Rehashed Tables for Castle and Village Occupants

Here are the tables I've been using for stocking castles and villages around the wilderness in conjunction with "The Wilderness Architect." 

My intent with these tables was to make them a little less overtly magical, so fewer chimera or basilisk guardians, and more complete than the ones presented in Underworld and Wilderness Adventures.

Castle Occupant

Castle occupants are generally high level NPCs retired from adventuring, warfare, and other similar activities where experience may readily be gained.

Alignment should be rolled, not only for Lords, Wizards and the like, but for each classed NPC or group of like NPCs within a castle, town, or village. This creates a sort of factionalism that will lead to more interesting scenarios later on.

1	Lord		1, 2	Lawful
2	Superhero		3, 4	Neutral
3	Wizard		5, 6	Chaotic
4	Necromancer
5	Patriarch
6	Evil High Priest

Other Residents

In typical castle, 30-180 men will man the walls, half of whom will be crossbow armed light foot and the balance will be heavy foot. There is also a chance that there will be others in the castle’s party:

Castle Resident	% Chance of Having	Level
Fighting-Men	75% chance for 2-12 Knights	3-6
	25% chance for Magic-User	5-8
	50% chance for Cleric	3-6
	5% chance for Monsters
Magic-User	50% chance for Fighting-Man	5-8
	50% chance for Apprentice	4-7
	10% chance for Monsters
Cleric	50% chance for 1-6 Assistants	4-7
	50% chance for 3-18 Fighting-Men	2-5
	5% chance for Monsters	N/A

Fighting-Men will typically be formed into an order of Knights or Templars, who may be sent out on quests or crusades and act as commanders in the ruler’s army in war times.

Monsters should be rolled based on the type of hex terrain the castle is built on from a list of like-aligned monsters. Thus a Chaotic ruler will be served only by Chaotic monsters while a Lawful one by Lawful monsters.  

Town and City Residents

There is a chance that villages, small towns, large towns, and city will small percentage of local Fighting-Men, Magic-Users, Clerics, and Thieves. Residents of these classes will generally form themselves into companies, guilds, and churches if there is enough of a certain class or warrant such. Alternatively, Fighting-Men may be of lesser nobility lording over the village. Levels will be from 1-4.

	Fighting-Men	Magic-Users*	Clerics*	Thieves
Village	10%	5%	5%	-
Small Town	25%	10%	10%	10%
Large Town	50%	25%	25%	25%
City	85%	50%	50%	50%

* Use column for Fighting-Men if castle occupant is over this class.

Magic Items

Castle rules and other resident NPCs may possess magic items with a chance based on their level and type based on class.

Fighting-Men have 5% chance per level for…	Armor	Shield	Sword
Magic-Users have 5% chance per level for…	Wand/Staff	Ring	Misc. Magic	Potion (1d6)
Clerics have 5% chance per level for…	Misc. Weapon	Armor	Shield	Staff
Thieves have 5% chance per level for…	Ring	Sword	Misc. Weapon

  

Monsters & Treasure Assortment: Levels One-Nine

I have recently acquired a cope of the  Monsters & Treasure Assortment: Levels One-Nine supplement. Essentially, the Monsters & Treasure Assortment is a set of random d% tables to help the DM determine the monsters and treasure on each level of their dungeon. There are also a number of more minor tables scattered throughout the first few pages, such as one for traps guarding treasure ("Treasure is guarded by...") or a table for where the treasure is hidden ("Treasure is hidden by/in...").

What intrigues me most is that the monsters are treasure found in this book are not specific to any one version of the game. Monsters solely found in AD&D and presented right next to monsters only found in Moldvay basic scatted with treasure found only in OD&D. This is a supplement that obviously defies a single, unified game.

While the monsters and treasure presented in the book are obviously scaled by the level of the PCs, there is definitely an attempt to keep players on their toes, such as including a Warlock (8th level magic-users) as a possible opponent on the second level of the dungeon. If that doesn't for the players to start using their heads (assuming the warlock does just cast fireball), I don't know what will. At the same time, there are a number of opponents that would normally be considered much too easy on lower dungeon levels.

Treasure, on the other hand, is much more uniform. There are no curse weapons on the first level and the first time a +2 weapon shows up is a dagger +2 on level three (never mind, there's a spear +3 on level 2) . Similarly, there is a much larger percentage of monetary treasure on the first level compared to more difficult areas. In general, like monsters, treasure seems to scale with dungeon level, but there are definitely some major wrenches in those gears, much to my appreciation.

Overall, I'm finding the Monsters & Treasure Assortment to be a great resource, something that games like Labyrinth Lord or Swords and Wizardry should consider cloning.