Tavern #RPGaDAY2025

 To get a little more substance out of the conversation about the tavern i así for some help from the random results.

A melancholic moment comes up, upon climbing the mountain peak above the clouds, a cantina full of cockroaches can be seen at distance.

The image is not pleasant; I worked in a bar for a short time with some friends. In the bar my friends ran, exchanges of all kinds were common, and according to what they told me, cockroaches would crawl over the faces of sleeping drunks.

I saw uncomfortable things, that strange feeling that bars give me, and I think it can be conveyed in the scene where Frodo walks through the Prancing Pony. The uncomfortable atmosphere perfectly conveys the feeling of wandering around a bar that is uncomfortable, smelly, and terrible, as long as you're not drunk. If you've already had a few beers, the place isn't so bad; it can even be quite enjoyable. That's how those dark caves of perdition work in my hometown.

And I think that the feeling of the bar as an unsafe, dirty, and dangerous place only comes across when the plot or the players' actions are leading to a conflict inside the establishment.

If nothing is going to happen inside the bar, I admit that it's my fault. I don't always remember what bars are like, and I often describe them as if they were restaurants with beds, which is a waste of space.

Of course, it's not that every bar the party enters will be a smelly place full of conflicts that will explode in their faces. That's not what it's about, but it's worth remembering that when you spend a lot of time in a bar, conflicts can arise, and we all know that in a role-playing game, conflicts generate sweat and laughter...the fuel of every good DM.

Bars are places of risk and adventure, although largely lacking in any tangible reward beyond the simple fact of having a story to laugh about with your friends the next time you get drunk.

Not my tabern