Goodman Games

One of my players has an extra character that he wants to have make some coin while the other adventures. This player has made a fairly intricate plan of how he wants to use the ship from Sailors on a Starless Sea and another one to run goods up and down a local river near the events of that module (and others), and eventually have hireling NPCs run the cargo while he too adventures. I'm thinking of having him roll for random encounters daily(?) and giving him the option of playing out those combats (if PCs are present) or randomly determining an outcome (?), but I also want to make a weekly Event Table that includes things like Mutiny (Personality check or lose control of the crew), or a truly epic encounter (angry Chaos Leviathan). Any 0one tried anything like this?

I would think you would want a couple of tables. In cases that are vague like this i have the player roll for the weather (d8, 1 is great, 8 is lousy) and then start to consider what type of encounters you would have. This could include things like border patrol and/or port security, other ships (pleasure, trade, military; 1, 5, a fleet - also fun to have the party come across a naval battle in action to see whether they want to help a sinking ship or loot it), random 'monsters' (air, surface. sub).

If you become motivated by your PCs style of play, then have a few set pieces at the ready for any of what we described above. As a fan of Firefly, there is also the matter of having 'city' encounters that lead to specific missions (get object X over to city Y because there is a problem with Z). Those city encounters could be the value of the whole session in and of themselves, with the actual mission being secondary.

Loads of fun opportunities await.

Losloris