101 Tavern Ideas...

munin

Mongoose
A Cimmerian, a Stygian, and a dancer of Zamboula all walk into a bar...

I'm looking to build a modest database of uncanny events, peculiar characters, ominous foreshadowings, humorous situations, illict affairs and anything else that might happen in your typical Hyborian tavern. I'll start:

1) The Noble of Ophir. Location: Anywhere outside of Ophir.
Joktan, an Ophiran(sp?) noble, has recently fallen out of favor with the Queen of Ophir, and consequently fled the realm. He is now searching for a way to regain the Queen's favor and acceptance back into the court.
He arrives at the tavern the same night as the party with a small group of followers, namely two bodyguards (soldiers), a priest (scholar) and his mistress, a young and exotic beauty from a location of your choosing (noble).

The party could encounter Joktan in a number of ways:
1: His mistress, young and bored, may try to seduce one of the male members of the group in the hopes that he will whisk her away from the tiresome noble.
2: If the party is in possession of some item of power, or some piece of artwork or jewelry that may interest the Queen, he will attempt to acquire (read: steal) it from the party, using his bodyguards or his lovely mistress to do the dirty work.
3: Joktan has a weakness for gambling. A gambler in the party could encounter him at the table and either become indebted to him or even earn some easy coin off the out-of-luck noble.
 
Would not a tavern be an unseemly and inappropriate place for a man such as a noble to be found? I would think it beneath him to frequent such a place, being the haunt of the (*gasp*) common people.
 
It might be a posh tavern in the lahdedah quarter, and the barbarian and the lapdancer may be out of place. It may serve tea and scones.
 
Uh...thanks guys. In the future, I'll do my best to ensure that my taverngoers keep to their respective socials niches.

The bit about the barbarian and the dancer was a joke, meant to imply that the whole thread is a little on the wry side. Sorry if that wasn't obvious.

By 'tavern', I mean any gathering spot for locals or travellers, be it a warfside hole in the wall, an upscale establishment, or even a lonely roadside inn.

My goal is to create a modest list of ideas that can be dropped in a game session to spice up an otherwise routine visit to a tavern. Or, if the Games Master is a little underprepared, he could even drop several in at once, as many as he could handle, and let the players spend the night dealing with different situations, and following plot hooks as they develop.

Coming up....The Trouble with Twins...
 
In our game we had a pair of Cimmerans arm wrestling and breaking tables on each other in a bar at one point. We also had a pyromaniac doing the whole fire eater routine in exchange for booze...
 
The bit about the barbarian and the dancer was a joke, meant to imply that the whole thread is a little on the wry side. Sorry if that wasn't obvious.

It was

It might be a posh tavern in the lahdedah quarter, and the barbarian and the lapdancer may be out of place. It may serve tea and scones.

This was a joke too :D
 
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