I'm curious how to use taverns to drop plot hooks on players. I love using taverns in my sandbox campaign but need help with how to do so. I have to say that overhearing conversations is my primary method at the moment, but I would appreciate some more suggestions.
1. The players witness a murder in the tavern. Or they witness a heated argument and they find one of the people who was arguing dead outside when they leave. 2. There is a fugitive on a wanted poster on the door. 3. Missing child poster 4. A NPC approaches the group irrate that they did not finish a task (building a bridge, clearing a mine of goblins, whatever). The mistaken identity can play out any number of ways. 5. A NPC approaches the group and asks if they are named X, Y and Z. If they concede, he immediately attacks. If they win, they find their pictures on a letter in his pocket. The letter has instructions to bring the party's heads to a nearby leader.
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Velstitzen
I am a 40 something year old physician who DMs for a group of 40 something year old doctors. We play a hybrid game, mostly based on 2nd edition rules with some homebrew and 5E components.
I recently had my players accidentally interrupt a covert deal in progress. Someone left a note on a chair for their contact but one of my players saw it and grabbed it before it could be handed off. They had a lot of fun inserting themselves into the situation and causing a bit of havoc.
You can have the drink-tender know of people needing help or rumors and such. Sure conversations can work , but if you are relying on skill checks they could totally miss the clue. We use a posted job board in our taverns. This let's the DM prepare ahead of time and the players get to choose what they focus on. Clues can then easily be added by the people or places they visit to get to the next phase of the storyline.
Players and NPCs get tipsy and NPCs spill secrets. Very funny and chaotic.
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In the words of the great philosopher, Unicorse, "Aaaannnnd why should I care??"
Best quote from a book ever: "If you love with your eyes, death is forever. If you love with your heart, there is no such thing as parting."- Jonah Cook, Ascendant, Songs of Chaos by Michael R. Miller. Highly recommend
The simplest mechanic is to have the bartender be the right hand man for the local mayor or crime boss depending on the nature of the party - and just have him have stuff for a bunch of foolhardy adventurers to do.
Of course this is the least creative of the suggestions offered but it is the easiest - I tend to be creative with my main quest lines and use the tavern thing for one shots if a few of the group cant make a session or some players want to do a bonus one shot - stuff like that, where I'm putting a session together in an hour.
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I'm curious how to use taverns to drop plot hooks on players. I love using taverns in my sandbox campaign but need help with how to do so. I have to say that overhearing conversations is my primary method at the moment, but I would appreciate some more suggestions.
Just a few ideas
1. The players witness a murder in the tavern. Or they witness a heated argument and they find one of the people who was arguing dead outside when they leave.
2. There is a fugitive on a wanted poster on the door.
3. Missing child poster
4. A NPC approaches the group irrate that they did not finish a task (building a bridge, clearing a mine of goblins, whatever). The mistaken identity can play out any number of ways.
5. A NPC approaches the group and asks if they are named X, Y and Z. If they concede, he immediately attacks. If they win, they find their pictures on a letter in his pocket. The letter has instructions to bring the party's heads to a nearby leader.
Velstitzen
I am a 40 something year old physician who DMs for a group of 40 something year old doctors. We play a hybrid game, mostly based on 2nd edition rules with some homebrew and 5E components.
I recently had my players accidentally interrupt a covert deal in progress. Someone left a note on a chair for their contact but one of my players saw it and grabbed it before it could be handed off. They had a lot of fun inserting themselves into the situation and causing a bit of havoc.
You can have the drink-tender know of people needing help or rumors and such. Sure conversations can work , but if you are relying on skill checks they could totally miss the clue. We use a posted job board in our taverns. This let's the DM prepare ahead of time and the players get to choose what they focus on. Clues can then easily be added by the people or places they visit to get to the next phase of the storyline.
Players and NPCs get tipsy and NPCs spill secrets. Very funny and chaotic.
In the words of the great philosopher, Unicorse, "Aaaannnnd why should I care??"
Best quote from a book ever: "If you love with your eyes, death is forever. If you love with your heart, there is no such thing as parting."- Jonah Cook, Ascendant, Songs of Chaos by Michael R. Miller. Highly recommend
The simplest mechanic is to have the bartender be the right hand man for the local mayor or crime boss depending on the nature of the party - and just have him have stuff for a bunch of foolhardy adventurers to do.
Of course this is the least creative of the suggestions offered but it is the easiest - I tend to be creative with my main quest lines and use the tavern thing for one shots if a few of the group cant make a session or some players want to do a bonus one shot - stuff like that, where I'm putting a session together in an hour.