Tavern Brawls Reinvented for 'Dungeons & Dragons'

A Dungeons & Dragons supplement transforms tavern brawls into a unique encounter with a focus on flavor over mechanics.

If you've ever played Dungeons & Dragons, you've probably been involved in a tavern brawl. A bar fight is a classic encounter in fantasy-based tabletop RPGS, a way for the party to let off some steam and beat up some ruffians without any real threat to life or limb. Maybe your party picks a bar fight while searching for information on their latest quest, or maybe they intervene to rescue a friendly NPC from a problematic foe. Whatever the reason, almost every Dungeons & Dragons campaign will usually have one opportunity for a tavern brawl, and it helps to be prepared.

While tavern brawls are fun for players, they can be a lot of work for DMs. After all, you need to track the HP of multiple NPCs, not all of which are lunging at your party. Luckily, Jean Lorber has come up with an innovative solution that simplifies the tavern brawl into an easy to use encounter with a focus on encounter building over mechanics.

Lorber's Tavern Brawl Builder reinvents the Tavern Brawl as a monster, complete with its own statblock. At the start of each turn, the Tavern Brawl takes a single attack against each PC involved with the fight, with the PCs needing to make some sort of Skill Check (usually Athletics or Acrobatics) to avoid getting caught up in the fray. If a PC fails the Skill Check, they then make a Constitution saving throw to avoid getting knocked unconscious by an errant blow or a sucker punch.

A Tavern Brawl has hit points like any other monster, but damage is dealt differently than to a typical monster. Instead of rolling for attacks, most combat is handled via Skill Checks. Want to hit someone over the head with a chair? Make a Strength check. Want to intimidate someone into hiding? Make an Intimidate check. Any action that takes out a single target deals 5 damage to the Tavern Brawl, while an attack (or spell) that takes out multiple targets deals 10 damage.

The Tavern Brawl mechanic rewards ingenuity and simplifies what's supposed to be non-lethal combat. Not only are players encouraged to get creative with how they interact with others during a fight, it also pushes players to lean into their strengths instead of focusing on unarmed attacks. It's a clever mechanic, one made to prevent the encounter from becoming tedious and put an emphasis on having fun.

Tavern Brawl Builder also contains rules for mid-brawl complications and a list of different taverns with their own quirks and items to interact with during fights. There's also a few potential encounters in case you need a way to drag the PCs into a bar fight for your own amusement.

Tavern Brawl Builder is available to purchase on DMs Guild, a Wizards of the Coast-partnered site that publishes third party content for D&D. The supplement is usually available for $3.95, but its currently on sale for $2.96.