Abandoned Locations - Derelicts (Promptober 2025 #13)

A roadside derelict.

What happens when you roll a random encounter while your party travels? Do you just wing something? Do you want a little more meat for your idea generation? What about exploring a derelict?

As long as other people have passed this way before, derelicts are surprisingly common in rarely-traveled areas. They work in all genres and all settings, from ruined carts on a roadside to hollowed-out buildings in the aftermath of war, and from abandoned caves used by hunters to hulking starships floating powerless through space.

But what will your party find when they explore this derelict?

The entries below give a general guide to what the derelict holds. Feel free to stretch the encounter into a long exploration with potential horror vibes as vermin scuttle from the ruins, if you want. Exploring the unknown still supports much of my current TTRPG play, so adding a little side encounter with some mystery attached is never a bad thing. If the party finds something valuable, its story begs for discovery.

Tell the history of the place through exploration. A log or diary might need more time than a random side encounter will allow, but logs could provide a hook to a larger adventure. Have the characters discover clues that let them piece together why the previous occupants abandoned this place. Adding some blood or a body makes sense if violence touched this place. And if a little treasure will get them in trouble, offer them a shiny bauble just out of reach that they'll need to risk something to recover.

What does the party find in this derelict?

1d8	Derelict Contents
1	Empty and sterile. Anything of value has long since been stripped.
2	A pack of vermin occupy the crevices. They've scavenged much.
3	Traps designed to alert and annoy trespassers protect a space with a skeleton.
4	Something escaped a shipping container. Other containers may be intact.
5	A well-hidden cache in a chaotic space contains a rare item.
6	An expedition set up base camp here, leaving clues about what they sought.
7	An ambush predator lives in the walls, picking off loners.
8	A diplomat left this place suddenly, scattering their meticulous notes.

Part of the Promtober project for 2025.