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Every town would have a tavern.
They are basically the motel's of the medievil era.
If there was ever a visitor that came to the town, someone opened a pub and rented a room to them.
Besides these small towns were there is nothing to do but drink, someone has to sell that drink
Are you running a published AP or a homebrew game?
Taverns are a good place to start adventures. For most adventures, the heroes are away from home, so if they're staying inside a town/village/city? Then they're probably staying at a Tavern. Once they have a reputation, it would make sense that people would seek them out at that tavern.
And it's an easy way to have a wandering person come into town to drop an adventure seed.
Now, it shouldn't be something that happens *every* adventure, but there's a reason it's become a cliche, which is that it makes sense.
Which AP?
It is the most obvious place to start in most cases as it is where most adventurer's would be in a town that wasn't their home.
razmir stuff, dustpawn stuff, begginer stuff.Which AP?
It is the most obvious place to start in most cases as it is where most adventurer's would be in a town that wasn't their home.
So you are playing scenarios not an adventure path?
What is your native language?
Starting the adventure in a tavern is common for the reasons people said above. Its narratively convenient and assumes/presumes very little about the characters. It usually doesn't force people to change their backstories, etc.
However if you're running a series of modules, with a consistent group, yes it might get a little old after a while. But it should be very easy for the GM to change the hook to make the series of modules flow together better. Maybe the adventurers are a known group with a built headquarters or ties to city/large group officials and people come to them directly for quests. Maybe some treasure/lore/etc found at the end of one module is tweaked to lead to the next.
So these are published modules; the tavern is fixed for each adventure. As folks have mentioned, there is usually some kind of "tavern" present in every settlement in published materials. I don't know that every PFS module starts in one, but I know the 2 I played besides "the graduation" began at: a party, and a tavern.
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Change things up in your next game, and have the players meet in a coffee shop!
Go check out the "Variant Taverns" thread in the Homebrew forum and feel free to add to it.
coffee shop = tavern
They are a great place to meet.
Food, Beer, Shelter, Stables, Whores, Notice Boards, Gossip, Money Lending, Entertainment, Rumours,
Highly logical meetup place for
Adventurers, Pirates, Smugglers, Merchants, Crusaders, Pilgrims, Thieves, Cowboys, etc
I would say that taverns are vanishingly rare inside of dungeons.Key-word is 'rare', not non-existent!
hey, even dungeon dwellers enjoy a good time and a cold beer...
Actually YEARS ago I did a dungeon that had a tavern 3-4 levels down, Orc Waitresses, goblins, kobolds, etc...
The scene was hilarious, as when the adventurers came in the patrons acted just like you would expect the adventurers to act if a group of Orcs kicked in a door and came rushing in with weapons in hand. The PC's did not get the refrence...
Actually YEARS ago I did a dungeon that had a tavern 3-4 levels down, Orc Waitresses, goblins, kobolds, etc...
The scene was hilarious, as when the adventurers came in the patrons acted just like you would expect the adventurers to act if a group of Orcs kicked in a door and came rushing in with weapons in hand. The PC's did not get the refrence...
I don't think I would either : all they saw was a bunch of monsters rushing for weapons ard ready to fight them.
@Hellatze
Dungeons are not necessarily full of undead, plenty of humanoids (from kobolds and goblinoids/orcs to minotaurs) and even non humanoid creatures (what, never played riddles with a sphinx?) can enjoy company in a specialized setting, like a tavern.
If skeletons and zombies have little use for tavenrs, evil clerics and necromancers do.
Taverns are the Starbucks/McDonalds of Golarion
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Taverns are the Starbucks/McDonalds of Golarion
One adventure party please, hold the Drizzt clones.
To Paizo's credit, a surprising number of first-party modules/adventure paths do not begin in a tavern. Many have no set-in-stone starting place, so the GM might be tempted to use the tavern setup to get things going. That's okay, but one can usually do better. Or at least mix it up: "You all meet in a tavern...tied up and in the middle of a hostage crisis."
Taverns and Adventurers will always go together. Taverns are one of those uncommon places that will generally let adventurers in their doors. Also, it should be noted that an Inn or Tavern common room is often the only publicly available enclosed space large enough for people to meet. You can bet the local lord's Hall is less likely to be available.
Complaining about the ubiquity of meet-ups in Taverns is a lot like complaining about the ubiquity of travelling on roads.
In medieval Europe practically every settlement would have a tavern of some description where the inhabitants would meet and relax. Those settlements that were on the trade routes between larger settlements would invariably have inns with lodging and a place to stable horses, perhaps separately to a local tavern.
Also in Europe most water wasn't fit to drink so alcohol was added to help make it safe to drink .
In the far east like China they boiled the water and added herbs (which is where tea first came from )
In the last Freeport campaign I ran, which we converted from v.3.5 to Pathfinder halfway through, the PCs were a pirate crew who gleefully embraced the trope of starting adventures in taverns. They defaulted to "If we're not at sea, we're in a tavern. Probably a different tavern than last time, because we were asked to leave after starting a fight." Fortunately, Freeport has no shortage of rough dives for pirates to lounge around in.
I third or fourth the motion for cannon dungeon taverns somewhere. Wouldn't a Drow city have a tavern for traveling Drow to stay in? Or a small town of Mind Flayers... I bet they would concoct some potent drinks.
But as others have mentioned, in most small towns the tavern is the main meeting spot for pretty much everything. You will find nearly anyone in the town there one or two nights at least. Even if it is just too old to do the hard work farmers sitting around talking about crops or weather cause an old injury is hurting them.
"I telly ya Jim, I don't think my milk cow will make it thru another winter"
"Hell the way my back hurts in the cold, I don't think I'll make it thru another winter."
Party arrives* an ! appears above one of the old men's head.
"Oh hey strangers, could you go take care of some bandits for us?"