I have a system for creating "background dressing" in big cities in sword & sorcery settings. These are meant to be background events, mostly outdoor, that describe foot-traffic. They are not intended to be immediately violent, or to be adventure hooks that lead to a well-defined job. They can be adapted for those purposes. They're supposed to teach player characters information about the campaign world through roleplayed actions. The encounters can be placed in the middle of an in-progress adventure if the GM desires.
In a long-term campaign, what I've found to be valuable about this is, not necessarily what players do when they first encounter it. It introduces new characters that the GM can think about for a week or two, and the GM can think about how a background character mentioned once has their own problems and motives, and how they might come back to the player characters. The random encounters in-game are "secret preparation" in this way.
Out of a deck of 52 playing cards (54 with jokers I believe), draw two cards. The first card is the spectacle, which is a background event that is noteworthy enough for the GM to describe to the passing PC party. The second card is the complicator, which is an NPC that is antagonizing the spectacle or passersby (or is just being in the way). The complicator could also accost the party instead of the background event. Alignment and ideoligical motivations are decided by the GM after drawing the cards.
Many NPC's are described only by occupation. Whether they are male, female, human, dwarf, etc has to be adapted by the GM, probably "on the fly".
| Clubs | ||
| Card | Spectacle | Complicator |
| 2 ♣ | Loitering Torchbearer | Drunks |
| 3 ♣ | Fullers | Chain Gang |
| 4 ♣ | Clown Doing Acrobatics | Crowd of 20 Beggars |
| 5 ♣ | Tavern Barkers | Minstrel |
| 6 ♣ | Tinker Selling Cookware | Child Gang |
| 7 ♣ | Dozen Whores Hanging Around | Conscripts |
| 8 ♣ | Military Flogging | Wandering Peddler |
| 9 ♣ | Rabble Stealing Clothes off an Injured Person | Escaped Slaves |
| 10 ♣ | Crowd Arguing with a Single Scold | Press Gang |
| J ♣ | Bonfire in the Road with Grillers and Dancers | Pickpockets |
| Q ♣ | Crook Turf Battle (both ranged and melee) | Press Gang |
| K ♣ | Pirates who have Docked | 1d30 Barbarians |
| A ♣ | Professional builders tearing down houses | Wizard |
| Hearts | ||
| Card | Spectacle | Complicator |
| 2 ♥ | Reindeer ranchers hawking reindeer | Rat |
| 3 ♥ | Hunters selling cured meat, furs, hides, and firewood off of sleds | Cat |
| 4 ♥ | Drover selling off sheep | Shepherd with 20 (d40) sheep |
| 5 ♥ | Animal Feed Giveaway | Loose Dog |
| 6 ♥ | Loose Steer | Donkey |
| 7 ♥ | Fair with Horseshoes and Hog Wrangling | Ornery Horse |
| 8 ♥ | Contest of Strength (e.g. Heavy Carry) | Boars |
| 9 ♥ | Hurling game with a leather ball | Macaque |
| 10 ♥ | Horses dragging a prisoner | Gaggle of Irate Seagulls |
| J ♥ | Whalers butchering a whale, selling whale meat | Drunk Bear |
| Q ♥ | Moving carpet of spiders and cockroaches | Gorilla |
| K ♥ | Archery Shoot-off | Mountain Lion |
| A ♥ | Bowling Tournament | Herd of Elephants |
| Diamonds | ||
| Card | Spectacle | Complicator |
| 2 ♦ | Midden Shoveler | Mayor's Assistant |
| 3 ♦ | Rag & Bone Collector | Student; Scholar |
| 4 ♦ | Road Builder | Gardener |
| 5 ♦ | House Builder | Barber-Surgeon |
| 6 ♦ | Munters Jerking Around Robed Slaves | Mason/Foreman |
| 7 ♦ | 8 Porters with 6 Guards Pushing a Heavy Wagon | 13 Farmers |
| 8 ♦ | 1d12 Muscular Thugs Walking Snapping Rottweilers on Thick Chains | Charmed Scribe |
| 9 ♦ | Parade of Dancers in Sea Serpent Outfits | Halflings |
| 10 ♦ | Knight with 8d8 (31) guards and porters | Priest (not necessarily having an ideological argument) |
| J ♦ | Crashed Carriage Blocking up Road and One Alley | Thieves on a symbolic heist (e.g. a piglet) |
| Q ♦ | Traffic Jammed by Two Opposing Lanes of Wagons | Noble with 20 Guards and Champions |
| K ♦ | Runaway Wagon on Fire | Jailers |
| A ♦ | Cloud of "Breathable" Haze | Shipping Company |
| Spades | ||
| Card | Spectacle | Complicator |
| 2 ♠ | Old Couple Shuffling Around | Gloomy creep |
| 3 ♠ | Heap of rotting fish carcasses | Hunter of Undead |
| 4 ♠ | Butcher handing out irregular meat scraps | Undertaker |
| 5 ♠ | Crowd watching a physician dissect a cadaver (hung by armpits on a rope) | Gravekeeper |
| 6 ♠ | Corpse hanging on a pole | Widow |
| 7 ♠ | Street-wide overflow/flood | Zombie, Brain-eating |
| 8 ♠ | Multi-building fire | Imp |
| 9 ♠ | Funeral procession (for a merchant, noble, or "big farmer") | Draugr |
| 10 ♠ | Temple BBQ | Undead's servant |
| J ♠ | Peasants keeling over dead | Clay Golem |
| Q ♠ | Pool of Magma | Elementals |
| K ♠ | Rain of sharp rocks | Ruler of Ruling Faction |
| A ♠ | Slave of Death | The Army |
| One Joker | Another Adventurer |
| Another Joker | An agent of "the dragon" handing out "gifts". |
These examples are for a party in the city "Zoa". The party is Archie the mage, Betty the barbarian, and Clyve the moon cleric. The GM is Reggie.
A scruffy half-elf in worsted work clothes is passing out gristly kabobs to a crowd of dwarves and gnomes.
A clay golem, also the size of a gnome, is alternately shoving the meat giver and anyone who takes a skewer. The golem shoves with fearsome might. The golem's entire surface is embossed with engravings of severed animal heads.
The golem's slow speed allow most of the crowd of food-takers to dash away. The golem swivels its head toward a grey-cloaked dwarf who ran down an alley, who it proceeds to pursue with bricklike certainty.
A hundred and one townspeople including children and elderly are marching south. Some are weeping and they are murmuring if not keeping silent. Six middle-aged people are pushing a covered carriage.
The carriage has a flag embroidered with the emblem of Grampy Storgurd, a generous man with a rough past, from the frontier days.
Fourteen mounted watchmen have blocked the road ahead of the procession. A guard is shouting through cupped hands, "This farmer's unserved jail time has made his funeral illegal. I'm afraid you'll all have to pack it in."
A shouting erupts between the pallbearers and the cops. "Out of the way you dogfuckers! Get lost you whore shits! Out of my face!" Fourteen additional guards with crossbows and maces shuffle in.
One of the few funeral attendants not carrying a weapon is, looking around with some nervous desperation. He is a bookish man holding something wrapped in colorful linen (he is trying to figure out who to bribe).
Welp that is the system. Draw two cards, first card is the background event second card is the nuisance. Improvise an event which is that. It might work better if you prepare ahead, or work it in as a detail for something you already wrote, but it may not be worth the time to do so. Bye.