Hey, everyone.

Typically I run a 4-5 person group as a sanctioned event for my college (a staff member attends regularly) and we always have LOADS of fun. Unfortunately, almost all my players tend to treat it more as a strategy game than a role-playing game. They don't pursue character details or depth as much as the action, even though they have a desire to. They all admit it's a bad habit, but I also have lost the drive to try and draw them in to different arcs.

Down-time is the worst. They never go carousing, they never do anything roleplay-ish during flights, they just have their characters sit there despite assurances that some kind of preparation before missions (physical exercise, research, party interaction, SOMETHING) would be beneficial.

With this problem in mind, I pitched to them the idea of potential arc-styled encounter tables. If they choose to carouse, spend significant time in one locale, or conduct long-term space travel, I would roll a d100 to have some kind of encounter. On a 1, I will have them roll a d8 on a special Misfortune table. Conversely, on 100, a Fortune table. All other events are given two potential numbers, 2-3, 4-5, 6-7, etc.

I would love to hear any event ideas the community has to offer, especially in the area of social invitations or sudden meetings. My criteria are:

1. Leave the idea open ended. Each event needs to be so abstract that it could potentially occur on any "civilized" world from Coruscant to Tatooine. Tusken Raiders, for example, would not be confront a party on Ryloth. "The natives" is a more vague and appropriate phrase.

2. Combat encounters are not entirely necessary. Encounter tables should always be about potentially creating new, interesting side-arcs. If an encounter involving physical danger DOES come up, it should involve some kind of plot device the PCs can exploit using their non-combative skills (face skills, computers, knowledge, etc.)

3. While no idea is too small, ideas may be too big. For example, finding lightsabers, major Jedi artifacts, Imperial weapon caches (though other caches are not as big a deal), new ships, and other objects of massive value or story-potential are probably not a great idea for the scope of campaigns I personally run.

4. Finally, try and identify some repercussions or implications for particular actions for the PCs actions. For example, I have an encounter catalogued where a mysterious, small shipment of illegal goods, or an equally mysterious though larger shipment of legal goods is left outside their ship with an invoice showing (probably incorrectly) that ownership of the freight has been transferred to them. Depending on what they do, the true owner of the cargo could be a huge liability.

TL;DR give me some encounter table ideas!! XD

Depending on how fleshed out I can get the list, I'll almost certainly post it for general use.

Thanks in advance to everyone's contribution!

P.S. For anyone unfamiliar with the Savage Worlds ruleset, I highly recommend using their Interlude mechanic. All you do is take a full pack of playing cards (including jokers) and have each player draw a card during downtime. Depending upon each suit, they have the opportunity to tell a story about themselves:

Clubs: Tragedy. The character should recount a tale of woe to the party. It can also be about an adventure that was thought to be victorious, but ended badly or in partial loss.

Spades: Victory. The character should tell a triumphant story about a successful mission or a great adventure.

Hearts: Love/Passion. The character should tell a story about family, a lover, a pet, or even a simple passion for an activity, whether its cards, sports, fine alcohol, a ship, etc.

Diamonds: Desire. The character talks about a goal or desire for something they actively pursue beside the common mission goal of the party.

Rewards can include XP, or even flipped dark side coins for particularly uplifting, emotional, or endearing stories.

This is a good use for obligation. Have all sorts of mini encounters that can set off, regardless of if they rolled their obligation that session (maybe have them be significantly worse if the did though).

For example, an alcoholic might wake up from a blackout the next day not realizing he pissed off a rival smuggling crew that comes looking for him, obsession could easily trigger a fairly non-sequiter encounter where they investigate something that character is obsessed with, or a group obsessed with that same thing, etc etc. Don't shy away from introducing recurring NPCs this way either, that just helps make future encounters easier to come up with . I would make the table full of encounters that are specific to your players. It'll help them better roleplay and give each of them moments that are more specific to them, which should be a lot of fun for them.

This is a good use for obligation. Have all sorts of mini encounters that can set off, regardless of if they rolled their obligation that session (maybe have them be significantly worse if the did though).

For example, an alcoholic might wake up from a blackout the next day not realizing he pissed off a rival smuggling crew that comes looking for him, obsession could easily trigger a fairly non-sequiter encounter where they investigate something that character is obsessed with, or a group obsessed with that same thing, etc etc. Don't shy away from introducing recurring NPCs this way either, that just helps make future encounters easier to come up with . I would make the table full of encounters that are specific to your players. It'll help them better roleplay and give each of them moments that are more specific to them, which should be a lot of fun for them.

Fair enough. I'll noodle on this, could be helpful for me later on as well...