Serpico in Space! Or Something.

 Secret Santicore 2017!

Prompt: An encounter table for 1970s New York City, except the genre is space opera and people are just getting used to visiting aliens and future tech.

I have this as a DOCX, but it's prolly easier to just cut and paste it here. Also, in this version I've corrected a couple of errors and tried to make it a little clearer. 

Serpico in Space! Or Something.

Santa’s Mission: An encounter table for 1970s New York City, except the genre is space opera and people are just getting used to visiting aliens and future tech.

The Situation: New York City has gained notoriety for high rates of crime and the decline in the city's quality of life. The city's subway system is unsafe due to crime and mechanical breakdowns. Prostitutes and pimps frequent Times Square, while Central Park is the site of muggings and other violent crime. Homeless persons and drug dealers occupy boarded-up and abandoned buildings and the New York City Police Department is being investigated for widespread corruption.

And if that wasn't complicated enough, there's the aliens. No, the real aliens, from fucking outer space. And the rayguns, and computers, and everything else. They aren't not helping, at least not yet, but maybe they can? Who knows? Not me, man. Not me.

How to Use: Roll a d12 and a d30. Look up the result of the d12 on the ADJECTIVE table to get an adjective /descriptor, and then look up the d30 on one of the NOUN tables. There’s a GENERAL table for NYC, plus a more specific table for different parts of NYC, like MANHATTAN.

Special Notes: Interpret the combination of adjective and noun in whatever way makes sense. If it doesn’t make sense, think about it for a bit. For example, during the day when no clubs are open, if you think about it an "Angry Clubber" might be on their way to a dead-end retail job. Maybe that's why they're angry, even; their mood is better when they're actually clubbing. If, after thinking a bit, you still can’t make it work, re-roll both results. 

There may be overlap between categories. That’s okay. Frex, an Arsonsist might also be a member of a street gang, or even a Stock Broker. Few people are full-time Arsonists. Re-roll the noun if you want some additional information on that Teenager or whatever. 

Also, understanding and allowing overlap will also allow you, if you want, to have the same character be encountered multiple times while adding complexity to said character. Turns out that Bored News Vendor is also a Smarmy Drug Dealer...

In particular, the "Alien" and "Space" adjectives have a lot of room for interpretation. If you roll "Space Cabbie," that could mean an alien cabbie, or a human who runs a cab in space. In addition to space alien, "Alien" could mean "human illegally from another country," but that’s usually boring, or it can mean someone who deals with aliens if you don’t want an actual alien, like an Alien Cop might be a police officer in a special squad for dealing with space aliens and their tech.

"Space" or "Alien" could also mean that the person in question has access to some futuristic technology. So a "Space Gangbanger" might be a local gang member who’s gotten their hands on a plasma shotgun.

Speaking of which, "Gangbanger" is used to refer to a member of a street gang. "Gangster" is used to refer to a member of an organized crime family "Techie" means anyone who works with something highly technical, like electronics.

AVERAGE means the mythical "average person." Now, this could get weird in combination with the adjectives. "Alien AVERAGE" might mean the "average" space alien that is inclined to visit Earth, or an Average Jane with some weird technology. 

If it makes sense for more people to be in an encounter, add them! A Dignitary or Celebrity likely has bodyguards and/or an entourage. Better to just make these up than roll them, though you could roll on the adjective table for them.

Speaking of more than one person, a Tourist Group is specifically 1d6+1 tourists. You can use a higher die type if you want the possibility of, say, a busload of tourists.

Disclaimer: The author is a cis white dude who was raised in West Virginia, lives in Washington, DC, and has never been to NYC. So I’m relying heavily on a little research and lot of media tropes here. Stereotypes abound, and I've likely gotten something wrong here. I’m sorry! Hopefully, it's fun anyway.

Remember, even with alien tech available, the Bronx is still burning…

 

ADJECTIVE (d12) 

1 Hurried

2 Angry

3 Confused

4 Contemptuous

5 Bored

6 Busy

7 Smarmy

8 Alien

9 Space

10-11 Opinionated *

12 Re-roll. If another 12 is rolled, result is Genuinely Friendly.

* An optional "OPINIONATED ABOUT" subtable is provided below if you don't have an idea what they'd be opinionated about or want to leave it to chance.

SUBTABLE: OPINIONATED ABOUT... (d10/d6) 

Roll d10 to find what they're opinionated about. They will go on and on about this topic.

1 Space Aliens

2 Immigrants

3 Mayor

4 Homosexuals

5 Alien Technology

6 Space

7 Disco

8 Different Race/Ethnic Group

9 Crime

10 Sports Team

Roll d6 to find out how positive or negative they are on the subject.

1 Very negative

2 Rather negative

3 Somewhat negative

4 Mildly negative

5 Mildly positive

6 Somewhat positive

Yes, they're more likely to be negative than positive. Yes, that's intentional.

You should know what noun table you want to roll on, but if you don't, they're numbered so you can roll a d6 to decide. 

1. GENERAL (NOUN, d30)

1 Mugger

2 Prostitute/Pimp

3-4 Cabbie

5-6 Commuter

7 Tourist

8 Tourist Group

9 Dignitary

10 Celebrity

11-12 Street Vendor

13-14 Construction Worker

15 Politician

16 Radical

17-18 News Vendor

19 Teenager

20 Cop

21 Gangster

22 Gangbanger

23-24 Old Person

25 Child

26 Homeless Person

27 Drug Dealer

28-29 AVERAGE

30 Street Performer

2. BROOKLYN (NOUN, d30)

1 Mugger

2 Prostitute/Pimp

3-4 Street Performer

5-6 Squatter

7-8 Street Vendor

9 Construction Worker

10-11 Radical

12-13 News Vendor

14-16 Teenager

17 Gangster

18 Gangbanger

19-20 Old Person

21-23 Child

24-26 Homeless Person

27 Drug Dealer

28-29 AVERAGE

30 Cabbie

 

3. QUEENS (NOUN, d30)

1 Mugger

2 Prostitute/Pimp

3-4 Cabbie

5-6 Commuter

7-8 Squatter

9 Techie

10 Celebrity

11-12 Street Vendor

13-14 Street Performer

15 Politician

16 Radical

17-18 News Vendor

19 Teenager

20 Cop

21 Gangster

22 Gangbanger

23-24 Old Person

25 Child

26 Homeless Person

27 Drug Dealer

28-29 AVERAGE

30 Construction Worker

4. THE BRONX (NOUN, d30)

1-2 Mugger

3-4 Prostitute/Pimp

5 Street Performer

6-7 Squatter

8 Street Vendor

9-10 Radical

11 News Vendor

12-13 Teenager

14-15 Gangster

16-17 Gangbanger

18-19 Old Person

20-21 Child

22-23 Homeless Person

24-25 Drug Dealer

26-28 AVERAGE

29 Cabbie

30 Arsonist

 

5. STATEN ISLAND (NOUN, d30)

1 Mugger

2 Prostitute/Pimp

3-4 Cabbie

5-6 Commuter

7-8 Squatter

9-10 Street Vendor

11-12 Street Performer

13-14 Radical

15 News Vendor

16 Techie

17-18 Teenager

19 Cop

20 Gangster

21 Gangbanger

22-23 Old Person

24-25 Child

26 Homeless Person

27 Drug Dealer

28-29 AVERAGE

30 Construction Worker

6. MANHATTAN (NOUN, d30)

1 Mugger

2 Prostitute/Pimp

3 Cabbie

4 Clubber

5 Tourist

6 Tourist Group

7 Dignitary

8 Celebrity

9 Street Vendor

10 Construction Worker

11 Politician

12 Radical

13 News Vendor

14 Teenager

15 Cop

16 Gangster

17 Gangbanger

18 Roll 1d6. Odd: Old Person. Even: Child.

19 Techie

20 Homeless Person

21 Drug Dealer

22 AVERAGE

23 Street Performer

24 Roll 1d6. Odd: Punk. Even: Bohemian

25 Stock Broker

26 Office Worker

27 Actor/Actress

28 Snob

29 Sports Enthusiast

30 Professional Sports Player

 

Examples of Use:

The PCs have just arrived at the JFK Spaceport from a brief stint on Mars, and the GM decides to have someone bump into them. The GM decides to use the General table, not feeling that JFK is going to partake much of its local neighborhood flavor. The GMs roll a d12 and a d30, getting a 5 and a 22 respectively.

"Bored Gangbanger". The GM decides that the gangbanger is waiting to greet a man who is smuggling a new alien drug onto Earth, which his gang then distributes. He's bored because he's done this so many times before. In fact, he's so bored he isn't paying too much attention, and mistakes the PCs for the latest in the constantly-changing roster of smugglers, signified by a certain mode of dress that one PC accidentally imitates…

Later, the PCs have barely escaped that same gang and found their way into Queens. Desiring another random input, the GM rolls a d12 and d30, this time looking at the QUEENS table for the noun. The GM rolls a 10 and 3 on the d12 and the d30 respectively.

"Opinionated Cabbie." A classic! The PCs were looking for a cab, and they pile in. The GM decides to roll on the subtable to figure out what the cabbie is opinionated about. The GM rolls a d10 and a d6, getting a 6 and a 2 respectively. The cabbie is opinionated about Space, in a Rather Negative way. When the Cabbie finds out the PCs work in space, an argument starts, and one of the PCs, the one who was mistaken for a smuggler, can't keep their mouth shut, causing the group to get ejected from the cab before they reach their destination.