A bit of practical flavor from my 3.5 days, every tavern and shop has a big, friendly dog trained to run up and enthusiastically greet everyone that enters. These animals all have the scent special quality, allowing them to sniff out invisible people and expose them for very little expense.
Also, a good guard dog is both a mascot and a very cheap and effective deterrent/guard. And if needed (murder hobo party) you can upgrade from gaurd dog along the spectrum to polymorphed dragons of various ages. The reason a dragon is polymorphed as a guard dog, find the lore you like ranging from it just feels like it to the barkeep/guard is a retired adventure and the dragon is his pet.
@@jasonreed7522 The dog doesn't have to be a dragon. If the players kill the dog, everyone will want them dead. The DM can devise whichever classes or abilities they need to.
@@MogofWar im not saying jump straight to dragon, but anything along the lines of a wolf or blink dog is an upgrade from a normal dog like a mastiff or german shepherd. In a world with lots of retired adventures and mythical beasts, its not unreasonable for some retired adventures to become bodyguards/bouncers in shops and taverns, qnd some may have aquired exotic pets. Using a polymorphed ancient white dragon is only as a last ditch effort for a particularly bad group. (Definitely talk to them about their ways before going this far, because something is seriously wrong with your game if every shop has an ancient dragon masquerading as a guard dog to stop murder hobos from murder hobo-ing your NPCs) I would definitely start with a big friendly 100lb dog as the tavern/shop mascot that literally everyone loves and it has a nose good enough to notice invisible people. (We can assume the dog insight checks all patrons in its greeting of them, just to have a sense of good or bad vibes from them since dogs are excellent judges of character) And keep my options open for more well off shops, like the magic item shop in the capital should definitely have a blink dog that is trained to blink to its master durring a break-in.
Stealing this for a candyland campaign i'm slowly building and working on. TIL Licorice Dogs exist and will be a wonderful addition to the world at large, especially for the big tavern that works hand in hand with the local adventuring guild, which i'm thinking of starting the players in if this ever becomes an actual campaign. The tavern caters to the locals, naturally; this town in particular is all about guards and as such most of the patrons to the tavern will be such. However, being the largest tavern also means it'll attract some adventurers, which it can usher to the adventurers guild
My absolute favorite thing i put into every campaign is: A tiny gelatinous cube, no bigger than a rat or cat. The cube wears a top hat and monocle that are always slightly sunk in its body. It absorbs spilled drinks, dropped foods and pests like bugs and mice. Its beloved by the townsfolk and its used to advertise and such
Starting in a tavern is a classic Fantasy trope. It goes back at least to the 13th century when Geoffrey Chaucer wrote the Canterbury Tales, about a group of adventurers who, though from different backgrounds, all meet at a tavern and decide to group up for a pilgrimage to Canterbury. The idea of Dnd is similar. Strangers meet in a tavern and decide to group up for one purpose.
Came to say something similar. Public Houses (Pubs) were the central hubs of communities all over Europe and even the smallest towns would have at least one.
Nine Steps to Creating Your Own Tavern: 1. Name 2. Layout (consider max occupancy) 3. Services (incl. prices) 4. Menu (incl. descriptions) 5. Staff (organization) 6. Patrons (groups) 7. Events & Circumstances (entertainment, typical habits) 8. Quests (source, hook) 9. Details & Polish These videos are wonderful; thank you so much! :)
The biggest disconnect for menu design is how we don't really live seasonally anymore. Spring, summer, fall, and winter are all going to have different food options (at least for fresh food). That's why bread, cured meat, and cheeses will be the only things that are available all year round (and how different towns compete with one another). Also, because many taverns brewed their own drinks they have a lot of pride in their drafts, and use local ingredients. Also, the tavern is going to be where beggars and the like will congregate (some looking for handouts, some possibly begging for help - a la the farmers in SEVEN SAMURAI).
Yep. Also, the environment is going to influence the meals available. Plains villages would have vegetable based meals, coastal villages would have fish and mountainside villages would have more cheese and meats. Good chance for worldbuilding
During the summer a tavern would offer fruit punch (bits of fruit and watered wine) from what ever fruit is local Elderberry strawberry apples as an alternative during the day not every meal had to be alcoholic and also help keep down dehydration for workers who were in the feilds or store house all day
@@3nertia assuming Inn owner could afford it, they could buy fantasy fridges, fueled by an ice imbued crystal. Or have stoves. Or automated pots... it's true, if you have it, possibilities are endless!
I once had a tavern that had essentially a surround sound system. The tavern keeper had a magic slab that would allow him to switch between a couple recorded songs by a local bard. My party was obsessed and would go visit just to see if they had new music.
I had an idea for a unique tavern feature, where in the back of the room there would be a large clockwork machine with two switches on the sides of said machine. For only two silver pieces, the players would have three chances to play a strange game where you were supposed to hit a tiny silver ball with levers in order to hit certain buttons and achieve “points”. Yeah, I was going to make a fantasy pinball machine. The players would put the silver pieces in as if they were quarters, and they would roll a dexterity check for each ball to determine their score.
One thing that I thought could be funny is if the tavern menu looked like this for food: Slop(Basically a goopy soup.) Glop(A soupy goop) Vegetarian surprise(The surprise is meat.) Mystery Meet(The only mystery here is how they get away with calling this meat, actually the only vegetarian option on the menu that isn't served in pints...) Rat on a stick(Exactly what it sounds like.)
Or as a tavern in a setting where goblins, kobolds, or other kinda "rat-esque" behaving races may be a touch more civilized and try to emulate the successful designs of the typical races of humans, elves, and dwarves. I can see a particularly charismatic goblin boasting about how good their roasted rat is to some adventuring party
The tavern+inn I have my current campaign based on has a two-item menu: 1- The Soup: it's hot, it's affordable, it's nutritious and it's reasonably tasty even if it looks like a very thick broth with bits of indistinct kinds of food in it. You can ask for it at any time (except when it's closed, of course) and it includes a bit of bread and a pint of wine or ale. In a cauldron which is always kept placidly boiling, they put the ingredients as needed to keep it full (the ingredients being: water, vegetables and anything cooked but not consumed at the last turn). 2- The Dish: it changes every day according to what is available. It's fancier, tastier and better looking than The Soup... but is about ten times more expensive. It is always a sizable quantity of meat or fish, always really well cooked, served with a delicious side, half a loaf of bread (all bread is baked daily on the premises) and a jar of wine or ale or a glass of something stronger.
In my last longterm campaign, one of the party members was actually a tavern owner. His tavern was called the Buoyant Bastard (because it was near canals and alliteration is fun). The Bastard became a natural meeting spot for the party and was known as a neutral ground for all the competing factions of the city. It got decorated with trophies from their adventures and was kind of another character in the story.
We operated a diner on the Moon. It was not a neutral place. Everyone knew this was the danish part of town, where danish navy people, embassy staff and others close to us hung out. Including the local street gang. It was like walking into a gang holdout but everyone speaks danish and drinks gammeldansk and eats weird sausages. We wanted a meeting place and cover that we were in full control of, where people knew they could meet us.
Waaaaaay back inAD&D I made up the Hobgoblin head Inn where patrons would get a free stein of beer for every hobgoblin head they brought in. Like the rat catchers from Europe. The PCs loved it.
Oooohhhhh. I'm about to start a dark sword and sorcery low magic campaign where hobgoblins are a playable race. Ima use. The players will have to interact with varrying cultures, slavery, and xenophobia in a primordial hostile world. It will be interesting to see what they do with this. Thanks!!!
Historical taverns also served as places for weddings, Meetings and whatnot. Like conference halls, or cons at a modern hotel. Really the uses are just as diverse as modern simular places.
I hate how much people talk crap about the tavern cliche, yes everyone has one in there campaign, but they also was a big part of the community in the old days, hell they still are to some people (especially people in there 20s)
I started as a mild over-prepping DM. Half a year in, and Im improv-ing a solid 80% of the session. As far as taverns/inns go, I prep a basic menu with prices, room price, job board, and thats it. I usually neglect prepping names and npcs so i ad lib. The Candied Crest, the Spellbook Brook, the Fletcher's Arrow, etc. For npcs, I pick a random character from a book, movie, or show and reskin them. Makes it a bit fun to see if anyone picks up or recognizes the references. If I forget someone, I add them in next session with an excuse. I.e. "Ah! Decide to show up today, eh? I had zero servers yesterday! Zero! Where were you?" I also swap out the staff for day and night crews. Usually like to have species that came from the Underdark man night positions in establishments and the guard because they'd be more comfortable. If a player misses a session, the party comes back to find the PC spent all day in an impromptu card tournament in the tavern, and i have the player (this is once they return) roll to see if they won or lost coin, clothes, etc.
Everyone asks "Where's the tavern?" but no one ever asks "How's the tavern?" I'd like to try running an adventure in which the heroes have to save their beloved tavern.
Put the keeper in a bind, the party gets there pretty late and it's quiet, their kid is part of the hunting party of the village but they're not back yet, I'll cover three rounds and your beds for the night to go make sure they's not dead. Bad omens, gut feelings, new dungeon, dragons overhead, whatever, but having the keeper themselves be the first questgiver and simply gathering whoever is currently around that looks up for a scuffle to go maybe save their sprout.
But also, WHO is the Tavern. When the Tavern appears only under the light of a full moon, you know you're not dealing with some mere business. You are dealing with a man inflicted with the unholy curse of wild architecture: the rare Werehouse.
My best ever tavern was the Salty Sea Dog (named for its best selling beverage). It's a bit of an oddity that can appear in any port settlement in any game, in any setting, so long as I'm running the game. The ground floor is pretty standard, with an upper floor for more interesting patrons (could see anybody in there), but the basement is where the action is. All the Salty Sea Dog locations have a portal hidden in the basement. The portal leads to an infinite hallway with doors and stairs spaced regularly. The doors are portals to who even knows where (sometimes one way), and the stairs lead to other Salty Sea Dog locations. This happened because one time, our DM was suddenly unable to game, but it happened after we had all gathered. Instead of calling it off, I told everybody to make characters, get lunch and I'd have something in a couple hours. We had so much fun with that one shot that the Salty Sea Dog became a recurring thing in any game I ran, ever.
I designed one that was more of a cookhouse. Rows of ovens and stoves, and just five tables along the back wall. This was for people who opted to save on rent by not having a kitchen at home, they'd bring their food to this place, cook it on site, and then take it away. They'd support it by bringing in firewood or coal, salt, spices, etc. and it was run by the "keeper of the cauldron" who would collect trimmings and scraps and put it together into a big soup that could be served to people who could only offer coin.
There is a simmilar Foodhall in the 3e/3.5e sorcebook for Cormyr in the City of Arabel. Low income workers would go into an old warehouse after work to get good but good food. There also is a cauldron where all the strange meats and leftover where just thrown into. Fights every day.
"The Gobblin' Goblin". A tavern run by a few goblins, imps, and other fun out-there characters that provide hot food, booze, and have a small outdoor area for additional eating and drinking with tables and umbrellas and the like. Bonus services being clothing repair and an adjacent stable that usually sees horses but has accomodations for the occasional non-horse mount like lizards, bears, spiders, that sorta thing. It's a new-ish tavern on the outer parts of town, great little tourist attraction due to it being such an odd place.
For a story off mine, I described a tavern called the Sword Hilt Tavern and Inn. The place started out as a small tavern near the mines but when wolves and goblins and orcs moved in, the miners left and the adventurers and military came in so the Sword Hilt Tavern was born and over the years, it expanded. It is described as being easily three different add-ons attached to the small building that has been swallowed up by the expansions and it shows in the interior with the floor being of different woods due to when the expansion was built and what was available as well as a wide assortment of tables and chairs as they needed to buy more s they expanded. There is a large fighting pit in the middle to settle disputes while offering free entertainment without damaging the wares; hopefully. The walls are also of different construction being stucco, stone or brick. There is a new Sword Hilt Tavern and Inn that is being built nearby that is even larger but more uniformed. It also has a small chapel off in a small private room where adventurers can go and say a quick prayer before they go into the mines or the nearby abandoned castle. It is where the Armored Lady met her impromptu party of essentially a fighter who is married to an elf who is expecting twins; elven sisters who run the armory and sell enchanted "bikini armor" and has a dispute over the Armored Lady over which is better; much to the lady's Grieg and chagrin. There is also an archer, an aspiring cleric and a dwarves dungeon guide who sue to mine the hills before they got overran by monsters.
Don't forget that the NAME of the tavern itself can sometimes tell a story about its owner(s). My hub town has a place called the Rutting Ram. Its owner is a dwarf who used to be an adventurer. Back in the day, he rode a giant ram as a mount. This ram had a reputation of being a bit too randy, and often trying to "romance" other people's mounts. One sad night, he ended up stabled next to a she-warg that belonged to an orc adventurer. The ram attempted his "romance" and succeeded, but the warg, none too impressed with his performance, ate him afterwards. The dwarf misses his former mount, and named his tavern in honor of it. He and the orc adventurer still have bad blood between them. If you come in close to closing, after he's had a few drinks himself, you may be able to coax the story out of him.
A few relevant notes: * Real medieval inns started with basic communal sleeping quarters, a shared space in the main room after closing with basic straw mattresses on the floor. This later developed into private rooms with locks as the need grew, but simple communal lodgings would remain available on into the Victorian age. This was about as pleasant -- and secure -- as you'd imagine sharing a single room with multiple people would be, of course. * While some inns would provide bathing services, the real Middle Ages was the age of the baths. Leftovers from the Roman era, these were the _other_ center of medieval life, to the point some people would take multiple baths a day just to hang out and socialize. (This became the focus of many a sermon on Vanity, as you can imagine.) In some cases, the baths and the inn would be jointly owned, allowing for food in the baths and professional bathers in the inn. * As with most types of storefronts (and as mentioned in this same channel's video on general stores), the back of the house is always going to be larger than the front of the house. Prep areas, pantries, storage, etc. * While distillation was known during the Middle Ages (and before), its initial use with alcohol (in the Fifteenth Century) was just to reduce the volume of wine by removing water, making a smaller cask that would be easier to carry --- and taxed at a lower rate by volume. The wine would have water re-added before serving. This process would later create the distilled spirit known as brandy, from the Dutch _brandiwijn_, "burnt wine". (Turned out you got a completely different flavor when you stored the distillation in wood kegs...) * In the real Middle Ages, any inn could be depended on to have stew. This was because of an old travel law (presumably passed by a hungry councilman) that required the inns to have _something_ hot to serve, with stew being the best option. Note that this does not alter the notes on food usage -- it's just that medieval stewing was long-term. The same stew, with additions, could be cooked for several days. This also applied to porridges, as in the old nursery rhyme "Pease Porridge Hot, Pease Porridge Cold". It's not kidding about "nine days old". And some people really did prefer it that way. * Because ovens take up a lot of space, inns usually order the bread and other baked goods from the local baker. This applies to most other goods they couldn't reasonably be expected to make in bulk, from the furnishings on up. * Because of breakage, inns didn't use glassware. Travelers who didn't have their own cup (which was a normal piece of travel equipment) would be provided with a drinking bowl made of wood. Clay plates and cups were available, but more expensive to replace.
One of my favorite gags/challenges was in a tavern. The party enters around midday. There is an old man telling a shaggy dog story at a another person with a group of middle-aged men watching intently across the bar. The middle-aged men are betting how long the person will last talking to the old man before being able to politely exit the conversation or running outright. The party doesn't have to know this before striking up a conversation with the old man. The party can choose to try to talk to him and the middle aged men will give the winner a tip depending on how long they last. The old man is half deaf and is *insistent* on telling his very boring story. As the party listen to him drone on they start taking psychic damage (roll a 1d4 per 'beat' of the story, intelligence modifiers increases the damage they take, wisdom is their health. A drunk stupid character can last quite a while talking to him) if they take more damage they can withstand they are compelled to run, he can't talk you to death. His ramblings can sound like his is giving hints and rumors about the surrounding area, but it's all outdated red herrings. If a party member manages to outlast the old man, "you're crowding me buddy", the middle-aged men will wave them over and give them a big bonus because no one else has lasted that long. I also give the winner a permanent feat (calloused brain. +1 to defensive mental checks, i.e. resisting being charmed, feared, tricked)
If youre still accepting tips 11 months later, i always find that using an ai name generator online and a d20 can substitute most of the work with patrons. Roll the d20 at least once (more for larger taverns/town/cities, and add up the total). Then, blanket statement them all. You can even just say something along the lines of "the tavern seems like your typical busy restaurant," and your players can get the idea in their minds of what this means. If its a relatively homogenous town of humans, then 99% of the people are likely human. If the city is rather diverse in races, just quickly list off different races thatd be common to the area. A dwarf in a city where dwarves frequent wont stand out, but in a town with only humans, theyll be the spotlight. Now for names. Use an ai generator, or use this trick of taking two "first names" and just switching some of the syllables back and forth. David Kyle is now Dyle Kavid. You can even then further swap names, so another name set can be Harold George turned Georold Harge. Swap Kavid and Harge and now youve got some real funky names. Or name them all numerical Bobs. Those are also ok
I think this might be based on someone else's idea, but: Imagine a genre-savvy BBEG that goes around burning all taverns to the ground because that is where most adventurer groups start, and they don't want opposition. (If the BBEG is a tyrannical lord, they might instead outlaw taverns or something, which is slightly less silly.)
Here is one that i just thought of. The Dragons Lair. A small tavern built in the face of a mountain, that's run by kobolts (the more lizard one's). Their cook is a disgruntled Dwarf Adventurer and in the back, there is a door that's leads to the lair of a Dragon (a.k.a. the owner of the tavern).
I did a short campaign once with a rather high end tavern set as a sort of homebase. The first time the players walked in they where greeted by a friendly old lady who worked there as a greeter. Over the course of the campaign the players really grew to like old gran. She was friendly, sociable and helpfull. She even proved instrumental when the players didnt know where to go next in a quest or two. The look of the players when they had tracked down an elusive green hagin the forests outside the city and she greets the players with the old grannies welcoming phrase of *Oh hello there dearies, why dont you make yourselves at home?*. It almost broke their hearts to learn that friendly old gran was a green hag in disguise and have manipulated them to her own goals, taken out rival cultists, threatening forest creatures and meddeling corrupt guards. Couldnt have ben done without the trusty old tavern.
I have an ogre magi as the big bad of my new players and his shape change ability means several "quest givers" can be found, but they are all the same monster. Not a hag, but damn close.
I like to have rumors in the taverns In my game. I like to roll a d10 to determine how much it could be changed because it was passed from person to person. Example, the players hear that the docks are haunted but if they go and investigate they are told the mansion near the docks are haunted but its actually a group of bandits who have taken residence in the abandoned house.
Saw your idea and thought for an extra twist. Once the party gets rid of the bandits, a ghost appears but instead of attacking, the ghost thanks the party for getting rid of 'those damn squatters'.
I have a Tavern called "The Honey Comb", which was ran by fairies, and the owner was a retired character I made. The fairies are at mos 3 inches tall, but they would hire body guards from other races in order to deal with trouble customers. The tavern had its own honey supply, so sweets were very cheap to get, but things like meats cost more
My group runs the inn in town. It’s hilarious. Ok now it’s kinda down to me at this point but I basically use it as a way for the party to have free rooms and a home base when we are in town. Right now I’m the only one left though of the original party that was given ownership of the inn as a quest reward. I use this to continue to fund the party and often give out the gold that it earns when it turns a profit as a a huge chunk of the group fund, besides purchasing things outright for the group. Profit or going into the red is my responsibility and I pay it if it does the latter. This video was a good guide for me in later decisions regarding the tavern part of the inn. Also it’s been a good introduction spot for new players joining the party. I suppose some of you reading want to know what happened to the rest of the party that were the owners. Well, they left. I was in a middle of the week evening game with a bunch of forever dms who ended up having to drop out due to either work or commitments to the games they run. I still play with them, just not in that campaign. I play with them in one shots that our main dm will run. They are a great group. I miss playing with them but I keep them updated on the antics going on they left behind. They love hearing them and like to give me ideas to try in the background. Nothing to annoy the party, just something to be amusing. I hope one day to play a full campaign with them again. Oh! And you all probably would find it hilarious to know, the inn is staffed by the kobolds my party keeps adopting. My original group started it, I continued it, and now the entire party does it still. Dm is quickly learning to stop letting us encounter kobolds even if the random encounters for it shows up.
I like to imagine a group walking into a tavern during the day, expecting it to be bustling like it normally is at night, only for it to be completely empty, only a few staff there. One of the staff is a maid, sweeping the floors, while there are two cooks in the back preparing food, and a manager helping to set the counters for the impending nighttime tide of people. The manager would, in this case, be a bit surprised, but still act as an impromptu bartender to handle the unexpected adventurers.
This is an incredible video! I wasn't expecting the hub to be the tavern when we started but the tavern owner Admus became a favorite with my players so I've been working on fleshing it out. Admus has his sister who is a chef in another establishment but after watching this video I'm going to have them go into business together and turn the Clever Bones Tavern & Inn into a restaurant as well! They already meet their Ranger Information Broker "Drodo" there for main story jobs so...
What a great way to make your town feel more alive! Nothing like siblings going into business together to ensure there are some sort of issues for players to fix later on haha!
One fun tavern idea is for a specific tavern to be the site where several historical adventuring groups find their start with some terrible calamity befalling the town every time some specific fated group of people gather there, all because the bartender was rude to a disguised fey and got cursed for his troubles. “May you live in interesting times” indeed.
"You all meet in an inn" probably dates all the way back to the _Canterbury Tales_ and _Romance of the Three Kingdoms,_ believe it or not. But the oldest examples in popular fantasy fiction are (perhaps predictably) _The Hobbit_ and _The Fellowship of the Ring._
I have an introduction to D&D home brew campaign that starts with the party fighting a fire in a tavern and ends by saving the monster kidnapped by the princess. I also really enjoy using taverns, inns, and shops as slightly underhanded means of LOLs/groans through clever pun names like The Pits of Disparr (an Orcish/Half Orc kabob/bbq eatery), rival starting town taverns Arrok’s and Ahaardah’s Place (with the village green between the two), a regionally famous wine mixing Cantina run by a Dwarfish Nunnery Mother (Fuu Kling), etc
I had several Taverns in a large metropolis in my world. But the one my players liked was Fineleaf Inn. It sat at the edge the Elven district and was not far from the Arena in the orcish district. They would often throw Arena pre and post event parties. Gladiators ate and drank free. One of the barmaids, Tilly, could be found in the Arena on amateur night. It was one of the more lively taverns/ inns in the city.
I have a tavern in my dnd games that I call the black board inn. The black boar is the monopoly of taverns in the region. An ex adventuring dwarf reinvested his money for these locations. One in every major city. He then had a wizard enchant it to allow players or folks to enter the tavern from any one of the store fronts and a magical sound would ring. Basically a GPS locking system to that spot so when that patron left he would go back to that city. The place was massive. 100ds of rooms. With food of all kinds. Booze selection was vast, job board for each city, music and gambling, and the workers are the orphaned children of those city's. The dwarf feeds and clothes them and pays them a small wage to help them. He would be the party's main relaxing location. The dwarf passed keys to each shop front. So as a example if a plague or war ect started. He could easily walk over and lock the door stopping everyone and all things from crossing. He has a blunderbust under the counter and has two black powder revolvers on him. An age hangs above the bar that he used to carry into battle. I have a bunch others that I put in smaller towns that the boar isn't in.
Another good thing to point out about taverns (which saloons were like in the wild west) is cashing larger than normal paychecks for people who work in and around the town.
I am not done watching this and I LOVE it. I put effort into my NPC towns and villages and do have players who come back to places because of that. I even have a Coffee shop run by a Gnome because I wanted one, my players love the place.
Sometimes we have general urban encounters that can happen anywhere in town, including the pub. A venue could have some specialty like a weasel fight every tuesday or really cheap seafood.
this video is really making me think about a small scale campaign in a small village with far greater detail...Like you can use this kind of thinking and apply it to a lot of other shops.
The Crossroads Inn; an inn that sits not just on a crossroads between paths but also between planes. It was the inn I started my players off in for the CoS game I ran.
Best two taverns I have had or seen were a player run establishment from a game that focused on logistics. The second was a place named "The Green Dragon" named after the taxidermied head above the mantel. Offered all the services you mentioned but everyone loved the place due to the 12 NPCs that worked there
We started out a diner run by our embassy, a place where danish navy people, embassy staff, the street gang we allied with and other hangers-on could meet. We weren't handling the logistics of it all, that was in the hands of some hirelings. It was nice to have a meeting place we were in control of where people knew they could get hold of us and our goons.
When "This setting needs a simple little tavern to start off" to "I need to get to apply for my serve-save certification. This place needs a staff of at least 15. What food distribution center is in my realm?"
Couldn't have found this channel at a better time. I've been looking at making a West Marches game centered around an adventurer's guild hall that doubles as an inn and tavern. This video is giving me a lot of ideas on how that'll look as a town grows around the guild, how locals will interact with the adventurers, and how to frame quests as locals ask for help or strangers hang around to hire services. Exceptional work!
my tavern was heavily inspired by the C-team. i havent settled on a name yet but atm im floating around the lazy bear. the patron is in leagues with the quest guild my party is working for and thats why hes a retired adventurer. behemoth of a man. fat like a winter bear but his muscle mass matches his weight. the party can use the inn like a fast travel system. if you light a magic candle and go to bed, the door to the inn will link you to your destination. the inn is located all over the world at the same time. thats a reason why the crowd in the inn is so diverse. youd meet adventures from all over the world in the same place. your video gave me the idea of having homebrewed ales with names based on the alchool content. 5% is the cub's roar. 10% is the salmon's bane. 15% is the winter nap. 30% is the dark dire bear beer
Thank you for this! This has given me a load to think about to try and expand my world building! Also, fun fact, Honey was used in medicine as well so maybe a tavern can hold stock for the local apothacary?
In my game there’s a kind of main tavern the characters frequent. It’s a mixture between rowdy tavern and small scale magic shop, which is run by a retired wizard adventurer. All the rooms are demiplanes and extra dimensional spaces and there are magic drinks available at the bar. The magic store part isn’t humongous, but it has a good supply of uncommon, common, and some rare items. I really like the idea of it as a unique place for the players to stay. Anyway thanks for reading this far :)
I started my last adventure in a Tavern but the players were hostages and had to talk/fight there way out of it. :) You Video a always great to think about the things in PnP you take for granted.
I love, love, love that this isn’t like “taverns are hackneyed! Throw them out and do THIS thing!” It’s a great guide to give something that we maybe let slip by the wayside so much more life.
I'm not a fan of the all-included bnb tavern. I still like the WFRP coaching-inns like little forts along the road, religious communities with hostels and holes in the wall that's just someone selling beer out their common room. It's as fun and weird as the early modern period can be.
If I’m correct, this is the progression: Alehouse (just food and drink, more specifically ale) (this is probably the most common) Tavern (food+drink, and some rooms with some , gotta share beds though) Inns (Food+drink, rooms, stables, and sometimes a bit of “economically incentivized company”… most likely in the rooms) If money is short, you could always ask for a room at the local temple (common practice for pilgrims) or at a hospital (which would be more like a temporary home for lepers, the poor, etc., rather than a place for healing). Temples will give you a place to stay and a ration of bread and water/ale/wine. If wanderlust took them, people would take pilgrimages (their equivalent of tourism), most of the time the objective was to reach a holy site (like a church with something important, like the remains of a saint or famous person), although many would actually have a pious objective, it wasn’t rare for people to travel for other reasons (be it wanderlust or even romance). This might give you some inspiration: Kings and Generals: ruclips.net/video/RPul5aQUkyE/видео.html Extra Credits: ruclips.net/video/RgV9s9ez2cc/видео.html
Religious communities could run hostels. You have a common room to sleep in and they can offer you some food for relatively cheap. But even if you don't share their faith, you are required to respect the taboos and rules of their community while you stay. We had to stay at a place where many of the people had a vow of silence once. At another they had gender segregation in the sleeping areas, we had to divide up the group. A lot of taverns are just someone's bottom floor common room where they have made a batch of beer and sell it. There can be a huge amount of taverns for even small towns. Sometimes gilds exist to operate a shared hall, like a members-only club where everyone pools cash to keep it in order and take turn staffing. Officers, administrators, academics etc could have a bar specifically for them. Unless you are one of them, you will be given weird looks or even asked to leave. Unless your character is a retired officer herself. In Mutant there was a club for imperial officers where all veteran officers remained welcome, so it was the place to go for making contact with the officer corps. I like the WFRP coaching stations myself. They're small forts along the coach-lines where the coaching companies change horses, stay overnight and resupply. A trip between cities can take a day or three and absolutely no one camps in a Warhammer forest overnight. Sometimes roadwardens and bailiffs use a room permanently.
I dig it! These videos are crazy helpful! I have definitely been guilty of short-staffing my taverns and inns. Thank you for pointing out how incomplete that picture is.
Excellent video with much food for thought. One note: if the tavern is the weathiest business in town as you suggest, then it’s probably owned by the feudal landlord or is licensed by him. Otherwise, lots more people would be opening up taverns in the same village to try to get in on this great profit opportunity. Tombstone, Arizona had 110 saloons during its boomtown days, and Port Royal, Jamaica had at least 44 taverns during the 1661 height of Caribbean buccaneering. As you point out, a stranger in a tavern won’t always be there just to hand out quests to likely-looking adventurers. Here are some other ideas. * The stranger is supposed to meet someone here who didn’t show up. She asks one of the adventurers, “Have you seen Freya Flamehair in here?” * The stranger is here to post a letter or pick one up. One of the adventurers may accidentally or purposely see what it says. * The stranger is drunk, and lets slip something to a PC that he should have kept secret. When he sobers up, he begs the PC not to reveal it, or pays him to be quiet, or even tries to silence him by threatening or killing him. * The stranger is fighting drunk, and attacks the adventurers, another patron, or the staff. * The stranger is dying of wounds or illness, and is seeking healing or the last rites of her gods, or someone to carry on the task she can no longer perform.
A fun take on the concept is idea of Coaching Inns, which were common across Europe for centuries before railways became common and are sort of the medieval equivalent of the modern-day motel or truck stop (service stations/motorway services in the UK). I was introduced to the concept through Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, but it's an interesting thing to include that can change the dynamics of overland travel in any fantasy RPG. A Coaching Inn is a large, often fortified Inn that exists by itself along a major road (with equivalent ones along rivers, if riverboat travel is common). They're spaced a day's travel apart based on how far a horse-drawn coach or carriage can travel on an average day (or how far a barge can travel in a day along a river or canal), so they're essentially _only_ frequented by travellers. In England, traditional coaching inns were about seven miles apart. Even a small Coaching Inn will have extensive stabling, as well as a small smithy with a farrier (for replacing horse's shoes), and maybe even a wheelwright (for repairing wheels to carts and wagons) as well. They'll also tend to have their own brewery on-site, and some may become famous or infamous amongst travellers for the quality of their ale or beer. This may also lead to established coaching businesses running coaches along these major routes, between big cities. Big towns and cities may also have several competing coaching inns either at the edge of town, or near a major street or square, as will towns along major routes between other important places (the English town of Barnet has an unusually high number of historic pubs that were once coaching inns, because it was along a major route from London). Established coaching companies historically served as the precursor to mail services, as a coach could carry letters and packages as well as passengers, and dedicated mail coaches allowed bulk transport of mail between big cities.
Our current campaign centers around a tavern. A place where adventurers are known to frequents, and a place where people come to hire heroes. Each games is a 1 or 2 shot that starts in this tavern. That way we can play even if not everyone is there, it's just a different party that got hired. People can keep their characters, or try a new one for a bit. And someone can step in as DM for their own adventure if they want to.
Inns were once professional locations serving wealthier clientele, usually within a gated community which included stables, offices and homes. The entire complex was called an inn. Taverns often included rooms and communal sleeping spaces with boards to sleep on (hence 'board') while pubs or public houses were only for drinking. Meaderies were huge eating halls with long tables and food served. They got their name from the honey mead sold (grounds would contain bee hives). This, at least, is the English origin of the medieval drinking hole. In Europe and Scandinavia it was different again. Scandinavian taverns were also community halls where the chieftain lived and from which the community was governed. Not to contradict your take on taverns but this is the historical reality.
In my tavern, the characters meet their idols and they sort of team up every time their idols come up they can describe what their idols are, and since the idols are local in town, they can easily find their house and overall this would be a great tavern
This makes me think of my first ever tavern I made in my first ever game I ran as the DM yeeears ago. We were doing Curse of the Crimson Throne pathfinder module, first book, my party wanted to find a super cheap tavern to stay in, and I wanted to experiment with a sort of The Sims, so I made the Stinky Raven, a tavern where Jarrod, the owner, was on the verge of bankruptcy and debts, sold all of his furniture that he had just to stay in business. He didn't have anything, so he didn't charge anything to the party. The party would donate some money to him regularly, and the Stinky Raven would slowly build itself back up as the adventure would go on, and Jarrod would be eternally grateful to the party, and have a strong love for adventurers. Naturally, this was back in 2014, where I wish this video was around for me to watch. I bring in the Stinky Raven and Jarrod every now and again, with one iteration of it being some crazy magical flying device and that's how it just so happens to be just about everywhere. I'll have to use this video as a guide for later.
Fun piece of trivia: back in ancient times and all the way up to the middle ages wine and beer were seen as actual elements of nutrition, they were used as actual supplements to food thanks to their high calories, especially in roman times beer used to be a common meal drink for farmers due to its low price compared to other nutricious foods, wine was more expensive (depending on the province we're looking at) but it was used too by all social classes (the higher the status the higher the quality of the wine of course). If the campaign is set in ancient or medieval times, or perhaps in a dystopian future, this could be a nice element to flash out in a tavern, you'll rarely find townfolks drinking water preferring instead economic, low-alcohol beer or wine depending on culture, often brewed within the tavern itself.
I cannot overstate how many times i watched this video and the rest on your channel, your videos are so to the point and direct and nice to look at and easy to understand, really wish you would come back to continue this channel T.T
My group came up with a chain franchise of taverns and inns called The Roosted Inc. during one campaign, and it just stuck. Now whenever we start a new campaign or one-shot, we frame it like it's a story being told by a bard within the Roosted Titmouse, giving the preamble leading into the actual story.
This is definitely in the top three videos I have watched regarding DnD, This video is helpful and informative and it is done in a highly entertaining manner. Awesome!!
Me: this won't be too long or difficult to implement, they're taverns, she'll probably just give tips to keep them feeling alive and just say don't make everyone cookie cutter Me 8 minutes in taking notes: Holy fuck
Actually medieval taverns weren't inns and vice versa. I mean I know we do it in our RPG games and it kind of makes sense, sort of hahaha. But back in the day if there wasn't a good reason for an inn to exist someplace they're just weren't any. The people slept outside or slept in barns or carried their own tent. Slept on their wagons. If they were traveling. The thing is back in the day traveling really wasn't a thing. But when I was playing or dming every little town I ever played in there was always an inn to give the adventures a base from. Makes sense in gaming terms, but as I studied a little bit more medieval history I found out that's not even true. Anyway another great video very informative for gameplay.
While not actually their business here are some other services a tavern could provide: - contact to local businesses as the owner of a tavern will likely know other shopowners - townhall meetings. The tavern is likely the only building with a room that is big enough for all the people in a village, so meeting that involve everybody living in the village might be held there, especially if there is a reason for not doing those outside - eyes and ears. Especially if the tavern is also an inn it is very likely that travellers coming into town will rest in the tavern. If the players are friends with the tavern owner he will inform them about strange newcomers and mysterious people passing by as well as news and gossip they overhear. - Being a Landmark. As the tavern is the biggest building in a village it is also very likely the building that will stand out the most. If somebody gives direction to the players they could tell them to go past the tavern and then it's the second building to the right or something like that.
I'm going to try and run a campaign soon with the "taverns" that the players get jobs and info from being exchanges, which are part coffee house, part stock exchange and part job centre for adventurers in a land where money can be difficult to come by, but if you get lucky you can strike it rich, so everyone still tries anyway
In Empire of the Petal Throne you start as foreigners. You most likely live in the foreign quarter of town where people from the outside world live and goods/services/food/temples you are used to are available. This is just a small section of the city and you're assumed to strike out from there to explore and figure out what the darn place is like and what to think about these crab-people. You are assumed to be adventure-entrepreneurs who don't just sit around and wait though. Conan did not sit around and wait for things.
Some notes from actual history: Yes, candles were quite expensive. But most people didn't use them as their main light source. Even the house of some poor peasant had a hearth that would not only be used to cook but also for light and warmth. Actual fireplaces with chimneys came in the late medieval era, but far more common for farmers were open hearths, the smoke would go under the roof where it would dry stored grain and kill pests. The hearth wasn't like a modern campfire, it was more a line of wood and cooking was often done with pots placed along this line with lots of different kinds of food. They also had fatwood as a quite affordable alternative to candles. So there wasn't really a need to spend the time in a tavern, most villages didn't even have one. Taverns were really more places for travelers and there were even taverns of different price classes. Local people would mostly visit the tavern to buy wine or strong beer (low-alcohol beers was made in nearly every household) and take it home. Taverns also developed quite late (there were taverns in the Roman Empire, but they mostly disappeared during the Early Medieval age), so more around the 13th/14th century. Before that poorer people who had to travel spent their time in hospitals which were basically just sleeping places for free, doesn't matter if you were sick or not. Usually operated by the Church or specific orders. Monasteries were also places people could sleep. While people like merchants usually had their contacts and spent their nights in the houses of other merchants. And nobles would obviously be guests of other nobles. But back to the taverns. The first taverns developed from those richer merchants who offered sleeping places and food for their fellow merchants and they started to actually take money for it. So the first ones were really more AirBnB and not public spaces. Towns then regulated this practices to get their chunk of the profits. So it developed into a more organized business and owners had to hold the right privileges for selling food, drinks and sleeping places (travelers usually didn't pay for a room, but for a bed or often even more for a place in a bed they would share with someone else). That's the reason they had to hang a sign at the entrance, it was a way to communicate "yes, this is a inn/tavern", it was useful for guests, but also for tax collectors. If someone didn't have a sign like that and operated such a business therefore without permission and without paying taxes, they committed a crime. The regulations also makes it more public, inns had to take travelors in if they had capacities, except there was a good reason for them to not trust someone. To carry weapons in taverns/inns is often banned and hosts have the duty to keep order and are often liable for the deeds of their guests. And by the way, medieval taverns didn't really have a counter. They usually just had the barrels stored someone and would pour the beer at a table that often had a high edge. There are also pictures with jugs on the table of guests, so maybe the host would sometimes sell them a jug of wine/beer so the guest could refill themselves. Drinks were also quite often served in glass vessels.
I just found you and my word your videos are amazing. They are comprehensive and super easy to understand. You earned a subscription and I look forward to going through your old videos and new ones.
I like to use 2.5 feet squares. Allows for the crowded atmosphere and realistic table / chair quantity per square foot. In combat large sized tokens can be used when not squeezing in a paniced crowd.
Taverns from what I can tell from all my time playing and running various games, were seen as early as at least the back half of OD&D. Because even the notorious Keep on the Borderlands scenario had a tavern where you could go, get a drink, get rumors via getting the normally quiet barkeep drunk, hire mercenaries, or anything else the GM devised like gambling. Sometimes notable NPCs would even be getting drinks there. That’s the earliest example that comes to mind and that’s a module initially written for Basic, but I have a feeling the concept predates that, hence why I say probably back half of OD&D It has some historical basis mind you, but in D&D they’ve weirdly become merged with Inns which was unusual at best. Even Keep on the Borderlands had an Inn separate from the tavern. So my guess would be it started as a sort of historical emulation but the concept evolved via perception of it as a game element.
I simply love your videos. I'm starting a new campaign and I want to make the environment more interactive for the players. Your video essays and work you put in to divulging the information is top notch!
The Wet Noodle. A tavern that was build a little too close to the river delta which tends to flood. Now many years later with the help of some locally renowned craftsman and partons the tavern is now over a warf. There are buoys that hold a large portion of the tavern afloat. So the tavern lists slightly depending on the tides. The wood groans and the place smells like refuse during low tide. There are frequent gaps in the wooden planks that make up the floor that causes thing to get lost under the tavern that children often go underneath to retrieve. The place despite its flaws is a well love gather place for the locals that are oblivious to the smell. The food served is mostly a noodles and fish dish of surprising high quality hence the tavern's name. Because the tavern is so close to the river row boats are frequently stored along the sides in the evenings. The owner is retired elderly wizard that can afford to light the place well. He perfers to keep himself entertained with spectacle even though his eyes are falling him (or at least so he says).
My best tavern was run by a group of found family orcs & 1/2 orcs in my West Marches champaign. I affectionately called them the Orc fam. The tavern/inn was called the Emerald Flask & the owner was a female 1/2 orc in her 50s that had recently retired from being a (lv20) adventurer. And I'm glad that every player was able to pick up on how intimidating she was just through roleplay even before I mentioned anything about how strong she actually was. The other staff was as follows: Full Orc Chef that would double as a bouncer if things got too rowdy for the actual bouncer. His 1/2 daughter that was the bar maid. And 2 1/4 Orc brothers that look more orc than the rest of their genetics would have you think. The older brother acted as the Host & main bouncer. And the antisocial younger brother was in charge of maintaining the stables, which was perfect for him because he liked animals way better than people. All of theses characters had a character sheet, each at different levels depending on how much experience they'd had in situations in their lives. These came in handy when I later allowed my players to request that some of my NPCs accompany them on adventures, if they'd reached a high enough friendship level with them.
My favourite ever tavern I designed, was called the Twin Temple Tavern Because it was literally that Two temples made into one massive Tavern The god of the tempest and the god of trickery in this land were known to be best friends, The god of the Tempest also being the god of celebrations and drinking, thunder being laughter and the pouring(and spilling) of beverage, the rain. Meanwhile the trickster god was also god of plays and pranks, jokes and misdirection, often his antics would entertain the tempest god So the Clerics of both god's got together to make the Twin Temple Tavern, where drinking, shows, pranks, celebrations, and what else have you, all occur. It is the house of rouges and bards and clerics alike to all sit and be merry, and because the town they live in is a very frequented location, they always have new guests to entertain and celebrate with and with such large approval from local nobility, has massive grants to make sure the tavern is always stocked on good food and wine, as offerings to the gods of course.
In 3.5e one of my characters made a tavern and called it the undead inn. The character was a necromancer who saved up money to make many copies of a magic item called smooth skin gloves. The gloves when worn by a non human would make them look human. Most of his staff were mummies he animated then had wear the gloves to appear as humans and wait on the guest. A hireling I found while adventuring was a lizardfolk who liked to cook and thats what inspired me to make the tavern. I freed a vampire from another vampire's control who I got to agree to work for me as my bard who would keep guest entertained by using her natural charm. I had a skeleton that would do laundry and use his own ribs as a wash board. Besides making a place for my necromancer to stay hidden I also ended up making a base of operations for our party even though my undead didn't like it I had them build a small shrine for the party cleric' s deity. And behind the tavern we made a smithy for our dwarf fighter and a workshop for our changling artificer. The place became so lively as patrons came in on the regular and because I didn't have to pay most of my staff I was able to reduce the cost of what we sold. Before the end of the campaign my secret got out when the town watched me and the party save people from a raid of shifters and orcs and I was scared they would run me out of town even though we had been there for years but I never disturbed their graves or did any of the evil things most necromancer would do. The town surprisingly didn't throw us out and even were glad that me and my undead staff were their to save everyone. Once I was high enough level I was able to awaken the undead (like the spell for plants and animals but undead only version) and a few wanted to be put to rest most were ok with working for me and after I retired the character I put all my minions to rest other then the Vampire who agreed to watch over the tavern after I died from old age. I still like to think out there some where in our universe or multiverse there is a small little tavern in a quite town with a vampire bartender keeping her old friend's memory alive. P.S.: yes vampires are evil but the one that eventually became my friend I showed her other ways to feed without killing people or turning them into vampires by biting them. Using libris morbis, book of vile darkness, and expedition to castle ravenloft I was able to show enough references to convince my dm to not make this vampire a creature that wants to kill all living creatures.
A bit of practical flavor from my 3.5 days, every tavern and shop has a big, friendly dog trained to run up and enthusiastically greet everyone that enters. These animals all have the scent special quality, allowing them to sniff out invisible people and expose them for very little expense.
Also, a good guard dog is both a mascot and a very cheap and effective deterrent/guard.
And if needed (murder hobo party) you can upgrade from gaurd dog along the spectrum to polymorphed dragons of various ages. The reason a dragon is polymorphed as a guard dog, find the lore you like ranging from it just feels like it to the barkeep/guard is a retired adventure and the dragon is his pet.
@@jasonreed7522 The dog doesn't have to be a dragon. If the players kill the dog, everyone will want them dead. The DM can devise whichever classes or abilities they need to.
@@MogofWar im not saying jump straight to dragon, but anything along the lines of a wolf or blink dog is an upgrade from a normal dog like a mastiff or german shepherd.
In a world with lots of retired adventures and mythical beasts, its not unreasonable for some retired adventures to become bodyguards/bouncers in shops and taverns, qnd some may have aquired exotic pets.
Using a polymorphed ancient white dragon is only as a last ditch effort for a particularly bad group. (Definitely talk to them about their ways before going this far, because something is seriously wrong with your game if every shop has an ancient dragon masquerading as a guard dog to stop murder hobos from murder hobo-ing your NPCs)
I would definitely start with a big friendly 100lb dog as the tavern/shop mascot that literally everyone loves and it has a nose good enough to notice invisible people. (We can assume the dog insight checks all patrons in its greeting of them, just to have a sense of good or bad vibes from them since dogs are excellent judges of character) And keep my options open for more well off shops, like the magic item shop in the capital should definitely have a blink dog that is trained to blink to its master durring a break-in.
Stealing this for a candyland campaign i'm slowly building and working on. TIL Licorice Dogs exist and will be a wonderful addition to the world at large, especially for the big tavern that works hand in hand with the local adventuring guild, which i'm thinking of starting the players in if this ever becomes an actual campaign.
The tavern caters to the locals, naturally; this town in particular is all about guards and as such most of the patrons to the tavern will be such. However, being the largest tavern also means it'll attract some adventurers, which it can usher to the adventurers guild
Dog is relavant to keep away varmints and clean up scraps and spills. A few cats could serve this purpose as well and would be historically accurate
My absolute favorite thing i put into every campaign is: A tiny gelatinous cube, no bigger than a rat or cat. The cube wears a top hat and monocle that are always slightly sunk in its body. It absorbs spilled drinks, dropped foods and pests like bugs and mice. Its beloved by the townsfolk and its used to advertise and such
I love this idea!
I’m going to use that
A drunken cube.
Starting in a tavern is a classic Fantasy trope. It goes back at least to the 13th century when Geoffrey Chaucer wrote the Canterbury Tales, about a group of adventurers who, though from different backgrounds, all meet at a tavern and decide to group up for a pilgrimage to Canterbury. The idea of Dnd is similar. Strangers meet in a tavern and decide to group up for one purpose.
Came to say something similar. Public Houses (Pubs) were the central hubs of communities all over Europe and even the smallest towns would have at least one.
It’s also a European tradition for centuries.
Fantastic observation. Trope or tradition? Maybe one in the same.
If you want to read a great tavern story, you should check out The Inn in the Spessart Forest.
Huh. A Knights Tale did not cover this.
Nine Steps to Creating Your Own Tavern:
1. Name
2. Layout (consider max occupancy)
3. Services (incl. prices)
4. Menu (incl. descriptions)
5. Staff (organization)
6. Patrons (groups)
7. Events & Circumstances (entertainment, typical habits)
8. Quests (source, hook)
9. Details & Polish
These videos are wonderful; thank you so much! :)
The biggest disconnect for menu design is how we don't really live seasonally anymore. Spring, summer, fall, and winter are all going to have different food options (at least for fresh food). That's why bread, cured meat, and cheeses will be the only things that are available all year round (and how different towns compete with one another). Also, because many taverns brewed their own drinks they have a lot of pride in their drafts, and use local ingredients.
Also, the tavern is going to be where beggars and the like will congregate (some looking for handouts, some possibly begging for help - a la the farmers in SEVEN SAMURAI).
Yep. Also, the environment is going to influence the meals available. Plains villages would have vegetable based meals, coastal villages would have fish and mountainside villages would have more cheese and meats. Good chance for worldbuilding
@@francescosacca6674 Along those lines, magic would have a HUGE impact where available on how things are processed AND stored, at minimum!
During the summer a tavern would offer fruit punch (bits of fruit and watered wine) from what ever fruit is local Elderberry strawberry apples as an alternative during the day not every meal had to be alcoholic and also help keep down dehydration for workers who were in the feilds or store house all day
@@3nertia assuming Inn owner could afford it, they could buy fantasy fridges, fueled by an ice imbued crystal. Or have stoves. Or automated pots... it's true, if you have it, possibilities are endless!
@@awesomeink seasonal cycle sounds cool, but I wonder how many DMs are willing to set the game in a specific season and are willing to keep track.
I once had a tavern that had essentially a surround sound system. The tavern keeper had a magic slab that would allow him to switch between a couple recorded songs by a local bard. My party was obsessed and would go visit just to see if they had new music.
That tavernkeeper was a retired adventurer, weren't they?
@@silverseth7i think so
I had an idea for a unique tavern feature, where in the back of the room there would be a large clockwork machine with two switches on the sides of said machine. For only two silver pieces, the players would have three chances to play a strange game where you were supposed to hit a tiny silver ball with levers in order to hit certain buttons and achieve “points”. Yeah, I was going to make a fantasy pinball machine.
The players would put the silver pieces in as if they were quarters, and they would roll a dexterity check for each ball to determine their score.
One thing that I thought could be funny is if the tavern menu looked like this for food:
Slop(Basically a goopy soup.)
Glop(A soupy goop)
Vegetarian surprise(The surprise is meat.)
Mystery Meet(The only mystery here is how they get away with calling this meat, actually the only vegetarian option on the menu that isn't served in pints...)
Rat on a stick(Exactly what it sounds like.)
That could very well work for a lvl 1 tavern in a big city, literally the cheapest place in Waterdeep and not much else
Or as a tavern in a setting where goblins, kobolds, or other kinda "rat-esque" behaving races may be a touch more civilized and try to emulate the successful designs of the typical races of humans, elves, and dwarves. I can see a particularly charismatic goblin boasting about how good their roasted rat is to some adventuring party
The tavern+inn I have my current campaign based on has a two-item menu:
1- The Soup: it's hot, it's affordable, it's nutritious and it's reasonably tasty even if it looks like a very thick broth with bits of indistinct kinds of food in it. You can ask for it at any time (except when it's closed, of course) and it includes a bit of bread and a pint of wine or ale. In a cauldron which is always kept placidly boiling, they put the ingredients as needed to keep it full (the ingredients being: water, vegetables and anything cooked but not consumed at the last turn).
2- The Dish: it changes every day according to what is available. It's fancier, tastier and better looking than The Soup... but is about ten times more expensive. It is always a sizable quantity of meat or fish, always really well cooked, served with a delicious side, half a loaf of bread (all bread is baked daily on the premises) and a jar of wine or ale or a glass of something stronger.
It's owned and operated by goblins.
Always have to go with Rat on Stick 2cp and Rat on a Stick (with ketchup) 10cp. Have you tried it without??
RIP T.Pratchett :-)
One of my favorite taverns was run by a centaur. He had a normal building for humanoid guests and an open air bar for the centaur guests out back.
In my last longterm campaign, one of the party members was actually a tavern owner. His tavern was called the Buoyant Bastard (because it was near canals and alliteration is fun). The Bastard became a natural meeting spot for the party and was known as a neutral ground for all the competing factions of the city. It got decorated with trophies from their adventures and was kind of another character in the story.
We operated a diner on the Moon. It was not a neutral place. Everyone knew this was the danish part of town, where danish navy people, embassy staff and others close to us hung out. Including the local street gang. It was like walking into a gang holdout but everyone speaks danish and drinks gammeldansk and eats weird sausages. We wanted a meeting place and cover that we were in full control of, where people knew they could meet us.
Waaaaaay back inAD&D I made up the Hobgoblin head Inn where patrons would get a free stein of beer for every hobgoblin head they brought in. Like the rat catchers from Europe. The PCs loved it.
Yoink
@@oz_jones may you and your players enjoy!
Oooohhhhh. I'm about to start a dark sword and sorcery low magic campaign where hobgoblins are a playable race. Ima use. The players will have to interact with varrying cultures, slavery, and xenophobia in a primordial hostile world. It will be interesting to see what they do with this. Thanks!!!
Historical taverns also served as places for weddings, Meetings and whatnot.
Like conference halls, or cons at a modern hotel.
Really the uses are just as diverse as modern simular places.
Getting together to drink used to be called "meading," from which we get the word "meeting."
I hate how much people talk crap about the tavern cliche, yes everyone has one in there campaign, but they also was a big part of the community in the old days, hell they still are to some people (especially people in there 20s)
I started as a mild over-prepping DM. Half a year in, and Im improv-ing a solid 80% of the session.
As far as taverns/inns go, I prep a basic menu with prices, room price, job board, and thats it. I usually neglect prepping names and npcs so i ad lib. The Candied Crest, the Spellbook Brook, the Fletcher's Arrow, etc.
For npcs, I pick a random character from a book, movie, or show and reskin them. Makes it a bit fun to see if anyone picks up or recognizes the references. If I forget someone, I add them in next session with an excuse.
I.e. "Ah! Decide to show up today, eh? I had zero servers yesterday! Zero! Where were you?"
I also swap out the staff for day and night crews. Usually like to have species that came from the Underdark man night positions in establishments and the guard because they'd be more comfortable.
If a player misses a session, the party comes back to find the PC spent all day in an impromptu card tournament in the tavern, and i have the player (this is once they return) roll to see if they won or lost coin, clothes, etc.
That's really good flavor text for when people miss a session, I'm going to start doing that!
Adventures start in a tavern because it works so well for DMs. You learn a TON about the party in a very short time.
Everyone asks "Where's the tavern?" but no one ever asks "How's the tavern?"
I'd like to try running an adventure in which the heroes have to save their beloved tavern.
Put the keeper in a bind, the party gets there pretty late and it's quiet, their kid is part of the hunting party of the village but they're not back yet, I'll cover three rounds and your beds for the night to go make sure they's not dead. Bad omens, gut feelings, new dungeon, dragons overhead, whatever, but having the keeper themselves be the first questgiver and simply gathering whoever is currently around that looks up for a scuffle to go maybe save their sprout.
Do a sort of A-Team thing where the Inn Keeper is being strong armed for protection money and the PCs will help.
I'll do you one better; WHY is the tavern
But also, WHO is the Tavern. When the Tavern appears only under the light of a full moon, you know you're not dealing with some mere business. You are dealing with a man inflicted with the unholy curse of wild architecture: the rare Werehouse.
@@DeltaDemon1 Love that idea!
My best ever tavern was the Salty Sea Dog (named for its best selling beverage). It's a bit of an oddity that can appear in any port settlement in any game, in any setting, so long as I'm running the game. The ground floor is pretty standard, with an upper floor for more interesting patrons (could see anybody in there), but the basement is where the action is. All the Salty Sea Dog locations have a portal hidden in the basement. The portal leads to an infinite hallway with doors and stairs spaced regularly. The doors are portals to who even knows where (sometimes one way), and the stairs lead to other Salty Sea Dog locations. This happened because one time, our DM was suddenly unable to game, but it happened after we had all gathered. Instead of calling it off, I told everybody to make characters, get lunch and I'd have something in a couple hours. We had so much fun with that one shot that the Salty Sea Dog became a recurring thing in any game I ran, ever.
Everyone starts in one, but not many talk about them!
Thank you for giving taverns the attention and love they deserve
I designed one that was more of a cookhouse. Rows of ovens and stoves, and just five tables along the back wall. This was for people who opted to save on rent by not having a kitchen at home, they'd bring their food to this place, cook it on site, and then take it away. They'd support it by bringing in firewood or coal, salt, spices, etc. and it was run by the "keeper of the cauldron" who would collect trimmings and scraps and put it together into a big soup that could be served to people who could only offer coin.
There is a simmilar Foodhall in the 3e/3.5e sorcebook for Cormyr in the City of Arabel.
Low income workers would go into an old warehouse after work to get good but good food. There also is a cauldron where all the strange meats and leftover where just thrown into. Fights every day.
How have I not found this channel sooner.
you have the specific stuff that every DM needs, and you do it in such an entertaining way!
Last second tavern names be like "The [Adjective] [Noun] (Inn)"
Edit: I just noticed that this video is 24 minutes! Bloody Hell MTD good work!
It's our longest non-looping video yet!
"The Gobblin' Goblin". A tavern run by a few goblins, imps, and other fun out-there characters that provide hot food, booze, and have a small outdoor area for additional eating and drinking with tables and umbrellas and the like. Bonus services being clothing repair and an adjacent stable that usually sees horses but has accomodations for the occasional non-horse mount like lizards, bears, spiders, that sorta thing. It's a new-ish tavern on the outer parts of town, great little tourist attraction due to it being such an odd place.
My on the spot tavern was the Moonshine Mimic, a building that is shaped like a mimic chest with a tongue ramp run by a changeling.
@@jessegd6306 why not the “Gobblin’ Goblinn”, if it provides room services.
@@stm7810 I want to visit your tavern.
For a story off mine, I described a tavern called the Sword Hilt Tavern and Inn. The place started out as a small tavern near the mines but when wolves and goblins and orcs moved in, the miners left and the adventurers and military came in so the Sword Hilt Tavern was born and over the years, it expanded. It is described as being easily three different add-ons attached to the small building that has been swallowed up by the expansions and it shows in the interior with the floor being of different woods due to when the expansion was built and what was available as well as a wide assortment of tables and chairs as they needed to buy more s they expanded. There is a large fighting pit in the middle to settle disputes while offering free entertainment without damaging the wares; hopefully. The walls are also of different construction being stucco, stone or brick. There is a new Sword Hilt Tavern and Inn that is being built nearby that is even larger but more uniformed.
It also has a small chapel off in a small private room where adventurers can go and say a quick prayer before they go into the mines or the nearby abandoned castle.
It is where the Armored Lady met her impromptu party of essentially a fighter who is married to an elf who is expecting twins; elven sisters who run the armory and sell enchanted "bikini armor" and has a dispute over the Armored Lady over which is better; much to the lady's Grieg and chagrin. There is also an archer, an aspiring cleric and a dwarves dungeon guide who sue to mine the hills before they got overran by monsters.
Don't forget that the NAME of the tavern itself can sometimes tell a story about its owner(s).
My hub town has a place called the Rutting Ram. Its owner is a dwarf who used to be an adventurer. Back in the day, he rode a giant ram as a mount. This ram had a reputation of being a bit too randy, and often trying to "romance" other people's mounts.
One sad night, he ended up stabled next to a she-warg that belonged to an orc adventurer. The ram attempted his "romance" and succeeded, but the warg, none too impressed with his performance, ate him afterwards. The dwarf misses his former mount, and named his tavern in honor of it. He and the orc adventurer still have bad blood between them.
If you come in close to closing, after he's had a few drinks himself, you may be able to coax the story out of him.
A few relevant notes:
* Real medieval inns started with basic communal sleeping quarters, a shared space in the main room after closing with basic straw mattresses on the floor. This later developed into private rooms with locks as the need grew, but simple communal lodgings would remain available on into the Victorian age. This was about as pleasant -- and secure -- as you'd imagine sharing a single room with multiple people would be, of course.
* While some inns would provide bathing services, the real Middle Ages was the age of the baths. Leftovers from the Roman era, these were the _other_ center of medieval life, to the point some people would take multiple baths a day just to hang out and socialize. (This became the focus of many a sermon on Vanity, as you can imagine.) In some cases, the baths and the inn would be jointly owned, allowing for food in the baths and professional bathers in the inn.
* As with most types of storefronts (and as mentioned in this same channel's video on general stores), the back of the house is always going to be larger than the front of the house. Prep areas, pantries, storage, etc.
* While distillation was known during the Middle Ages (and before), its initial use with alcohol (in the Fifteenth Century) was just to reduce the volume of wine by removing water, making a smaller cask that would be easier to carry --- and taxed at a lower rate by volume. The wine would have water re-added before serving. This process would later create the distilled spirit known as brandy, from the Dutch _brandiwijn_, "burnt wine". (Turned out you got a completely different flavor when you stored the distillation in wood kegs...)
* In the real Middle Ages, any inn could be depended on to have stew. This was because of an old travel law (presumably passed by a hungry councilman) that required the inns to have _something_ hot to serve, with stew being the best option. Note that this does not alter the notes on food usage -- it's just that medieval stewing was long-term. The same stew, with additions, could be cooked for several days. This also applied to porridges, as in the old nursery rhyme "Pease Porridge Hot, Pease Porridge Cold". It's not kidding about "nine days old". And some people really did prefer it that way.
* Because ovens take up a lot of space, inns usually order the bread and other baked goods from the local baker. This applies to most other goods they couldn't reasonably be expected to make in bulk, from the furnishings on up.
* Because of breakage, inns didn't use glassware. Travelers who didn't have their own cup (which was a normal piece of travel equipment) would be provided with a drinking bowl made of wood. Clay plates and cups were available, but more expensive to replace.
Really good information. Thanks. ❤
@@carolinelabbott2451 Glad to be of service! :)
Actually setting up a tavern atm so this is very helpful 8D
Great timing :)
You know we all miss you...
@@masterthedungeon
One of my favorite gags/challenges was in a tavern.
The party enters around midday. There is an old man telling a shaggy dog story at a another person with a group of middle-aged men watching intently across the bar.
The middle-aged men are betting how long the person will last talking to the old man before being able to politely exit the conversation or running outright. The party doesn't have to know this before striking up a conversation with the old man.
The party can choose to try to talk to him and the middle aged men will give the winner a tip depending on how long they last.
The old man is half deaf and is *insistent* on telling his very boring story. As the party listen to him drone on they start taking psychic damage (roll a 1d4 per 'beat' of the story, intelligence modifiers increases the damage they take, wisdom is their health. A drunk stupid character can last quite a while talking to him) if they take more damage they can withstand they are compelled to run, he can't talk you to death.
His ramblings can sound like his is giving hints and rumors about the surrounding area, but it's all outdated red herrings.
If a party member manages to outlast the old man, "you're crowding me buddy", the middle-aged men will wave them over and give them a big bonus because no one else has lasted that long.
I also give the winner a permanent feat (calloused brain. +1 to defensive mental checks, i.e. resisting being charmed, feared, tricked)
I love trying to make detailed taverns but adding a lot of patrons with different quests can be difficult sometimes. Thanks for making this!
If youre still accepting tips 11 months later, i always find that using an ai name generator online and a d20 can substitute most of the work with patrons.
Roll the d20 at least once (more for larger taverns/town/cities, and add up the total). Then, blanket statement them all. You can even just say something along the lines of "the tavern seems like your typical busy restaurant," and your players can get the idea in their minds of what this means. If its a relatively homogenous town of humans, then 99% of the people are likely human. If the city is rather diverse in races, just quickly list off different races thatd be common to the area. A dwarf in a city where dwarves frequent wont stand out, but in a town with only humans, theyll be the spotlight.
Now for names. Use an ai generator, or use this trick of taking two "first names" and just switching some of the syllables back and forth. David Kyle is now Dyle Kavid. You can even then further swap names, so another name set can be Harold George turned Georold Harge. Swap Kavid and Harge and now youve got some real funky names.
Or name them all numerical Bobs. Those are also ok
by far the most underrated DnD related channel IMO. It's crazy how in depth you go, but how much better my worldbuilding is because of your videos
I think this might be based on someone else's idea, but:
Imagine a genre-savvy BBEG that goes around burning all taverns to the ground because that is where most adventurer groups start, and they don't want opposition.
(If the BBEG is a tyrannical lord, they might instead outlaw taverns or something, which is slightly less silly.)
Here is one that i just thought of.
The Dragons Lair.
A small tavern built in the face of a mountain, that's run by kobolts (the more lizard one's).
Their cook is a disgruntled Dwarf Adventurer and in the back, there is a door that's leads to the lair of a Dragon (a.k.a. the owner of the tavern).
I did a short campaign once with a rather high end tavern set as a sort of homebase. The first time the players walked in they where greeted by a friendly old lady who worked there as a greeter.
Over the course of the campaign the players really grew to like old gran. She was friendly, sociable and helpfull. She even proved instrumental when the players didnt know where to go next in a quest or two. The look of the players when they had tracked down an elusive green hagin the forests outside the city and she greets the players with the old grannies welcoming phrase of *Oh hello there dearies, why dont you make yourselves at home?*. It almost broke their hearts to learn that friendly old gran was a green hag in disguise and have manipulated them to her own goals, taken out rival cultists, threatening forest creatures and meddeling corrupt guards. Couldnt have ben done without the trusty old tavern.
I have an ogre magi as the big bad of my new players and his shape change ability means several "quest givers" can be found, but they are all the same monster. Not a hag, but damn close.
Why has this not showed up on my dash before? I love it. Absolutely comprehensive
I like to have rumors in the taverns In my game. I like to roll a d10 to determine how much it could be changed because it was passed from person to person. Example, the players hear that the docks are haunted but if they go and investigate they are told the mansion near the docks are haunted but its actually a group of bandits who have taken residence in the abandoned house.
Saw your idea and thought for an extra twist. Once the party gets rid of the bandits, a ghost appears but instead of attacking, the ghost thanks the party for getting rid of 'those damn squatters'.
Judge Dee Mysteries.
You're the first DnD advice channel that I've genuinely wanted to watch every video of. The amount of ideas and details you bring up is inspiring.
Well I’ve never played D&D but finding this super helpful for my rifts campaign
I have a Tavern called "The Honey Comb", which was ran by fairies, and the owner was a retired character I made. The fairies are at mos 3 inches tall, but they would hire body guards from other races in order to deal with trouble customers. The tavern had its own honey supply, so sweets were very cheap to get, but things like meats cost more
Selling Fairy Dust out the back door.
My group runs the inn in town. It’s hilarious. Ok now it’s kinda down to me at this point but I basically use it as a way for the party to have free rooms and a home base when we are in town. Right now I’m the only one left though of the original party that was given ownership of the inn as a quest reward. I use this to continue to fund the party and often give out the gold that it earns when it turns a profit as a a huge chunk of the group fund, besides purchasing things outright for the group. Profit or going into the red is my responsibility and I pay it if it does the latter. This video was a good guide for me in later decisions regarding the tavern part of the inn. Also it’s been a good introduction spot for new players joining the party.
I suppose some of you reading want to know what happened to the rest of the party that were the owners. Well, they left. I was in a middle of the week evening game with a bunch of forever dms who ended up having to drop out due to either work or commitments to the games they run. I still play with them, just not in that campaign. I play with them in one shots that our main dm will run. They are a great group. I miss playing with them but I keep them updated on the antics going on they left behind. They love hearing them and like to give me ideas to try in the background. Nothing to annoy the party, just something to be amusing. I hope one day to play a full campaign with them again.
Oh! And you all probably would find it hilarious to know, the inn is staffed by the kobolds my party keeps adopting. My original group started it, I continued it, and now the entire party does it still. Dm is quickly learning to stop letting us encounter kobolds even if the random encounters for it shows up.
I like to imagine a group walking into a tavern during the day, expecting it to be bustling like it normally is at night, only for it to be completely empty, only a few staff there. One of the staff is a maid, sweeping the floors, while there are two cooks in the back preparing food, and a manager helping to set the counters for the impending nighttime tide of people. The manager would, in this case, be a bit surprised, but still act as an impromptu bartender to handle the unexpected adventurers.
This is an incredible video! I wasn't expecting the hub to be the tavern when we started but the tavern owner Admus became a favorite with my players so I've been working on fleshing it out. Admus has his sister who is a chef in another establishment but after watching this video I'm going to have them go into business together and turn the Clever Bones Tavern & Inn into a restaurant as well! They already meet their Ranger Information Broker "Drodo" there for main story jobs so...
What a great way to make your town feel more alive! Nothing like siblings going into business together to ensure there are some sort of issues for players to fix later on haha!
One fun tavern idea is for a specific tavern to be the site where several historical adventuring groups find their start with some terrible calamity befalling the town every time some specific fated group of people gather there, all because the bartender was rude to a disguised fey and got cursed for his troubles. “May you live in interesting times” indeed.
"You all meet in an inn" probably dates all the way back to the _Canterbury Tales_ and _Romance of the Three Kingdoms,_ believe it or not. But the oldest examples in popular fantasy fiction are (perhaps predictably) _The Hobbit_ and _The Fellowship of the Ring._
I have run a few online living worlds, and I love designing taverns, inns, restaurants, and other social hubs. They are my favorite part of gming.
I have an introduction to D&D home brew campaign that starts with the party fighting a fire in a tavern and ends by saving the monster kidnapped by the princess. I also really enjoy using taverns, inns, and shops as slightly underhanded means of LOLs/groans through clever pun names like The Pits of Disparr (an Orcish/Half Orc kabob/bbq eatery), rival starting town taverns Arrok’s and Ahaardah’s Place (with the village green between the two), a regionally famous wine mixing Cantina run by a Dwarfish Nunnery Mother (Fuu Kling), etc
I had several Taverns in a large metropolis in my world. But the one my players liked was Fineleaf Inn. It sat at the edge the Elven district and was not far from the Arena in the orcish district. They would often throw Arena pre and post event parties.
Gladiators ate and drank free.
One of the barmaids, Tilly, could be found in the Arena on amateur night.
It was one of the more lively taverns/ inns in the city.
Tavern Franchises.
I have a tavern in my dnd games that I call the black board inn. The black boar is the monopoly of taverns in the region. An ex adventuring dwarf reinvested his money for these locations. One in every major city. He then had a wizard enchant it to allow players or folks to enter the tavern from any one of the store fronts and a magical sound would ring. Basically a GPS locking system to that spot so when that patron left he would go back to that city. The place was massive. 100ds of rooms. With food of all kinds. Booze selection was vast, job board for each city, music and gambling, and the workers are the orphaned children of those city's. The dwarf feeds and clothes them and pays them a small wage to help them. He would be the party's main relaxing location. The dwarf passed keys to each shop front. So as a example if a plague or war ect started. He could easily walk over and lock the door stopping everyone and all things from crossing. He has a blunderbust under the counter and has two black powder revolvers on him. An age hangs above the bar that he used to carry into battle.
I have a bunch others that I put in smaller towns that the boar isn't in.
Another good thing to point out about taverns (which saloons were like in the wild west) is cashing larger than normal paychecks for people who work in and around the town.
Not sure what it is, but the music you've chosen for these videos feel really fitting & makes me more interested in everything you bring up.
Your videos are great at helping me know what questions to ask to flesh out my world. THANK YOU!
I am not done watching this and I LOVE it. I put effort into my NPC towns and villages and do have players who come back to places because of that. I even have a Coffee shop run by a Gnome because I wanted one, my players love the place.
what if each tavern had a table to roll on to see what happens, like a drunk guy fighting you, or a grifter challenging you to a card game?
Sometimes we have general urban encounters that can happen anywhere in town, including the pub. A venue could have some specialty like a weasel fight every tuesday or really cheap seafood.
Or a woman trying to get you to buy her some shots
this video is really making me think about a small scale campaign in a small village with far greater detail...Like you can use this kind of thinking and apply it to a lot of other shops.
This is excellent! I'll certainly be referencing this video when I next need to work out the all important tavern/inn, which is very frequent. 😄
The Crossroads Inn; an inn that sits not just on a crossroads between paths but also between planes.
It was the inn I started my players off in for the CoS game I ran.
Watched this again and it was better the second and third time.
Best two taverns I have had or seen were a player run establishment from a game that focused on logistics. The second was a place named "The Green Dragon" named after the taxidermied head above the mantel. Offered all the services you mentioned but everyone loved the place due to the 12 NPCs that worked there
We started out a diner run by our embassy, a place where danish navy people, embassy staff, the street gang we allied with and other hangers-on could meet. We weren't handling the logistics of it all, that was in the hands of some hirelings. It was nice to have a meeting place we were in control of where people knew they could get hold of us and our goons.
When "This setting needs a simple little tavern to start off" to "I need to get to apply for my serve-save certification. This place needs a staff of at least 15. What food distribution center is in my realm?"
Couldn't have found this channel at a better time. I've been looking at making a West Marches game centered around an adventurer's guild hall that doubles as an inn and tavern. This video is giving me a lot of ideas on how that'll look as a town grows around the guild, how locals will interact with the adventurers, and how to frame quests as locals ask for help or strangers hang around to hire services.
Exceptional work!
my tavern was heavily inspired by the C-team. i havent settled on a name yet but atm im floating around the lazy bear. the patron is in leagues with the quest guild my party is working for and thats why hes a retired adventurer. behemoth of a man. fat like a winter bear but his muscle mass matches his weight. the party can use the inn like a fast travel system. if you light a magic candle and go to bed, the door to the inn will link you to your destination. the inn is located all over the world at the same time. thats a reason why the crowd in the inn is so diverse. youd meet adventures from all over the world in the same place. your video gave me the idea of having homebrewed ales with names based on the alchool content. 5% is the cub's roar. 10% is the salmon's bane. 15% is the winter nap. 30% is the dark dire bear beer
Wow!! You could run an entire one-shot out of your tavern. This is GREAT! Thank you for making this.
These drawings are fantastic and really make this explanatory content much more palatable!
Thank you for this! This has given me a load to think about to try and expand my world building! Also, fun fact, Honey was used in medicine as well so maybe a tavern can hold stock for the local apothacary?
More like the apothecary is the one who also handles a lot of spices and stuff. It's still tradition that pharmacies sell peppermint here.
In my game there’s a kind of main tavern the characters frequent. It’s a mixture between rowdy tavern and small scale magic shop, which is run by a retired wizard adventurer. All the rooms are demiplanes and extra dimensional spaces and there are magic drinks available at the bar. The magic store part isn’t humongous, but it has a good supply of uncommon, common, and some rare items. I really like the idea of it as a unique place for the players to stay. Anyway thanks for reading this far :)
I started my last adventure in a Tavern but the players were hostages and had to talk/fight there way out of it. :)
You Video a always great to think about the things in PnP you take for granted.
Terrific depth and great tips to help flesh out the Tavern. Well worth the extra time you put into to work. Thank you from the bottom of my Tankard
I love all of your videos, but this one is extra awesome and super helpful! Thanks for everything you do!
I love, love, love that this isn’t like “taverns are hackneyed! Throw them out and do THIS thing!” It’s a great guide to give something that we maybe let slip by the wayside so much more life.
I'm not a fan of the all-included bnb tavern. I still like the WFRP coaching-inns like little forts along the road, religious communities with hostels and holes in the wall that's just someone selling beer out their common room. It's as fun and weird as the early modern period can be.
If I’m correct, this is the progression:
Alehouse (just food and drink, more specifically ale) (this is probably the most common)
Tavern (food+drink, and some rooms with some , gotta share beds though)
Inns (Food+drink, rooms, stables, and sometimes a bit of “economically incentivized company”… most likely in the rooms)
If money is short, you could always ask for a room at the local temple (common practice for pilgrims) or at a hospital (which would be more like a temporary home for lepers, the poor, etc., rather than a place for healing). Temples will give you a place to stay and a ration of bread and water/ale/wine.
If wanderlust took them, people would take pilgrimages (their equivalent of tourism), most of the time the objective was to reach a holy site (like a church with something important, like the remains of a saint or famous person), although many would actually have a pious objective, it wasn’t rare for people to travel for other reasons (be it wanderlust or even romance).
This might give you some inspiration:
Kings and Generals: ruclips.net/video/RPul5aQUkyE/видео.html
Extra Credits: ruclips.net/video/RgV9s9ez2cc/видео.html
Religious communities could run hostels. You have a common room to sleep in and they can offer you some food for relatively cheap. But even if you don't share their faith, you are required to respect the taboos and rules of their community while you stay. We had to stay at a place where many of the people had a vow of silence once. At another they had gender segregation in the sleeping areas, we had to divide up the group.
A lot of taverns are just someone's bottom floor common room where they have made a batch of beer and sell it. There can be a huge amount of taverns for even small towns. Sometimes gilds exist to operate a shared hall, like a members-only club where everyone pools cash to keep it in order and take turn staffing.
Officers, administrators, academics etc could have a bar specifically for them. Unless you are one of them, you will be given weird looks or even asked to leave. Unless your character is a retired officer herself. In Mutant there was a club for imperial officers where all veteran officers remained welcome, so it was the place to go for making contact with the officer corps.
I like the WFRP coaching stations myself. They're small forts along the coach-lines where the coaching companies change horses, stay overnight and resupply. A trip between cities can take a day or three and absolutely no one camps in a Warhammer forest overnight. Sometimes roadwardens and bailiffs use a room permanently.
Love this vid. This will definitely help build the quality of my multidimensional tavern
I dig it! These videos are crazy helpful! I have definitely been guilty of short-staffing my taverns and inns. Thank you for pointing out how incomplete that picture is.
Excellent video with much food for thought. One note: if the tavern is the weathiest business in town as you suggest, then it’s probably owned by the feudal landlord or is licensed by him. Otherwise, lots more people would be opening up taverns in the same village to try to get in on this great profit opportunity. Tombstone, Arizona had 110 saloons during its boomtown days, and Port Royal, Jamaica had at least 44 taverns during the 1661 height of Caribbean buccaneering.
As you point out, a stranger in a tavern won’t always be there just to hand out quests to likely-looking adventurers. Here are some other ideas.
* The stranger is supposed to meet someone here who didn’t show up. She asks one of the adventurers, “Have you seen Freya Flamehair in here?”
* The stranger is here to post a letter or pick one up. One of the adventurers may accidentally or purposely see what it says.
* The stranger is drunk, and lets slip something to a PC that he should have kept secret. When he sobers up, he begs the PC not to reveal it, or pays him to be quiet, or even tries to silence him by threatening or killing him.
* The stranger is fighting drunk, and attacks the adventurers, another patron, or the staff.
* The stranger is dying of wounds or illness, and is seeking healing or the last rites of her gods, or someone to carry on the task she can no longer perform.
A fun take on the concept is idea of Coaching Inns, which were common across Europe for centuries before railways became common and are sort of the medieval equivalent of the modern-day motel or truck stop (service stations/motorway services in the UK). I was introduced to the concept through Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, but it's an interesting thing to include that can change the dynamics of overland travel in any fantasy RPG.
A Coaching Inn is a large, often fortified Inn that exists by itself along a major road (with equivalent ones along rivers, if riverboat travel is common). They're spaced a day's travel apart based on how far a horse-drawn coach or carriage can travel on an average day (or how far a barge can travel in a day along a river or canal), so they're essentially _only_ frequented by travellers. In England, traditional coaching inns were about seven miles apart.
Even a small Coaching Inn will have extensive stabling, as well as a small smithy with a farrier (for replacing horse's shoes), and maybe even a wheelwright (for repairing wheels to carts and wagons) as well. They'll also tend to have their own brewery on-site, and some may become famous or infamous amongst travellers for the quality of their ale or beer.
This may also lead to established coaching businesses running coaches along these major routes, between big cities. Big towns and cities may also have several competing coaching inns either at the edge of town, or near a major street or square, as will towns along major routes between other important places (the English town of Barnet has an unusually high number of historic pubs that were once coaching inns, because it was along a major route from London). Established coaching companies historically served as the precursor to mail services, as a coach could carry letters and packages as well as passengers, and dedicated mail coaches allowed bulk transport of mail between big cities.
Our current campaign centers around a tavern. A place where adventurers are known to frequents, and a place where people come to hire heroes. Each games is a 1 or 2 shot that starts in this tavern. That way we can play even if not everyone is there, it's just a different party that got hired. People can keep their characters, or try a new one for a bit. And someone can step in as DM for their own adventure if they want to.
Inns were once professional locations serving wealthier clientele, usually within a gated community which included stables, offices and homes. The entire complex was called an inn. Taverns often included rooms and communal sleeping spaces with boards to sleep on (hence 'board') while pubs or public houses were only for drinking. Meaderies were huge eating halls with long tables and food served. They got their name from the honey mead sold (grounds would contain bee hives). This, at least, is the English origin of the medieval drinking hole. In Europe and Scandinavia it was different again. Scandinavian taverns were also community halls where the chieftain lived and from which the community was governed. Not to contradict your take on taverns but this is the historical reality.
In my tavern, the characters meet their idols and they sort of team up every time their idols come up they can describe what their idols are, and since the idols are local in town, they can easily find their house and overall this would be a great tavern
I actually haven't ever started a campaign in a tavern! Maybe eventually! Great video!
This makes me think of my first ever tavern I made in my first ever game I ran as the DM yeeears ago. We were doing Curse of the Crimson Throne pathfinder module, first book, my party wanted to find a super cheap tavern to stay in, and I wanted to experiment with a sort of The Sims, so I made the Stinky Raven, a tavern where Jarrod, the owner, was on the verge of bankruptcy and debts, sold all of his furniture that he had just to stay in business. He didn't have anything, so he didn't charge anything to the party. The party would donate some money to him regularly, and the Stinky Raven would slowly build itself back up as the adventure would go on, and Jarrod would be eternally grateful to the party, and have a strong love for adventurers.
Naturally, this was back in 2014, where I wish this video was around for me to watch. I bring in the Stinky Raven and Jarrod every now and again, with one iteration of it being some crazy magical flying device and that's how it just so happens to be just about everywhere. I'll have to use this video as a guide for later.
Fun piece of trivia: back in ancient times and all the way up to the middle ages wine and beer were seen as actual elements of nutrition, they were used as actual supplements to food thanks to their high calories, especially in roman times beer used to be a common meal drink for farmers due to its low price compared to other nutricious foods, wine was more expensive (depending on the province we're looking at) but it was used too by all social classes (the higher the status the higher the quality of the wine of course).
If the campaign is set in ancient or medieval times, or perhaps in a dystopian future, this could be a nice element to flash out in a tavern, you'll rarely find townfolks drinking water preferring instead economic, low-alcohol beer or wine depending on culture, often brewed within the tavern itself.
I cannot overstate how many times i watched this video and the rest on your channel, your videos are so to the point and direct and nice to look at and easy to understand, really wish you would come back to continue this channel T.T
My group came up with a chain franchise of taverns and inns called The Roosted Inc. during one campaign, and it just stuck. Now whenever we start a new campaign or one-shot, we frame it like it's a story being told by a bard within the Roosted Titmouse, giving the preamble leading into the actual story.
This is definitely in the top three videos I have watched regarding DnD, This video is helpful and informative and it is done in a highly entertaining manner. Awesome!!
Thank you, that's some high praise!
Me: this won't be too long or difficult to implement, they're taverns, she'll probably just give tips to keep them feeling alive and just say don't make everyone cookie cutter
Me 8 minutes in taking notes: Holy fuck
Fuckin same
Actually medieval taverns weren't inns and vice versa. I mean I know we do it in our RPG games and it kind of makes sense, sort of hahaha. But back in the day if there wasn't a good reason for an inn to exist someplace they're just weren't any. The people slept outside or slept in barns or carried their own tent. Slept on their wagons. If they were traveling. The thing is back in the day traveling really wasn't a thing. But when I was playing or dming every little town I ever played in there was always an inn to give the adventures a base from. Makes sense in gaming terms, but as I studied a little bit more medieval history I found out that's not even true. Anyway another great video very informative for gameplay.
While not actually their business here are some other services a tavern could provide:
- contact to local businesses as the owner of a tavern will likely know other shopowners
- townhall meetings. The tavern is likely the only building with a room that is big enough for all the people in a village, so meeting that involve everybody living in the village might be held there, especially if there is a reason for not doing those outside
- eyes and ears. Especially if the tavern is also an inn it is very likely that travellers coming into town will rest in the tavern. If the players are friends with the tavern owner he will inform them about strange newcomers and mysterious people passing by as well as news and gossip they overhear.
- Being a Landmark. As the tavern is the biggest building in a village it is also very likely the building that will stand out the most. If somebody gives direction to the players they could tell them to go past the tavern and then it's the second building to the right or something like that.
I keep enjoying all of these DnD videos for a while now.
Despite never having played a single game myself. XD
How does this channel only have 3K subs!? this is amazing content for all dm's! The tavern in my next town is gonna be great :)
I'm going to try and run a campaign soon with the "taverns" that the players get jobs and info from being exchanges, which are part coffee house, part stock exchange and part job centre for adventurers in a land where money can be difficult to come by, but if you get lucky you can strike it rich, so everyone still tries anyway
So USA?
In Empire of the Petal Throne you start as foreigners. You most likely live in the foreign quarter of town where people from the outside world live and goods/services/food/temples you are used to are available. This is just a small section of the city and you're assumed to strike out from there to explore and figure out what the darn place is like and what to think about these crab-people.
You are assumed to be adventure-entrepreneurs who don't just sit around and wait though. Conan did not sit around and wait for things.
Some notes from actual history: Yes, candles were quite expensive. But most people didn't use them as their main light source. Even the house of some poor peasant had a hearth that would not only be used to cook but also for light and warmth. Actual fireplaces with chimneys came in the late medieval era, but far more common for farmers were open hearths, the smoke would go under the roof where it would dry stored grain and kill pests. The hearth wasn't like a modern campfire, it was more a line of wood and cooking was often done with pots placed along this line with lots of different kinds of food. They also had fatwood as a quite affordable alternative to candles. So there wasn't really a need to spend the time in a tavern, most villages didn't even have one. Taverns were really more places for travelers and there were even taverns of different price classes. Local people would mostly visit the tavern to buy wine or strong beer (low-alcohol beers was made in nearly every household) and take it home. Taverns also developed quite late (there were taverns in the Roman Empire, but they mostly disappeared during the Early Medieval age), so more around the 13th/14th century. Before that poorer people who had to travel spent their time in hospitals which were basically just sleeping places for free, doesn't matter if you were sick or not. Usually operated by the Church or specific orders. Monasteries were also places people could sleep. While people like merchants usually had their contacts and spent their nights in the houses of other merchants. And nobles would obviously be guests of other nobles. But back to the taverns. The first taverns developed from those richer merchants who offered sleeping places and food for their fellow merchants and they started to actually take money for it. So the first ones were really more AirBnB and not public spaces. Towns then regulated this practices to get their chunk of the profits. So it developed into a more organized business and owners had to hold the right privileges for selling food, drinks and sleeping places (travelers usually didn't pay for a room, but for a bed or often even more for a place in a bed they would share with someone else). That's the reason they had to hang a sign at the entrance, it was a way to communicate "yes, this is a inn/tavern", it was useful for guests, but also for tax collectors. If someone didn't have a sign like that and operated such a business therefore without permission and without paying taxes, they committed a crime. The regulations also makes it more public, inns had to take travelors in if they had capacities, except there was a good reason for them to not trust someone. To carry weapons in taverns/inns is often banned and hosts have the duty to keep order and are often liable for the deeds of their guests. And by the way, medieval taverns didn't really have a counter. They usually just had the barrels stored someone and would pour the beer at a table that often had a high edge. There are also pictures with jugs on the table of guests, so maybe the host would sometimes sell them a jug of wine/beer so the guest could refill themselves. Drinks were also quite often served in glass vessels.
Referencing Futurama is the most important step to my heart
This is all awesome advice! Thank you so much!
Glad it was helpful!
I just found you and my word your videos are amazing. They are comprehensive and super easy to understand. You earned a subscription and I look forward to going through your old videos and new ones.
I like to use 2.5 feet squares. Allows for the crowded atmosphere and realistic table / chair quantity per square foot.
In combat large sized tokens can be used when not squeezing in a paniced crowd.
Taverns from what I can tell from all my time playing and running various games, were seen as early as at least the back half of OD&D. Because even the notorious Keep on the Borderlands scenario had a tavern where you could go, get a drink, get rumors via getting the normally quiet barkeep drunk, hire mercenaries, or anything else the GM devised like gambling. Sometimes notable NPCs would even be getting drinks there.
That’s the earliest example that comes to mind and that’s a module initially written for Basic, but I have a feeling the concept predates that, hence why I say probably back half of OD&D
It has some historical basis mind you, but in D&D they’ve weirdly become merged with Inns which was unusual at best. Even Keep on the Borderlands had an Inn separate from the tavern. So my guess would be it started as a sort of historical emulation but the concept evolved via perception of it as a game element.
I simply love your videos. I'm starting a new campaign and I want to make the environment more interactive for the players. Your video essays and work you put in to divulging the information is top notch!
The Wet Noodle. A tavern that was build a little too close to the river delta which tends to flood. Now many years later with the help of some locally renowned craftsman and partons the tavern is now over a warf. There are buoys that hold a large portion of the tavern afloat. So the tavern lists slightly depending on the tides. The wood groans and the place smells like refuse during low tide. There are frequent gaps in the wooden planks that make up the floor that causes thing to get lost under the tavern that children often go underneath to retrieve. The place despite its flaws is a well love gather place for the locals that are oblivious to the smell. The food served is mostly a noodles and fish dish of surprising high quality hence the tavern's name. Because the tavern is so close to the river row boats are frequently stored along the sides in the evenings. The owner is retired elderly wizard that can afford to light the place well. He perfers to keep himself entertained with spectacle even though his eyes are falling him (or at least so he says).
My best tavern was run by a group of found family orcs & 1/2 orcs in my West Marches champaign. I affectionately called them the Orc fam.
The tavern/inn was called the Emerald Flask & the owner was a female 1/2 orc in her 50s that had recently retired from being a (lv20) adventurer.
And I'm glad that every player was able to pick up on how intimidating she was just through roleplay even before I mentioned anything about how strong she actually was.
The other staff was as follows:
Full Orc Chef that would double as a bouncer if things got too rowdy for the actual bouncer.
His 1/2 daughter that was the bar maid.
And 2 1/4 Orc brothers that look more orc than the rest of their genetics would have you think.
The older brother acted as the Host & main bouncer.
And the antisocial younger brother was in charge of maintaining the stables, which was perfect for him because he liked animals way better than people.
All of theses characters had a character sheet, each at different levels depending on how much experience they'd had in situations in their lives. These came in handy when I later allowed my players to request that some of my NPCs accompany them on adventures, if they'd reached a high enough friendship level with them.
Damn. This channel is underrated. For real. Needs more attention.
I just found this channel yesterday. I can't stop watching these videos! Help!
My favourite ever tavern I designed, was called the Twin Temple Tavern
Because it was literally that
Two temples made into one massive Tavern
The god of the tempest and the god of trickery in this land were known to be best friends,
The god of the Tempest also being the god of celebrations and drinking, thunder being laughter and the pouring(and spilling) of beverage, the rain.
Meanwhile the trickster god was also god of plays and pranks, jokes and misdirection, often his antics would entertain the tempest god
So the Clerics of both god's got together to make the Twin Temple Tavern, where drinking, shows, pranks, celebrations, and what else have you, all occur. It is the house of rouges and bards and clerics alike to all sit and be merry, and because the town they live in is a very frequented location, they always have new guests to entertain and celebrate with and with such large approval from local nobility, has massive grants to make sure the tavern is always stocked on good food and wine, as offerings to the gods of course.
This was really helpful! I took lots of notes! Thank you 🙏
In 3.5e one of my characters made a tavern and called it the undead inn. The character was a necromancer who saved up money to make many copies of a magic item called smooth skin gloves. The gloves when worn by a non human would make them look human. Most of his staff were mummies he animated then had wear the gloves to appear as humans and wait on the guest. A hireling I found while adventuring was a lizardfolk who liked to cook and thats what inspired me to make the tavern. I freed a vampire from another vampire's control who I got to agree to work for me as my bard who would keep guest entertained by using her natural charm.
I had a skeleton that would do laundry and use his own ribs as a wash board.
Besides making a place for my necromancer to stay hidden I also ended up making a base of operations for our party even though my undead didn't like it I had them build a small shrine for the party cleric' s deity. And behind the tavern we made a smithy for our dwarf fighter and a workshop for our changling artificer. The place became so lively as patrons came in on the regular and because I didn't have to pay most of my staff I was able to reduce the cost of what we sold.
Before the end of the campaign my secret got out when the town watched me and the party save people from a raid of shifters and orcs and I was scared they would run me out of town even though we had been there for years but I never disturbed their graves or did any of the evil things most necromancer would do. The town surprisingly didn't throw us out and even were glad that me and my undead staff were their to save everyone.
Once I was high enough level I was able to awaken the undead (like the spell for plants and animals but undead only version) and a few wanted to be put to rest most were ok with working for me and after I retired the character I put all my minions to rest other then the Vampire who agreed to watch over the tavern after I died from old age.
I still like to think out there some where in our universe or multiverse there is a small little tavern in a quite town with a vampire bartender keeping her old friend's memory alive.
P.S.: yes vampires are evil but the one that eventually became my friend I showed her other ways to feed without killing people or turning them into vampires by biting them. Using libris morbis, book of vile darkness, and expedition to castle ravenloft I was able to show enough references to convince my dm to not make this vampire a creature that wants to kill all living creatures.
I know it's very late, but I'm glad to see that this channel finally is starting to have some of the views it deserves :)
My first session didn't start in a tavern, everyone woke up in a tent with no recollection of each other. But a vauge familiarity between them