Little idea: You know how Monsterhearts has the Classroom Creation thing, where you populate the high school, or at least one of the classrooms, with a bunch of provocative questions? I suddenly want to open up a game of Dungeon World with Tavern Creation. “So, the adventuring party who usually sits at this table. What stands out about their fighter as highly unusual? How did the wizard’s last magical experiment blow up in your face? Why do you look down on their cleric with such contempt?” “Okay, who is the drunk who is always in this corner? What’s his story, what does he drink to escape?” “What rumor have you heard about the mysterious cloaked figure who usually sits here? Okay, what rumor have you heard which contradicts that last rumor? And what rumor have you heard which contradicts both of those?”
Little idea: You know how Monsterhearts has the Classroom Creation thing, where you populate the high school, or at…
Little idea: You know how Monsterhearts has the Classroom Creation thing, where you populate the high school, or at…
That sounds awesome. You could work that really well into Bond creation.
Yeah, I was seeing it more of a tool to colorfully populate the PCs’ home steading but you could definitely work in any unused bonds. Both bonds and the Classroom thing are basically prompts to creating interesting relationships.
Not even established Bonds. You could make up some interesting Bonds based on the “Seating Chart”.
“Why is the wizard sitting so far away from the cleric?”
“Who’s confident enough to sit next to the thief? Why?”
Another few questions. “The table where there’s always gambling going on: cards, dice, that weird elven game with the hexagonal tiles, whatever. Who lost their family heirloom to a game of cards, and who won it? Who is the one who is horrible at bluffing? Who owes you money? Who do you owe money to?”
It seems nice! Maybe I could try it in one of my demos and gather an opinion through actual play.
This is a fantastic idea and I’d happily pay for something like this presented nice and proper.
It’s a nice thought, but “presented nice and proper” is exactly where my skill-set is most lacking. You’ll have to live with free and unpolished!
Seems like a good technique for the first time characters enter a, for lack of a better term, social situation, which they’ve narrated that they are already familiar with but haven’t encountered in play.
It’d be cool to have a top down map of a tavern with a couple key locations (instead of desks) like behind the bar, in front of the bar, that table in the corner, just outside, at the rowdy center table. They’d be little prompts so that you could ask about the people in each place. Another good place would be at the king’s court. Also, tents in a military camp or perhaps the deck of a ship.
Some cool alternative takes on the idea! I also considered tables at the Adventurer’s Guild Hall or such for a big urban game. I’d worry about doing it each time they come to a new-in-game place because that kind of muscles in on the Bard’s schtick with “A Port In The Storm”.
But definitely, yeah, draw that tavern out. Who sits at tables in groups? Who sits at the bar and socializes with any and sundry? Who sits at the bar by themselves? Who warms themselves by the fireside?
This in itself makes a fantastic basis for village creation as well (or city quarter creation) since taverns are local gathering places – you can puzzle out local politics from who sits with who and who isn’t at the tavern, etc.
So basically it’s an even more fantastic idea.