Forget the Dungeon - D&D Wants You to Run the Tavern

The latest Dungeons & Dragons video game turns one of fantasy gaming’s oldest cliches into the entire game. Every adventuring party needs somewhere to meet a mysterious stranger, pick up a suspiciously lucrative quest, and then spend the gold they’ve just liberated from a nearby tomb. Now instead of being the adventurer looking over the notice board, or being chatted up by some enigmatic NPC, you’ll finally be the person behind the bar!

Publisher Dotemu and developer Homo Ludens have unveiled Dungeons & Dragons: Long Rest Tavern, a cosy management game set in the Forgotten Realms and heading to PC in 2027.

Rather than venturing into the dungeon yourself, you’ll establish and expand a tavern in the Dalelands, gradually transforming a modest roadside watering hole into one of Faerun’s premier adventurer hangouts.

That means hiring staff, arranging tables and bedrooms, stocking the bar, cooking meals, brewing increasingly impressive drinks, and trying to keep customers happy when the evening rush arrives. Successful nights earn money and Renown, and in turn attract wealthier and more experienced clientele as the business grows.

There’s still plenty of adventuring going on. You’re simply sensible enough to let somebody else do it!

Heroes visiting the tavern can be dispatched across Faerun to retrieve rare ingredients, magical curiosities and treasure. Party composition affects how suitable adventurers are for particular assignments, while dice rolls help determine whether they return triumphantly laden with loot, or presumably with an entertaining explanation for why they haven’t.

The tavern itself can be expanded and extensively customised, with players constructing rooms, choosing furniture and decorations, and optimising the layout. There’s even accommodation, so build bedrooms and some weary adventurers will spend the night, providing another source of income.

And because this is the Forgotten Realms and not just some generic fantasy drinking establishment simulator, familiar faces occasionally wander through the doors. Early previews have already revealed Minsc and Boo, alongside other recognisable characters, while the game promises a broader cast of adventurers with their own personalities and stories.

Long Rest Tavern joins the previously announced Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons computer game to be released in 2027. Both games have moved away, in very different styles and content, from previous ultra-popular titles such as Baldur’s Gate 3, showing a much wider diversity from the standard campaign adventuring storylines.

Long Rest Tavern also arrives at a rather opportune moment, with cosy fantasy games becoming increasing popular in the world of PC gaming, while tavern games in particular have become a surprisingly crowded little genre. The D&D license gives Long Rest Tavern something most of those competitors can’t offer: decades worth of monsters, characters, locations, food, magic items, and adventuring jokes to draw upon.

The fantasy tavern has been part of tabletop roleplaying almost since the beginning. It’s where adventurers meet, rumours circulate, mysterious employers lurk in shadowy corners and, inevitably, somebody starts a fight.

Now you’re the poor bastard who has to clean up after them!

Dungeons & Dragons: Long Rest Tavern is being developed by Homo Ludens and published by Dotemu. It is currently announced for PC via Steam in 2027.

Images courtesy of Dotemu.