You Meet In A Tavern

[Graham W]

Next week, I'll offer You Meet In A Tavern, which is a game I've developed with my fiancee. It's GMless and it's about the people that work in a tavern.

I'd like a gentle playtest, with a nice group, who are tolerant of me forgetting the rules. It's an interesting game.

[Mick Red]

awwwww i wanna play that

[Neil Gow]

What's it about Graham? In a little more detail?

It sounds quite fun if its what came into my mind initially - but I'll not pre-guess your game!

[Graham W]

You create a tavern and the people in it: both the patrons and the staff. You also create the main dish.

And then you follow the staff through the tavern's life, as the seasons change and the patrons come and go.

It's a lightly-structured GMless game: think Fiasco, with the story driven by relationships rather than conflicts. And food is very important in it.

[Neil Gow]

You had me at 'main dish'

Is this a fantasy tavern, or can it be any drinking and eating establishment? A dusty old American diner on a rarely used route, for example?

Do you have to actually produce the dish? (please please please say yes?!)

[Graham W]

It was originally based on a fantasy tavern, hence the title. But, in our initial playtests, it's never felt like a Tolkienesque fantasy tavern: more of a rustic, provincial, perhaps Elizabethan tavern. (A dusty diner would be interesting, although I might leave that for a later playtest.)

You begin by dealing out cards, then assign those cards to the main dish or the tables of patrons. They inspire the setting, rather like Tarot cards. Spades represent fighting/soldiers/meat, Clubs are working/workers/starch, Hearts are love/family and Diamonds are riches/merchants/spice.

So a card can either represent food or people. By the time you've dealt them all, you've got a full tavern, with a main dish, staff members, tables of patrons and a web of relationships.

I would love to make the main dish. We've talked about that.

[Neil Gow]

Sounds very interesting indeed.

I'm already thinking about some sort of combo-event with a sort of host-as-'Ready Steady Cook' style chef. The cards deal out the ingredients they have to prepare a meal while you play, which you eat at the end.

Ah Graham - food and gaming - you started it with chutney and now you've really fired my imagination. Well done.

Neil

(ps. I know the game isn't all about the food etc. and I'm rambling, but it does sounds sweet as a very different sort of game. Kudos)

[Magus]

Will you be bringing this down on Saturday?

I would like a look at your Organisational Behaviour for Orcs game though.

[Graham W]

Yes, I'll offer this on Saturday, along with my Doctor Who Zombie Cinema hack.