OSR: Horrible Burgher NPC Generator

Burghers are town-folk; members of the third estate who live and work in towns or cities. Some are richer than any lord. Some are more wretched than any rural peasant. Medieval urban centres were deathtraps. Mortality rates far exceeded birth rates.* Higher wages, greater security, and a greater availability of goods and luxuries drew new arrivals into cities.
*Infant mortality and plagues were the main contributing factors. If you made it to 20 in a city, you were nearly as likely as someone in the country to make it to 50.

Boccaccio, Des cas de nobles hommes et femmes (French version of De Casibus), France c. 1470

1d100	First Name	Profession	Guild?	Demeanour
1	Richard	Alchemist		Devout
2	Richard	Apothecary		Devout
3	Charles	Architect	G	Devout
4	Charles	Banker	G	Devout
5	Louis	Bookbinder	G	Devout
6	Louis	Bureaucrat		Devout
7	Robert	Chirurgeon		Devout
8	Robert	Clock-maker	G	Devout
9	William	Engineer	G	Devout
10	William	Falconer		Devout
11	John	Goldsmith	G	Stoic
12	John	Herbalist		Stoic
13	John	Illustrator		Stoic
14	Claude	Land-merchant	G	Stoic
15	Thomas	Lawyer		Stoic
16	Adam	Poet		Stoic
17	Jean	Sea-merchant	G	Stoic
18	Hugh	Spice-merchant	G	Stoic
19	Joseph	Storyteller		Stoic
20	Michael	Tax Collector		Stoic
21	Raymond	Armourer	G	Ruthless
22	Roland	Astrologer		Ruthless
23	Matthew	Bag-maker	G	Ruthless
24	Gilles	Baker	G	Ruthless
25	George	Barber-Surgeon		Ruthless
26	Greggory	Basket-maker	G	Ruthless
27	Edmund	Belt-maker	G	Pragmatic
28	Phillip	Blacksmith	G	Pragmatic
29	Geoffrey	Brewer	G	Pragmatic
30	Henry	Bridle-maker	G	Pragmatic
31	Gadifer	Bronze-caster	G	Hopeless
32	Oliver	Broom-maker	G	Hopeless
33	Stephen	Butcher	G	Hopeless
34	Andrew	Carder	G	Hopeless
35	Huguet	Carpenter	G	Hopeless
36	Francis	Cartwright	G	Hopeless
37	Peter	Chandler	G	Hopeless
38	James	Cheese-maker	G	Hopeless
39	Gilbert	Clerk		Hopeless
40	Arthur	Cobbler	G	Hopeless
41	Jules	Cook		Lazy
42	Andre	Cooper	G	Lazy
43	Jerome	Copyist		Lazy
44	Guy	Debt Collector		Lazy
45	Jacob	Dyer	G	Lazy
46	Isaac	Embroiderer		Gluttonous
47	Mark	Farrier	G	Lustful
48	Nicholas	Felt-maker	G	Greedy
49	Victor	Fishmonger		Prideful
50	Roman	Fletcher	G	Slothful
51	Alice	Furbisher	G	Wrathful
52	Alice	Furrier	G	Envious
53	Joan	Gambler		Incompetent
54	Joan	Glassmaker	G	Blasphemous
55	Agnes	Glove-maker	G	Petty
56	Agnes	Goatherd		Ambitious
57	Margery	Gongfarmer	G	Ambitious
58	Margery	Gravedigger		Ambitious
59	Isabel	Hat-maker		Ambitious
60	Isabel	Inn-keeper	G	Ambitious
61	Mary	Jailer		Ignorant
62	Mary	Jeweler	G	Ignorant
63	Mary	Leatherworker	G	Ignorant
64	Mary	Locksmith		Ignorant
65	Margaret	Mason	G	Ignorant
66	Emma	Mercer	G	Diseased
67	Juliana	Miller	G	Diseased
68	Christine	Minstrel	G	Diseased
69	Katherine	Miracle Play Actor	G	Diseased
70	Beatrice	Needlemaker	G	Diseased
71	Elizabeth	Lead Servant		Skeptical
72	Ellen	Ointment-maker		Skeptical
73	Mary	Pack Handler	G	Skeptical
74	Amice	Painter	G	Skeptical
75	Sibilla	Parchment-maker	G	Skeptical
76	Cecily	Pewterer		Frantic
77	Sara	Plasterer	G	Frantic
78	Avice	Porter	G	Frantic
79	Isolda	Potter	G	Frantic
80	Lucy	Poultry-keeper		Frantic
81	Mariota	Rat Catcher		Frantic
82	Ann	Rope-maker	G	Frantic
83	Annabel	Salter	G	Frantic
84	Anastasia	Scullion		Frantic
85	Avelina	Sculptor	G	Frantic
86	Letitia	Servant (Domestic)		Surly
87	Agatha	Servant (Military)		Surly
88	Eustacia	Shipwright	G	Surly
89	Sabrina	Siege Engineer		Surly
90	Susanna	Stonecutter	G	Surly
91	Andrea	Swineherd		Surly
92	Anna	Tailor	G	Surly
93	Bianca	Tanner	G	Surly
94	Colette	Thatcher	G	Surly
95	Flo	Toll-keeper		Surly
96	Lucia	Weaponsmith	G	Rebellious
97	Goody	Weaver	G	Rebellious
98	Charity	Woodcarver	G	Rebellious
99	Faith	Woodcutter	G	Rebellious
100	Hope	Woolwinder	G	Rebellious

Generally, membership in a guild was limited to men, but every system has an exception, and the sources sometimes show guildmaster's wives giving wise advice, interfering, supporting, or occasionally wreaking havoc.

1d10	Guild Troubles
1	Supplies of a vital material or resource are running low.
2	The treasurer absconded with the guild's savings.
3	Feud with a rival guild is nearing a bloody climax.
4	Desperate drive to recruit new members.
5	Preparations for an annual procession paralyze guild.
6	Factions within the guild fight for power and control.
7	Disaster cripples both guild members and guild finances.
8	Guild has earned the wrath of local rulers.
9	Rival town seeks to undermine and bankrupt guild.
10	The lower ranks of the guild are in open revolt.

Bible Historiée, France c. 1250

Quotes

Concentration of wealth was moving upward in the 14th century and enlarging the proportion of the poor, while the catastrophes of the century reduced large numbers to misery and want. The poor had remained manageable as long as their minimum subsistence could be maintained by charity, but the situation changed when urban populations were swelled by the flotsam of war and plague and infused by a new aggressiveness in the plague’s wake.

As the masters became richer, the workers sank to the level of day labor, with little prospect of advancement. Membership in the guilds was shut off to the ordinary journeyman and reserved under complicated requirements and fees for sons and relatives of the master class. In many trades, work was farmed out to workers in their homes, often at lower wages to their wives and children, whose employment was forbidden in the guilds. Obligatory religious holidays, which numbered 120 to 150 a year, kept earnings down. Although forbidden to strike and, in some towns, to assemble, workers formed associations of their own to press for higher wages. They had their own dues and treasuries and connections across frontiers through which jobs and lodgings could be secured for members, and which doubtless served as channels of agitation.

[...]

They worked at fixed wages, often below subsistence level, for sixteen to eighteen hours a day, and their wages might be withheld to cover waste or damage to raw materials. The alliance of the Church with the great was plain enough in a bishop’s pastoral letter declaring that spinners could be excommunicated for wasting their wool. Workers could be flogged or imprisoned or suffer removal from the list of employables or have a hand cut off for resistance to employers. Agitators for the right to organize could be hung, and in 1345 ten wool-carders had been put to death on this charge.

-A Distant Mirror, Tuchman



Naturally the merchants, whose rise preceded the coming of industries to Siena, lead the way in the formation of a general society planned to protect their common interests... But the crafts were not slow to follow suit, and presently the masons, carpenters, inn-keepers, barbers, butchers, millers, and other classes of workmen and artisans were organized as arti, with the usual apparatus of constitution, officers, regulations, prohibitions, and fines... Among many excellent regulations which concerned themselves with obtaining for the consumer a full measure and an honest product, were to be found others which, by paralyzing the free activities of the workers, must have caused grave harm. Thus the statues of the wool guild required that only one pieces of cloth be woven at a time, that it be neither longer nor shorter than a certain standard, and that only native wool be put on the looms; and all guilds alike pursued a selfishly exclusive policy, imposing a heavy tax on all candidates for admission, and positively forbidding the exercise of their respective occupation to all but guild members in good standing. Add minute regulations regarding the hours and quantity of labour and the observation of so many church festivals that about one hundred and thirty days of the calendar year were devoted to enforced rest, and we get some idea of the mischievousness of that spirit of over-regulation which characterized both the guilds and the government.

[...]

The proletariat of [the wool] industry, concentrated largely in the quarter of Ovile, numbered several thousands. In the recurrent periods of industrial depression or in time of high bread prices, their condition must have been terrible. That they organized in 1371 and sought redress by violence proves that they were growing desperate; decimated for their pains by a cowardly massacre... they and other workingmen of a too independent leaning were expelled, to the number of four thousand, from the city. This almost ludicrous act of party fury may be taken to mark the end in Siena of capitalistic production on a large scale.

-Siena, Ferdinand Schevill

Other Useful Tables

Horrible Peasant NPC Generator  
1d100 Peasant Grievances  
Horrible Baron NPC Generator
1d100 Baronial Grievances
If you want a more refined sort of person, from a different age, try the Dickensian NPC Generator. If not, try the Table of Camp Followers.