>You all meet at a tavern No DM of mine has ever started a

Both?

You have to experience it, but it can get dull quickly.

>>50846405
>You meet at a tavern
>AN ORCISH TAVERN
>ON GNOLL NIGHT
>IN DOWNTOWN NEW YORC

It's one of those things that was a cliche for so long that people went out of their way to avoid it like rescuing princesses, Holy Grail jokes, and Drizzt clones.

If you find it out in the wild these days cherish it.

>>50846405
I started a game at a tavern once simply because I figured it was so unused out of a desire to avoid it that it was actually fresh.

It worked for my group.

>>50846405
It's an old cliche, which of course means it can be fresh again.

>>50846405
On the other hand, that's how all campaigns start my group's DM for life runs.
Even if all our characters know each other before it begins, we'll start in a tavern or equivilent having a drink before we head off.

It's a convient location to start from, there will be wanted person flyers and job opportunities, people need to eat and drink and you tend to find them by roads meaning the road the players need to take is right outside.

>>50846405
We used to use it for our campaigns back when we were 14 and making first roleplay experiences.
I used it once as a GM in a similar version, by opening the game with all the characters sitting together backstage at a concert, but that was only because I was running a "Halloween Special" for the group and we all agreed avoid spending 20 minutes on everyone getting involved into the plot by different means like it usualy starts, and just get right into the spookness.

>>50846405
Last time I saw this was a modern day game. Everyone made seperate PCs, and were in that bar at a certain time as their only requirement.

The bar was then assaulted by a future man in a mechanical suit, fighting an alien. He sprayed the party with nanochemicals, and thus the game of accidental superpowers was born

>>50846471
>DURING THE HARPY HOUR!

>>50846405

Slightly OT, I always taught there should be an rpg where the PCs are the staff of Yer Olde Adventurers' Inn.

Because let's face it: the innkeeper can NEVER be bored when adventureres are around.

>>50846892
Like Recettear?
I would play the shit out of that.
I don't know how that would stay interesting, though, at least as a tabletop RPG.

>>50847212
What if... the Tavern is the dungeon.

Turns out that dwarves dug too deep when making the cellar, and while the first level only has the requisite rats, the lower levels have started spiralling down into a proper dungeon.

It's just that's also where the really good booze is kept, so occasionally the staff have to get weapons and armour to pile down into the dungeon to fight a band of gnolls because some plonker wanted a glass of the 1325' Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mead.

>>50846405
>You all rest in a tavern
>A douche prince of assholistand shows up
>You fail to greet him
>He throws you down in the tavern cellar
>Friendly waitress throws you a knife and says: "Through the barrel in the middle"
>It's a way into an old silvermine behind the tavern
>Dungeoncrawl in pitch black and without items begins

Sometimes the small and easy adventures are the best.

>>50846405
You all meet at a tavern brawl.
Roll for initiative.

>>50847212
Capitalism, ho?

>>50847358
>Get me a bottle of that Baldur's Gate Brandy, Nikolai. My daughter just got married.
>TO ARMS, BARMAIDS! WE HUNT DRAGONS

The tavern is a setting that works. It lets you go to the hook, justify how you all meet, and maybe have some preliminary combat/intrigue. Avoiding it like the plague for the sake of not starting in a tavern is stupid. It's cliche for a reason.

Admittedly, it can be overused. While it does work well, it can eventually become a crutch. When it starts becoming "you're all here because you are and this adventure hook is here because he is", it can get boring. A lot of DMs just don't want to be associated with the crutch, so they get out of the way.

I love taverns just because I love getting in barfights and throwing tables and smashing chairs as improvised weaponry

>>50848593
It's the real reason the tavern wenches and barkeep are ridiculously high level.

When you've broken into the tomb of the demi-lich king, just to loot back that cask of ale he stole... you're not going to put up with a low level hero pinching your ass.

>>50846405
My last campaign started in a tavern full of disgruntled, out of work adventurers. Some footmen sent by the king then kicked in the door and issued a summons to court for anyone looking for lucrative, if dangerous, employment. You can imagine what happened next.

Am I a bad DM?

>>50848997
>You can imagine what happened next.
You played with a bunch of contrarian bastards who turned down the offer and killed the footmen for loot?

You all start in a tavern.

That's a cross between a tarrasque and a wyvern.

One of my old campaigns started outside a dungeon. The players went to find a tavern, then returned to the dungeon because "campaigns start in taverns".

They never did it again, but seriously fuck my players.

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>>50846405
>"Chapter One."
>"The tavern's floor was on fire, and it wasn't our fault."

>>50846405
In the lead in to my current campaign two of the characters met when one of them got arrested in a tavern

>>50846831
>>50846471
Ok i giggled.
>underrated post

>>50846600
This IS true. It came full circle.

Taverns work especially well for "open table" style games where you could well have a new party every session.

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>>50846831
Watch for those spilled drinks man.

>>50846405

>I run DnD 4.0 for my friends who have never played a RPG before
>Two of them are autistic shitstains
>You are in a tavern bla bla bla
>"I SWING MY AXE AT THE WALL, BREAKING IT DOWN" screams one of the shitstains who is playing a Dwarf
>Spend's 20 minutes explain you can't do that. Eventually give up and hand him three d20's. Yell him if he rolls 50 or higher the wall breaks down
>He rolls 54
>"CONGRATULATIONS! you trashed a tavern, now the barkeep is reaching for his crossbow and the crowd gathering outside the newly renovated 'enterence' will surely attract the attention of the city guards. What's your next course of action?
>Shitstain who knocked the wall down looks at ausistic shitstain No.2
>"I throw my axe at the Barkeep before he can fire his cross bow! Roll initiative." Cries shitstain No.2, eager to support his friend.


I will never forget that night, later they both pillaged four different farms. Killing all the cows in search for "meat".
The other two players, the ones who actually wanted to roleplay a bard and a rogue just sat there quietly.
I had maps drawn, 16 quests planned and a climactic final battle against an Ice Gaint. They managed just two quests in five hours.
Fuck that night.

>>50853523
>just two quests in five hours
How fast is normal? Because that sounds slightly faster than my games usually go.