Game Info – Adventures and Events

So, you’re sitting in your favorite tavern, sipping some stale beer, carefully contemplating whether to throw an axe at the nearby bard who you suspect must have looted his lute off of some corpse or other, when a man storms into the tavern, calling out for help. Apparently some evil count has kidnapped his child, and he needs someone willing to risk their life for the child’s safe return.

“What the heck,” you mumble. “I’ve had enough stale beer to last me a month.” You finish the stale beer – you paid for it, after all – before you weave your way past the tables full of other patrons and reach the bar. “I’ll do it,” you tell the man, who’s now nursing a beer given to him by the tavern-keep. “Just point me in the right direction.”

The man looks up at you with a hopeful look in his eyes, then proceeds to shake your hand multiple times as he exclaims, “Thank you, thank you! It was that dastardly Count Dracula. He’s hiding up in his castle. Please bring my child safely back home!”

After tightening some belts and adjusting some straps, you leave the tavern and head out down the road. You soon find yourself at a crossroad, and you pause for a moment to consider your options. Either path will eventually take you to where you want to go, but do you brave the treacherous mountain passes full of bandits, or do you take your chances wading through the swamp, where worse things than mosquitoes lurk? Choose well, adventurer…

In The Tavern, an Adventure is a stand-alone, event-driven short story for solo players. Each Adventure takes the player through a series of random Event Locations, each with random Events that must be completed in order for the player to continue and eventually reach the final destination of the Adventure, where that Adventure’s ultimate objective can be completed. Adventures are exclusively found in taverns.

After you, a would-be adventurer and hero-to-be, have accepted an Adventure as your own, you leave the tavern and start your journey. By means of a node-based path-selection system you travel through the world from one generic and randomly available location to the next, triggering events at each such location with challenges that must be overcome before you can move on. Along the way you might also run into rare events and random monster encounters.

If you successfully navigate a series of such locations and events, you’ll eventually end up at the final destination of your Adventure, where one final event will trigger to let you resolve the ultimate objective of the Adventure. Succeed, and you can return to the tavern in a haze of glory. Fail, and you’ll have to slink back with your proverbial tail between your legs – or worse, end up lying permanently dead in a ditch somewhere!

Events in The Tavern take place in Event Locations, of which there are three distinct types: Generic Event Locations, Rare Event Locations and Final Event Locations.

Generic Event Locations

Generic Event Locations are various locations that players travel to during an Adventure. These are generic in nature and are not fixed in place on the map. Each Generic Event Location can contain multiple Events, and which Events that take place at these locations is randomized as the player arrives. Some examples of Generic Event Locations: a farm, a forest clearing, a swamp.

Rare Event Locations

Rare Event Locations are found at random while traveling between Generic Event Locations. These are specifically named unique locations with specific, unique Events, though they are similar to Generic Event Locations in that their position on the map is not fixed in place. Some (made-up) examples of Rare Event Locations: Bridge of Death, Fountain of Youth, The Traveling Shop, Soria Moria Castle.

Final Event Locations

Every Adventure will have one Final Event Location, which is a unique location at a fixed position on the map. The player needs to reach this location in order to solve the ultimate objective of their Adventure. The position of a Final Event Location never changes, but the path a player must take to reach it will, due to the random nature of the Generic Event Locations. Some (made-up) examples of Final Event Locations: Dracula’s Castle, The Tower of London, Mount Everest.