I love Dungeons & Dragons. While it took me quite a few years (and finding the right people) to really be allowed to explore TTRPGs, once I was in, I was hooked. The adoration of D&D has also crossed over into other aspects be it what I’m reading or other video games along the way. Obviously at this point most gamers have heard of Baldur’s Gate 3 which recently exploded and brought D&D to the forefront for more people. But there is more than just the adventures and Dungeons & Dragons: Long Rest Tavern looks to prove this.
It’s not unheard of in D&D campaigns to have the party find their way to an inn to sleep, gather information, and sometimes just party. This is where Dungeons & Dragons: Long Rest Tavern is perfectly fitting itself into. You are a retired adventurer who is starting a new life, a second career of sorts, as the tavern keeper. Of course, the story isn’t as simple as just being the tavern keeper…
Who Will You Be?
Beyond just being the tavern keeper, who will you be? The game allows you to customize your character after a brief introduction. You’ll find the basic races and classes are here to explore when creating your innkeeper. This is an area where you could spend quite some time crafting your character. Of course, this is all just for personal enjoyment as from what I’ve seen in the preview the aesthetics have very little to do with the game play. Then again, typically in D&D the way your character looks, unless you have a great dungeon master, may not factor in too much either. It did allow me the opportunity to rebuild a favorite character from a previous campaign though so that’s lovely.
Running an Inn
After creating a character you find yourself within the tavern pretty quickly. However, this tavern doesn’t come completely empty. There are ghosts lingering in the walls, at least one, by the name of William Oldfather who becomes your guide on your way to business. William will give you some instructions early on and help you begin your career as innkeeper. It was a nice flair to see an orc bard as well. Throughout the game William and other characters will provide you with prompts and next steps to get your inn running well.
The game also tells you what your next quest is as well, but it feels more appropriately in universe to hear it from other characters first. William also isn’t the only way that you receive some next steps or next goals although he is the most consistent. He’ll let you know exactly what to purchase to get your inn started and once that first bar is set up, you’re well on your way. However, you can’t run the inn and serve every role so here is where you have to hire employees and set them into their roles. Each employee has their own set of stats which have a careful balance. You also need to keep them happy or their ruin the service along the way.
You also have to make sure you have enough to serve your hungry customers. This means ordering supplies from a nearby merchant and ensuring you have the right stock. The stock is important as you will need them to craft food and beverages. You can also set your food and beverages to continue cooking until the stock runs out or choose new items to craft each day. It’s important to keep a good rotation of what you serve though to keep customers happy.
Since you’re not actively serving food or drinks during the service though, there’s other work for you to do. A few factors for you to consider as innkeeper include are your drinks attractive? Are they a good price? How about your staff? These are all factors to consider when you open up your own inn. When you craft the drinks it’s important that you keep an eye on their attractiveness level and the types of drinks they are as each customer has their own interest. I noticed that when I wasn’t swapping out my drinks often enough customers would get bored. This was actually a good note for me to keep in mind. Especially as there is competition just down the road.
You’re not the only Inn in town!
It isn’t long before your growing inn gets the attention of others nearby. Including the local competition. Belrich makes himself all too welcome at your inn and provides some additional story as well as competition. One quest included having to compete with him in number of satisfied customers. This helps keep players engaged with switching up their drinks and being attentive to their customers. I actually really liked this component because it felt like it gave me something more to strive for. It kept me on my toes instead of this just being a basic dinner service.
It also allows the player to feel like there is some sense of tension in the world, which it feels like there always should be in D&D. It doesn’t need to be world ending, but having some sense of competition provides something special here. Through the story with Belrich, the other innkeeper, we learn there is something bigger happening in the world. Even if you aren’t the one facing it head on, you’re in the know, as every good bartender should be.
Send Adventurer’s on Quest
As your inn grows, so does what you can do within its walls. You’ll go from serving drinks to offering rooms for the night. And with every adventuring party that spends the night you can also send them out on quests. Their quests also provide you additional ways of earning resources for your inn. We also get to see a bit more of that special D&D flair in sending the parties out. As the innkeeper, you choose which quests to send these parties on. You can match them based on the special skills they come equipped with. These skills also will determine the bonus that gets added onto their rolls. It wouldn’t be D&D without some dice rolling after all.
As a fan of D&D it’s great to see certain components add into their rolls. The better you could match the party to the quest, the higher the chance of success. A 20 would still allow for an immediate critical success with a 1 being a failure. The better the success, the more resources you would earn to use for food or drink making. However, there would be more components that would allow you to explore more and really allow for additional support for your weary travelers.
The Adventure isn’t quite over yet
While your adventure may not longer take you on the road, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a story to be told at the inn even about the innkeeper. For example, it’s time for your innkeeper to consider another career shift into alchemy. In due time you’re able to buy more land, including where this tower is to allow you to craft different potions. This is going to be extremely helpful as the potions you craft can be added into additional slots for the parties you send out on quests. A variety of potions can be crafted in the tower to allow for a higher chance of success. You can try out a variety of different potions and see how they impact the party and their stats.
Some of the ingredients will be able to be purchased at the market. Some will be ingredients that the adventuring parties bring back to you. And others yet may be found in a favorite past time for cozy gamers.
Okay but where’s the farming?
Don’t worry, this does have a bit of farming. As the innkeeper you’ll also have the ability to set up a garden. Yes, there is farming for you to watch over and harvest goods. This works in conjunction pretty well with the alchemy tower as more often than not you’ll use what you harvest to craft your potions. I’m not huge on the general farming mechanics, but these were pretty simple in the preview where you could just click to water them and click to harvest when ready. It does seem when the game fully launches there will be more than just point and click so prepare for cute animations.
Fun little tidbits
For those steeped in D&D lore, you’ll get to see a few familiar faces. For those who perhaps have only ever played Baldur’s Gate 3, don’t worry, you’ll see at least one familiar face on the cover alone. Hey Minsc, fancy seeing you at this tavern! I also found it quite fun to keep an eye on where the goofy little mimic was floating around in the world. Sometimes it’d be sleeping outside the tavern, sometimes out by the water, other times just bopping around the map. It’s these little tidbits that make this take on D&D quite enjoyable.
Of course, there is also the joy of just seeing a full tavern with smiling faces if you are someone who enjoys management simulation games. I spent a lot more time with this preview than I had anticipated spending and it feels like I could just keep playing for days on end. That is to say, it does mean this game will probably take quite a bit of my time when it fully releases next year and I’m looking very forward to it.
Dungeons & Dragons: Long Rest Tavern is scheduled to release in 2027 on Steam. Gamer Social Club would like to thank Dotemu and Homo Ludens for the preview code.
