Adventures INSIDE a tavern

[Tonguez]

The PCs have gathered in a tavern when ...?

Besides the obvious "Bar Fight" and the MOO "Rats in the Basement" what kind of adventures could be had inside a Tavern/Inn/Hotel (including its grounds)

Ideas for hooks and scenarios to hook in the PCs without sending them off to the nearby dungeon all welcome

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

1. Thief: some is picking the PCs pockets or stealing from their rooms.

2. Ghost story: One of the rooms is haunted and the PCs must figure out how to put the ghost to rest.

3. Slavers: Guests are disappearing from the inn; the PCs must figure out that slavers are sneaking in through a secret passage and kidnapping guests.

4. Curse: A witch enters and curses the kitchen, spoiling any food that is prepared. The PCs must figure out a way both to lift the curse and figure out why the witch cursed them.

5. Diva: The bard that is performing there is beguiling guests to make extra contributions, and perhaps leave town with her.

6. Old Soldier: the PCs discover that the old, broken down man who tends the grounds and sleeps in the stable is actually a hero of great renown, fallen on bad times.

7. Evil priests: One of guests is secretly a priest of an evil god, and is using magic to gain unwilling converts and sacrifices for his religion.

 

[Thunderfoot]

Adventures in a tavern - none. Vignettes in a tavern/inn - where to begin.

Even though the tavern/inn is often used as the standard foil for adventure launch, the reason for this a many.

1. There are many people with which the PCs can interact
2. There are the standard "regular" NPCs that can be both foils and allies over the long-term
3. They are dark and usually noisy

So here are a few of my favorites:

1. The nighttime assassination attempt. An assassin is hired to kill either a PC or another inn patron. The PCs foil the attempt and gain information leading to their next adventure following some investigative work.
2. The underground railroad/smuggling operation. More than a "kill the rats" scenario as an entrance to an entire underground complex can be hidden in the storage area. (This is really along the lines of what you are looking for, a dungeon crawl IN the tavern.)
3. A hostage situation in the Inn/tavern. A take on the "bar fight" but much more slow paced and surgical. Again more than likely leading to another set of adventures.

I have others but I have to leave. Hopefully this helps.

 

[Aeolius]

"Drink all 100 imports to win a free t-shirt."

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

"Drink all 100 imports to win a free t-shirt."

Or "eat this really ill-advised thing to win local fame."

 

[Gilladian]

I once had the PCs get shrunk down to miniature size and have to find a way across the inn and the courtyard. In fact, there's a Dungeon adventure that does that - Chadranthor's Bane! An excellent memory!

Drunken PC wakes up in a room that isn't his; who is with him? Who is the body with him? Where is everyone else? Etc...

Barmaid makes friends with a PC - tells him/her that she's pregnant/deep in debt/hiding from X person/group and needs his/her help.

The painting over the fireplace gradually changes scenes (or changes once every week/month/year). Why? What does it represent? Are those real places? Is there a way to get there?

What makes the thump-thump-thump that's heard in the wall every thursday afternoon? (Slavers, escaped slaves, burglars, a ghost, etc...)

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Surviving an ill-timed "Dwarf-Toss" night ("What racist moron scheduled this to coincide with Clan Thunderpick's family reunion?")

Settling a dispute between contestants in a wet toga contest. (The busty Half-Orc thinks the voting was rigged...)

The Tavern in the Mists of Creation: a tavern that hops randomly between dimensions every time it gets foggy in a FRPG analog of London. It doesn't shift in space or time, just alternative Prime Material Planes. You can leave any time, but once the fog hits the doors, the Tavern is going to shift...

 

[Psychotic Jim]

Hmm, one fun adventure I ran may not be applicable to d&d actually was in a GURPS Goblins game. The pcs were poor as hell lower class goblins hired as ratcatchers for a fancy dinner theater type establishment.

Underneath the stage they discovered an actress who'd been killed inadvertently by the theater owner when he was getting way too frisky. She was pretty vengeful and implored the PCs for help, who tried to drive her away. One of the characters had been educated in a charity (religious orphanage) school and carried a Bible with him on his person, so he tried to drive away the ghost by holding up the Bible and yelling, "The Power of Christ compels you! The Power of Christ compels you!"

Of course, goblins being the unfaithful creatures they are, didn't work, and the ghost's pleas for help weren't helping her at all. So she tried a different tactic, offer them information they could blackmail the theater owner with. And suddenly it was like night turned into day, they lept into it with all their hearts. Unearthing the body and going to the theater owner with blackmail on their minds, they shook him down for some hush money while simultaneously calling the police. Then after getting their hush money, the PCs turned him in anyway and managed to scam the local authorities out of some reward money for their "good deed". All in all, a fun session leaving the group's pockets, if not their hearts, a little bit fuller.

On a more serious note, games I've played in have from time to time used the inn assassination plot as a mini-episode. You have to be careful though with this, as too much and pcs can get to wonder, "why do I sleep here again?" I believe Green Ronin had an adventure where the inn the pcs are staying at is put under siege by several evil cultists (A Dreadful Dawn, IIRC)- haven't used it though.

Other resources include the En Route series of adventures for 3.0 and 3.X. Many of the encounters in this encounter anthology take place in taverns or other nearby urban locations. Examples include a conman who tries to swindle the pcs out of their money and a group of commoners who panic and riot when they (and the inn) are accidentally rendered invisible by an apprentice mage's errant spell. One of the adventures in Tales of Freeport was almost entirely a series of varying subplots that happen inside of the characters' inn at once, with the PCs caught in the middle.

Other ideas
-a murder mystery, with the city watch locking down the inn until the culprit is found.
-a scooby doo variation on the traditional haunting- somebody is trying to scare away everybody from the gloomy tavern b/c of pirate's gold/secret cult/etc.
-Once in a very rare while I hit PCs in their sleep with side treks into the plane of dreams (their minds going there while their bodies still are in the tavern.)

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Or a variant of Motel Hell or the RW case of "The Bloody Benders."

 

[Celebrim]

"A Dark And Stormy Night": The PC's are in an Inn. They find it has been surrounded by something. The PC's must defend the Inn against attack, and deal with the fears, injuries, and drama of the other trapped patrons. Suggested attackers: Zombies, Sahuagin, Ettercaps, Mummies. Relatively low tech, low intelligence brute attackers with no love of fire are preffered because the goal is to make the Inn have tactical value. You can play this straight, or have as a twist the object of the attack be something in the Inn (some cursed treasure that another patron has stolen) and the attack will not cease until the treasure is restored to its rightful gaurdians.

"We're Not Drinking In Kansas": The Inn is no ordinary Inn, but some supernatural location and/or the PC's have accidently stumbled into some important meeting of some sort. Examples: the inn is cursed and whoever stays until morning must stay forever, the inn and everyone in it is actually a ghost, the inn is an illusion created by a powerful wizard or outsider with strange motives, the inn is actually a wandering location run by the God of Wine and Revelry - the other patrons are gods or similarly powerful beings, a group of powerful outsiders (slaad, fiends, modron) are in disguise and having a meeting in the inn, everyone in the inn is a werewolf, etc.

An inn can be a good oppurtunity to introduce NPC's that are otherwise way over the PC's heads and status at this time, but which may be important later in the PC's careers. This can be anything from having one of the patrons actually be the crown prince slumming, to the Innkeeper is a friend of the best swordsman in the world, to having five or six of the Slaad Lords from The Explicatae Incompositae (see link below) meeting in the Inn.

"Checking in to the Bates Inn and Tavern": The operator(s) of the inn are actually serial killers/cannibals/cultists, who regularly poison and/or and murder travellers in their beds. There sinister actions may be unknown to the locals (who are safe by the rule of don't dirty your own nest), or they may even be known and approved of by the larger community. The PC's must survive the night, uncover the sinister secret, and make the road safe for future travelers. This story is actually older than dirt, as it's one of the challenges faced by Theseus.

"The Murderer Must Still Be In This Room": The PC's are staying in a remote tavern when a murder occurs (typically, it's not only remote but a storm, blizzard, lack of boat, etc. prevents anyone leaving). With no law enforcement nearby, the Innkeeper shuts up the Inn and refuses to open it until the murderer is revealed. The murderer has planted evidence that implicates on the PC's. The PC's must solve the crime and reveal the real murderer. A nearly infinite number of twists are available: the murdered person is their own murderer, there is a doppleganger or other supernatural being among the guests, the murderer has reasons that the PC's might actually be sympathetic to, the innkeeper actually did it, a PC actually did do it but was under a compulsion, everyone or almost everyone but the PC's are actually in on it (in which case see "Checking into the Bates Inn and Tavern").