dunnj inn keeper!

[SirKibblesnbits]

so me and my brother have a friend that for one reason or another, has a fasination with owning an inn when we play dnd. so we came up with this idea for a setting where you are the inn keeper, you inherit this inn(/bar) in the city of dunnj from a relative(ha get it? dunnj innkeeper like dungeonkeeper :smalltongue: ha), as well as his depts. so the goal is to pay off your debt. so youd be able to do the in's and outs of catering to adventurers, selling information, giving out quests, kicking out angry drunks,that sort of stuff. this would all be from the point of view that your are the npc and are not amazing a combat and need to use your wits to survive some incounters. of course all that can and will get boring with out stuff happening. so i was thinking of creating events that would liven things up, like:
an ex wizard now chief that you hired experimenting on the food causing people to get sick, if they confront the chief he then attacks with a cheese golem (did i mention this wouldn't be a serious game, cause its not)
or 5 rangers each dressed in a different color come to stay at your inn one of them leaves a amulet with a picture of a dinosaur that is obvoiusly magical you can keep it an use it in case you need to defend your self, or return it to its owner, or sell it, later on a creature comes and terrorises the city, which is then fought off by the 5 rangers, depending on how you served them(the food they ate, the stuff you sold to them) depends on how they fair after he is defeated, a mystrous force makes teh monster giant sized and they use there amulets to summon a giant angel, but if you had kept the amulet they would be unable to do anything and have to defeat the creature another way making more damage in the process and punching a hole in the roof of your inn or something


so what do you guys think, do you think its do-able, do you think it would be fun? i also open to any improvements ideas you have with the bulk or the events, this is by no means a complete concept
plz leave comment im eager to hear what you have to say

[GorinichSerpant]

As this is describing a specific campaign it should go into the Roleplaying section.

Unless you want to give the city of Dunnj a deep and rich history.:smallbiggrin:

This seems like a fun idea, as long as your players understand the concept and don't try to apply standard D&D logic to it, nothing should go wrong.

[SirKibblesnbits]

oops parden me. ill be sure to do that. thank you for your input

[Gritmonger]

How old is the inn? Older the better - maybe there are several layers of basement, or multiple rooms up top - I lived in a converted Gasthaus at one point, which had a sealed-off upper floor that was a hallway decorated in garish colors with four doors off it, which lead to empty rooms with coal scuttles and had magazines from the late sixties - except for the one door that lead to the several-storey-high disused hayloft, all done in stonework... none of the rooms in the entire house had walls that met at right-angles.

As much as you can, make the inn itself an NPC. It has secrets, a past, its own unique abilities, and so-on. As a character it could help or hinder, or even have ancient enemies. Maybe the rats in the walls are there for a reason, and an ancient ratcatcher who offers his services is up to more than simply ridding the house of pests.

Adventurers need only be part of the story. The other half, for innkeepers, would be meeting the people who have the jobs, and maybe being a broker to deal with the "ruffians" who might get the job done; acting as a middleman.

Does the king really come in to let people know about his difficulties, or is it his vizier who comes in and "gets drunk" before surreptitiously letting it slip that some work exists, money exists, and the two might end up colluding to get some adventurers some pay for said work.

How old and extensive is the wine cellar? What vintages are there from "before the war?" Are they all... made of fruit? What about the cheeses, who seem to rearrange themselves whenever you hear the rumbling of heavy wheels? Are they related to the rats?

[GorinichSerpant]

Speaking of the Inn being a character, you can take a page out of folklore and give it a house spirit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_deity). This would give you plenty of interesting lore to draw from for ideas. You may have make amends with the spirits if he is angry with you, or maybe you must first prove yourself to him so he excepts you as the new owner. Things like that.

[jqavins]

It sounds like a cute idea. I might even give it a try myself. I would expect my players to get bored with it after not too long, but it would be fun for a little while. And the better the stories, the longer it can go on being fun. Personally, I'm at a loss for stories that would keep it going, but that's my own limitation; you might very well do better. It actually doesn't sound hard to come up with stories for this setting that would be fun to read, I'm just having trouble with stories that would be fun to play. It's a good game setting idea, and a great fiction setting idea.

Gritmonger: good stuff. I love the idea that the inn itself intelligent. I see it having a slightly mischivious nature even though it is, over all, helpful and protective of its owner (once it's decided to accept the owner.) Chaotic Good alignment, but weakly so.

I'd already had the idea that the inn should be haunted. These two ideas are not incompatible. There could even be enmity between the resident spirits and the inn's own spirit. "Get out of here, you damn parasite!" Or enmity with some of the resident spirits and friendship with others; a past owner who chose to stay on after death because he/she and the inn are in love?

The inn being ancient, with lots more rooms than are in use is also a good idea. There could maybe be some extradimensional stuff so that there are always more spaces to explore no matter how long you keep searching, and you can't always find a room again after you've explored it.

I just noticed I'm making it sound a lot like a grounded TARDIS. That was not supposed to be the idea. And yet there are TARDISsy aspects that I just can't resist, especially "bigger on the inside," but not at first glance. The main spaces - common room, kitchen, private rooms, basement, etc. - are all only as big as one would judge from the outside; it's only when one starts exploring the extra doors and corridors that one realizes that these things go on and on far longer than they should.