Making Better D&D Towns: How to Make D&D Taverns

00:00 What is a Tavern?
02:05 Tavern and Inn Services
04:38 Tavern and Inn Patrons
08:13 Tavern and Inn Staff
09:56 Running a Tavern
15:41 Jobs and Quests
19:56 9 Steps for Creating your own Tavern

#DungeonsAndDragons #DnD #Animatic

[trevynlane]

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.

[Bad_mage]

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

[kelly_seastar]

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.

[minnion]

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.)

[imperator_productions]

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).

[AuntieInari]

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.

[wkblack]

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! :)

[MWSin]

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.

[Tgaxgriffen]

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.

[craigkm]

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.

[ericcorbin]

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.

[demetrinight]

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.

[lacewinglml]

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.

[johntheherbalistg]

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.

[nairocamilo]

Everyone starts in one, but not many talk about them!
Thank you for giving taverns the attention and love they deserve

[rpgden]

Adventures start in a tavern because it works so well for DMs. You learn a TON about the party in a very short time.

[ToonedMinecraft]

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.)

[DampWetstew]

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)

[comickazii]

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.

[Braincain]

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!