A small example of the start of some sort of encounter generation system.

At the beginning of each day, roll d100 and deploy the encounter where it makes sense during the party’s overland travel actions.

Should some event guarantee the presence of an encounter, it is possible to roll a smaller dice — for example, 1d20 to see who or what nearby hears a particularly loud commotion the party made, or 1d6 to see who is being kept prisoner by a group of militiamen.

Encounters in the Near Wilds

1-2: 1d6 fresh exiles

3-4: 2d6 bandits. 1 in 6 chance that they are disguised occult-futurists.

5-6: 3d4 traveling companions from a settlement.

7-8: 1 transcendentalist, freshly escaped/exiled.

9-10: 2d10 industrialist militiamen

11-12: Pack of 2d6 King’s Dogs (like scottish deerhounds), running feral. Whenever a natural 6 is rolled on either die, one dog is mysteriously well groomed.

13-14: Herd of deer, 1 in 4 chance they are being hunted or stalked by the results of d12 on this list.

15: 1d4 devils.

16: 1d8 state-sanctioned thaumaturgists.

17: Roll 1d20, ignoring this result. You find the remains of the result. If the “Horseman” is rolled, they are faking it.

18: A campsite. Roll 1d20, re-rolling repeats of this result to determine who is here. If the result is wildlife or the “horseman,” they are investigating the abandoned camp.

19: Roll 2d20, re-rolling repeats of this result. An encounter between two groups.

20: A “Horseman.”

21+: Just an ever present breeze in the thickets.