The Taverner's Trusty Tome

[HellHound]

Eat, drink and be merry... an invaluable sourcebook for any campaign which features taverns, inns or drinks!

Rowdy, rustic taverns, hot meals, and strong drink* - while popular elements in role playing fantasy, the lack of variety and detail often make this part of the urban crawl somewhat repetitive and dull. Sick of hearing of your players say "I'll order an ale" for the ten thousandth time? Then The Taverner's Tome is your solution to the boring side of role playing intoxication.

Packed with dozens of drinks both mundane and fantastic The Taverner's Tome provides much more than the simple offerings of brew, wine, and spirits. From table wines to the more exotic fruit beers and flavored rum this book is a great resource for spicing up that otherwise plain bar menu. Mixed drinks in the height of fantasy flair are also covered as well as the curious fantastical beverages that offer special bonuses or dreadful side effects to those who consume these special concoctions. In addition drinking rules are provided along with the different types of drunken personalities that your characters might run into (or become).

Have a character who's more at home behind the bar than within the stone walls of a mighty fortress? If so then the player of that character will find a resource of information regarding the success, management, and expenses of running or owning a tavern or inn. Perhaps there's an individual in your party with a few ranks in brewing or wine making? The Taverner's Tome also provides information on establishing and maintaining a winery or brewery.

All this and much, much more are available for your hearthside reading pleasure!

This supplement builds on the popular Drinking Rules first introduced in the bestselling Tournaments, Fairs & Taverns.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

The Taverner's Trusty Tome

A whole PDF about drinking? Do we need this?

No.

Do I like it?

HECK YES.

A majority of the excellent d20 products out there are ones we don't 'need'. This one is a top contender, though.

This package is sold as a zip file with three PDFs inside. The first is the covers and the other two are the contents, one screen friendly and graphic-rich, the second black and white, printer-friendly. The cover is a lovely tavern wench, well-illustrated and attractive. The interior is on a nice parchment look and the chapter header pages include stains on the paper as if from cups or mugs, reminding me of the cool coffee stains inside "Quick Shots: Alpha", E.N.Publishing's prior release.

At 60 pages all told, the key to this product seems to be detail. Where most books have touched on drinking and taverns in passing, this is a true in-depth guide to alcohol d20. This is NOT going to be a useful book to the average DM, but is an excellent aid for those running urban campaigns or ones classically centered around a bar or drinking establishment (or for one where the players own such an establishment). It micro-manages and throws in many new minor rules to increase the verisimilitude of drinking in-game. This is good if you like this sort of material, or useless embellishment if you are trying to run a classic 'epic' campaign.

Art throughout is quite good, if not amazing. Layout is a charm and VERY easy to read, and the whole book is packed with information.

Chapter 1 discusses the history of alcohol and distillation, with a distincly D&D twist, with gnome alchemists being responsable for many innovations. It then goes intot he mechanics of getting drunk, d20 style. The mechanics are very like the ones presented in Tournaments Fairs and Taverns, but with somewhat more detail, and even goes so far as to have rules for drinking beyond the point of intoxication and even extremes such as dying from vomit-induced asphyxiation (!).

Chapter 2 goes into detail on spirits themselves. This is an excellent collection of exhibition material discussing the differences between types of alcohol and spirits along with prices, the skill required to manufacture the drink in question as well as the relative strength of the drink. I was somewhat dissappointed that it didn't include long-term side-effects for drinking Absinthe (which contains a slow-build-up neurotoxin). However, if you don't have an in-depth knowledge of alcohol, there is enough here to teach you the essential differences between a Port (fortified wine), mead and sake. It covers all the essential types of alcohol (in my opinion) and includes the geographical origin of the spirit in the real world as well as what it is made from and where it would be found in a fantasy world. The mixed drinks are good fantasy fare such as Gibbering Lich (Absinthe, Rum, Rye Whiskey, Vodka, Brandy, and Gin with lemon juice, lemon peel, and mint leaves; "A rather foul and potent drink, gibbering lich is generally avoided by all but the most seasoned and daring of drinkers") and a Wild Druid, along with a few real mixes such as a Toddy and a Bloody Morning (Bloody Mary).

Chapter 3 is dedicated to Fantastic Drinks. Each of these is a strange brew that does not intoxicate as alcohol does, but instead has a variety of other effects, such as Fat Cat Tonic which grants bonuses to Move Silent, Hide and Balance checks, but which may make the imbiber more and more cat-like. This chapter, while interesting, has little appeal as most characters won't tkae a potion that MAY help them or curse them permanently based on a die roll after they consume it.

Chapter 4, The Brewery, goes into intricate detail about the process of setting up and running a brewery, buying the raw materials (or raising the ingredients), brewing and aging the brew.

Chapter 5, Inns and Taverns, Goes into the same level of detail about the varieties of Inns and Taverns, with purchasing, laying out, staffing, daily expenses and income and so on for both Inns and Taverns (with different charts for each).

Chapter 6, Drinking Buddies, goes into detail on the characteristics of drunks, from the brawler and the drunken daredevil to the rude lush and his tell-all buddy, including rules for how the character can resist his natural drunken inclinations. Then we come to classic d20 material, 19 feats for partiers, drunks and socialites. Included here are several feats appropriate to the classic image of the Drunken Kung-Fu master.

Chapter 7, Bar Staff, provides -excellent- stat-blocks and descriptions of typical barstaff as well as some specific example staff, including bartenders, serving boys and maids, bouncers, brewmasters, cooks, distillers, entertainers, innkeepers and even tavern boors. Most of these stat-blocks include examples of how to change the skill choices in different neighbourhoods and locations, and includes several stat-blocks for different levels of NPCs, all using the NPC classes. This chapter, combined with Chapter 5 about Inns and Tavers, makes this book a must have as a tool-kit for running Inns and Taverns in a campaign.

Chapter 8, Specific Beers and Wines, provides a large number of 'brand name' drinks as well as specific varieties of beer and wine such as wheat beer, rice beer, dwarven peat beer and such.

Overall I feel this product does what it sets out to do with perfection and fine detail. The only detraction is the scope of the product, which may not be to everyone's enjoyment. However, I don't feel that it's lack of usefulness in a particular game means that the score should be dropped below 4.

 

[davewoodrum]

Tom,
Thanks for giving us a review that was both complimenting and yet very informative to the reader. After reading your words I must say that I regret as well about not going into the long term effects of absinthe. One of the problems that I had with this drink, however, was finding a fully accurate, proven, and justified piece of research on the exact buildup of the toxin and the specific strength of its side effects. Having been banned in a many nations for several years I found absinthe hard to research on the note of modern medical. What notes there were about it on the net were often somewhat of a "crossfire", ocassionaly not agreeing with one another. Indeed, the drink itself seems to be slipping away from the "legendary" to the almost "mythical" in some sense.
To put it in a nutshell, I wound up being frustrated from my pile of notes about absinthe and just wound up hoping that its potency alone would steer away most characters... and for the ones who must continue to drink the absinthe and test the DM, there's always the horrifying yet utterly simple demise of the "invincible" character dying on their own drunken vomit.

Again though, I personally thank you for your review and comments!

 

[Messageboard Golem]

When I first heard about The Taverner's Trusty Tome, I was a bit bemused. I mean, who would want an entire sourcebook about getting drunk in-game?

It wasn't long, though, before I saw the fun side of it. This is not a 'necessary' book, but then is a new book of monsters or a bunch of new spells necessary? This book is one of those unusual books which actually manage to be a bit different from all the others.

The way this book manages to be different, of course, is in its subject matter. It is a book all about alcohol in the d20 game. This is a subject which comes up often in my games, and usually I have to wing it, saying something like "Err...yeah, make a CON check... yeah, you're drunk." OK, so maybe we don't need any more detail than that. But it is cool having clear rules for intoxication, the different levels of intoxication and rules for hangovers and sobering up. I tried the rules out the first day I got this book, and we all had a great deal of fun. The rules seem to work and are pretty easy to understand.

Of course, a 60 page book can't all be about rules for getting drunk. This book contains quite a bit more than that. It has a large selection of drinks, including their strength, descriptions, origins, side-effects, price, DC to brew and so on. The drinks include normal beers, wines, and so on, as well as some fantasy-based drinks with unusual or magical side-effects (I guess, in a way, they're minor potions - just not entirely beneficial!) It is very useful having such a selection with which to populate your bar or tavern, and can certainly add to the atmosphere when describing a location. Some of the 'normal' examples include ale, mead, cider, brandy etc., and some of the 'fantasy' examples include Fat Cat Tonic and Ghoulbane Wine.

You also get rules and guidelines on running a tavern in the game. I'm not so sure I would find a use for that, although I did have a character in one game who owned a small shop, so I can imagine these rules being used on occasion. What this section does do, though, is categorize inns and taverns on two scales - size and quality. The size scale goes from Small to Grand, and the quality scale from Poor to Good. This creates numerous combinations, with entries for each combination, so you can get details of a small good tavern or a large poor inn.

One of my favorite parts of the book is the section on bar personalities. Basically, you get a whole bunch of archetypical drunken types, with descriptions and statistics. I really did have fun using that section of the book! Here are some examples: Bragger, Drunken Daredevil, Happy Drunk, Lecherous Lush. There are a whole bunch of these and they all look like fun additions to your average tavern scene.

Another great section is the chapter on bar staff, which includes a whole slew of NPC types to poulate an estabishment, from bartenders, bouncers and cooks to entertainers, scullery maids and tavern boors.

The PDF is very attractive to look out. The layout is clear and elegant, and the art is fairly good, making for a pleasant read. There is extensive use of hyperlinking, as I found out by accident when clicking on an item on the contents page and instantly being transported to the relevant place in the book - I always appreciate it when PDF designers make use of the hyperlinking feature. Also, when you buy the book you get two PDFS - one is the colorful, pretty screen version, and the other is the toned down version designed to save printing costs.

All in all, this book is very much worth dropping a few bucks on. You might not use it immediately or often, but there will come a time when you find yorself glad to have it! Plus, it is fun to read!

 

[GameWyrd]

The Taverner’s Trusty Tome is one of those RPG supplements I’d probably never buy as a book; unless it was a joke gift to a roleplaying friend. It’s exactly the sort of product I’d be tempted to buy as a PDF. It’s easy. It’s fun. It’s the sort of thing to make a session unforgettable. The current price tag of US $6.95 is perhaps just a little on the high side; we’re long past the days of US $5.00 PDFs as standard but I still remember them.

This is a book of drinks. This is a book of taverns. This is a book of tavern staff; including several wenches and rules for exotic dancers. Oh. Yeah. There are a few game mechanics in here – new feats, for example, Drunken Sex Appeal, Fists of the Alcoholic and Rambling Wino, etc – in fact, there are lots of numbers in the PDF, but it’s easy to forget. The Trusty Tome is more fun than RPG math. I mentioned wenches and exotic dancers? True. This isn’t a PDF you need to hide away. It glorifies booze, it mentions sex, but it doesn’t involve murdering people with a different set of morals or different base DNA from you. Most RPG supplements fail the last two tests. This supplement would pass the new d20 community standards. Hmm. Someone write The Big Book of Drug Taking just to force the lawyers to amend the license again.

This is an EN Publishing branded product, produced and written for them by Dark Quest Games. Dark Quest are a favourite of mine but The Taverner’s Trusty Tome isn’t quite up there with Death: Guardian at the Gate or Moon Elves. This isn’t due to any drop in production quality but the less gripping subject matter. I’m a Scottish roleplayer, the only drinkers able to challenge that are the Irish roleplayers – and they do, frequently at conventions, but we’re rarely able to remember who won.

Er, this seems like an opportune moment to mention that the PDF begins by explains the potential health problems of drinking; like choking to death on your own vomit. That’s a risk with normal booze. What about fantasy drinks? Dwarf ale? Orc grog? The Taverner’s Trusty Tome has some ideas.

Dwarf ale is hardly original. If you’re fed up of characters ordering dwarf ale as a tired way to show off then The Taverner’s Trusty Tome is likely to tempt you. The PDF lists plenty of "standard" drinks. By standard drinks I’m able to include Absinthe, Sake and Mezcal. Do you know which is stronger? Which is most likely to mess you up? This is the sort of titbit that can be found in The Taverner’s Trusty Tome and it’s this sort of extra that starts to sell the supplement to me. Then there are mixed drinks; cocktails for example. There’s a fair number of made up fantasy drinks too. You have to watch these. The Cat Fat Tonic grants +2 to Move Silently, Hide and Balance checks. The possible adverse effects are feline features that cumulatively turn the unlucky user into an anthropomorphised cat. Unlucky user? Ha! I know many gamers who’d love that to happen to their character. The illustration of the woman suffering the effects is cute.

We’re at page 20 (of 60) and at the start of chapter four as we finish with the fantastic drinks and start to look at the brewery process. This is the sort of thorough quality I’d expect from Dark Quest Games. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of their LARPers had brewed their own drinks before. This is also the sort of random action that players ambush GMs with, get focused on and leave the GM to wonder where on Earth answers can be found.

There are plenty of flavourful descriptions of inns and taverns of different shapes and sizes. This is probably where one reader’s "thorough quality" is another reader’s "filler". I know what inns are like. I didn’t need the summary. It’s worth paying attention to the chapter though because after inns and then after taverns there’s a "managing the inn" (or tavern) "made simple". Just to prove how fine the line between thorough and filler is (or perhaps how annoyingly fickle this reviewer can be) – I found these sections excellent. Well worth digging up.

Types of drunks and drinking feats are bundled together. People get drunk in different ways and this sometimes inspires dice rolling. A drunken daredevil (one of the many different types) must make a Will save to resist the urge to accept challenges.

After this we find ourselves running through sample NPCs suitable for inns and taverns. There’s more than a stat block, more than a concise character sheet since there’s a background and personality for everyone. Find your dancers and wenches here alongside Boors, Cooks and Bouncers.

The PDF ends in a handy summary; a huge list of drinks, making your own and even rules for buying kegs!

The Taverner’s Trusty Tome is like a quick drink after work. It’s a welcome break but it is best kept short. Like the after work drink it doesn’t compare to going out on Friday night proper or over the weekend, it’s not really a match of a serious supplement. It depends on what you want though; the quick, easy and fun tipple (and no, we’re not back to the wenches) is often more tempting than a time consuming investment. The best The Taverner’s Trusty Tome can offer is that it could quite genuinely inspire one of those drunk in the inn roleplaying scenes that players reminisce over for years.

* This The Taverner's Trusty Tome review was first posted by GameWyrd.