What are some ways that we could make our inns, taverns, and so on more attractive and conducive to RP. It seems a few players would like to see ours get more use. Like I said in the Housing IA thread, I think the carrot works over a stick in a lot of ways. The question that begs answering for me is simply this: "Why would a PC ever go to an inn/etc now?". It can make all the IC sense in the world for our PCs to gather in them, but if there's nothing there to interact with that appeals to the player, then we can't really fault ourselves for not patronizing them. If all it might offer is people watching, there are places like the Market Hall and Bendir crossroads that offer that already.

These are a few of my own suggestions that I can remember from the Tester's forum. Ideally, they're things that we could do in baby steps and add on to as we see fit or have time. I'd love to hear some opinions on them because I was really excited about them way back when they were on the table. Secondly, I'd be interested to hear what other players might think about the situation in general. Think honestly. What would get you as a player to have your PC hang out in one of these venues? Is it even that relevant of an issue if people don't gather in one place or another? My personal opinion is that it never hurts to have more attractive venues in general, whether it be a dungeon or tavern or what have you. Our settlements and settings in general could always use more touches to make them better hotbeds for PC generated RP.


Make the Party Ball an IC Function/Message Boards

Simple step: Take the party ball out of PC's inventories and transfer the script over to a placable that can be found most taverns or meeting places. If it's not too much work, also have the board record the location the PC activated the board, so other PCs know where to find them. This is a very simple step that gives people a real and practical reason to go into these establishments. My only real reservation with it would be that it is in a sense "forcing" people into the tavern to use a function they previously had at leisure. Then again, it's not like the Party Ball is an IC fixture. The hope is that it doesn't make it any harder for people to find a party IC or OoC, but also adds a more IC reason for people to meet up. I suppose the new RP Advertiser function could go along with this as well, if it was wanted.

Bonus Step: Building upon the previous suggestion, we could make these things into actual message boards. PCs could record short messages via the Shout Channel that could range from anything like a short auction notice, a looking-for-party memo, a request for a specific class to help them out, or literally any other RP related thing. In my mind, these message would last for a short time(2-3 hours) and would show up on other message boards on a short delay(as not to have a modern "telephone" introduced into the setting and instead say the messages get passed around via travelers, carrier pigeons, whatever). Hopefully people wouldn't get overly caught up on the "you post, I rip down" game that so tiredly gets played on the IC Notice forum. But in the case that becomes a problem, it'd be easy enough I imagine to have the boards work on "circuits". E.G. Messages for Kohlingen, Wharftown, and Bendir are shared between them but no where else, Tarkuul, Kampos, Cordor have their own messages show up, and Underdark places have their own circuit too. That'd cut down on the chances of messages being seen by people though, so hopefully people would just be able to suck up their PC seeing a disagreeable message for the few hours it'll be present.

Expand the NPC Spawning System

Simple Step: If you've been to Caraigh, you might be familiar with how certain places have randomly spawned NPCs. The awesome thing about having so many settlements is that we get to do little individual experiments in each and then scale up if they work. This particular system is one I've always thought we could expand upon. Randomly spawning NPCs and Merchants give our venues a more organic feel. It'll never look the same exact way twice. In terms of getting people to explore our taverns every now and again, a very easy way would be to have randomized merchants that sometimes pop up. Maybe he'll have a few yellow text items. Maybe he'll have a slightly higher buying cap than Hilrash. Maybe he'll have an item or two from the Abyss shop and save your character a trip. Who knows, but you better get there fast, as like all spawns, he won't be there forever. Finally, you've got a concrete reason to pop your head into the Nomad every now and then, even if there aren't a lot of players on at the time.

Bonus Step: Pop Qizz-uests. Mini-Quests? Expanding the system even further, we could have a few, relatively simple quests pop up with these randomized NPCs. Maybe there's a Monk who needs you to find him new sandals. Maybe there's a mother looking for her child who has also spawned somewhere in the tavern. Maybe a juicy bit of gossip needs to be delivered to an NPC or Guardsman in the city. Basic fetch quests that can show up any time. These again would be tied to these randomized NPCs, so they'd hopefully be something you could complete well within 15-20 min. They would net you a little bit of XP and/or maybe some gold. While not a full substitute for the ol' hack and slash method, it does give a way to gain XP more similar to PnP: simply having experiences and doing tasks. If you've got a more non-violent adventurer, you've got some more social options to advancing their levels in addition to the job system. Additionally, we could have dialogue options that take into account Persuade, Bluff, and Threaten rolls, finally giving our social PCs some tactile benefit to their investments outside of DM quests. If you've got a sweet-talking PC, these sorts of things will have a significantly larger payout for them than other PCs. Alternatively, maybe some NPCs will only offer you their quest after a successful social-skill roll.


Certain Job Spawns in Taverns and Inns

Simple Step: Certain jobs have their NPCs spawn in areas based upon the PC's CL. While this makes sense for some jobs, it makes less sense for other jobs. Why would an Epic Diplomat have to meet someone in the Frozen Wastes or Abyss for instance. The suggestion here is to have jobs like Spy, Diplomat, Theif, and Exorcist spawn their quest NPCs in taverns and Inns. This gives some PCs a reason to travel to the next town over and look around the rooms for the person they're supposed to meet. Certain shady settlements could even have the NPCs from Hired Killer, Slaver, Outlaw, and Vigilante spawn within them(looking at you Underdark, Shadowscape, and Osthavn). It may not outright make people stay in our gathering places, but it at least increases the foot traffic and the likelihood you'll see someone else there.

Bonus Step: Give more jobs "hunter" functions. For instance, maybe sometimes a task will spawn a group of engineering students who need to be lectured to in a tavern. Maybe a fellow Arcanist is waiting in the Nomad with a secret to share with you. That sort of thing. This is a bonus step because it involves more than just changing where certain NPCs spawn and actually modifying certain jobs themselves, however.

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I like these ideas, especially the latter.

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Me too. After all surely most would visit a tavern to drown their sorrows and tell their tale to any stranger whose ear they can bend!

However, it still only makes the visit once or twice rather than having something to hold an interest. There are many pubs, clubs, inns and taverns unfortunately some will be under used and be little more than filler or flavour. Maybe we need a travelling rockband to do a tour!

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When it rains, look for rainbows.
When it's dark, look for stars.

Well, the goal with a random NPC spawner is that you can have multiple reasons to come back. It could be quite possible that you'll walk into a tavern one day and a band is playing! Most of our inns are very nice looking. The problem(in my opinion) is that there's nothing to do in them once you're there. You either bring the entertainment with you, or there's little point in going.

The possibilities for non-combat spawns are basically anything you can think of. But as a first and pretty easy experiment, I think a few random NPCs with the occasional merchant will be good. It's basically taking a feature we already have made in Ceren's Mill Traders and putting it in a few other places.

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