'Dungeons & Dragons' Supplement Provides Unusual Inns & Taverns for Any Campaign

A new Dungeons & Dragons supplement provides DMs with 10 unusual inns, fully stocked with innkeepers, regulars, and potential story hooks.

Inns and taverns are one of the foundational parts of the traditional D&D campaign. Not only are they places of respite during adventure, they're also filled with unusual patrons that provide hints about potential dangers or nearby mysteries to be recovered. The key to a memorable inn/tavern experience is to build a place that seems normal enough that it can exist within the walls of a city or town, but strange enough that it doesn't feel generic.

Last month, Catherine Evans and Liz Gist released Extraordinary Inns & Taverns, a new supplement that provides ten unusual and fully stocked inns and taverns for any D&D campaign. The 45 page supplement contains both detailed breakdowns of the various NPCs that haunt these bars, as well as detailed layouts for what the inns look like.

As the supplement's name suggests, these inns aren't boring. Some of the inns found in the supplement are located in ships, in crystal caves, and even in giant roaming war machines. Many of the inns feel a bit surreal or mischievous, the perfect setting for some lighthearted fun in between adventures. Evans and Gist also provide some unusual patrons for the taverns, ranging from friendly ghosts to bored fey creatures to a modron that strayed out of Mechanus. These patrons are strange enough that players won't be able to help but approach them and find out more about their story.

What impressed me most about Extraordinary Inns & Taverns is the amount of detail that went into each inn. In addition to explaining the inn's history and patrons, there are also notes about what services each inn provides that goes beyond basic meals and lodging. These inns offer strange and unique opportunities, ranging from seances to the "Polymorph Experience" (a chance to temporarily assume the form of another creature for an hour) or a taste of a concoction that offers temporary telepathy. There's a ton of work that went into making these inns unique places, which makes the supplement's $3.95 price point a bargain.

Extraordinary Inns & Taverns is available on the DMs Guild for $3.95.