I'm once again turning to the good folks at Stack Exchange for help regarding my non-magical campaign. I've written several encounters in which the PCs fight the main bad guys and their followers (mostly men, elves and dwarves), but I'd like to have some side-encounters here and there throughout the campaign, just to break up parts of the main story line when there isn't a lot of combat.
The problem is, I've created a country where it's really hard to do that. The "creatures" of the world are basically the five races and plain old Earth animals. There aren't were-anythings, kobolds, goblins, etc. I can only do "a group of bandits has overtaken a small village" so many times. I can have the PCs fight a group of bears or wolves, but there's a good chance they won't want to.
Does anyone have any ideas for interesting one-off encounters that don't involve magical or "fantastical" creatures?
Update: The crux of my problem is that I'm short on ideas for creating interesting side-encounters, specifically in terms of "bad guys," in the simple country I've created. There are no "monsters" in this country, just men, elves, dwarves, gnomes, halflings, and animals that we find here on Earth. So, the question is, does anyone have any ideas for making interesting one-off encounters, which do not relate to the main plot, considering the above limitation?
Note: I realize how lame this country sounds. In my defense, once the PCs succeed here, they will journey across a huge desert and finally be ready for some magic and more familiar D&D monsters.
No, I do not want to have some monsters show up who came from across the desert. That sounds like a major red herring for my PCs.
Update to the Update: Thanks everyone for the great answers. I'm going to flat out steal some of yours, but they've inspired some new ideas or tweaks of my own, too. Again, greatly appreciated, everybody.
Best Answer
Think about the real world
There are many conflicts in the real world, for many reasons. Look at news or a history book if you need inspiration. Not all of them are combat encounters, many might be detective work and exploration.
But much more important than the exact back story is in my eyes:
Make combat encounters diverse
It's not (only) the creature selection that makes an encounter interesting, but how you set up the battle. Let me make an example, with the same old 'bandit take village hostage' in three variations. I'm sure if you run it like that, the players won't complain it's always the same.
Devious, planning ba...ndits
The bandits have obviously heard of the wandering band of do-gooders and are prepared. First, they send in the dogs. Use skirmisher dogs that charge + make the enemy prone. Feel free to give them half HP or make some of them minions in order to make the battle shorter, but use enough different dogs they can't be locked down.
The dogs are backed by ranged attackers on the roofs behind chimneys - that means ranged attacks from cover, plus potentially combat advantage if they hid well. To get on the roofs, require at least a move action + athletics check. You can also make them minions, or at least some.
After two rounds, when the party is likely to be softened up, send in the Hog-Brothers, two large, burly fighters, brutes that will focus on the same target to make it go unconscious...
Trees are fun
Bandits have taken over the village, but the village is on a hill. When the party approaches, the bandits roll logs (trees) down the hills. That's a nice trap against Reflex that damages, secondary attack against Fortitude that slows. Once the party is up the hill, use charging brutes that push them down again. As always, use cleverly distributed archer minions to make it more dangerous.
Hostages
Again, bandits take over the village. Everyone is on the village square. When the party arrives, two bandits in the center threaten the peasants that were rounded up. Can the party lock down the two bandits and prevent an all-out slaughter, while fending off the other bandits? If you make the villagers run around frightened on the battlefield, you have another nice restriction: non-friendly area attacks kill peasants.
Build up a villain/villains
Don't worry too much about 'same backstory' for side encounters, it doesn't really matter as long as the fights are interesting. And you could build up a gang of bandits that terrorize the area... every session there's another gang-related side encounter. With time, the bandits also start hunting the party. This could tie diverse and interesting encounters together. Build one or two lieutenant for every side fight that has special capabilities (not magic, but either some leaderish/controllerish powers or a especially hard brute/soldier.