Taverns and Barkeeps Reference

The tavern is a classic standby for Dungeons & Dragons. Many adventures begin in taverns, and taverns are the most reliable place for adventurers to hold themselves over between adventures. The bottom line is, you're going to have your party end up in a tavern eventually, and that's just the way that it is. But taverns are colorful, noisy places, and each one has the potential to be a unique experience. By characterizing a tavern in particular, you open the possibility that players will want to return to those specific taverns they enjoyed. 

But it can be a lot of work to improvise an entire tavern. Much in the same way as with NPCs, it's helpful to have a list to roll for and just have a premade tavern. So below I've posted an expansion of a list I use, which includes a variety of information to make it simple to drop these taverns into your gameworld. Use these taverns to add some flavor to the party's pit stops and meal times, and focus on the big picture stuff instead of grasping for tavern details. Roll a d100 and subtract 50 if your roll is over 50. The information is presented as [Tavern Name] - [Barkeep Name] - [Quality of Food and Drink] - [Unique Trait].

1. The Rusty Blowhorn - Horton Darkwater - Average food, good drink - Daily arm-wrestling competition, reigning champ is Charlie Breakneck
2. Hardiman's - Deena Hardiman - Good food, average drink - Deena and all the other employees are a troupe of performers
3. Home Away from Home - Irisil Lennox - Great food, good drink - Irisil is doting and motherly to all patrons, asking personal questions and offering advice and support
4. The Drunken Bell - Jacob Ivorykeys - Good food, great drink - A favorite hangout for hunters and trappers, who are suspicious of non-hunter/trappers
5. Galvin and Dobbs' - Galvin Hunnam and Nick Dobbs - Average food, great drink - Galvin and Dobbs have a slightly antagonistic relationship and prank each other while working
6. Parsons' Creek Brewers - June Ingersoll - Good food, fantastic drink - These human brewers are obsessed with quality; their prices are somewhat high, but well worth it for the product
7. Sebastian Cliffracer's Tavern - Sebastian Cliffracer - Good food, good drink - Sebastian is an ex-adventurer who tells tall tales about his glory days to any patron who will listen
8. The Knotty Sycamore - Heidi Golddew - Average food, great drink - The go-to hangout for law enforcers in the settlement
9. The Open Door - Freddy Cillinel - Good food, great drink - A hangout spot for local Thieves' Guild members, including Freddy's role as a fence
10. Dragonbrew - Victor Marblesmasher - Great food, fantastic drink - Known for its hearty dwarven comfort food and "Dragon Ale," a heavy brew of dwarven ale and spices known for its alcohol content
11. The Feirmor Standard - Dez Winnow - Fantastic food, great drink - This large diner and bar is known for its quality food of all cuisines and its sizable stage, where nightly shows take place
12. Oats and Water - Florence Teakettle - Average food, bad drink - This tavern caters to travelers with a naturalist perspective; the food are drink are nutritious but not very tasty
13. The Lucky Lady - Gwenivere Xallia - Good food, average drink - Regular customer Bryce Callithur plays a running game of the card game Three Dragon Ante, hustling unsuspecting patrons
14. Bastard Bill's - Bill Durberry - Average food, fantastic drink - Bill himself is very confrontational and strikes up arguments with customers over anything he can manage
15. Zoopillio - Flick Dominio - Good food, good drink - This bizarre gnomish bar has walls adorned by mechanical devices and blueprints, and Flick can be seen trying out a mechanical employee
16. The Morning Tides - Grimla Thanadew - Fantastic food, great drink - This restaurant is built in a circle around a stage which hosts alternative music performances regularly
17. Chapter Nine - Victoria Redland - Good food, great drink - This bar is an addition on to a public library; the menu focuses on fine wines
18. The Victor's Circle - Vincent Agincort - Good food, fantastic drink - This bar is always introducing new drinks and holding daily contests for the most popular beverages
19. It Wasn't the Best Idea - Jurk Drent - Good food, average drink - Jurk is obscene and irritable, and he complains to anyone who will listen that his bar was supposed to be named something filthy but the signmaker refused
20. Quittin' Time - Nusk Wrelt - Great food, great drink - This tavern is a standard hangout for hard larborers, especially orcs and humans
21. The Night Haunt - Helga Wide-eyes - Good food, great drink - This spooky, macabre tavern is run by fortune-teller Helga, who tries to foresee the future of her patrons
22. Grob - Serk Cranet - Great food, average drink - This tavern, named for the island homeland of the orcs, is home to orcish people and frequent wrestling competitions
23. Ribskibildon - Mildy Doublescoop - Great food, good drink - This gnomish bar is decorated with flying devices, from personal helicopters to makeshift biplanes
24. The Unicorn's Advice - Flien Fillien - Fantastic food, great drink - This upscale elven tavern is named for an elven saying "The unicorn's advice is not given but bestowed"; employees are known for upselling the patrons
25. Hector's - Hector Jaskins - Good food, great drink - The tavern is in the process of being robbed when the player characters enter; Hector is bound in the back of the bar and will reward the party with free drinks if they rescue him
26. Joy in a Tankard - Francis Stumpsplitter - Average food, fantastic drink - This tavern is dominated by dwarven brewing and offers a special "Dwarven Heritage Ale"; the tavern's name comes from the dwarven saying "Wise men find joy in a tankard"
27. The Exiled Fox - Gloria Cleanblade - Fantastic food, great drink - No menus exist in this tavern; the chef, Linda Cutbone, interviews the patron and crafts a custom dish for each person
28. Atir Brewery - Erosile Doherty - Great food, average drink - This tavern, named for a half-even city, is run by a married couple; half-elf Erosile handles bartending and orders and her husband Daniel cooks; they are openly affectionate and have creative names for each order
29. Your Favorite Chair - Phillip Triskil - Good food, great drink - While most taverns have the cheapest seating available, this tavern features oversized armchairs in a variety of sizes throughout the bar
30. The Xenolith - Ed Mill - Average food, fantastic drink - Brothers Ed and Eli are master distillers and can make excellent versions of any distilled beverage; they named their tavern after the demigod said to cause earthquakes
31. Westunder's - John Westunder - Great food, great drink - Bartender John is rapid-talking, silly, and comically confrontational; he wants to entertain his patrons and parades around the tavern making scenes for everyone's amusement
32. The Rattling Die - Reggie Strawbale - Average food, bad drink - This tavern is an absolute dive bar complete with graffiti on the walls and a curious odor; another patron throws up when the players arrive
33. Firebreath's - Tina Crenshaw - Bad food, fantastic drink - Tina is an intermediate spellcaster who enchants each drink with a harmless effect, such as the consumer's skin turns blue for one minute or the consumer becomes one foot shorter until the drink is finished
34. The White Rose - Gordon Amperville - Good food, average drink - Gordon is a heavy alcoholic who guzzles booze between taking orders and often makes mistakes because of his inebriation
35. Breezefield - Maude Whistle - Great food, average drink - This tavern is decorated with enormous pots of flowers everywhere, spreading pleasing colors and scents across the tavern
36. The Bar Without a Face - Linda Winnow - Good food, great drink - This tavern does not have a wall on the front of the building, giving the entire tavern the impression of being a patio bar; things get a little rowdy here with the lack of boundaries
37. The Empty Dipper - Peter Nevermore - Average food, average drink - This tavern is overrun with the poor of the town as its prices are extremely low; the decor reflects the focus on cheap production
38. Olidammara's Kitchen - Rudy Freehand - Fantastic food, great drink - This relatively upscale tavern employs innovative ways of cooking, boasting a flash-roasted boar, creamed vegetable pie, and twice-baked bread, among others
39. Prayers and Nook - Blaine Hugo - Average food, good drink - This tavern dedicates half of its real estate to being a mid-range tavern and half of its space to being a mid-range brothel; it offers one sex worker of every category to satisfy demands
40. Hollop Central - Williel Prosperity - Good food, fantastic drink - This elven tavern focuses on the elven drink hollop, a drink distilled of an elven root vegetable; many patrons are regulars for the fine beverage in all its varieties
41. The Kingdom - Deerka Pellisonger - Good food, good drink - This tavern employs carefully trained enchanted animals to staff the business; patrons may have their order taken by Spot the labrador, their drink made by Lonnie the moose, and their food made by Lightfoot the wolf
42. Yesterday - Luther Ritter - Great food, good drink - This tavern is decorated in fashions long since passed and is home to a stage where musicians can play the hits of years passed
43. The Carved Skullplate - Gromor Alk - Good food, great drink - Each table of this tavern has a humanoid skull, each intricately carved with astronomical symbols, fixed in the center of the table as decoration; Gromor is unwilling to divulge where the skulls came from
44. Roadside Relaxation - Nolan Knotfort - Great food, average drink - This tavern doubles as an inn with above-average treatment for travelers, including hot baths, breakfast buffet, and quarters for mounts
45. First Snow - Hammond Howard - Good food, good drink - Hammond recently recovered from a bandit attack and is still on crutches; he offers the party payment if they will track down the bandits and exact justice
46. The Curse - Jenny Peafeather - Great food, great drink - Jenny jokes with her customers that eating here will cause a curse where other taverns will never be as enjoyable again; she plays this joke up no matter how patrons react
47. The Scraps - Jade Ollintree - Fantastic food, great drink - Jade specializes in soul food and publicly announces that her ingredients are subpar, but the result is always incredible; sample dishes include rat stew and chicken gizzards
48. Chivalry - Derek Hammersmith - Good food, great drink - Before being allowed into the tavern, patrons must recount a good deed they have performed in the last week; bouncer Pluck Frunk judges whether the patrons are good enough to enter
49. The Caged Bird - Yancy Bigstocking - Average food, great drink - Inside the tavern, at the center of the room, is a massive cage with a parrot inside; the parrot has plenty of room to move around and yells profanities at patrons
50. The Slow Pocketwatch - Orson Huxley - Fantastic food, great drinks - Orson warns patrons that meals take extra long here as chef Bryson Deerfellow is thorough; to accommodate patrons, he offers the patrons' second drink at half price

With this list of taverns, you'll always be prepared to drop your players into a bar where you don't need to work as hard to characterize things. If a detail goes against something you had planned, then just ignore it, but certain prompts can even expand the range of your adventure (like #45, which has the beginnings of a quest tucked in). The important thing here is that tavern experiences are interesting and unique, and these will allow you to step in that direction.

There are other ways to get into the details of a tavern: the food and drinks offered by each. To that end, I'm posting lists of food and drinks you're likely to get from each ranking of the quality of food and drink above. You'll notice the list only has a few entries for genuinely bad or unremarkable quality, which is done on purpose. Having a bad meal out should be a rare experience unless the party is looking for it, while in order for a restaurant to survive, they have to be at least pretty decent. In any case, here is a full menu for each quality of food and drinks you can encounter: 

Bad food: Skirt steak and boiled potatoes, white bread and hard cheese, dried venison and hard tack, roast wild boar and fresh greens, baked salmon and rice

Bad drink: Basic light ale, human-distilled whiskey, halfling wine, orcish stout, gnomish gin

 

Average food: Strip steak and mashed potatoes, grilled chicken and brown bread, roasted hare and roasted carrots, grilled trout and roast broccoli, smoked venison and peas

Average drink: Gnomish red ale, elf-distilled whiskey, human wine, halfling stout, orcish vodka

Good food: T-bone steak and creamed corn, roasted veal and roasted potatoes, grilled halibut and spiced cauliflower, fried chicken and fried okra, baked turkey and stuffing

Good drink: Elven floral ale, gnome-distilled whiskey, dwarven wine, human stout, orcish rum

Great food: Porterhouse steak and grilled asparagus, pulled pork and garlic mashed potatoes, dried elk and dark bread, baked swan and creamed spinach, grilled red snapper and roasted sweet potato

Great drink: Halfling light ale, orc-distilled whiskey, gnomish wine, dwarven stout, human brandy

Fantastic food: Ribeye steak and mushroom gravy with grilled leeks, roasted pork and corn chowder, bacon and brussel sprouts, grilled tuna and roasted beets, roasted goat and grilled artichokes

Fantastic drink: Crindlin (halfling distilled drink from the sap of a tree), hollop (elven distilled drink from the vegetable jaswop), dwarven amber ale, dwarf-distilled whiskey, elven wine

Providing a menu for player characters to order may seem like a silly way to spend your time as a DM, but consider this: your job as DM is to fill in details that make the players' experiences more interesting. And as small a token as it is, being allowed to order specific food makes the players happy. You can offer taverns that will short-order cook any meal requested to allow the players to get really creative, or you can use these menus to provide options at a variety of more restricted taverns. And feel free to get granular with the details--substitutions, prices, the personality of the tavernkeeper--all of them will add some color to the otherwise routine experience of going to a tavern. 

One final consideration of taverns is how much things cost. This depends on how you've decided money operates in your setting, but I've offered some guidelines that are true in my world and will likely carry over to yours. For reference, I set a single copper piece at the value of a single basic drink and expand from there. 

Bad food: 1-3 copper pieces, depending on the quantity of food

Bad drink: 1 copper piece

 

Average food: 2-4 copper pieces, again depending on the quantity of food

Average drink: 1-2 copper pieces, depending on the establishment

Good food: 3-5 copper pieces, again depending on the quantity of food

Good drink: 2-3 copper pieces, depending on the establishment

Great food: 4-7 copper pieces, again depending on the quantity of food

Great drink: 3-4 copper pieces, depending on the establishment

Fantastic food: 5 copper pieces to 1 silver piece (10 copper pieces), again depending on the quantity of food

Fantastic drink: 4-8 copper pieces, depending on the establishment

The key with prices is to reflect real world prices: you can eat at a fast food restaurant for a few bucks, but an upscale restaurant will charge you upward of 20 dollars, so a ratio of 1:10 is about right. Similarly, you can get a cheap beer for a few bucks in the right place, but a fancy cocktail will run you 15 bucks in some establishments. Keep in mind that spending big money on food and drinks is something only wealthier characters can manage, so don't have the poor, huddled masses of your city dropping coins in an upscale tavern unless there's a good reason. 

Now that I've given you everything you need to drop a tavern in your game, get out there and adventure! A host of unique taverns will be waiting for you when your adventure is over.  

Coming soon: how to write with story beats, how and when to fudge rolls, and how to improvise encounters. Until next time, happy gaming!

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