a ferret. Whiskers in the form of files and lockpicks.
• Description: VOICE AS A TELEPROMPT ANNOUNCER. ABLE TO UNLOCK ANYTHING, GIVEN TIME AND OLIVE OIL.
• Wants? A new body, made of silver. The transfer is painful and very complex.

64 - Servus K6BD (Clockwork) / Viticulture Scholar

• Appearance: Taller than a Jotun. Bigger than an ox. Polished copper body (worth 300gp). Mute, but gestures a lot.
• Description: Considers everyone to be a buddy. Will join any party. Programmed to bring joy and serve. In that order.
• Wants? Kill someone. It's programming prevents it from doing so.

65 - Madame Anwen (Ghoul) / Grim Jester

• Appearance: Greasy hair. Copious amounts of perfume. Wears a green scarf on her neck, where she was once hung.
• Description: Only eats human flesh. And has a nihilistic view of existence.
• Wants? To come back to life.

66 - Dewie (Talking Cat) / Grave Robber

• Appearance: Grey fur. Missing right eye.
• Description: Actually a devil: curse trapped this thrall of Darek of Blades into a feline body. Will avoid talking to any Clerics.
• Wants? The bones of 66 Saints. Then, the curse can be lifted.

OSR: The Owl's Nest

There's this project that's been bloody stuck in my mind.

Imagine a brewery turned inn that's been putting out the best damn ale in the region. Not only that, but almost any liquor you can imagine. They produce it in the best quality, and no time. If the local ruler asks for a hefty tax mark, no problem. They are swimming in gold and revenue.

Where does all this fine liquor come from? Why is nobody looking into this?

Krzysztof Maziarz

What the @$!*ck is this, Hammer?

Scope is always a problem with these things, but I think I have an exact idea of what I want. In a pinch:

Inn for Downtime + Toolkit + Underground Cellar/Brewery Pointcrawl Adventure

This serves several purposes and goals.

First off, the idea that a lot of adventures start in a tavern. Or have a recess in one. That's true, be it for gathering rumors, meeting NPCs that can turn into hirelings, carousing, or generalized shenanigans. Even in the OSR space, I think it does serve a purpose for in-between adventures for the "what to do in town".

Second, it provides context and a list of interesting NPCs.
Be it recurring ones, or simply random tables of "who's here at the moment". These are great to gather rumors of what's been going on whilst the PCs were out of town. They also provide services and quests the PCs might need.

Third, it's seeds to build your own adventures. This is not described here, and ties to the second point. By having a handful of clear stated NPCs and their agendas, or clear adventure elements, this is an opportunity for the referee to build their own adventures directly from the inn.

Fourth, the inn connects to its own dungeon. This means we can control when the PCs find about this by making some rumors clear. Or they can start asking themselves questions. Where does all the alcohol come from? Why is it of best quality? A pointcrawl requires low prep, and the aim is to provide an unprepared referee with a dungeon locale they can run as-is with minimal preparation.

Nothing too innovate here, just my take. The Yawning Portal has been around for ages, and is basically the same concept of inn+dungeon entrance. Here the second part is a secret fact though.

There's also the Night Wolf Inn adventure module. Full of great ideas, rich with gonzo material oozing from every single page. A gold mine to plunder. But this is DENSE. It's also too rules heavy for my tastes. A more system agnostic version of this module, trimmed and edited, would be a killer. Mandatory Bryce review.

Gestalting The Thing

The thing is, I've never done something like this by my own. First step was to fire an excel document and start writing down ideas and sections for this thing. What tables would I need? What sections? Are there related articles, books, or media I need? Many are obvious and expected just by the premise of inn + cellar dungeon.

Raw, ideas without filtering. No mechanics or discarding yet.

Semi-sorted Section List

• [Inn] Inn Description and Fluff
  Everything going on and obvious before the PCs enter the inn. And if they don't act, how/why it remains in this state.
• [Inn] Inn Map
  Hire a cartographer. Making it abstract or isometric is completely valid (even preferred).
• [Inn] List of Named NPCs
  Relevant NPCs that are always here. The innkeeper family (dwarfs), the resident bard, some of the NPCs that inhabit "Rooms at the Inn". Some provide hooks to underground adventure. There should be someone who can buy and sell magic items. And someone who can provide healing services: a surgeon, or a priest/cleric of a God of pleasure and drink.
• [Inn] d66 Random Inn NPCs
  Random table for generation on the fly. Name, ancestry, quirk, what they want. Brief.
• [Inn] d66 Hirelings (Optional)
  Price per day. Good variety. Ready to go.
  
• [Inn] 6-10 Rooms at the Inn
  Have 3-4 rooms occupied by adventure sprawling NPCs. The inn is famous, so there's a reason why they'd stay here.
• [Inn] The Menu! (Optional)
  A tactile handout for the players to check what they can eat or drink at the inn. Cookie points if it has some hidden clues?
  
• [Tools] Carousing Table
  There are a lot of these. Good ones! I did a downtime one a while back. Base on B/X gold quantities.
• [Tools] List of Inn Games (Optional)
  Self explanatory non-sense, unrelated to anything else.
• [Tools] dX Table of Alcohols and Drugs
  Can provide interactivity, traps, etc. Requires an ad-hoc system for consumption. Certain areas (in the dungeon adventure) experienced differently depending on the amount of drink consumed?
• [Adventure] Locations and Details
  This is a 2 page spread with the table to roll for, with a 1-line description (key words) to give the referee an image whilst they flip to the relevant page of Location and Detail.
• [Adventure] Locations Expanded
  Actual meat of what the PCs are meant to explore. Unique and expandable with the Details + Encounter. Aim for 20 of them.
• [Adventure] Details Explained
  Brief, punchy, distinctive.
• [Adventure] Set Pieces Explained
  Each more of a "boss" encounter. It is the lair of some of the major factions/agents in the adventure. They help to break the entropy and change the dungeon generation procedure. 6 Set Pieces.
• [Adventure] d100 Encounter Table
  Bigger threats the deeper into the dungeon. Maybe combine with Overloaded Encounter Die? Encounter and Omen. Also hazards: tunnels collapsing; lights going on; underground gas bags exploding; etc.
• [Adventure] I Search the Body
  Should be more interesting crap and clues rather than gold. If gold, make it dependent on HD of the slain creature.
• [Adventure] Bestiary/Denizens
  Like the stocking notes below, but expanded. Easy stats, but provide context as to why they are here. Lengthy section.
• [Commentary] FAQ
  Commentary to ease the referee's life based on playtest feedback. Advised rulings, etc.

Underground Cellar/Brewery Pointcrawl Adventure

A procedural generated dungeon adventure of the underground cellar and cavern system below and around the inn. Similar to the very popular (and by me beloved) Gardens of Ynn and Stygian Library, but with Set Pieces. These read as more static locations that advance the whole adventure, and where basically PCs can really fuck things up and change the status quo.

The rearranging bit of the pointcrawl is harder to get than in an infinite garden or a library in cavernous tunnels. But there's a bit about it: the Worm. It creates and collapses new paths at will.

Pointcrawl Generation Mechanics

It takes a turn (10 minutes) to move from one Location to another.
Whenever PCs want to move to a new unexplored Location (therefore expanding the map), roll:

• d6 for Overloaded Encounter Die (encode to d100 to avoid extra rolling for Encounter?)
• 1-2: roll for Encounter -> when they enter new Location that's what's there.
• 3: roll for Encounter (Omen) -> when they enter new Location that's what's there.
• 4: Dungeon Effect (tunnels collapse, gravity reverses, traps reset, etc.)
• 5: torches
• 6: torches/lamps
• d12+Depth for Location (if you roll a 12, consult a Set Piece instead based on the result of the Overloaded Encounter Die)
• d20 for Details

Dungeon Stocking Notes completely raw form 

Devil Management
-Probably the most powerful thing down here.
-Someone got their True Name, and now they're a servant. They resent that and want to see it  changed.
-Will toy with the PCs; finds them amusing and a tool.
-Makes constructs at his service, the Golems. They are soul-infused.

Golems
-Tankard/Bottle/Keg Golems, soul-infused by Devil Management.

Molekin Workers
-Have a contract by Devil Management to keep expanding the place, greasing and restoring the traps, etc.
-Led by a dwarf NPC.
-Take drugs to keep the insane work pace. Imagine "kobolds on cocaine".
-Think the Giant Worm/Centipede is a God "Mama"

Giant Worm
-Creates and generates most of the tunnels here (at least 10ft wide). Very important: if it's killed, dungeon becomes static?
-Very powerful, tons of HD.
-The Molekin worship it calling and call it "Mama".

Caelan Stokkermans

Yeast Elementals
-Think of themselves as gods.
-Myconids as minions?
-The excellent brew producing creature is a dwarf wizard hooked in symbiosis to a humongous Yiest Elemental. (with tubes coming out from the body, etc.)
-Sentient, clever, not too powerful (doable), and has the True Name of Devil Management.

Vinegar Elementals
-Want to take over the status quo and privileged position of the Yeast Elementals.
-Could team up with the PCs. To then stab them in the back.

Antlings/Giant Ants?

Schnapshund
-Scary and powerful. Or pet-able and interesting
-Independent
-Probably the first "big" monster the PCs will meet.
-From unlawfulgames

Corrupt Underground Dryads
-Look like socialite from ancient Greece.
-Want to drink and fornicate, so they're quite happy with Yeast Elementals.

Priest of the Brew God
-Loner; came down here to get the secret ale recipe from the Inn.
-Seeing the truth of the decadence down here, is loosing faith by the second. Understands The Game, hence the desperation.
-Worships Zisdarger, the 'Drinker of Hours' (a drunk God that can reverse/advance time).
-Could still get a miracle going, time related.