GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 10: Taverns
 

The way of taverns:
Cloaked strangers, drink, and brawling.
Don't tick off the troll.

— Some hack

The latest from e23 is GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 10: Taverns, for the GURPS Dungeon Fantasy series. This one covers everything you need to start your dungeon adventure old-school style: in a tavern, with a cloaked stranger or an old man giving the delvers a tempting tip or a moldy map . . . which is promptly set aside for a brawl. Its 33 pages contain guidelines on drinking establishments, their employees and patrons, and what they have for sale; rules for quick-and-very-dirty bar fights; and four businesses, complete with staff, adventure seeds, and full-page hex maps suitable for enlarging for tabletop use. This isn't just fluff, though. Crunch includes stats for common barroom denizens, rules for using social abilities to garner tips (of both the cash and information varieties), a template for dungeon-delving PC innkeepers, dirty-fighting moves you can use in the pub or the dungeon, stats for improvised weapons, tavern-themed magic items, booze with remarkable side effects, and even some monsters. It almost makes me want to run a pub-crawl-based DF campaign!

Re: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 10: Taverns
 

Wow, awesome! Now I have another reason to complain about my latest economic setbacks! But seriously, this looks really cool.

Re: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 10: Taverns
 

You know, I had always thought DF Taverns was a joke book, no, its real!

'You all meet in a tavern - now with rules!'

GURPS is the most awesome RPG yet

Re: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 10: Taverns
 

I'm thinking about a one-shot Gloranthan scene at Geo's... good excuse for Dark Trolls, barbarians, drinks of all kinds, and good-natured mayhem :)

Re: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 10: Taverns
 

I'm serious about the pub-crawl campaign. I think it could be oodles of fun to create dungeon-delving PCs and then spend several adventures going from watering hole to watering hole, collecting clues and maps, stocking up on miraculous brews, trading songs and drinks for useful items, honing fighting skills in brawls, etc. Ideally, somebody would join the campaign late and get to play the innkeeper whom the party convinces to join them. At the end of the pub crawl would be an actual dungeon crawl where the PCs – armed with extensive information, strange-but-fated-to-prove-useful items, and an encyclopedic knowledge of dirty fighting – take on real monsters for keeps.

Re: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 10: Taverns
 

"If there's any girls there, I want to do them."
-Dead Ale Wives

Re: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 10: Taverns
 

If you do this, the final dungeon crawl must be set in the abandoned temple of a god of alcohol/drunkeness!

Re: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 10: Taverns
 

Not quite - it should be the active temple of a god of abandon.

Re: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 10: Taverns
 

I don't want this one getting overlooked -- this is the source of the "Additional Material: Sean Punch" credit at the beginning of the book. And when he suggested it, I (honest to "Bob") thought he was kidding.

Kromm: What if I wrote a 250-point adventurer template for a cinematic Innkeeper?

Me: Hehe, yeah! That'd be something -- I'd totally use that if I had it!

(a day later)

Kromm: Well, here it is!

Me: What? Seriously? That seems kind of . . . hmm . . . hey, this is really good . . . and viable! Damn -- this guy could take out a troll with a frying pan and totally be the face man for the group!

Kromm: Well, yeah. That's the idea.

Let's face it -- when you twist a particle physicist's genius into producing new and interesting dungeon delving templates, you're gonna end up with some pretty amazing stuff.

(Oh, and the rest of the book is pretty damn awesome, too, but I plan to brag about that much more subtly.)

Re: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 10: Taverns
 

A good reason for the GURPS Dungeon Fantasy: Urban Survival Guide.

Re: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 10: Taverns
 

My review of DF 10 Taverns:

I liked the art in this book, less cartoony more realistic and medieval so as to fit the genre better. The first part of the book was really good and gave me quite a few ideas and also inspiration for adventures. This book seems to put the fairy tale back into DF because part of the fun is the finding out of secret treasure maps and strange legends. Also it helps put some ideas into how to be a DM and play the bar establishment. The sample bars were well done and fun but the adventure seeds were a little lame IMO. The magical drinks and other stuff at the end of the book were pretty cool too. All in all I really liked this book. I think that it is very useful for a DM. I would think that some sort of DF Trading Post would be useful for adventure ideas because the trading post is likely the second place where DF PCs are at. Great job!

Re: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 10: Taverns
 

That's how I spent my weekend last weekend. We started at Flannigans's Ale House barhopped through the Highlands until we found ourselves at the Witches' Hat fighting off the god Pan. In retrospect I don't plan on drinking that much with my DF group ever again...

Re: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 10: Taverns
 

Ahh! I must get this book, it is a necessity for our group where I am very suprised if a trip to a town doesn't involve a portion of the party rolling for drinking contests down at the local tavern while the others go to the market.

Re: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 10: Taverns
 

I do hope Loren writes many, many, many more suppliements like this one.

Back in the 90's people would always say that they couldn't find the Gurps books they needed to run their games in print. Now with e23 that's never the case.

Taverns can easily be adapted to almost any Gurps genre you are playing - a Tavern is a Tavern - be it medival times or on an alien world in the future.

Great job!

Re: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 10: Taverns
 

I want to cast magic missile at the darkness, heh heh heh.

DO YOU HAVE ANY MOUNTAIN DEW?

The whole DF series is so good it almost makes me want to play a straight Hack-and-Slash game, but them I remember that I got away from DnD so I wouldn't have to do that anymore to see characters grow.

Great Job with the whole DF series.

Re: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 10: Taverns
 

Does the Pub Brawl rules include swinging from the light fixtures for those the buckle some swash?

Re: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 10: Taverns
 

No, as all of the Dungeon Parkour (DF2, pp. 7-8) rules have already been covered. Bar Fight! covers all the ways in which a pub brawl is different from normal combat, and presents some of the brawlin' moves that aren't already in DF2. Otherwise, I'd have ended up repeating about 3-4 pages of "potential moves" out of DF2. :)

Re: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 10: Taverns
 

While DF2 does indeed cover the Swing... what it does not the Swing And Kick, or the Swing and Hit Move (Attack While Swinging in other wards)

Edit: Opps, that is on p.12

Re: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 10: Taverns
 

Late at night, while sleeping, the PCs hear a thumping sound and the breaking of glass bottles coming from the bar.

If they choose to follow the noise, they find the innkeeper contending with what appears to be a floating bedsheet with a gigantic red nose.

It moans forlornly "Booooooze! Boooooooooooze!"

The innkeeper punches at it, and remands it for stealing his alchohol.
His fist passes through it ineffectually.

The sheet then moans "Redrum! Redrum!"

Scratching his head, the innkeeper asks "Are you trying to say 'murder' backwards"

Grabbing another bottle, the ghost says "Noooo! I'm askiiiiiiing for red ruuuum!"

If the PCs make a move, it turns to them and screams "BOOOOOOOZE!" befoe rushing them.

Booze Ghost
ST 10 HP 10
DX 10 Per 14
IQ 7 Will 8
HT 10 FP 10
Speed 5.00; Move 5; Dodge 8
Attacks
I TOUCH YOU DRUNK(12) 1d toxic; secondary drunkenness effect
I CUT YOU(12) 1d-2 cut; attacking with a broken bottle or wineglass
Class Undead
Traits Insubstantiality; Injury Tolerance(diffuse); Dread(non-alchoholic beverages).
Skills Carousing-14; Brawling-12; Knife-12.


If the PCs defeat the Booze Ghost, he'll give them each a drink on the house.

Re: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 10: Taverns
 

OK, that was funny :)

Re: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 10: Taverns
 

I think I saw that guy once at the end of the bar in my local tavern.

Heh... It was an inspired creation, but maybe the drinks on the house would come from the innkeeper?