RDI: Guide to Inns and Taverns
“Don’t get me wrong, heroes are made in the dungeon. But, it’s not until we share a mug of ale with them that we get to learn about who they really are.” – Cliff Bohm, SlugFest Games
The Red Dragon Inn Guide to Inns and Taverns is a Pathfinder-compatible sourcebook describing how to add inns and taverns, like the Red Dragon Inn, to your adventure!
What’s the big deal with inns and taverns anyway? Think of your favorite fantasy adventure. Did those heroes meet up at a tavern at some point? (Yep.) Did a “simple” night at the inn start a great adventure story? (Thought so.) Adventuring goes hand in hand with meeting, planning, scheming, and fighting in taverns!
Now let’s look at your game. Does your campaign have its “Prancing Pony” or “Inn of the Last Home”? Are your taverns a big deal? If they are, then this guide will give you new tools to make them even better. If they aren’t, and you want them to be, you’ve come to the right place… with this guide, you have all the tools you need!
While this guide has everything you need to add The Red Dragon Inn to your game, it’s about much more than that. It’s about the inn or tavern that you want to make! Whether you are a player with a retiring hero looking to start their own tavern, or a GM looking for the perfect setting for that great moment, you will find useful information on everything from construction to what to stock in the pantry. How much should you pay for a wooden chair, pewter plate, or barrel of ale?
The guide also introduces new rules for common folk – both player characters and NPCs – so you can tell more detailed stories about the folks who work at inns and taverns as well as those who visit. For storytellers there are additional chapters with maps, encounters, and details to help incorporate inns and taverns into your game.
We have made an effort to create a complete treatment on the topic. Most importantly, we hope we’ve made a tool that helps you tell better stories!
What’s Inside
The Guide to Inns and Taverns has information for both players and gamemasters. Players have access to new classes, feats, spells, and magic items, as well as the mechanics to build their own taverns. GMs will be provided with new kinds of encounters, NPC classes, suggestions for building the sorts of encounters that might take place in an inn or tavern, as well as fully fleshed-out taverns and NPCs.
Chapters 1 through 10 are for Players and GMs!
Chapter 1 – Operating Inns and Taverns: This chapter goes over the ins and outs of putting inns and taverns into your game. It covers topics such as who to hire, what sort of entertainment to bring in, and what kinds of amenities you might offer to your guests.
Chapter 2 – Barroom Brawling: What party of adventurers doesn’t get into a scuffle at a tavern eventually? This chapter greatly expands the kinds and uses of improvised weapons, as well as addressing obstacles and potential hazards common to these settings.
Chapter 3 – Building Inns and Taverns: This chapter provides you with the step-by-step process for building inns and taverns. You’ll find detailed information on everything, from choosing locations to thatching your roof, plus how much it will all cost and how long it will take to build or repair almost anything!
Chapter 4 – Equipment: A tavern wouldn’t be a tavern without some tables, chairs, plates and mugs. This chapter goes over all of the items you would expect to find in an inn or tavern, how hard they are to break, and how much it costs to replace them. You’ll also find new magic items and variant rules that improve the items made by master crafters.
Chapter 5 – Drinks and Drinking: This chapter introduces new mechanics that better reflect the effects that a night of debauchery (and the morning after) can have on your characters, with new intoxicated conditions and rules for handling ingested poisons.
Chapter 6 – Gambling: This chapter covers how to use gambling in interesting ways and introduces Gambling Encounters, a new system for resolving games of skill and chance in your game.
Chapter 7 – Feats and Traits: This chapter introduces new feats and traits for player characters and NPCs.
Chapter 8 – Classes: Artisan: This chapter introduces the Artisan, a new player character class that focuses on crafting, trading and dealing with common folk. Artisans are similar to the commoner NPC class… only better!
Chapter 9 – Baking, Brewing and Cooking: This chapter introduces new rules that cover the crafting of food and drink, as well as enchanted food and drink.
Chapter 10 – Spells: This chapter introduces new spells that take advantage of the new intoxicated conditions and crafting mechanics.
Chapters 11 through 13 are for GMs only!
Chapter 11 – Non Player Characters: This chapter provides GMs with the tools for making a cast of believable NPCs for the player characters to interact with. It is filled with new NPC classes as well as generation mechanics that fill your campaign with characters who are not just looking for a fight.
Chapter 12 – Gambling Encounters: This chapter provides GMs with sample Gambling Encounters to drop into your campaigns or use as inspiration.
Chapter 13 – Sample Taverns: This chapter provides GMs with full-color maps and descriptions for three different taverns that can be added straight to your game.