#stewpot: tales from a fantasy tavern

[no-road-home]

Stewpot: Tales from a Fantasy Tavern on Backerkit now!

Stewpot: Tales from a Fantasy Tavern is a GMless one-to-three shot TTRPG based on games like MF0: Firebrands and The Sundered Land. It's a collection of 20 mini-games where former adventurers open a tavern together and reintegrate into society after a life on the road.

What happens after the adventure? What does daily life in a fantasy world look like? Stewpot draws inspiration from stories like Dungeon Meshi, Redwall, Frieren, and Bartender, as well as various aspects of D&D. It's a great way to wrap up a long-running fantasy TTRPG campaign.

Start a garden, cook monsters, run a festival booth, reforge old weapons, flirt with mysterious strangers, and more in a new version of the game with tons of art and new storybook-style layout!

(more info and full description of the mini-games in the read more!)

The structure of the game is based on characters having an Adventurer Job, with Adventurer Experiences that represent their abilities and powers, and a Town Job with Town Experiences. You can make new characters just for the game, or bring in old characters and recreate them with the existing Experiences or write your own.

As you play the game, you'll cross off Adventurer Experiences as you let go of them or let them fade into the background, and gain new Town Experiences that take their place. Along the way you'll upgrade your Tavern and give each other Keepsakes!

Games from the old Itch.io PDF version (0.41):

The First Step: Before you decided to put down roots here, before you found this group of friends, what were you doing? What was the first thing you learned about how to live in town?

NPC Sidequest: Your adventuring days may be over, but there are plenty of people in town that could use your help.

Wear and Tear: There’s always something to fix, or clean, or pay off.

Market Day: You never would have guessed how many things you need just to keep a tavern running. 

Homegrown: There’s something special about using ingredients grown nearby. Why not give growing your own a try?

Sliced: Sometimes supply routes get disrupted. Or maybe you just want to stand out from the rest of the taverns. Whatever the reason, you’re playing this game because you want or need to do one thing: cook with monster parts.

Romancing a Stranger: Someone in the tavern makes eye contact with you, and their gaze lingers a little longer than you’d expect. Your co-workers urge you on, and make every excuse they can to send you over to talk to the lovely Stranger.

Off the Clock: Where do you go after the tables are wiped down? Who’s heard every story you have about the worst people who have walked in?

A Friendly Tavern Brawl: Every tavern has its rowdy patrons. You know they’re good at heart, but sometimes when the ale is flowing and spirits are high, things get a little out of hand. How do you handle the situation?

Festival Day: Your town has a few festival days a year, and they’re some of your busiest. How do you prepare? How do you handle the influx of people?

A Bard's Tale: During your time as an adventurer, you accomplished many daring deeds. In fact, some of those deeds are retold to this day by travelling bards.

A Glass of the Gods: Sometimes a troubled adventurer will come in, looking for answers, and letting them drink themselves into oblivion is the wrong answer. It's up to you  to  mix the perfect drink, something perfect for the situation that can push the adventurer to look inside and find the answer on their own.

A Distinguished Guest: Someone important is in town, and they’re already almost here. The tavern has to be at its best for this guest. After all, they might leave a generous tip.

In the Rhythm of Things: Time passes. Rough edges are sanded down. Before you know it, life in town has become like breathing. You gather in your favorite part of the tavern and wonder where the time has gone.

New games for this crowdfunding campaign:

Shields and Skillets: Enchantments are volatile things, especially when they sit unused for long periods of time. You have to let go of your old equipment before it’s too late.

Shelter from the Storm: Early one morning, you feel it. A familiar ache in your bones. Something is coming.

A Funeral: As an adventurer, you said farewell many times. Sometimes it was only temporary. Most of the time, it wasn't. 

Retracing: You've left town for something: an errand, a vacation, an old favor. Suddenly, you recognize the route you're traveling. You've been this way before, during your adventuring days.

A Fleeting Memory: Something about the way the fire flickers lingers in your mind. The smell of hay and clover brings a tear to your eye. A fading memory resurfaces.

A Familiar Face: An old friend you haven't seen in a while has stopped by. Why not show them around the town and the tavern?

[crtgirl]

my wife’s game, stewpot, is finally crowdfunding today!!

it’s an incredible game about adventurers settling down and starting a tavern. if you have been enjoying dungeon meshi this is a game for you!

[theresattrpgforthat]

Yo, I am under the impression there’s a flourishing market for “campaign supplement” games that can be played as like slice of life side-bars to another campaign? My play group just finished an Ebberon campaign but we still love these characters and I’m wondering what’s out there? I’m curious for whatever but stuff with a focus on settling down or running your new dukedom would be lovely.

THEME: Fantasy After-Campaign Games.

Hello there! Yes, there are a number of games that you can probably use to keep your characters around and explore other parts of their life! I've got a few games that might be somewhere in the realm of what you're thinking, and then I've got some other ideas that popped up in my brain as I was writing this out.

Peace in the Land, by JunkyardTornado.

Peace in the Land is a cozy one page fantasy ttrpg about solving some regular kinds of problems in a fantasy town. There is a very simple character creation process based off a simple system, the Quick and Dirty System, originally designed for one-page rpgs. 

If you want low-stakes problems and quick rules, you might want to check out Peace in the Land. The rules are pretty standard, with a typical success threshold and differently-sized dice according to player abilities. You can probably place the simple rules into a setting that you’re already familiar with, and then generate problems that the townspeople might turn to the player characters to solve. If the group wants to settle down in one location but still go on minor adventures, this might be a game for you.

Pour One Out For Her, by MrPluckyComicRelief.

She was the greatest hero the world had ever seen. She slayed the Beast of Artenfield, rescued every princess north of the Green River, outgambled the demon Jav-Urok The Bold, and she never paid for a drink. All those years ago, all of you stood by her side, as her faithful companions. You supported her through thick and thin, through triumph and tragedy. You thought she would live forever.

But in a cruel twist of fate, you’re all here, standing at her funeral. For her last great prank, she stated, in her last will and testament, that you would all give a joint eulogy.

Pour One Out For Her is a gm-less RPG for any number of players. It's about good times with old friends, reckless adventures, and a celebration of a the greatest hero to ever live, who was taken too soon.

This is more of a one-shot kind of game for a solemn, last goodbye to a character that didn’t make it. Because it’s GM-less, if you traditionally had a GM in the game, this might be a chance for them to embody an important NPC who saw the characters through the bulk of the story.

Pour One Out For Her assumes that the dead companion had a dying wish, and that the companion was a team-player. Apart from that, I think you could use it to remember the ending of a character that meant a lot to the party.

Stewpot: Tales From A Fantasy Tavern, by Takuma Okada.

The adventurer’s life is tough. It's time to call it quits. For years you stumbled through hostile lands, living off stale rations, and struggling to get a few hours’ sleep. Now it’s time to hang up your weapons, sell off your armor, and settle down. If only it were that easy…

Stewpot: Tales from a Fantasy Tavern by Takuma Okada is a collection of cozy mini-games that tell the story of a tavern run by former adventurers. Gather your dice, pick up a deck of cards, set aside a shiny coin, and get ready for a new set of challenges. Only this time… your adventures start behind the bar.

Stewpot is divided into a series of slice-of-life scenes, with a different set of simple rules and prompts helping adjudicate each scene. You might be scrambling to cook something edible with random ingredients, bartending for troubled souls, calming down a tavern brawl, going shopping for all the things a tavern needs, and more! Work to upgrade your tavern's cuisine, atmosphere, and service. In the process, you might just learn a little bit about yourself - and your fellow party members.

Takuma Okada is known for a number of thoughtful games, including Alone Among the Stars, a solo roleplaying game of introspection in space. Stewpot looks to deliver a cozy, retrospective experience, probably similar to Dungeon Meshi and Legends & Lattes. Stewpot recently finished funding on Backerkit, so if you’re willing to wait for a little bit, you should be able to order a copy of it from Evil Hat’s website! If you’re not willing to wait, there’s a Sampler PDF available on DriveThruRPG.

Wolves & Spices, by A.Tian.

Wolves & Spices is a simple tabletop roleplaying game, based on the traveling mercantile adventures of the light novel/anime series Spice & Wolf.

You are traveling merchants in the medieval country of Feldland. Your shared dream is to earn enough money and goodwill to open a business as a permanent part of a community.

You could use Wolves & Spices if you feel like your characters wouldn’t necessarily settle down in one place, but rather would be more likely to turn to trade as a way to earn their keep while still travelling from town to town. Your goals will probably be more focused around meeting other people’s needs, using your earnings to help meet your heart’s desires (also called your Wolves). If you want a game where the quest didn’t bring about the happy ending your characters hoped for, you might want to try out Wolves & Spices.

Some Other Thoughts

Another way you could possibly re-visit your character’s stories is to re-visit them in a different genre or setting. There’s a lot of possibilities if you’re up to remixing a game or two! For example, you could re-cast your characters as fantasy investigators, such as in Swords of the Serpentine, or follow their attempts at romance, such as in Passion of the Jukebox or Thirsty Sword Lesbians. You could also follow up with the adventures of your characters’ children; my group followed up our Spectaculars game with a game of MASKS, playing as the children of our characters. Games like Kids on Bikes or Kids and Spirits could also work if you want to combine solving mysteries with passing adventure down a generation!

Games You Can Also Check Out

Merchants & Monsters, by AndieSanade.

Dungeon Mart, by May Day.

So, the Beast is Dead, by Prepared Heathen.

Back Again, from the Broken Land, by Cloven Pine Games.

The Laughing Kobold, by therabidbanana.

[cannibalhalflinggaming]

Stewpot: Tales from A Fantasy Tavern Backerkit Review

Stewpot: Tales from A Fantasy Tavern Backerkit Review

The tavern is the fulcrum point of the adventuring lifestyle. It’s where wandering heroes can find food and shelter after weeks out in the wilderness, it’s where quests can often begin… and it’s where quite a few stories find their happy ending. After all, being an adventurer is a tough life. Many adventurers, whether they retire after a successful career or call it quits early, get the idea to…

[mortphilippa]

6 TTRPGs about Cooking!

🍳 Squeakeasy

🍳 To make and share

🍳 Recipe on Kmiydish Paper

🍳 Lutong Banwa

🍳 Kitchen Contest

🍳 Stewpot: Tales from a Fantasy Tavern

[ftlcast]

Join August, Zachary, and new cast member Annya as we play Stewpot: Tales From a Fantasy Tavern by Takuma Okada. Three adventurers come to a bustling beach city, ready to hang up their hats. But can they make a home here, or will the adventuring life be too hard to give up?

Precious is played by August.

Beck is played by Zachary.

Atlas is played by Annya.

Produced by August.

Support us on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ftlcast

Find out more about the games we play (and where to buy them): https://www.ftlcast.com/games-weve-played

Episode summaries available here: https://goo.gl/3nXVpA

Join us on Discord! https://discord.gg/zzuPqne

Cover image by @sacalow and original music by @takuma_okada_

Follow the Leader is part of the Standing Stones Productions podcasting guild. Find out more about us and our projects on Twitter: @stones_standing

[6fu]

The Epilogue Game

If you want interplay and goofs from your silly mouse AP, we’ve got your back. In the summer after the War, Zeke and Christophe affirm their commitment in front of family and friends. But first come the stress, bar fights, uncooperative frogs, and traveling clowns that every wedding planner must deal with.

Part 1 Part 2

This session was played in a homebrew adaptation of Stewpot: Tales from a Fantasy Tavern by Takuma Okada, with inspiration for the Venue Search minigame from Millennial Apartment Hunters by James D’Amato.

After listening, feel free to read Grant’s behind the scenes posts about the Finale and this Epilogue to learn about why they took the forms they did, what other possibilities were on the table, and how they came together once those decisions were made.

[this-curiouscat]

I'm immediately reminded of Stewpot: Tales from a Fantasy Tavern - this character is perfect for the "Sliced" minigame aka "Cooking with Monster Parts"!

CC @evilhatofficial

It's finally done! My backers wanted me to draw a monster chef - and at long last, she's done!

because I'm me, I of course went a little bit overboard

Additional sketches and closeups of the food over on Patreon

[wanderingandfound]

Indie TTRPG Valentine's made by @/SeaExcursion (the first four) and @/Robohaven (the last one) on Twitter.

[no-road-home]

48 hours left on the stewpot backerkit campaign! just finished going over edits on the stretch goal mini-games, and i'm really happy with how they pull in more about your adventuring days and old friends. they also help expand the town and the surrounding area (with maps)!

[crtgirl]

under two hours to back stewpot!!!

[fatt-twitter-updates]

Part 4 of this thread (posts in this thread are tagged itchio on this blog)

Before we even had a "Live at the Table" Patreon tier, we did a live game of Lasers & Feelings. Its simplicity means you could pick it up right now and have a great time. https://johnharper.itch.io/lasers-feelings

Also, it's been hacked a ton, so check these out too: https://itch.io/physical-games/tag-lasers-and-feelings

BFF! takes the prompt-based design of Fall of Magic and applies it to youthful adventures in the real world. We did our first ever live audience show (at SHUX 2018) with it and had a blast!

It is incredibly funny (and inspiring) to me that the co-author of the gruesome Heart: The City Beneath also designed Honey Heist, a game about bears making a complex plan to steal a large amount of delicious honey.

Playing Stewpot was without a question some of the most fun I've had with TTRPGs lately. Here's what I told Polygon about it last December:

https://noroadhome.itch.io/stewpot-tales-from-a-fantasy-tavern

[ID: screenshot of a section of a Polygon article, the text reads:

Austin Walker

Host of Friends at the Table and Waypoint Radio

In a year of constant strife, frustration, and exhaustion, is it any wonder that my favorite tabletop role-playing game is a game about fantasy heroes putting down their swords and staves and retiring?

Stewpot: Tales from a Fantasy Tavern by Takuma Okada takes the excellent Firebrands: Mobile Frame Zero, with its scene-setting, characterization-heavy minigames, as a starting place. But instead of playing as mecha rivals in a dramatic duel, you play old adventuring comrades on the hunt for great ingredients. Players create archetypal fantasy heroes, and then guide them as they adapt to life in the kitchen, the garden, the market, and the town. It’s a little melancholy, very cozy, and easily the most charming game I played this year. end ID]

Anomaly takes some of the structure of The Quiet Year and blends it with the sinister supernatural investigations of things like SCP and Control.

In Beak, Feather, and Bone, you start with an already drawn but unlabeled map of a city. As you draw cards, you and your friends (representing different parts of a bird-person society) fill in the details and add complications. It is a joy.

Bell Songs is one of the most slept on games on this list. It's a Redwall-style game about being animals on adventure. Its design allows for a ton of open-ended fun, but also some considered decision making when conflict arises!

Spoken Magic feels like as sister game to Fall of Magic. As a group of wizards, you travel from place to place, using spell-words to create and solve problems. If you're like us, you'll use it to be rude and boisterous mages and have a great time.

(posts in this thread are tagged itchio on this blog)

[shucktsubo]

This is an actual game! It’s all about running a fantasy tavern with your friends.

I don’t really know what the plot of Waterdeep is supposed to be but my party and I have purchased a tavern and as far as I’m concerned this game is now about 6 quirky friends running a small business together

[no-road-home]

-improve your diet (cook monsters by playing Sliced)

-regulate your daily rhythms (settle down in a town and play In the Rhythm of Things)

-moderate exercise (play Homegrown and start a garden, and renovate your tavern with Wear and Tear)

back Stewpot: Tales from a Fantasy Tavern, a fantasy slice-of-life TTRPG where you run a tavern with your old adventuring party. Live on Backerkit right now!

[ftlcast]

Join August, Zachary, and new cast member Annya as we play Stewpot: Tales From a Fantasy Tavern by Takuma Okada. Three adventurers come to a bustling beach city, ready to hang up their hats. But can they make a home here, or will the adventuring life be too hard to give up?

Precious is played by August.

Beck is played by Zachary.

Atlas is played by Annya.

Produced by August.

Additional music by Jonathan Shaw.

Support us on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ftlcast

Find out more about the games we play (and where to buy them): https://www.ftlcast.com/games-weve-played

Episode summaries available here: https://goo.gl/3nXVpA

Join us on Discord! https://discord.gg/zzuPqne

Cover image by @sacalow and original music by @takuma_okada_

Follow the Leader is part of the Standing Stones Productions podcasting guild. Find out more about us and our projects on Twitter: @stones_standing

[no-road-home]

Not in the book itself, but most of the stretch goals will be in a separate PDF which includes four recipes, one for each level of your Tavern's Cuisine Rating.

The recipes will all include vegetarian options, and they're being written by Krista D. Ball, author of the book What Kings Ate and Wizards Drank, an exploration of medieval cuisine depicted in historical and fantasy fiction!

Stewpot: Tales from a Fantasy Tavern on Backerkit now!

Stewpot: Tales from a Fantasy Tavern is a GMless one-to-three shot TTRPG based on games like MF0: Firebrands and The Sundered Land. It's a collection of 20 mini-games where former adventurers open a tavern together and reintegrate into society after a life on the road.

What happens after the adventure? What does daily life in a fantasy world look like? Stewpot draws inspiration from stories like Dungeon Meshi, Redwall, Frieren, and Bartender, as well as various aspects of D&D. It's a great way to wrap up a long-running fantasy TTRPG campaign.

Start a garden, cook monsters, run a festival booth, reforge old weapons, flirt with mysterious strangers, and more in a new version of the game with tons of art and new storybook-style layout!

(more info and full description of the mini-games in the read more!)

The structure of the game is based on characters having an Adventurer Job, with Adventurer Experiences that represent their abilities and powers, and a Town Job with Town Experiences. You can make new characters just for the game, or bring in old characters and recreate them with the existing Experiences or write your own.

As you play the game, you'll cross off Adventurer Experiences as you let go of them or let them fade into the background, and gain new Town Experiences that take their place. Along the way you'll upgrade your Tavern and give each other Keepsakes!

Games from the old Itch.io PDF version (0.41):

The First Step: Before you decided to put down roots here, before you found this group of friends, what were you doing? What was the first thing you learned about how to live in town?

NPC Sidequest: Your adventuring days may be over, but there are plenty of people in town that could use your help.

Wear and Tear: There’s always something to fix, or clean, or pay off.

Market Day: You never would have guessed how many things you need just to keep a tavern running. 

Homegrown: There’s something special about using ingredients grown nearby. Why not give growing your own a try?

Sliced: Sometimes supply routes get disrupted. Or maybe you just want to stand out from the rest of the taverns. Whatever the reason, you’re playing this game because you want or need to do one thing: cook with monster parts.

Romancing a Stranger: Someone in the tavern makes eye contact with you, and their gaze lingers a little longer than you’d expect. Your co-workers urge you on, and make every excuse they can to send you over to talk to the lovely Stranger.

Off the Clock: Where do you go after the tables are wiped down? Who’s heard every story you have about the worst people who have walked in?

A Friendly Tavern Brawl: Every tavern has its rowdy patrons. You know they’re good at heart, but sometimes when the ale is flowing and spirits are high, things get a little out of hand. How do you handle the situation?

Festival Day: Your town has a few festival days a year, and they’re some of your busiest. How do you prepare? How do you handle the influx of people?

A Bard's Tale: During your time as an adventurer, you accomplished many daring deeds. In fact, some of those deeds are retold to this day by travelling bards.

A Glass of the Gods: Sometimes a troubled adventurer will come in, looking for answers, and letting them drink themselves into oblivion is the wrong answer. It's up to you  to  mix the perfect drink, something perfect for the situation that can push the adventurer to look inside and find the answer on their own.

A Distinguished Guest: Someone important is in town, and they’re already almost here. The tavern has to be at its best for this guest. After all, they might leave a generous tip.

In the Rhythm of Things: Time passes. Rough edges are sanded down. Before you know it, life in town has become like breathing. You gather in your favorite part of the tavern and wonder where the time has gone.

New games for this crowdfunding campaign:

Shields and Skillets: Enchantments are volatile things, especially when they sit unused for long periods of time. You have to let go of your old equipment before it’s too late.

Shelter from the Storm: Early one morning, you feel it. A familiar ache in your bones. Something is coming.

A Funeral: As an adventurer, you said farewell many times. Sometimes it was only temporary. Most of the time, it wasn't. 

Retracing: You've left town for something: an errand, a vacation, an old favor. Suddenly, you recognize the route you're traveling. You've been this way before, during your adventuring days.

A Fleeting Memory: Something about the way the fire flickers lingers in your mind. The smell of hay and clover brings a tear to your eye. A fading memory resurfaces.

A Familiar Face: An old friend you haven't seen in a while has stopped by. Why not show them around the town and the tavern?