Taverns have always been a staple of anyDungeons & Dragonscampaign. They are a place to gather information, take on quests, or meet characters. They can be full of life, a great way to pass the time between adventures, or be the sole focus of an epic quest. Every town your party visits will have a tavern, so keeping them all unique and engaging is essential.
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Whether you are using a tavern asa starting location for everyone to meetor a fun new place to visit midway through the adventure, here are several classic taverns to slot into your world. Using these ideas will keep your taverns from getting predictable for your players, as they will have no idea what to expect when they walk through the saloon doors. You can take the core concept and adapt them to fit into your campaign wherever you see fit.
8The Villain Tavern
Often, a town will have a friendly, ordinary tavern at one side and a run-down, rough one at the other end of town. Usually, people steer clear of the scary-looking pub, knowing that stepping inside will likely end in a brawl. The villain tavern could be owned by bandits, a local mob, oran infamous villain. It might be a well-known secret that a corrupt force runs them, but the local guard is too scared to do anything about it.
You can give a reason for the party to need to go inside. Perhaps they must pretend to be villains to slip in undercover for information, or maybe they are an evil party and want to feel at home. A wide range of big bad villains could be inside, plotting theirmalicious end-game schemes. It is the hot spot for villainy and a dangerous tavern to step foot in without being on guard.
7Mimic Disguised As A Tavern
Taverns and Mimics are a classic inclusion in any campaign, so why not combine the two? Your players are likely often cautious about treasure chests and cupboards being mimics, but it’s unlikely that they would anticipate an entire building being one giant Mimic.
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When the party steps inside, it is eerily quiet. A silent bartender urges them further inside as the doors close behind them. Something isn’t quite right about this place, and the party must figure it out and escape before they are swallowed whole. Perhaps the bartender is being puppeteered by the giant Mimic’s tongue, or maybe some of the furniture looks like teeth. The Mimic tavern is a fascinating concept, especially if it chases after the party even after they leave its doors.
6A Tavern Lost In Time
This tavern seems ordinary, but entering its doors is risky. Every customer inside is from a different year, having a drink as the bar drifts through time. If you leave the tavern, you’ll end up in another time period, a few weeks or hundreds of years earlier or later. It’ll be fascinating to have a group of out-of-place people getting along, but they will be eager to return to their original time eventually.
Perhaps this tavern could be linked toa player’s backstory, as they remember visiting a tavern just like this long ago, getting separated from their family. If they can figure out how to control when and where the tavern appears in time, perhaps they can uncover the truth about their past. You and your players can have a lot of fun with a time-traveling tavern, and it could become a home base for a more episodic campaign exploring different periods of history.
5Safe Haven Tavern
Unlike a villain tavern, a safe haven tavern is the only sanctuary many locals have in a corrupt, repressive town. While the rest of the town might be full of misery and distress, this tavern remains a joyful, happy place to visit. Full of music, drinks, and laughter, it’s designed to boost the spirits of everyone who enters and keep them safe. It will quickly become a favorite hang-out spot for any adventuring party that needs a break from their challenging quests.
Perhaps this tavern is so safe that reaching it is challenging.Multiple puzzles have been set upoutside the hidden tavern to keep dangerous folk away, and it’s up to your players to navigate them if they want to reach the haven themselves. They might want to protect this tavern alongside the owners, building defenses and fighting off those who wish to destroy this safe haven.
4The Fixer-Upper Tavern
A local villager is set on restoring a crumbled, barely standing building into a thriving tavern. No one is willing to visit the pub, but perhaps your players will become their first customers. The barkeep is eager for some investors to help them fix up the tavern, which requires a lot of work.
Whether they’re helping out a friendly NPC or setting up their own tavern entirely, a fixer-upper tavern makes for a fun,long-term side quest for your players to keep checking in on. Every time they return to this town, they can see the progress made, such as restoring a crumbled part of the building, finally having places to sit, and new staff working behind the bar. There will be plenty of challenges along the way, but it’ll be nice to return to the tavern every so often to see it eventually become the talk of the town.
3The Haunted Tavern
When the party enters townand asks for places to visit, they will likely be warned to stay clear of the spooky tavern on the outskirts of town. The pub is haunted, and if the party decides to spend the night, they will soon have to take on different ghosts that torment those that visit. The tavern owners are desperate for anyone to rid the building of spirits before they run out of business entirely.
Alternatively, the entire establishment is run by ghosts. They might not even be sinister, just eager for business and very welcoming when the party becomes the first to step through the doors in many years. The party can act as representatives for the tavern, trying to convince the locals to try the spooky little bar.
2The Sophisticated Tavern
Not every tavern will be welcoming, cozy, or easy to access. The party hears about the most famous tavern in the area, where you must book well in advance to gain entry. This tavern is incredibly sophisticated, with expensive decor, classical music, and high prices. It is the tavern where all of the fancy nobles of high society frequent.
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A fancy place like this would be great to focus onsocial role-playing with your playerssince tavern brawls and conflict will likely lead to being kicked out immediately. Perhaps they are granted entry after saving a noble’s life or are sneaking in to see what all the fuss is about. Either way, it will be an exciting experience, unlike any other tavern.
1The Dream Tavern
When your party enters this tavern, they find everyone fast asleep. The bartender grins at them, offering them a nightcap drink to visit the actual bar. If the players accept, they will soon drift off into the dream tavern and be amazed by the wonders here. Anything and everything a customer wants is available in this mysterious dream world, compelling them never to leave. Of course, it is all too good to be true, and your players will soon realize they need to get out of here before it becomes an eternal nightmare.
Like your players are in Inception or The Matrix, they will have to fight their way through this dream reality, ignoring various temptations, taking on nightmare creatures, and doing whatever it takes to wake up.
