Random Encounter Template for Stonetop Expeditions

03 Nov, 2025

I've just started up running Stonetop again, this time as a duet game; my friend Sam Kabo Ashwell is playing as a Ranger and a Would-Be Hero at the same time. However, unlike my previous runs at Jeremy Strandberg's excellent game, I've spent the past year or so marinating in the whatever-you-call-the-now-dead-OSR blogosphere, which has created in me a great appreciation for the random encounter!

Now, it's worth noting that Stonetop, as such, is not quite as procedural as other games like Cairn or OSE when it comes to travel. However, on reflection, I think there's still something to be gained here by letting what occurs on a given leg of travel be affected by random chance. It lowers the GM burden and inserts some surprise in ways I have found myself wanting in my two previous Stonetop campaigns.

The procedure is simple - instead of planning out exactly what happens on each leg of travel, per Stonetop's expedition rules, just roll on the table! Prepare your points of interest as normal¹.

Accordingly, let me present my customized random encounter template for Stonetop! Note that you then must populate this table for an appropriate journey - I'll give my example at the end of this post.

Here is what each entry means:

• An unusual or magical encounter is something that relates to the strange and dangerous magic that is so core to the Stonetop ethos of making the mundane fantastical and vice versa. For example, you might write an encounter with the crinwin in the Great Wood, a Stone Lord construct in the Flats, or a kyakaara horde in the Whitefang Mountains.
• A mundane or human encounter is the counterpoint to the above. Beasts of the wild, humans on similar journeys on the Maker's Roads, or rivals up to no good in the wilderness. I'd probably reserve people like hdour for the previous entry, though - this should be more along the lines of bandits or potentially-hostile bands of Hillfolk.
• A non-encounter obstacle should be something related to the environment that causes an issue for travel proceeding apace. This is a great way to incorporate challenges like "The way will be grueling" or "The terrain itself is treacherous".
• A shift in weather is simple: at the start of the expedition, roll on the relevant random weather table in the GM playbook. Then, when you get this result, roll 2d6. If both dice are above the current entry, shift the weather up one step; vice versa if both dice are below it. So, for example, if it is late winter/early spring and the current weather is 4 (Clouds on the horizon), if you rolled a 5 and a 6, you'd move up to 5 (A fine, sunny spring day); if you rolled a 1 and a 3, you'd move down to 3 (Cold and windy). If you rolled 2 4s or a 3 and a 5, you'd stay at 4.²
• Discovery requires you to just roll up a random discovery (or create one by picking) for the relevant biome! For my current game, I rolled "useful or valuable flora" while planning a table for an expedition into the Great Wood. I describe it below in my example.
• Keep Company just triggers the move, as written! In many systems ilke this, the 6 space is "free" (i.e., it costs no resources and presents no new challenges). It seemed like a perfect opportunity to trigger this move.

I realize that this procedure slightly countermands Stonetop's procedures as written - per the existing rules, one simply drops in the relevant challenges from the expedition as they see fit. However, I often find it hard to remember to do so! This is a way to externalize those in a customizable way - but, of course, one could always choose to address one of these challenges on your own too. There's no reason the two approaches can't work in parallel - choose what makes sense, particularly if a challenge is unaddressed, or roll if you're unsure. Rather than use a separate procedure for "when the way is perilous", one could instead change the nature of these encounters to be more dangerous, too!

Here is what one table could look like when fully realized. In this scenario, the PCs are tracking down the Ranger's mentor, Tracker Olwen.