In Defense of the Tavern in Dungeons & Dragons

This unfairly-maligned starting place can get your game off to a great start.

Almost every day, I run into a discussion on Facebook or Twitter that goes something like, “Where is a good place to begin an adventure — and taverns don’t count!”

There’s a lot of hatred out there for taverns in the fantasy roleplaying game world. They were once considered a staple in gaming, but they’ve since fallen out of favor.

Well, screw that noise.

A tavern (or an inn or a pub) is a wonderful place to begin an adventure.

Let’s discuss.

The “Problem” With Taverns

The complaints about DMs (dungeon masters) using taverns often fall into the following categories:

They’re cliched and unimaginative.

They’re often depicted inaccurately.

There. That’s it. Those are the problems most people have with starting an adventure in a tavern.

I kind of get it. A lazy DM might use a tavern as a starting place and make no effort to give it life or make it an integral part of the adventure world. If they do this too often, I can understand other players’ frustrations with the tavern setup. Boring and predictable aren’t fun.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

As for accuracy — these are fantasy roleplaying games we’re talking about here. There are many things in Dungeons & Dragons and similar RPGs that do not accurately reflect medieval or Renaissance times. The people who complain about accuracy lack imagination.

Comfort Zone

Why a tavern to begin with?

For many people, it can be a kind of comfort thing. Consider the number of popular fantasy novels that feature tavern scenes, such as Lord of the Rings, The Sword of Shannara, The Wheel of Time, and The Name of the Wind — just to name a few.

And they’re easy to envision.

Long tables, benches, a fireplace or two are de rigeur. There is likely a bar with a shelf of bottles behind it or perhaps a few wooden kegs. If they offer food, it’s probably a hearty stew.

See? It takes almost no effort to describe a tavern to players as they pretty much know what to expect because they are such a familiar setting.

For games that need a place for characters to meet before going on an adventure, the tavern is a quick, convenient setting. You can populate it with locals with rumors or hints that may help the party and give the place for the characters to stay so they can set out first thing in the morning.

Almost Limitless Custom Options

Mind you, a tavern doesn’t need to be just a tavern. It can be an inn which offers rooms — either private or shared — and stabling.

The tavern keeper could be a local villager or townsperson, or they could be a retired adventurer who is willing to part with occasional bits of advice.

You could make your tavern, a simple one-room structure with everyone crowded in one space, or it could be a two-story structure with dozens of rooms to rent, a common room, and a separate private function room.

Your tavern could be the meeting place for the community and a central part of local government, or it could be wharfside dive where everyone is armed and out for blood.

There is no one tavern you’re expected to use. You can make any kind of tavern you want — populated with whatever type of people you’d like.

Home Base

Taverns, or inns, make convenient places for the party to return to following a short adventure and prepare for their next. If they’re consistently bringing in treasure, they can certainly afford room and board and perhaps even security to guard their belongings while they’re off dungeon-delving.

Make the tavern or inn large enough, and you can have numerous parties all using the same place. Your other parties could be NPCs available for hire or to serve as rivals, perhaps. Maybe the locals have set up a kind of job board in the tavern making this an ideal place to return to for new adventures.

Sure, higher-level PCs may want to build their own keep or castle at some point, but until then, a tavern can serve as a valuable home base.

Other Options For Taverns

Go ahead and play with outrageous ideas. Have fun with it.

In one game I ran, the tavern owner was a small holographic pyramid from another dimension who spoke via a housecat. A tavern I used in Tunnels & Trolls was run entirely by pixies.

Feel free to use these or variants of these.

Another way you can make a tavern more interesting is by making it a crossroads to multiple worlds. This way, you can run different types of adventures with the same characters.

Your tavern could be a front for a thieves guild or attached to a monastery. It could be a half tavern/half library.

Your tavern could be haunted. Wouldn’t ghosts be kind of cool? Are they friendly? Mischievous? Depressing? How can they pick up tankards?

And sometimes, a tavern can be the site of the adventure itself. Maybe it’s a dark and stormy night, and the PCs and NPCs are barricading themselves in because there are monsters outside trying to get in.

Or maybe you’ve got a good murder mystery in mind. Why not set it in the tavern with a set cast of characters located in one convenient place — like a drawing-room mystery.

Take advantage of the myriad of opportunities.

A Tavern Is What You Make Of It

With just a little effort, any DM can make taverns both exciting and fun.

These are perfect places for player characters to meet at the start of an adventure, take a much-needed rest later, or possibly use as a home base.

Whether it’s an intriguing place or dull and cliched is entirely up to you, but it deserves to be considered and not dismissed out of hand.

Happy playing!

About John Teehan

John lives in Rhode Island with his wife, son, and dog. He specializes in tech, health, business, parenting, pop culture, and gaming. Visit wordsbyjohn.net for more info and rates. Twitter: @WordsByJohn2