Populating Taverns and Parties...

[DM_Matt]

Ok, DMs, what are your tactics for populating the taverns and parties that the PCs walk into. I usually find it hard to make a full-out description of many more patrons than those who i intend the PCs to talk to, and I think that that hurts verisimilitude. I think it makes it too obvious....So...how do YOU do it?

 

[Matafuego]

Well my PC's usually go to the same tavern so I just switch a little the NPC's they will meet there. When they are travelling however I must make new taverns to make things different, sometimes it's really awful and I tend to avoid details and sometimes when I'm really inspired we have great taverns in which the PC's hang for quite a time...

 

[Psion]

Go to Johan Danforth's page:

http://spitfire.ausys.se/johan/npcmaker/default.stm

For a tavern visitors try:

http://spitfire.ausys.se/scripts/np...on=30&system=1&level=2&leaders=on&cit_prof=on

You can also get this by going to Johan's page and selecting "Tavern Visitors" in the NPC maker.

 

[RangerWickett]

It's a no-brainer for me to plug Natural 20 Press's Tournaments, Fairs, & Taverns in this thread. We don't actually have lists of sample characters, but we do have ideas for games you can have take place in taverns.

www.d20reviews.com/natural20

 

[spinjammer]

A nice idea is to create several taverns in advance. I always have
four or five generic taverns that are ready for use. Whenever the party wants to go one, I can pull out one and use the stuff I created earlier. It is a bit of work, but it prevents situations like:
"There are three men with axes at the round table." "Hey, five minutes ago you said there were four with swords.".

Spinjammer