Banters in taverns and inns

[MemnochPSA]

 

Hello! I open this thread because I'd love to experience banters in taverns and inns in PoE. I came up with the idea when I was in a meal with my friends, remembering anecdotes, laughing at trivialities, making (often absurd) jokes, etc. I'm sure you know this sensation, and I think I'd be great to have it in PoE with our party, while they are interacting with the bartender, the waitress or other regular fellows. Maybe one or two banters per tavern/inn should be suffice, after you paid the nightmaster, of course.

 

If the characters don't know each other, maybe they could talk about their past, or just talk idle about the recent events, how to improve their tactics and such.

 

What do you think? I think it could be a great addition.

Edited April 13, 2014 by MemnochPSA

[IndiraLightfoot]

It's a pretty important feature, I reckon, and I sure hope it's included in some form or another. I also hope we get to see a huge variety of barklines, some VOed, in inns and similar establishments. I even demand the usual burping and farting, along with loud hickups, slurry speech and imposed bad singing, as well as an assorted collection of nice murmurs.

Edited April 13, 2014 by IndiraLightfoot

[curryinahurry]

A nice topic...Anything that adds atmosphere and depth to the world is welcome.

 

I like the idea of Party NPC's initiating conversations with the player in such settings.  Also, the opportunity to find out about the locality; rumors, gossip, jobs, etc.

 

It would also be interesting if we travel to a location where a party member was from there were special interactions for that NPC in the tavern/inn.  Not just in the NPC character arc quest sense, but smaller things like the NPC leaving the party to say hello to friends, or the bartender pulling the NPC aside to have a private conversation about something, that may or may not be relevant to the party later on.  Also, the ability to find out quest related information due to having insider status in a given locale.

[Auxilius]

Well, the cool thing with Obsidian games is that they're able to make you spend 20 minutes reading dialogues and make it interesting.

I certainly hope we'll see such talent in action in inns.

 

So far, I'm not afraid with the atmosphere. We just need several drunk songs, like in The Bard's Tale. Beer beer beer tiddly beer beer beer...

[Messier-31]

Nice picture. Gives the atmosphere.

[Carlo]

Nice idea (and picture) for the tavern banter. In the BG series, party chat triggers as I recall were fairly evenly spread, with some in taverns as well. In multiplayer games it's always a great place to share camaraderie and gripes or just see what's going on in the area.

 

Along similar lines, for flavor purposes in the Neverwinter Nights campaign I run, automated NPCs in various cities have random speech based on current local events and rumors, including some that reflect party actions.  It's very simple to set up - all that's necessary is to have each NPC roll a virtual d20 against a selected text list when speech is triggered - but adds a lot of flavor to the game world and lets the party know what's trending via word of mouth.

[Lephys]

It'd be pretty amazing if it were just the place for people to exchange stories and information, etc. Instead of specifically tying an entire quest to some request/story told in an inn, the banters in the taverns could simply provide contextual information, be it just lore, or clues to actual quest/character interactions, or useful tactical info about creatures (maybe they tell exaggerated tales about some encounter with something, but you still gleam useful information from that; maybe there's a group of bandits they think are demons, and even if they aren't actually demons, you can learn something about how they fight, or how they seem to be un-armored, but are obviously well-protected somehow, or how they spread poison, whether they really breathe it out as the story-telling patrons suggest, or simply use pouches/mechanisms to convince people that they breathe it out, etc.).

 

I think having tavern banter be a large source of local information and such (amongst just-plain entertainment and character-building/atmospheric value) would be quite interesting.

 

The thing is, you couldn't just hang around in a tavern common room without actually being a paying customer. It'd give more of a reason to the gold you spend on food and drink, and/or room rental (maybe if you rent a nice enough room -- i.e. spend enough in patronage -- you can even freely wander about places you wouldn't normally be allowed to go, like the kitchens, etc., instead of just "Okay, you can sleep in this little wooden room upstairs, but don't touch anything.").

 

You could even have certain people who aren't really willing to give up information unless you drink a certain amount with them, whether it's 'cause they're protective of the information, or just because they don't loosen up enough to talk about themselves until they have a drink, or they're skeptical of people who seem to be specifically hunting information rather than relaxing and drinking with the rest of the room, etc. In some situations, you might run the risk of divulging information, yourself, that you don't really want made public (alert certain people who may be looking for you, etc.) because of your drunken state.

 

*shrug*. The dialogue options for "we're drinking together" branches could be pretty fun and interesting. . Check please! Constitution/Resolve check, that is.

[Nonek]

I most heartily agree. These should be warm, boisterous places where we can sit back, throw another Elf on the fire, stick our boots on an orlan's head and relax in good company. With of course some jaunty tunes as the evening commences and more sluggish, melodic fayre as our pallets beckon.