Red Markets: a series of random encounters

This is a series of random tables for the Market (Game-master) to assist in generating interesting encounters and areas when the party are travelling.

If you haven’t heard about the new “Economic horror” pen and paper roleplaying game Red Markets, I thoroughly recommend it.

Enjoy!

Encounters with people

1. A group of starving refugees are camped inside a partially built three storey office building. They have no food, little water and metal poles for self defence. All have medical problems that need treatment such as sores, malnutrition or lingering injuries. They are so sick that they do not hide, but instead hang their feet from the sides of the building, watching the crew with sad desperation.
2. An elderly person wanders by the side of the road, foraging for insects. They are confused and distrustful. They will not answer questions about where they came from, but will accept food and water.
3. A group of homeless people walk by the side of the road. They wear rags, carry long sticks and carry plastic bags of trash. If the crew look weak they may attack, but otherwise ask for donations.
4. A wandering trash picker has converted a garbage skip into a temporary base of operations. They will offer items of little survival value such as deodorant, old novels etc in exchange for food. A small dog guards the “shop” when the keeper is asleep.
5. Several large feral cats roam the area. A litter of kittens is well hidden nearby.
6. A team of scavengers pass through the area on foot. Armed with bows and clubs, they pick over houses for anything of value.
7. A stealthy courier passes by. More discrete than a drone, they avoid human contact as much as possible.
8. A group of seasonal labourers pass by. They travel from Enclave to Enclave, looking for jobs like construction, vegetable harvesting and reclamation. They are strong and tough but have nothing of value but fresh produce.
9. Refugees pass by on the way to an Enclave. They have several wounded, injured during an attack by bandits. Without medical treatment most will die.
10. A group of desperate scavengers have become trapped in the house they were looting. They are barricaded on the second floor of the house and one of them keeps watch on the roof for a break or rescue.

Traces

1. The grass in an open field has been flattened. Warm fire pits from a camp still smoulder. Discarded trash consists of MRE packets and bottled water.
2. Grim totems and mysterious objects litter the area. Skulls on sticks, odd runes carved into trees and bundles of rocks left in piles.
3. Houses in the area are covered in spray painted rescue graffiti. SEND HELP RESCUE TRAPPED INSIDE and DO NOT ENTER. The marks look recent.
4. Signs near a house warn that trespassers will be shot.
5. Clearly marked casualty traps such as sharpened poles on walls, deadfall pits and houses with destroyed stairs are common here.
6. RFID tags have been left around the area to mark safe houses, hiding spots and good places to farm casualties.
7. This place has recently updated information about casualty numbers, raiders etc on Ubiq.
8. This area has a flattened and cleared area used for landing helicopters.
9. DHQS propaganda posters have been pasted to the walls around here.
10. All the doors and windows in the area have been meticulously smashed. Any boarded windows have been pulled down. Safe places are hard to find and there is no food or water.

Raiders

1. A group of Enclave members are travelling to another settlement to make an attack. They’re out to get revenge for some slight or deal gone wrong. They will try to hire the team if they think they are mercenaries or attack if the party has a good rep with their enemies.
2. A pair of Bandits rob travellers when they stop to make camp. They hide in ambush.
3. A team of takers are hiking to a job. They’re happy to rob any well equipped travellers they pass on the way.
4. A LALA is camped in a hidden position and tries to kill the Takers with a silent weapon. They have laid traps around the area as well.
5. A large group of raiders travel the roads looking for victims. They have a mixture of primitive weapons.
6. A large group of survivalists travel the roads looking for victims. They have a mixture of civilian shotguns, pistols and rifles.
7. A raiding team work from an old pickup truck. They have spotlights and reinforced tires to run down victims.
8. A group of thugs pick on the weak but act like scavengers when passing strong groups.
9. A trapper works the area, trying to pick off people one by one with pitfalls, spikes and other nasty surprises.
10. Fanatics from a cult are swarming the area, looking for something. They will try to make converts, capture farmers and hire well armed mercenaries. They offend easily.

Secluded homes

1. This home was built by a rich eco-friendly couple. It has solar panels, natural insulation and a wild fruit and vegetable garden. It’s well hidden and connected to a water source.
2. A model home for an unfinished housing estate. There’s no stored food and few casualties. The fixtures are fake and the plumbing never worked. Plenty of building materials.
3. This stacked ring of shipping crates in a car park would make a good fortification.
4. A local skate park / municipal swimming pool / building site excavation has become a massive casualty trap. The demountable office nearby is a good place to rest.
5. A local paintball / airsoft / bike track. A maze of fake buildings and walls, an office, gift shop, infirmary and snack bar.
6. A storage point for massive concrete blocks. Giant tubes, slabs and the machinery to move them.
7. The old local haunted house. Once owned and barely maintained by an elderly person, this large house is full of old furniture, historical junk and a cellar of stored pickled vegetables and creepy toys.
8. The family holiday cabin. A wooded area near a pond or lake, a fireplace, stored long lasting food, a few guns and several guest rooms. The boat shed may have some canoes and a boat or jetski
9. A junkyard. The local cemetary for old cars. A maze of metal, several large sheds full of dirty power tools and chemicals, an office and one or more caravans.
10. Criminal hangout. A bikie / hate group / gang / survivalist clubhouse with reinforced doors, cameras, a fully stocked bar and a secured arsenal.

Rich finds

1. A supply train stopped dead on a side track. One of the carriages is locked and full of old world supplies. Groceries, electronics and white goods, clothes and footwear or industrial machinery are possible cargo.
2. This old mansion was under renovation by a movie crew for use as a set. The property looks old and unused, but it has large crates of building materials, high powered lights, electronic equipment and cameras, as well as mobile homes for the crew and actors, portable toilets and supplies for a large number of people.
3. A small unassuming house on the block is really a pre loss drug den. Reinforced doors, cameras on every approach and plenty of guns.
4. This storage site kept the local legal documents for the nearby court and several law firms. Finding the boxes with valuable data will require sifting through large amounts of useless paper.
5. This store went out of business. The boarded windows and doors make it look abandoned and empty, but it’s still full of stock.
6. This large house had a private veterinary clinic on the bottom floor. It’s still full of useful supplies and medical equipment.
7. One of the houses on this street had a private nuclear bunker. It’s built for four people and still has supplies intact.
8. This house was owned by a person with an interest in natural medicine. The house and greenhouse are covered in plants with medical uses for those who know what to look for.
9. This house was owned by someone with an interest in medieval reenactment. Several suits of chainmail and other kinds of armor are on display, as well as a working smithy and blacksmith tools.
10. During the collapse the local military units used this place as an impromptu storage site. Inside a storage shed or old barn is a large fuel trailer as well as stacks of MREs, ammunition and medical supplies.

Horrific finds

1. One of the houses you search has a cellar full of dead and partially dismembered captives. One of the rooms is full of discarded clothes and personal effects.
2. A military safe zone. One of the sheds is full of dead mummified bodies. People were herded here and then killed to prevent a casualty outbreak.
3. Several dead people lie on the ground, partially eaten. It looks like a recent event.
4. Several freshly lynched bodies hang from light poles in the area. Each body has a cryptic message written on a card hung around its neck such as “denier” or “heretic”.
5. Several of the houses here have mannequins set up to look like living residents. Solar powered lights have been left in windows. Windchimes and other noise makers have been concealed to make the area sound populated.
6. A massive partially burned pile of books sits in the center of the main road. Inspection of the books shows that they are all chosen for some disturbing reason, such as only being pornographic or showing animals, or some other strange topic.
7. The casualties here have all been interfered with in some way. They may have brands on their foreheads, or be painted in bright colours, or have odd clothes and objects hanging from them such as cowbells, tin cans and costumes. Someone caught them and then let them go.
8. Bodies in the area have been killed in a strange way, such as being sectioned in perfect lines or having tubes cut out of their bodies, being drained of blood or dried to a crisp like a mummy.
9. The plants in the area are much larger than normal, the houses are cars are overrun with kudzu like creeper plants and the trees sway even when there is no breeze.
10. There is a pervasive and unusual smell in the area, such as honey, or fresh cooked steak or some other familiar and distinctive smell.

Traffic levels

1. The houses are all overrun with plant growth, windows are smashed and rain has poured into buildings ruining the contents. Mold and decay covers everything.
2. This place has been picked over and looted again and again. Garbage is everywhere and the rolling cans and collapsing piles of trash make constant noise.
3. Animals have reclaimed this place. Deer walk the streets, rats and other small mammals make nests in houses and birds fly out of broken roofs. Food has been eaten, fragile objects gnawed and there is manure everywhere.
4. This place has been reinforced. Beds and shelves are piled against doors, windows are barred and there are lookout posts built onto roofs.
5. The grass is tall here, trees and brush are overgrown.
6. The road here has been blocked with massive amounts of junk. Wrecked abandoned cars, checkpoints and other bits of debris.
7. This place has been worn by foot traffic. There are paths through the grass and the road has been cleared by some kind of earthmoving machine.
8. Some civic minded folk have built resting spots here. Buildings with barred doors, lookout spots, water tanks and fire pits.
9. Houses here have defence spots built into them. Stairs have been demolished, there are planks and walkways between houses and alleys have been walled off with climbable junk.
10. This place is a reinforced military grade checkpoint. There are prefabricated concrete walls, metal watch-posts and mobile office units set up as inspection points.

Signs of life

1. A solitary old person lives here, wandering the streets and looking for food. They have a pet dog for company.
2. A family lives here. They have several children, keep pets, have horses or bicycles for travel and several gardens.
3. A group of people live here and believe they can build a new enclave. They try to reinforce buildings, keep watch and thin out casualties.
4. A group of people live here because of their unusual beliefs. They have strong religious or political and philosophical views, and want to practice them without interference. They aren’t set up yet and so are willing to trade, share news or recruit converts.
5. A group of Takers are camped here while a sick member recovers from an injury or disease.
6. A team is passing through and willing to share gossip and make small trades.
7. A group of workers from a local enclave are cutting the grass with scythes. They have scavenged items to sell.
8. A group of workers from a local enclave are clearing the local road of debris and creating safe spots.
9. A trade is passing through on horse or leading a drone. They have small, portable and valuable things to trade such as medicine, bullets, delicacies and mail.
10. A small convoy of brand new high performance cars with explosive resistant hulls and runflat tires passes by. At least three black cars with tinted black windows drive through the area as quickly as possible. DHQS plates are all the warning most people need.

Hazards

1. There is a sick chemical smell on the air, giving anyone here a headache. Somewhere nearby a shipment of dangerous chemicals or toxic waste has leaked.
2. Electrical equipment clicks and buzzes. There is something radioactive nearby.
3. There is something wrong with the light here. It is always as bright as an overcast day, light sources are dim and the interiors of houses are pitch black.
4. Something here interferes with electrical current. Solar panels and generators do not produce charge, gadgets drain one charge every hour spent here and flicker and pulse when used.
5. There is something wrong with the air here. The atmosphere here is thin and choking like that of a high altitude village. It is easy to get tired, breathing is hard and strenuous exercise impossible. Lose one stun to every body part once and hour while you stay here.
6. Something is wrong with the passage of time here. Salvage looks good as new or a hundred years old. Takers that pass through suffer from delusions in which they hear the sounds of civilisation — the noise of televisions, children playing at the nearby schools, or music and people in the restaurants and bars.
7. Something just spontaneously caught fire — an old car battery or chemicals perhaps. It may appear safe for a while but as it spreads it will ignite more chemicals, flammable materials such as paper and fabric, and make toxic, choking smoke.
8. There is something wrong with magnetism here. Craters dot the area and create fields of strong magnetism. Some attract metal while others push it away with great strength. At random moments during the day the fields will suddenly collapse for a few minutes, releasing any trapped debris, before restarting again. Needless to say, compasses and delicate electronic equipment will not work while in the area.
9. There is something wrong with the temperature here. It is either as hot as a tropical rainforest or as cold as the worst part of a local winter. To make matter worse, fires seem harder to light and produce less heat.
10. This zone seems to repel casualties and anyone infected. There are never any casualties or infected here. It is a safe zone where anything with the infection feels a strong compulsion to leave, Latents that stay here feel uncomfortable and anxious for some unexplainable reason. One member of the party rolls dice. If the dice are in the black, the area is peaceful. If the dice are in the red, the party get nosebleeds and headaches a short time after entering the area. Each hour they may opt to take either one box of kill damage to the head or one point of humanity loss.

Leedham Te Kani