This week we're looking at the Tavern; that all too common meeting place where so many D&D groups have met. I've played and DM'ed games where the group has all met up in a tavern for some reason or another, with seemingly little thought as to why we would do that aside from the obvious, which is simply that it's what we'd always done or were told we should do by those that came before. It was questioned, rebelled against, but rarely embraced. Why is that?
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Why Taverns Work
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Taverns have always worked as a meeting place in D&D because that's where everyone always gathers. Rich or poor, smart or dumb, people have always congregated in taverns (or bars, or pubs, or alehouses, or mead halls if you're feeling particularly nordic) for all manner of occasions.
Anyone who has unwound after a hard day's work at a local happy hour knows what I mean. You go there with your friends, and so does everyone else. Because it's such a universal meeting place, it makes sense that it's where heroes might go to meet with like minded people, and where adventure hooks (er, people) would go to find said heroes.
Basically, refer to the appropriate entry on TVTropes for why it's a good idea, just overused.
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The Cheers Approach
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So we're going to spend the rest of this blog entry trying to figure out how to make this cliché a bit better. The first approach we'll look at is the one I like the most, which I call The Cheers Approach. Basically, instead of making it "A Tavern", make it "The Tavern". Give all the staff and regular patrons names and personalities. Get your group to grow attached to the place, and give it some real character. Nobody cares about The Tavern until you give them reason to care about it, because The Tavern is so overused that nobody ever thinks the DM will use it past the first hour of any given game, and that any opportunity for raucous brawling will be stifled.
Embrace it! Give them a reason to want to be there instead of just giving them that Mysterious Stranger In The Corner. Have random events that occur while they're there, let the NPCs get to know the party members by name, get them to tell tales! You might not get them to sing songs, but the players really get to know that they're heroes when the NPCs they've come to know recognize them as such. You'd be surprised what could happen when an NPC buys one of the PCs a beer.
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The Tavern As Quest Hub
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This kind of dovetails off the last suggestion, but whereas The Cheers Approach is about giving The Tavern life and color, this is about giving it utility. Make it the springboard for not one, but many adventures. It's all about having Things To Do. It's not just about adventures, necessarily. Have arm wrestling and darts and drinking competitions, have a bulletin board in a corner of your tavern with not just calls for help and wanted posters of criminals, but people buying and selling goods...and sometimes giving threads to connect to far better goods. This could be an excellent way to bring in some ways for players to do side quests to get discounts or to access more powerful gear.
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Taverns With History
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In a lot of games, you can't really go with the "one tavern to rule them all" method, because...well, let's face it, your group is probably going to spend a lot of time on the road. Maybe your campaign isn't centered on a specific place like Nentir Vale or in a city like Neverwinter, but is more of a globetrotting adventure. This doesn't mean you can't have iconic places that stay burned in the party's memory.
In every tavern you bring the group to, have a name for the place, as well as a name for the barkeep. Bonus points if you have names for some of the staff or the patrons. Then, have a list handy, numbered 1-20, for the kinds of events that used to happen. Not your typical random encounter chart, this is more of a random history chart. Pepper some detail here and there, without giving it all away; just let the history flavor the tavern a bit. Here's a few examples to start you off:
- Pirates/Brigands used to use this tavern's basement as a base of operations, until it got busted by the Crown. The owner still has the Pirate/Brigand leader's sword on display.
- A band of adventurers congregated here long ago, and went on to save the town from a marauding dragon. As a result, this is a popular meeting spot for budding heroes.
- The tavern used to be a resting place between towns, a veritable oasis, one of the few places free from banditry on the old road. As the towns turned to cities, a town grew around the tavern and it has grown into an increasingly large establishment.
- The prior cook left this tavern to cook meals specially for the King after serving him a meal, not knowing his status, and impressing him greatly with his expertise. The current cook fancies himself a chef after being apprenticed by this prior cook, but is nowhere near his skill level.
I'm sure you can come up with a few more on your own and give yourself a nice little random list to work with. It's something you can to do give your tavern some life beyond the usual.
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Conclusion
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Taverns are cliché for a reason, but just because they're overused doesn't mean you should be shamed out of using them. The key is to take it beyond the trope and make it your own. I've given some suggestions here for how to expand on the cliché but maybe you'd rather subvert the cliché or have some other spin on it. The point is, the tavern can be so much more than just another spot on the map for your group to go to.
If you have other ideas for what to make of the tavern cliché, I'd love to hear them. Feel free to leave them in the comments section below, and I'll see you all next time.
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