Random Encounters: The Ruined Arcology

It seemed like Utopia: a city in a single building — high-tech, secure, and "sustainable." Shopping, entertainment, health clubs, offices, and services all in one gleaming structure. When the giant multinational company built it, the planners envisioned a hundred-story "company town" filled with fifty thousand workers and executives. They'd get coddled and cared for in exchange for loyalty to the company. But no plan, especially not an architect's dream, survives contact with changing markets and land values. The company went bankrupt years ago, and now the building sits, caught in a tangle of conflicting claims and lawsuits, too big to fill and too expensive to knock down. Drifters, gangs, and all manner of shady characters have taken over entire floors. Police and the demoralized building security guards prefer to stay out.    

ENCOUNTERS IN THE RUINED ARCOLOGY

(Roll 1d20 when moving, 1d10 when stationary.)

1. Roll twice and combine
2. Plot advancing encounter: Someone or something related to whatever brought you into the ruined arcology.
3. Bats! This section is home to a huge colony of bats, which leave at twilight and return at dawn. They're harmless, but most people don't know that and a hundred thousand bats are kind of intimidating.
4. Blackout: All power goes out for 2d6 times 10 minutes. Elevators stop, corridors are pitch-dark, and electronic systems shut down.
5. Deranged Cyborg: It's an eight-foot machine of rusty steel and yellowing plastic, controlled by a human brain going mad inside its support tank.
6. Drone: An autonomous machine. Roll 1d6 to see what kind it is. 1: Biomonitor taking air samples, 2: Cleaner futilely trying to vacuum and wax the floor, 3: Delivery Drone with a package worth 1d100 dollars, 4: Hunter drone hunting you with a built-in submachine gun, 5: Media drone watching you, 6: Police/Security looking for trouble.
7. Gang Members: 2d6 young tough guys armed with knives and clubs. The leader has a pistol. They will at least demand a bribe, and may just decide to defend their turf by killing you.
8. Gas Trap: The air vents fill the room with knockout gas. Victims get a chance to notice they're feeling groggy before it takes effect. After half an hour two organ-harvesters arrive wearing gas masks. They purge the atmosphere, take out their tools, and start taking people apart.
9. Girl Scouts: 2d6 girls armed with AR-15 rifles, going door to door selling cookies. All of them have the Urban Guerrilla merit badge.
10. Vigilante: He's a veteran of urban warfare, and is fully equipped with combat armor and lots of weapons. This floor is under his protection.
11. Atrium: A hundred-story shaft with broken skylights at the top. It offers access to all floors, and a way out. There are elevators which may or may not work, stairs which may or may not be barricaded — or you could just climb up or down.
12. Burned-Out Floor: A fire swept through here a few months ago. The interior walls are blackened skeletons, the ceiling is gone, and the floor has hidden holes and gaps.
13. Chased! Roll again to see who's after you. Depending on who it is, the pursuers may be a loud angry mob, a determined hunter, or a stealthy stalker.
14. Chili Shop: Akira Minamori came here from Osaka to pursue his obsessive dream of creating the world's greatest chili. His tiny unlicensed chili parlor is neutral territory because nobody wants him to stop cooking.
15. Hacker: Xu Xi (a.k.a. "2O") used to be the keystone of the corporation's IT department, now he stays in his apartment living on drone-delivered sushi. He can use the building's monitors and security systems, and take over any drones. He knows (or can find out) a lot of secrets.
16. Holograms: This area is filled with projections of what the building designers imagined when the arcology was new. There are happy families, well-scrubbed kids, and affluent shoppers, all in demographically perfect ratios.
17. Illegal Gene Parlor: "Doc" Singh who runs this place makes a living doing basic medical care, but her passion is creating new hybrid organisms. Pull out any book of monsters to see what she's cooking up.
18. Mall Ninjas: 2d4 ninjas in full "ninja costume" armed with gift-shop katanas and throwing stars. They hide in unlikely places and attack by surprise.
19. Toxic Waste: It's expensive to dispose of hazardous substances properly, but stacking the drums in empty apartments in a building nobody cares about costs almost nothing. The unlabeled drums hold biohazards, poisons, corrosive chemicals, flammable or explosive substances, and radioactive material. And they're starting to leak . . .
20. Tracks: Roll again to see what happened or passed through just before you arrived.

SITUATIONS IN THE RUINED ARCOLOGY

(Roll 1d6 for the situation, then roll on the table above to see who or what is involved.)

1. A desires B
2. A wants to capture B
3. A wants B dead
4. A wants to go somewhere
5. A wants to solve a mystery
6. A wants X