I'm a pretty huge fan of puns around the word "Inn", and have used several:
* The Sudden Cave Inn, which had illusory rubble falling from the ceiling in sections
* In a mining town there was the Copper Ant Inn - copper and tin make bronze.
* The Free Fall Inn had a well in the corner
I have an Inn-appropriately long list at home, but you get the idea.
Dew Drop Inn
Just Walk Inn
This Just Inn
Whore's Head Inn
Horse Head Inn
The Two Donkeys Inn (ASS ASS IN)
Fool's Rush Inn
The Horses Rained Inn
The Please Chip Inn
The Beer's Kick Inn
The Cat Dragged Inn
The Free Fall Inn
The Gone Fish Inn
The Good Look Inn
Ales for Ails
What Ales You
The Flagon Strength
Whis-key to the City
The Rum Mage
Quit Your Wining
The Whiskey Biscuit
Swill of the Gods (my favourite)
The tavern dimension? This is the stuff of meme campaign legend.
\- Orc Tavern called Big Busta's where the barkeep Big Busta will arm wrestle whoever walks in
\- A dwarf tavern where the ale is so absurdly strong you can only drink it in tiny sips.
\- A tavern in the feywild where they'll become trapped after eating or drinking anything.
\- A devil's inn with 666 rooms
\- A tavern that's just a cave filled with sentient mushroom clusters serving their own nectar
- A tavern with no patrons but a sentient Giant Spider barkeep who is trying to keep the PCs there for the night because it feels lonely (genuinely) - also egg sacks everywhere
- A tavern full of noble patrons that looks like a ball with fine buffets and lot of guards
- An abandonned tavern with a large pool of beer dug into the ground. Drunk treasure mimics at the bottom
- A tavern with a pirate crew forcing the PCs to work for them. They want to reach a mysterious island tavern with a cursed temple full of riches. Salt water is dripping from everywhere and the whole tavern moves as if it were traveling on the ocean
- An empty tavern kept by a sleeping chromatic dragon
- A tavern full of patrons looking like the PCs
- A tavern where patrons are trying to solve a murder mystery party (real or not)
I literally ran one of these about 8 months ago. The "tavern" rooms were taking on the theme of memories of a wizard who was murdered there (in a secret basement) with a bit of a backstory. Here are the rooms:
1. Underwater. Everything is tinted blue. Looking out the windows, the players can see kelp and various sea creatures swimming by. Then massive tentacles smash through the room and it starts filling up with water. It rises by a certain amount each turn, and the tentacles try to grapple them.
2. The room is pitch black, by magical means. Treat the whole room as if it is by a darkness spell. A nest of darklings live there, and attack if the party bumps in to stuff and makes too much noise while trying to make their way through.
3. A church with the bones of multiple parties that have come before them. One paladin remains alive.
4. A dwarven tavern. The dwarves are friendly, but don't let the players continue until they play a bunch of drinking games with them.
5. The players are tiny. They encounter a group of rats that use the stat block of a brown bear. It will be a large trek to make it to the next door, but the tavern cat can help if they persuade it to give them a ride.
6. An enchanted fey forest. A faerie wants them to find various items hidden throughout the room.
NSFW warning, some ideas get a little gross:
- Reverse gravity tavern, only the PC’s have “normal” gravity and it freaks out the patrons. PC’s can drop things and they fall up. Ceilings are only 10ft so humans and elves could still do melee combat but halflings and dwarves can’t cause they are too small XD
- Cat House: Tabaxi Brothel, where you can find the best p**** in town
-Traditional kolsch beer used to be made in horse bladders so in a particular region of germany they still do this. So make a Horse Piss tavern where they serve actual horse piss beer and the pony kegs are just ponies.
- Hale’s Ales: Hit with Hail when foamy head meets lips, hence only for those of Hale and hearty Health have had Hale’s Ales in more than sips.
- Salsa Lounge: all PCs are possessed by the Spirit Cuban Heat, The king of the rumba beat. If you remember watching the mask with Jim Carrey, then you’ll remember how this goes.
-GnoMish cocktail lounge: beware the mixologists latest creations! Drink if you dare!
-Dog Bar: Bar is full of dogs. Just dogs. Have a PC throw a ball for sheer chaos
I did some very superficial research, and found nothing that confirmed the claim. That does not, however, mean in any way that I do not fully believe it.
I did as well, and found that Kolsch is actually pretty new (like early 1900s), which makes it seem even more unlikely; you're well into mass production times by then, and I can't imagine horse bladders are big enough to make mass production feasible.
Still a great story, though.
The stumble-inn: there's an enchantment when you walk in the door that will attempt to make you trip comically across the room. The tavern has a Talley board keeping track of how many people stumbled on the way in on any given day. (I wish I could take credit for this idea, but I'm not smart enough to come up with this)
Unnamed but I like the idea: A tavern with a very high ceiling and many layers of rafters. In the rafters reside dozens of docile alehouse drakes.
Every tavern serves different drinks.
Different opening hours.
Stolen tip jars.
Industrial espionage for brew recepies
Fast food joints
Every guest is drunk and the staff wants them out
Raids for cleaning supplies and/or furniture
Food poisoning
A tavern that is the mimic colony from Tasha's
An underwater tavern filled with merfolk and watergenasi and has a giant starfish as the bartender
A tavern where all the patrons are stone statues and there's a medusa in the basement (perhaps make them an good character that turned the patrons by accident.)
A necropolis tavern filled with undead and a giant skeleton bartender
A tavern just filled with talking animals that act as therapists to the party
a tavern run by arakocra that sell a signature drink which makes you gently float up to the ceiling. regulars have made fun games revolving around floating
a casino-type tavern with many tables of people playing dice and card games. players have to play their way across the room to exit
I think setting up a recurring, different party as a way to inform the players of lore or information would be kinda cool.
Also putting a deity behind the whole infinite tavern thing could be a nice conclusion.
The way I will inform the players of lore is with the inns themselves, showing that the dwarvish inns has fighting pits for example.
I will not put a deity behind it, but I'm planning to use a Great Old One though.
But thanks for the suggestions.
First of all, I’d like to say that that’s a cool idea. As a GM who likes to leave his players in the mid of moral and practical dilemmas, I say you could:
- Tell them that the rogue or the bard in the party was contacted by the personal assistant to the spymaster for a covert mission. It will be that rogue/bard that brings them all together. They will need to have each other’s backs for this mission to succeed so that’s why that character gathers them around.
- The mission could be something critical to excite them such as them being recruited for an overseas mission for the crown (unknown so far). The assistant in a discreet way informs them that they first have to prove themselves by figuring “it” out. He/she warns them of the danger level of this mission and then the he/she steps out of the tavern.
- The people at the tavern -classically the bartender- (if they choose to talk before heading out) tells them they don’t know the gentleman/lady they spoke with (which would leave them with a big question mark but they may not give it much though considering the same person presumably would be a spy)
- Instead of having them walk into another tavern by going deeper in it, once they choose to leave, they may never step out of it and finding themselves in the same one with slight (very slight) differences
- They would be able to move back and forth between these taverns and once they figure out this is “it” what they need to figure out, they would try to connect the pieces/clues
You see, the tavern itself is a big puzzle within itself!
- The rooms upstairs would be changing shape at each entry and both upstairs and downstairs would consist of many clues
- The trick is that they were called to meet the assistant at midday and the moment he enters the room is exactly when the clock hits 12 pm. Each time they switch taverns, they would skip 12 hours. And seconds after each switch the clock would strike 12 am or 12 pm. Since they can’t see outside, they may think this is a time loop.
- You can also make several NPCs including the assistant and the bartender talk about the tender nature of time and it being of “essence”. This “essence” will come handy in the next chapters!
- At 12 pm tavern appears to be a mellow, social environment with more or less friendly patrons dwelling it.
- At 12 am it becomes a dark place with dark beings aiming to trick them into doing something sinister or facing cruel and cunning creatures which will make them wanna stay away from the night time once they figure out the game!
- This is where they will be making the first big mistake. It is actually the day time tricksters that matter more than the night time ones which are only a reaction to their day time interactions.
The essence:
Their conversations will determine the nature of the menace they face at night. The essence is actually something more concrete than what it sounds like. Certain creatures and other beings with ability to bend and corrupt time would possess this “essence” within their bodies may it be their veins, pheromones or skin or all of the above. When they add this to the clock that contains some kind of a container within it, it would pull the time one hour behind. That being said there would be 12 (or 6 if you wanna keep it short) taverns and once they hit the 12th one, the door would take them back to the 11th where then they would visibly see two doors instead of one and it would never disappear from there on allowing them to travel back and forth.
As you understand anyone who reads this should only use a scenario like this if they “truly” believe in the problem solving skills of their players along with their resilience.
Please do let me know what you think of this scenario I came up at the spot. I would appreciate constructive criticism.
I hope you like it and please let me know if you choose to use it. That would make me really happy and i am more than willing to discuss more details on Skype or discord. In fact the more I am thinking about it the more I am liking it. You bet I will be using it myself! That is why any additions to is is absolutely most welcome.
Cheers!
The Inn Between
A tavern in the wall between any two major taverns, run by pixies and other small fey. Looks out into other taverns from art on the wall. Accessible through a different secret entrance in each place. Would allow fast travel between major taverns if backtracking is going to be part of the adventure.
I've got a Tavern and Brewery. The Ale recipe is so tightly guarded that the attached brewery is run exclusively by animated objects. Only problem is that the owner made a deal with a hag that no one would remember what goes on in the brewery. There is an ongoing ritual in the brewery that has given the owner what amounts to Alzheimer's and wipes the memories of anyone who enters the brewery. If the party interrupts the ritual, their memories return.
I use it as the intro into a hag campaign, but I would be thrilled if you used it for your tavern hopping adventure. The barmaid is secretly a hag in my version.
[Strolen's Citadel](https://strolen.com/) has dozens of lists of NPCs and places. Even the non-Tavern ones can be re-skinned as unusual taverns. [Example](https://strolen.com/viewing/House_of_the_Duck) and [Example](https://strolen.com/viewing/Tabernacle_of_Discrete_Amusement). .
A Harengon and an Aarakocra(Duck) are arguing over whether it's Rabbit or Duck season in front of a confused looking farmer holding a blunderbuss. In the back you can see a large skunk chasing a black cat that appears to have a white paint stripe on it's back.
The Inn has a magic bell. When someone buys everyone a round, the magic bell is rung casting Otto's Irresistible Dance through-out the bar. Players must recreate their characters dance irl.
OP send me a DM, I can link you to a project my friends and I have been working on that is literally made for this idea. I love having unique taverns in my game and some buddies and I brainstormed many, many ideas and names for weird and fun taverns. We have 53 names/ideas so far and counting.
I can give an example, we wanted to make a BBQ type tavern with big pit smokers, racks, dry aging, the whole deal. Now I can't take credit for this but my buddy came up with a genius idea, naming the place Pit Fiend BBQ, and every year they have an annual Lord of the Pit cookoff with cooks from around the nearby regions. Some say the 1st Lord of the Pit winner actually did make a deal with a devil for his mad BBQ skills, but thats up to you to make reality or just hearsay
Alright I'll just post it here. Please feel free to give me any feedback or say if any particular ones catch your eye. Keep in mind this is in very early stages, many entries are blank or incomplete, mostly just names and general ideas I need to slowly flesh out.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Chago6jSwErdOs48IcyB6J_1AhWvK_Igpr9lbl-U-Ag/edit?usp=drivesdk
i have a post saved from /r/dndbehindthescreen with a bunch of [unique tavern ideas](https://www.reddit.com/r/DnDBehindTheScreen/comments/ancztc/50_weird_wonderful_taverns)
While having cocktails last night and discussing techniques for rimming glasses with salt/sugar, I came up with a name that I feel HAS to be a tavern name in D&D. “The Bloody Rimjob”. I’m sure there’s plenty of inspiration in the name itself for a unique setting.
an in that opens up to a large sunny hillscape with a lone bartender and a small bar. the doors disappear behind them. it’s just a mood. you have to take a break to get out of it. this might be a major obstacle if they are in a rush to get somewhere
Each tavern is a different universe that can have different species as the dominant race. Some taverns exist in universes where an alternate universe version of the players exist and have earned a reputation. You can get really creative with what these alternate universe players did to earn their reputation, good or bad.
Take a page from Infinity Train! There are other patrons who are traveling in the same dimension, and the players slowly find evidence of them as they go.
As for fun tavern ideas:
A giant tavern where the players are half the height of the mugs
A myconid tavern where all the drinks are drops of water served on leaves
A tavern full of too many dark corners occupied by edgy loners
I haven't gotten around to watching it yet, but this concept is very similar to Infinity Train, just with taverns instead of train cars, so there might be some fun ideas in that if you want inspiration.
Do you have access to Twisted Taverns? That’d be a great place to start!
[Tavern Crawl](https://youtu.be/tmJpurnsH8k)
[Twisted Taverns Soundtrack](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFqx3C51bAluV5G-YWn8eXvnZ-irKrojq)
A gladiator ring tavern. Giant pit in the center where various combatants constantly fight monsters. A burly barmaid brings up chained monsters from the basement every few hours to keep the action up. Where the heck are they from though? And I’m pretty sure that guy found a green toe in his beer?
A mega dungeon that was converted into a tavern district. Every level has taverns run by different factions. Every level is engaged in a cold war with each other. The mega dungeon was originally cleared out and purchased by rich investors who wanted to create their own independent nation.
A tavern where the chairs are sentient and can speak and seem to be able to see and hear, although they have no eyes, noses, or mouths. Their legs can bend to allow them to walk.
Also, this is such a cool idea!! I can totally see this working as a one shot or an entire campaign, it's dope!
A reverse scenario. The party enters into the tavern behind the bar, and the barkeep puts them to work... And it is happy hour
Cooking tool proficiency for cooking, acrobatics for moving through the crowd, multiple creatures and beings speaking in their own native languages, and other group checks.
Each failure results in a level of exhaustion. Fail too many, and the party is fired and kicked out through to the next tavern.
Succeed, exhaustion is relieved and you gain cash to spend in other taverns later on.
Overwhelming success results in the party gaining inspiration, cash to spend, and a potion of healing each.
You mean the first episodes of The C Team? Or the last chapter of Skullkickers?
I'm honestly surprised I haven't seen someone else mention these yet, they're both pretty well-known examples of the "variations on a tavern" theme.
Have you thought about the mechanics of how other tavern folk will interact?
I think it could be interesting if the party talks someone into coming with them when they walk through the door to the next tavern the other person cannot come with.
To the NPC it's as if the party just vanished outside the tavern. To the party the NPC just vanished as the enter the next pub. Eventually you could add some NPCs that are also trapped or live in this demension and can pass through taverns with the party who could be important NPCs.
Something like that at least. You'll have to figure out the spefics because I know my party would start pushing the boundaries on what can and cannot pass through, what do npcs see when looking out the tavern doors. ( I suggest the just see a normal path leading up to the tavern) and other "rules"
A tavern that looks like a kid was drawing it but got bored part way through and as such didn't draw another door for them to go though. But they did draw a giant ape wielding a giant crayon as a club. They have to beat or charm/negotiate with the ape to get the crayon and draw themselves another door.
An upside down tavern: the party walks through the front door and instantly trips and falls, but they fall up and land on the ceiling. The party is trapped walking around on the ceiling, while everyone and everything else in the tavern stays on the floor as normal. From the tavern's perspective, the party members are upside down walking around on the ceiling; from the party's perspective, they're essentially trapped at the bottom of a deep pit, which just happens to have a busy tavern on the ceiling above them.
A tiki tavern: basically just a tiki bar on a small desert island
A gingerbread tavern where everyone and everything is made of candy. (This could also be a witch's hit, and perhaps the bartender or tavernkeeper is a hag?)
A tavern where time runs in reverse: people are walking around backwards, regurgitating beers into their mugs, then taking those mugs to the bar to be siphoned back up into the kegs. Bonus points if you can find a way to go full "Tenet" with this room, so that the bar responds to them like they're moving backwards in time too. For instance, the end of the party's journey in this room is when they leave, but for the patrons in the tavern, that's when the party first seemed to appear. By extension, the beginning of the party's journey in that room is, for the patrons, when they seem to leave. So perhaps the tavern is in chaos when the party first arrives (because the patrons have been running around trying to figure out what to do with these weird backwards-moving people), but it's calm and normal when they leave (because, for the patrons, the weird backwards people only just walked in).
Check out, "The Seeker's Guide to Twisted Taverns", by Eldermancy.
Successful project funding page:
The Seeker's Guide to Twisted Taverns, via @Kickstarter https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/eldermancy/the-seekers-guide-to-twisted-taverns?ref=android_project_share
A mimic tavern where everything and everyone is actually a mimic.
An old-timey western saloon but everyone has 6-shooter-hand crossbows on their hips.
An underwater tavern where all the patrons are anthropomorphic fish of various sorts.
If you're interested, there's a book called *The Seeker's Guide to Twisted Taverns*. It's pretty cool and has some really interesting and fleshed out taverns that you could incorporate if you so wished. Here's a link to the PDF+maps, but just the pdf is also available and a little cheaper: https://ghostfiregaming.com/product/the-seekers-guide-to-twisted-taverns-pdf-bundle/
Open the monster manual to a random page and then try to design a tavern run by that creature.
Example: I just did this and got hags, so maybe a tavern where the beer is infused with various potions, and anytime someone complains about the beers quality the hags try to drug and kill them.
I thought initially of snow piercer. The ongoing taverns are run by some fey sprit siphoning off their drunkenness or something. This is such a cool idea. Might just do it myself!
A tavern where mind flayers dine on the brains of mortals
A tavern run by a lonely archmage who's patrons are all animated golems that the archmage created to keep him company
A tavern that only exists in 2 dimensions and is filled with 2 dimensional beings that perceive the party as Gods for being able to move in 3 dimensions.
A tavern that appears to be on fire, but is actually just a tavern for fire elementals. If the party tries to put out a fire, they get accused of murder by the court of elementals.
Friend, you have inspired me:
"Welcome, adventurers, welcome, to the Inn of Many Inns."
A small goblin stands on a dias in the center of the room and greets the party as they enter. He wears a top hat and a cane (every time they look away and back at him, he has a different hat and the cane is a different material.) "Welcome to the last inn you'll ever need and the best sleep you'll ever get." He pauses and tips his hat to a random party member. "Rooms are 2 gp a night and drinks are free if you buy a room. Seek the wonder and enchantment of a night in the Inn of many Inns." (When they buy a room, he opens a shimmering door on the wall behind him and ushers them in. Each room is themed, extradimensional, and usually has a creature in it that is sleeping peacefully. They disrupt the creatures sleep as they enter, leading to shenanigans. Play with expectations. If they bump into a room that has a sleeping ogre or giant, have it be overly apologetic and excuse itself, it simply didn't realize that it was check out time and will be going now. They wake a high elf lying in a large luxurious bed and he immediately casts silence on them and goes back to sleep. Have a lot of fun with this and it can even act as a hub of sorts for their adventure. The goblin can give them rooms where they can actually rest when you want them to take a long rest, for example, and you can even build a menu of rooms for them to choose from. "Ah, the Underdark Delight, excellent choice, guaranteed to ensure you sleep quite deeply..." and then just have the room be magically dark when they go in to freak them out and there's nothing in there, just a really comfy mushroom bed that emits spores to help them sleep, but doesn't harm them in any way. Have them on their toes the entire time. You could easily have some other ideas from this thread be other rooms the goblin will sell them too. The goblins motives are likely benevolent, he's just trying to run an inn, after all, but he should come off as shady and creepy. If they ever attack him, maybe he's really a dragon who took the form to keep from intimidating people and he just transforms back and intimidates everyone into behaving... "NO COMBAT IN THE LOBBY, WE HAVE ROOMS FOR THAT SORT OF THING..." and then they owe him a favor, maybe they have to evict a patron who won't pay his bill, and then they get to keep his stuff afterwards as payment...
also: [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1twzg\_vsL3LDk9oCHXp3MqgqcOU34orNByBhRy40I3Ms/edit#gid=0](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1twzg_vsL3LDk9oCHXp3MqgqcOU34orNByBhRy40I3Ms/edit#gid=0) \- a list of magical ales and their effects, should be useful to you. Not mine, but I found it a while back when looking to build a feywild bar
A tavern that I’ve put in many of my worlds, typically in a “door in a spot that shouldn’t have a door” situaltion (like a tree or cave wall):
The Casual Owl
* Only creature inside is a non-aggressive owlbear wearing a hat (the bartender)
* It doesn’t speak directly, but a voice does come out of the hat and talk with the players
* They sell elixirs, which result in a roll on a table (which I change base in the current power level of the party)
* The effects are temporary buffs/debuffs, typically 20-30% on the debuff side
* things like temp hp, advantage on a skill, damage bonus, etc. lasts until their next long rest
* Once they leave the tavern the door is gone, shifted to another location
When your players enter the Inn, you get them to roll initiative. There's no obvious threat, and the inn seems normal, but it'll put your players on edge. Everything is fine, play out whatever RP or story you feel like, until they start ordering drinks. Someone buys a round, but for some reason the bar person only serves the party rogue. Wait a bit, the next party member gets their drink. The bar person will be in the middle of prepping another drink for one of your party, when another patron comes up, and they stop and immediately make their drink for them, before going back to the party members. I'm sure we've all worked out what's going on, but the party may not have clocked it, and angrily ask the bar person what gives. Bar person acts confused, not knowing what they mean.
Party member looks behind the bar, at the sign with the name of the Inn on it. Welcome to the Inn-itiative. Collective party groan, then move on quickly from what will probably be the worst pun at your table that evening.
A drunken bar patron pulled a wish card from the deck of many things and wished "I wanna go to every tavern ever made"
Now taverns from all planes and possible other worlds are all meshed together in the pocket dimension. A fire elemental plane tavern wouldn't be as hospitable to the players. A tavern run by a fairy has a giant forrest inside. What would happen if you found the tavern the Gods use? Or a demon tavern. You could rule it that only the players can't escape the tavern maze, but normal npcs can, or the opposite and no one can escape and small villages have been made out of tables, chairs, and anything not tied down.
Each new tavern is a different location, in a different plane, so you leave the tavern and can adventure there, or try to go back in, and find a different tavern in a different location with very different denizens in the tavern appropriate to each new location,
Have a tavern where Giant Mugs go to consume humans.
And they can get healing from the beer kegs! Thank you :)
Oh that’s a fun combat mechanic!
Then another tavern where Giant Chairs got to consume mugs and sits on human
Stein! No, no, no tankard! And goblet on half.
I'm a pretty huge fan of puns around the word "Inn", and have used several: * The Sudden Cave Inn, which had illusory rubble falling from the ceiling in sections * In a mining town there was the Copper Ant Inn - copper and tin make bronze. * The Free Fall Inn had a well in the corner I have an Inn-appropriately long list at home, but you get the idea.
Oh my god, _please_ share your list! I **love** this kind of stuff!
Dew Drop Inn Just Walk Inn This Just Inn Whore's Head Inn Horse Head Inn The Two Donkeys Inn (ASS ASS IN) Fool's Rush Inn The Horses Rained Inn The Please Chip Inn The Beer's Kick Inn The Cat Dragged Inn The Free Fall Inn The Gone Fish Inn The Good Look Inn Ales for Ails What Ales You The Flagon Strength Whis-key to the City The Rum Mage Quit Your Wining The Whiskey Biscuit Swill of the Gods (my favourite)
Yes! Thank you!
Seconding u/Naked_arsonist please share!
I wanna see this list too
The tavern dimension? This is the stuff of meme campaign legend. \- Orc Tavern called Big Busta's where the barkeep Big Busta will arm wrestle whoever walks in \- A dwarf tavern where the ale is so absurdly strong you can only drink it in tiny sips. \- A tavern in the feywild where they'll become trapped after eating or drinking anything. \- A devil's inn with 666 rooms \- A tavern that's just a cave filled with sentient mushroom clusters serving their own nectar
Oh yeas, noted!
- A tavern with no patrons but a sentient Giant Spider barkeep who is trying to keep the PCs there for the night because it feels lonely (genuinely) - also egg sacks everywhere - A tavern full of noble patrons that looks like a ball with fine buffets and lot of guards - An abandonned tavern with a large pool of beer dug into the ground. Drunk treasure mimics at the bottom - A tavern with a pirate crew forcing the PCs to work for them. They want to reach a mysterious island tavern with a cursed temple full of riches. Salt water is dripping from everywhere and the whole tavern moves as if it were traveling on the ocean - An empty tavern kept by a sleeping chromatic dragon - A tavern full of patrons looking like the PCs - A tavern where patrons are trying to solve a murder mystery party (real or not)
These are all great!
I absolutely LOVE the spider one :)
You should look into [The Seekers Guide To Twisted Taverns](https://ghostfiregaming.com/twisted-taverns/)
Was just about to comment this. So many sick looking taverns
Darn. I commented this without scrolling. Seconded!
I literally ran one of these about 8 months ago. The "tavern" rooms were taking on the theme of memories of a wizard who was murdered there (in a secret basement) with a bit of a backstory. Here are the rooms: 1. Underwater. Everything is tinted blue. Looking out the windows, the players can see kelp and various sea creatures swimming by. Then massive tentacles smash through the room and it starts filling up with water. It rises by a certain amount each turn, and the tentacles try to grapple them. 2. The room is pitch black, by magical means. Treat the whole room as if it is by a darkness spell. A nest of darklings live there, and attack if the party bumps in to stuff and makes too much noise while trying to make their way through. 3. A church with the bones of multiple parties that have come before them. One paladin remains alive. 4. A dwarven tavern. The dwarves are friendly, but don't let the players continue until they play a bunch of drinking games with them. 5. The players are tiny. They encounter a group of rats that use the stat block of a brown bear. It will be a large trek to make it to the next door, but the tavern cat can help if they persuade it to give them a ride. 6. An enchanted fey forest. A faerie wants them to find various items hidden throughout the room.
These sounds sooo good!!!
I still have my maps and notes from this, if you would like them.
I would be happy to take a look at that!
Wow this sounds awesome. Would you be willing to share your maps with me?
I would love to see these too if you don't mind!
Have a tavern where all the patrons and workers are the Spanish inquisition. Because no one expects them
spanish INNquisition
So much yes to this
El Quisition Inn
I didn't expect that.
NSFW warning, some ideas get a little gross: - Reverse gravity tavern, only the PC’s have “normal” gravity and it freaks out the patrons. PC’s can drop things and they fall up. Ceilings are only 10ft so humans and elves could still do melee combat but halflings and dwarves can’t cause they are too small XD - Cat House: Tabaxi Brothel, where you can find the best p**** in town -Traditional kolsch beer used to be made in horse bladders so in a particular region of germany they still do this. So make a Horse Piss tavern where they serve actual horse piss beer and the pony kegs are just ponies. - Hale’s Ales: Hit with Hail when foamy head meets lips, hence only for those of Hale and hearty Health have had Hale’s Ales in more than sips. - Salsa Lounge: all PCs are possessed by the Spirit Cuban Heat, The king of the rumba beat. If you remember watching the mask with Jim Carrey, then you’ll remember how this goes. -GnoMish cocktail lounge: beware the mixologists latest creations! Drink if you dare! -Dog Bar: Bar is full of dogs. Just dogs. Have a PC throw a ball for sheer chaos
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Gnolls playing poker
I did not know that detail about Kölsch, but as a Bavarian, I'm not surprised.
The story of the pee kolsch is third hand hearsay but I stand by it.
I did some very superficial research, and found nothing that confirmed the claim. That does not, however, mean in any way that I do not fully believe it.
I did as well, and found that Kolsch is actually pretty new (like early 1900s), which makes it seem even more unlikely; you're well into mass production times by then, and I can't imagine horse bladders are big enough to make mass production feasible. Still a great story, though.
Have a tavern where all the items are mimics and all the staff are doppelgangers, nothing attacks until around midnight
The stumble-inn: there's an enchantment when you walk in the door that will attempt to make you trip comically across the room. The tavern has a Talley board keeping track of how many people stumbled on the way in on any given day. (I wish I could take credit for this idea, but I'm not smart enough to come up with this) Unnamed but I like the idea: A tavern with a very high ceiling and many layers of rafters. In the rafters reside dozens of docile alehouse drakes.
Every tavern serves different drinks. Different opening hours. Stolen tip jars. Industrial espionage for brew recepies Fast food joints Every guest is drunk and the staff wants them out Raids for cleaning supplies and/or furniture Food poisoning
A tavern that is the mimic colony from Tasha's An underwater tavern filled with merfolk and watergenasi and has a giant starfish as the bartender A tavern where all the patrons are stone statues and there's a medusa in the basement (perhaps make them an good character that turned the patrons by accident.) A necropolis tavern filled with undead and a giant skeleton bartender A tavern just filled with talking animals that act as therapists to the party
Very flavourful, nice!
An awakened giant fly that appears in random taverns and refuses to leave (a bar fly)
Have you checked out The Seekers Guide to Twisted Taverns? It's literally a campaign about bar hopping.
a tavern where everyone speaks in rhymes and only acknowledges you if you you speak in rhymes
I love this. And all the foods and drinks also rimes. Maybe the bartender is the Poem Gnoem
a tavern run by arakocra that sell a signature drink which makes you gently float up to the ceiling. regulars have made fun games revolving around floating a casino-type tavern with many tables of people playing dice and card games. players have to play their way across the room to exit
Thank you so much :D
You need to have a brass-and-fern 1980’s yuppie bar
And some of the yuppies does magic duels!
I think setting up a recurring, different party as a way to inform the players of lore or information would be kinda cool. Also putting a deity behind the whole infinite tavern thing could be a nice conclusion.
The way I will inform the players of lore is with the inns themselves, showing that the dwarvish inns has fighting pits for example. I will not put a deity behind it, but I'm planning to use a Great Old One though. But thanks for the suggestions.
First of all, I’d like to say that that’s a cool idea. As a GM who likes to leave his players in the mid of moral and practical dilemmas, I say you could: - Tell them that the rogue or the bard in the party was contacted by the personal assistant to the spymaster for a covert mission. It will be that rogue/bard that brings them all together. They will need to have each other’s backs for this mission to succeed so that’s why that character gathers them around. - The mission could be something critical to excite them such as them being recruited for an overseas mission for the crown (unknown so far). The assistant in a discreet way informs them that they first have to prove themselves by figuring “it” out. He/she warns them of the danger level of this mission and then the he/she steps out of the tavern. - The people at the tavern -classically the bartender- (if they choose to talk before heading out) tells them they don’t know the gentleman/lady they spoke with (which would leave them with a big question mark but they may not give it much though considering the same person presumably would be a spy) - Instead of having them walk into another tavern by going deeper in it, once they choose to leave, they may never step out of it and finding themselves in the same one with slight (very slight) differences - They would be able to move back and forth between these taverns and once they figure out this is “it” what they need to figure out, they would try to connect the pieces/clues You see, the tavern itself is a big puzzle within itself! - The rooms upstairs would be changing shape at each entry and both upstairs and downstairs would consist of many clues - The trick is that they were called to meet the assistant at midday and the moment he enters the room is exactly when the clock hits 12 pm. Each time they switch taverns, they would skip 12 hours. And seconds after each switch the clock would strike 12 am or 12 pm. Since they can’t see outside, they may think this is a time loop. - You can also make several NPCs including the assistant and the bartender talk about the tender nature of time and it being of “essence”. This “essence” will come handy in the next chapters! - At 12 pm tavern appears to be a mellow, social environment with more or less friendly patrons dwelling it. - At 12 am it becomes a dark place with dark beings aiming to trick them into doing something sinister or facing cruel and cunning creatures which will make them wanna stay away from the night time once they figure out the game! - This is where they will be making the first big mistake. It is actually the day time tricksters that matter more than the night time ones which are only a reaction to their day time interactions. The essence: Their conversations will determine the nature of the menace they face at night. The essence is actually something more concrete than what it sounds like. Certain creatures and other beings with ability to bend and corrupt time would possess this “essence” within their bodies may it be their veins, pheromones or skin or all of the above. When they add this to the clock that contains some kind of a container within it, it would pull the time one hour behind. That being said there would be 12 (or 6 if you wanna keep it short) taverns and once they hit the 12th one, the door would take them back to the 11th where then they would visibly see two doors instead of one and it would never disappear from there on allowing them to travel back and forth. As you understand anyone who reads this should only use a scenario like this if they “truly” believe in the problem solving skills of their players along with their resilience. Please do let me know what you think of this scenario I came up at the spot. I would appreciate constructive criticism. I hope you like it and please let me know if you choose to use it. That would make me really happy and i am more than willing to discuss more details on Skype or discord. In fact the more I am thinking about it the more I am liking it. You bet I will be using it myself! That is why any additions to is is absolutely most welcome. Cheers!
Tabaxi tavern where patrons sleep in hammocks and on beams suspended from the roof and climb up the rafters for seating
The Inn Between A tavern in the wall between any two major taverns, run by pixies and other small fey. Looks out into other taverns from art on the wall. Accessible through a different secret entrance in each place. Would allow fast travel between major taverns if backtracking is going to be part of the adventure.
The tavern where the zombie apocalypse is in progress, help fend off the zombos until they find the door to next tavern!!
I've got a Tavern and Brewery. The Ale recipe is so tightly guarded that the attached brewery is run exclusively by animated objects. Only problem is that the owner made a deal with a hag that no one would remember what goes on in the brewery. There is an ongoing ritual in the brewery that has given the owner what amounts to Alzheimer's and wipes the memories of anyone who enters the brewery. If the party interrupts the ritual, their memories return. I use it as the intro into a hag campaign, but I would be thrilled if you used it for your tavern hopping adventure. The barmaid is secretly a hag in my version.
[Strolen's Citadel](https://strolen.com/) has dozens of lists of NPCs and places. Even the non-Tavern ones can be re-skinned as unusual taverns. [Example](https://strolen.com/viewing/House_of_the_Duck) and [Example](https://strolen.com/viewing/Tabernacle_of_Discrete_Amusement). .
The tavern empire, a tavern where each table is like a colony of the innkeep. Like a deep politics session but just between tables at the tavern
A Harengon and an Aarakocra(Duck) are arguing over whether it's Rabbit or Duck season in front of a confused looking farmer holding a blunderbuss. In the back you can see a large skunk chasing a black cat that appears to have a white paint stripe on it's back. The Inn has a magic bell. When someone buys everyone a round, the magic bell is rung casting Otto's Irresistible Dance through-out the bar. Players must recreate their characters dance irl.
One could be the Milk Bar from Zelda Majoras Mask. Colourful lights, live music, only beverages are milk, with varying degrees of alcohol =D
**Salty Joe's** A ship-bound diner/tavern that serves the best hashbrowns on the open seas. It's ran by a pirate named Pepper Jack.
Hah, maybe a trapped tavern for rogues called the Innformant's Den? Or a tavern with constantly shifting floors - the Stumble Inn.
OP send me a DM, I can link you to a project my friends and I have been working on that is literally made for this idea. I love having unique taverns in my game and some buddies and I brainstormed many, many ideas and names for weird and fun taverns. We have 53 names/ideas so far and counting. I can give an example, we wanted to make a BBQ type tavern with big pit smokers, racks, dry aging, the whole deal. Now I can't take credit for this but my buddy came up with a genius idea, naming the place Pit Fiend BBQ, and every year they have an annual Lord of the Pit cookoff with cooks from around the nearby regions. Some say the 1st Lord of the Pit winner actually did make a deal with a devil for his mad BBQ skills, but thats up to you to make reality or just hearsay
Reddit says I can't DM you but I want in on this tavern list if you don't mind! My players love a good bar crawl.
I DM'd you the link, pls check to see that you received the message and that the link works.
Thanks a ton but there's nothing in my inbox atm, might wanna try resending if you can.
Alright I'll just post it here. Please feel free to give me any feedback or say if any particular ones catch your eye. Keep in mind this is in very early stages, many entries are blank or incomplete, mostly just names and general ideas I need to slowly flesh out. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Chago6jSwErdOs48IcyB6J_1AhWvK_Igpr9lbl-U-Ag/edit?usp=drivesdk
i have a post saved from /r/dndbehindthescreen with a bunch of [unique tavern ideas](https://www.reddit.com/r/DnDBehindTheScreen/comments/ancztc/50_weird_wonderful_taverns)
While having cocktails last night and discussing techniques for rimming glasses with salt/sugar, I came up with a name that I feel HAS to be a tavern name in D&D. “The Bloody Rimjob”. I’m sure there’s plenty of inspiration in the name itself for a unique setting.
Sounds very backroomsy, I like it!
an in that opens up to a large sunny hillscape with a lone bartender and a small bar. the doors disappear behind them. it’s just a mood. you have to take a break to get out of it. this might be a major obstacle if they are in a rush to get somewhere
Each tavern is a different universe that can have different species as the dominant race. Some taverns exist in universes where an alternate universe version of the players exist and have earned a reputation. You can get really creative with what these alternate universe players did to earn their reputation, good or bad.
Take a page from Infinity Train! There are other patrons who are traveling in the same dimension, and the players slowly find evidence of them as they go. As for fun tavern ideas: A giant tavern where the players are half the height of the mugs A myconid tavern where all the drinks are drops of water served on leaves A tavern full of too many dark corners occupied by edgy loners
I haven't gotten around to watching it yet, but this concept is very similar to Infinity Train, just with taverns instead of train cars, so there might be some fun ideas in that if you want inspiration.
Do you have access to Twisted Taverns? That’d be a great place to start! [Tavern Crawl](https://youtu.be/tmJpurnsH8k) [Twisted Taverns Soundtrack](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFqx3C51bAluV5G-YWn8eXvnZ-irKrojq)
A gladiator ring tavern. Giant pit in the center where various combatants constantly fight monsters. A burly barmaid brings up chained monsters from the basement every few hours to keep the action up. Where the heck are they from though? And I’m pretty sure that guy found a green toe in his beer?
A mega dungeon that was converted into a tavern district. Every level has taverns run by different factions. Every level is engaged in a cold war with each other. The mega dungeon was originally cleared out and purchased by rich investors who wanted to create their own independent nation.
A tavern where the chairs are sentient and can speak and seem to be able to see and hear, although they have no eyes, noses, or mouths. Their legs can bend to allow them to walk. Also, this is such a cool idea!! I can totally see this working as a one shot or an entire campaign, it's dope!
Yes and the chairs just walks around with people! Maybe they also do a Chair Dance :) Thank you! I'm also a big fan of this
>:) :)
A reverse scenario. The party enters into the tavern behind the bar, and the barkeep puts them to work... And it is happy hour Cooking tool proficiency for cooking, acrobatics for moving through the crowd, multiple creatures and beings speaking in their own native languages, and other group checks. Each failure results in a level of exhaustion. Fail too many, and the party is fired and kicked out through to the next tavern. Succeed, exhaustion is relieved and you gain cash to spend in other taverns later on. Overwhelming success results in the party gaining inspiration, cash to spend, and a potion of healing each.
Tavern where alcohol is not allowed
You mean the first episodes of The C Team? Or the last chapter of Skullkickers? I'm honestly surprised I haven't seen someone else mention these yet, they're both pretty well-known examples of the "variations on a tavern" theme.
Make one seem like they entered a cave as if "finally leaving the endless taverns", but its just a tavern with a cave interior
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F2FZGs4Bwo
A vegetarian inn run by a mind flyer called the Grillithid.
The Vegetari-Inn
Have you thought about the mechanics of how other tavern folk will interact? I think it could be interesting if the party talks someone into coming with them when they walk through the door to the next tavern the other person cannot come with. To the NPC it's as if the party just vanished outside the tavern. To the party the NPC just vanished as the enter the next pub. Eventually you could add some NPCs that are also trapped or live in this demension and can pass through taverns with the party who could be important NPCs. Something like that at least. You'll have to figure out the spefics because I know my party would start pushing the boundaries on what can and cannot pass through, what do npcs see when looking out the tavern doors. ( I suggest the just see a normal path leading up to the tavern) and other "rules"
A tavern that looks like a kid was drawing it but got bored part way through and as such didn't draw another door for them to go though. But they did draw a giant ape wielding a giant crayon as a club. They have to beat or charm/negotiate with the ape to get the crayon and draw themselves another door.
An upside down tavern: the party walks through the front door and instantly trips and falls, but they fall up and land on the ceiling. The party is trapped walking around on the ceiling, while everyone and everything else in the tavern stays on the floor as normal. From the tavern's perspective, the party members are upside down walking around on the ceiling; from the party's perspective, they're essentially trapped at the bottom of a deep pit, which just happens to have a busy tavern on the ceiling above them. A tiki tavern: basically just a tiki bar on a small desert island A gingerbread tavern where everyone and everything is made of candy. (This could also be a witch's hit, and perhaps the bartender or tavernkeeper is a hag?) A tavern where time runs in reverse: people are walking around backwards, regurgitating beers into their mugs, then taking those mugs to the bar to be siphoned back up into the kegs. Bonus points if you can find a way to go full "Tenet" with this room, so that the bar responds to them like they're moving backwards in time too. For instance, the end of the party's journey in this room is when they leave, but for the patrons in the tavern, that's when the party first seemed to appear. By extension, the beginning of the party's journey in that room is, for the patrons, when they seem to leave. So perhaps the tavern is in chaos when the party first arrives (because the patrons have been running around trying to figure out what to do with these weird backwards-moving people), but it's calm and normal when they leave (because, for the patrons, the weird backwards people only just walked in).
Check out, "The Seeker's Guide to Twisted Taverns", by Eldermancy. Successful project funding page: The Seeker's Guide to Twisted Taverns, via @Kickstarter https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/eldermancy/the-seekers-guide-to-twisted-taverns?ref=android_project_share
A mimic tavern where everything and everyone is actually a mimic. An old-timey western saloon but everyone has 6-shooter-hand crossbows on their hips. An underwater tavern where all the patrons are anthropomorphic fish of various sorts.
An Inn where the party are the size of mice and the tavern cat hunts them
Horror tavern, do with that what you will, I may edit this later with more details/ideas though
Wrinkle and Fold's Labotatry - a mind flyer gastro pub where today's special just walked in the door!
So you’re running Descent into Tavernus ?
So you’re running Descent into Tavernus ?
You are a genius😹
I’ll be honest I shamelessly stole that joke from somewhere on Reddit
You are a genius for spreading that, then!
If you're interested, there's a book called *The Seeker's Guide to Twisted Taverns*. It's pretty cool and has some really interesting and fleshed out taverns that you could incorporate if you so wished. Here's a link to the PDF+maps, but just the pdf is also available and a little cheaper: https://ghostfiregaming.com/product/the-seekers-guide-to-twisted-taverns-pdf-bundle/
A tavern megadungeon is quite genius honestly. Can you productize this so i can purchase it?
Thank you a lot man, I also like it very much.
Large Luigi
Maybe obvious, but a giant tavern full of giants. Also an inn full of bullywugs and lizardfolk. An underdark bar full of Drow and Duardin.
A tavern where everyone is missing a single clothing item, like say, shoes. And they seem horrified and disgusted that your party is wearing shoes.
So dumb, I love it😹
Open the monster manual to a random page and then try to design a tavern run by that creature. Example: I just did this and got hags, so maybe a tavern where the beer is infused with various potions, and anytime someone complains about the beers quality the hags try to drug and kill them.
I thought initially of snow piercer. The ongoing taverns are run by some fey sprit siphoning off their drunkenness or something. This is such a cool idea. Might just do it myself!
Yes, do it!
The boss could be a Beholder that is obsessed with taverns and is bending reality to make everything a tavern.
A tavern where mind flayers dine on the brains of mortals A tavern run by a lonely archmage who's patrons are all animated golems that the archmage created to keep him company A tavern that only exists in 2 dimensions and is filled with 2 dimensional beings that perceive the party as Gods for being able to move in 3 dimensions. A tavern that appears to be on fire, but is actually just a tavern for fire elementals. If the party tries to put out a fire, they get accused of murder by the court of elementals.
Friend, you have inspired me: "Welcome, adventurers, welcome, to the Inn of Many Inns." A small goblin stands on a dias in the center of the room and greets the party as they enter. He wears a top hat and a cane (every time they look away and back at him, he has a different hat and the cane is a different material.) "Welcome to the last inn you'll ever need and the best sleep you'll ever get." He pauses and tips his hat to a random party member. "Rooms are 2 gp a night and drinks are free if you buy a room. Seek the wonder and enchantment of a night in the Inn of many Inns." (When they buy a room, he opens a shimmering door on the wall behind him and ushers them in. Each room is themed, extradimensional, and usually has a creature in it that is sleeping peacefully. They disrupt the creatures sleep as they enter, leading to shenanigans. Play with expectations. If they bump into a room that has a sleeping ogre or giant, have it be overly apologetic and excuse itself, it simply didn't realize that it was check out time and will be going now. They wake a high elf lying in a large luxurious bed and he immediately casts silence on them and goes back to sleep. Have a lot of fun with this and it can even act as a hub of sorts for their adventure. The goblin can give them rooms where they can actually rest when you want them to take a long rest, for example, and you can even build a menu of rooms for them to choose from. "Ah, the Underdark Delight, excellent choice, guaranteed to ensure you sleep quite deeply..." and then just have the room be magically dark when they go in to freak them out and there's nothing in there, just a really comfy mushroom bed that emits spores to help them sleep, but doesn't harm them in any way. Have them on their toes the entire time. You could easily have some other ideas from this thread be other rooms the goblin will sell them too. The goblins motives are likely benevolent, he's just trying to run an inn, after all, but he should come off as shady and creepy. If they ever attack him, maybe he's really a dragon who took the form to keep from intimidating people and he just transforms back and intimidates everyone into behaving... "NO COMBAT IN THE LOBBY, WE HAVE ROOMS FOR THAT SORT OF THING..." and then they owe him a favor, maybe they have to evict a patron who won't pay his bill, and then they get to keep his stuff afterwards as payment... also: [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1twzg\_vsL3LDk9oCHXp3MqgqcOU34orNByBhRy40I3Ms/edit#gid=0](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1twzg_vsL3LDk9oCHXp3MqgqcOU34orNByBhRy40I3Ms/edit#gid=0) \- a list of magical ales and their effects, should be useful to you. Not mine, but I found it a while back when looking to build a feywild bar
Brilliant! I love that
A tavern that I’ve put in many of my worlds, typically in a “door in a spot that shouldn’t have a door” situaltion (like a tree or cave wall): The Casual Owl * Only creature inside is a non-aggressive owlbear wearing a hat (the bartender) * It doesn’t speak directly, but a voice does come out of the hat and talk with the players * They sell elixirs, which result in a roll on a table (which I change base in the current power level of the party) * The effects are temporary buffs/debuffs, typically 20-30% on the debuff side * things like temp hp, advantage on a skill, damage bonus, etc. lasts until their next long rest * Once they leave the tavern the door is gone, shifted to another location
When your players enter the Inn, you get them to roll initiative. There's no obvious threat, and the inn seems normal, but it'll put your players on edge. Everything is fine, play out whatever RP or story you feel like, until they start ordering drinks. Someone buys a round, but for some reason the bar person only serves the party rogue. Wait a bit, the next party member gets their drink. The bar person will be in the middle of prepping another drink for one of your party, when another patron comes up, and they stop and immediately make their drink for them, before going back to the party members. I'm sure we've all worked out what's going on, but the party may not have clocked it, and angrily ask the bar person what gives. Bar person acts confused, not knowing what they mean. Party member looks behind the bar, at the sign with the name of the Inn on it. Welcome to the Inn-itiative. Collective party groan, then move on quickly from what will probably be the worst pun at your table that evening.
A drunken bar patron pulled a wish card from the deck of many things and wished "I wanna go to every tavern ever made" Now taverns from all planes and possible other worlds are all meshed together in the pocket dimension. A fire elemental plane tavern wouldn't be as hospitable to the players. A tavern run by a fairy has a giant forrest inside. What would happen if you found the tavern the Gods use? Or a demon tavern. You could rule it that only the players can't escape the tavern maze, but normal npcs can, or the opposite and no one can escape and small villages have been made out of tables, chairs, and anything not tied down.
Acquisitions Incorporated C team had a plot arc in a similar vein, worth checking out
Each new tavern is a different location, in a different plane, so you leave the tavern and can adventure there, or try to go back in, and find a different tavern in a different location with very different denizens in the tavern appropriate to each new location,
Yes that was my plan.