"You all meet in a tavern" - What's your starting point in your game design ? And a brief advice about good bartenders.

Hey everyone, ici Lackster.

Last time we spoke I was asking the community about inter generational play and how it subverted some of my assumptions about game design. Today, I’d like to talk about another time my assumptions were subverted by one of my players. I run a pretty classical dnd 5e campaign, with 2 main groups that meet regularly, and a few groups a year that are just playing a one-shot of 2-3 sessions. This is mainly to introduce friends to the hobby without committing too much. Yesterday, one of my players asked why I’d always start these adventures in a tavern. I know the subject of “why a tavern is or isn’t a good place to start” has been beaten to the death, but to her it wasn’t. At the end of our discussion, she specifically said that while it may or may not make sense in a traditional dnd setting, it definitely didn’t the serve the ludo-narrative of the game I’m working on, Elusio. Elusio is a game about protecting the imaginary from your community against the rising powers of modernity, and meeting in a tavern doesn’t reflect that. The first scene of the adventure matters A LOT, and I think the goofy nature of some traditional fantasy games can be attributed to the fact that the adventure starts in a place of carousing, intrigue and… well, let’s just say drinking is often involved. A word of advice: A good bartender never fails to set the tone. Use the bartender to deliver the tone of your game, after discussing it in session 0, if you do end up using a tavern as a starting point. Make the person in charge of the tavern silly, mysterious, heroic. It’ll do you wonders !

Back to starting point considerations. You need a) a place that almost everyone has a basic reason to go to, b) that has opportunity for memorable npcs to set the tone of your game, c) allow some room for exposition and d) allows players to engage not only with your world, but also and most importantly with each other. Also, in a game like mine, the starting point should be inside the community established in session 0 of the players (more on that here). After a bit of brainstorming, I have a few archetypal starting points for my specific game:

• The Medium : Everybody needs counseling on their good fortune. The witch is a charismatic and free being. Prophecies galore. The PCs can wait their turn, snoop and eavesdrop their respective scenes, decide or not to talk about it.
• The Governor’s public chamber of affairs: Everybody that wants to protect something has a point to make to the governor. The authority figure of the governor is very flexible in its demeanor. Grand statements and official announcements are the norm here. Public hearing of noble causes may prompt your adventurers to find common ground, and talk about it while waiting their turn.
• the trinket and baubles fair : It’s just a humble fair, ya know ? Everybody can join ! Charismatic traders can offer a variety of spice to your exposition scenes. And the opportunities to meet over matter of taste and price are legion !

These are the starting points I’ll try to facilitate in my game design, each being a section of the core rule book. As per the Lazy DM advice : you need a strong start.. Maybe I’ll get better ideas, who knows. But now, my starting point will always serve the ludo-narrative of the type of games I’m facilitating to tell via my design.

Did you guys also have a revelation moment about your starting points in your games ? What are the creative ways you solved that problem ? Who is your archetypal and tone-setting bartender ?

Cheers !