Frequently Asked Questions

NOTE: If you have questions that are not listed in this FAQ, feel free to hop onto our Community Forums and ask away!

• What kind of game is The Tavern?
• Why should I play this game?
• Is the game single-player or multiplayer?
• Is this an MMO then?
• Roguelikes? What do you mean? I’m too lazy to click the link…
• Wait, what? Did you say PERMANENT death?
• So all of my hero’s fame and fortune will pass down to this hypothetical heir?
• Is The Tavern a PvP-centric game?
• The game is called The Tavern. Will there only be one tavern in the game?
• Can I run my own tavern in the game?
• Which other games have served as inspiration for The Tavern?
• So, when will the game be released?
• What platforms will the game be released on?
• What about consoles/mobile platforms?
• Will there be Alpha/Beta-tests?
• How much will the game cost?
• Can you dig holes in the ground and/or launch fetuses from catapults?
• I have more questions…

The Tavern is essentially an online fantasy roleplaying game, though parts of it are single-player. You create and customize a character, then you arrive at a social hub – a tavern – where you may either interact with other players or go on solo Adventures in which you explore exotic environments, experience events inspired by real world folktales, myths, fairytales and legends, interact with curious NPCs and slay fabulous creatures for fame, fortune and personal glory. Or die trying.

Different people will have different reasons for playing The Tavern, but we’ll give you some suggestions for why YOU might want to play it:

• If you like fantasy roleplaying games of the pseudo-medieval/sword & sorcery type…
• If you enjoy social interactions with other players in non-hostile environments…
• If you want to play alongside other players, but entirely on your own schedule, without worrying about things such as “groups” or “raids”, interacting with other players only when you choose to…
• If you want to become part of the individual communities that will arise in each of the game’s many, uniquely named taverns…
• If you generally enjoy the nature of roguelikes (or roguelike-likes) that heavily feature randomization of content and permanent death…
• If you like online games that cater to Socializers, Explorers and Achievers over Killers…
• If you like smashing barrels, vases and urns…
• …then The Tavern might be the right game for you!

Both! The adventuring-part is single-player (though played on online servers), while the multiplayer part takes place in the taverns – social hubs where your character hangs out between Adventures and may interact/socialize with other players through chat, mini-games and/or duels.

Not really. While The Tavern has certain characteristics of the MMO genre, it doesn’t operate on the same scale. The areas that gameplay takes place in are smaller, the number of other players you can encounter (in taverns, mostly) at any given time is more limited, and the time and effort that the game requires from you as a player is more lenient.

In fact, The Tavern might have more in common with old-school MUDs (or BBS DOOR games even!) than modern MMOs. Or maybe with Choose Your Own Adventure-books. Or with roguelikes.

The roguelike is a subgenre of roleplaying games based on the game Rogue from 1980, usually characterized by random level/dungeon generation, turn-based combat (and/or movement) and permanent death, though not all games that get classified as roguelikes follow all of these conventions (the awesome indie games Rogue Legacy and FTL are recent examples that come to mind), and sometimes another term – roguelike-like or rogue-lite – are given to such games to distinguish them from games that follow the conventions more closely.

In the case of The Tavern, let’s go through some of those characteristics common for roguelikes and see what’s what:

• Random level/dungeon generation:(ish) For every Adventure in The Tavern the available locations you can go to are randomized (though the actual levels or areas themselves are not procedurally generated), the events that can happen at those locations are randomized, the monsters you can encounter are randomized – so every Adventure will be different even if the ultimate objective of each Adventure might repeat.
• Turn-based combat: The Tavern features turn-based combat, whilst movement is handled in “real-time” using control-systems similar to modern top-down action RPGs (or MOBAs, if you prefer).
• Permanent death: Yep! Though you can Adventure at a steady pace in perfect safety, you can also live on the razor’s edge seeking greater or more frequent rewards, but risking permanent death in the process.

Indeed. Hey, wait! Where are you going? Come back! Not only is permanent death 100% avoidable by player choices, all is not lost even if your character should take a dirt nap. Even when your character has kicked the bucket and is pushing up the daisies, has gone to meet his or her maker, is bereft of life and has ceased to be, his/her legacy will live on through their descendant – a character you create specifically to be the heir of your potentially expired and probably stone dead hero.

Well, some of it will. We have not yet decided on what exactly can be passed down along the bloodline in this manner, or how much, but it’s almost certain that it won’t be all of it. Enough to soften the blow, though.

Not really, no. PvP in The Tavern is limited to friendly duels and/or possibly tavern brawls, and in neither case will you be able to kill other player characters (neither temporarily nor permanently).

The singular nature of the game’s name represents the idea of the tavern as an important social hub in the life of adventurers in our game. There will be as many taverns as the playerbase needs there to be. Each tavern in the game will be able to hold maybe 20-30 players at any given time, and new taverns can be discovered by players when the need arises – each with a unique, randomly chosen name and perhaps varying in appearance and location from other taverns. Each player can become a regular at a tavern of their choosing (limited by a cap on each tavern), which will amongst other things make it easier to hang out with the same people regularly.

We have been toying with the idea of letting characters retire from the adventurer lifestyle and into the tavernkeeping-business, though this is probably something we will have to look at after the game has launched, due to the limited amount of resources we have available for developing the game.