Not everything has to be random though in order for it to be a living breathing world. Maybe one NPC goes on a walk every Wind day (or whatever the days are called) and here is the random part, one day he gets attacked and needs help and is willing to pay a small reward! and other days he never gets attacked at all. Make the people sitting at tables together eat and talk amongst themselves... instead of staring into space........ things like this are what im talking about. A group of Kobalds randomly attack one of the settlements (or whatever those houses are out in the middle of nowhere) and helping them out leads to a reward. None of this walk up to an NPC with a ! over his head and he says.... Ooh... i think we are going to be attacked... would please help us? And if you walk away nothing happens (Like a static quest would)... it should be.. "WE ARE BEING ATTACKED HELP!" while they are actually being attacked, and then you help or you dont but if you dont they get ransacked. Kind of like the Taru in whitegate getting kidnapped in FFXI, that wasn't static (or it was and i wasnt paying attention XD).