Retirement. That’s the fantasy, and a tavern sim has finally decided to honor it.
A fresh Dungeons & Dragons title has arrived, and no, it isn’t Warlock, the heavily hyped action-adventure game shown off during Gamescom Opening Night Live. What could possibly beat playing a kick-ass warlock bound to the coolest patron in D&D? Running a cozy tavern for adventurers, obviously.
Where it’s set and when you can play it
Dungeons & Dragons: Long Rest Tavern is being built by developer Homo Ludens with Dotemu publishing, and it plants you in the Dalelands region of the Forgotten Realms setting. It’s headed to PC in 2027.
Your character is an entrepreneur who takes on a decrepit building and converts it into a watering hole for the region’s many adventurers. Expand it. Decorate it. Bring on staff, work up recipes for food and drinks, then brace yourself for the evening service rush.
Satisfied adventuring patrons can be sent out on quests, and they pay you back in rare ingredients for your recipes. The whole thing feeds itself.
The ghost bard came with the building
There’s more going on here than a management sim. The developers are big D&D fans who understand that the game’s appeal comes from storytelling and lore, so an overarching plot waits underneath all that recipe crafting.
That story involves a ghost bard you inherit along with the property. You’ll also get a chance to interact with some iconic Forgotten Realms characters, among them everyone’s favorite ranger and his miniature space hamster companion, Minsc and Boo.
Four steps, one D20
Four sequences drive the loop: expand the tavern, craft recipes, serve clients, send them on quests. That’s where the variety lives, and the story bits unlock gradually enough to keep you invested along the way.
Here’s the catch. This isn’t really an RPG, and the adventurers aren’t under your control once they’re out on quests. The developers did make sure to work in at least some D&D elements, though. Quests are resolved with a D20 roll against a set difficulty, with bonuses drawn from your party’s composition and how well you’ve fed them.
Matching the right party to the right job will be crucial to success. In a real mechanical sense, your cooking is someone else’s survival.
Why a non-RPG D&D game still works
On paper, a D&D game that isn’t an RPG is a hard sell. Then you talk to the people making it.
During a hands-on preview this past April, I spoke with game director David Ranineau, and his knowledge of and passion for the tabletop game came through immediately. Both qualities show up in Long Rest Tavern, which is filled with great flavor text and lore references pitched squarely at diehard D&D fans.
My favorite example: a certain obnoxious writer, traveler and guide who also turns up in Baldur’s Gate 3 will write a review of your tavern. So the service had better be top-notch.
Dungeons & Dragons: Long Rest Tavern launches in 2027 on PC. Somewhere in the Dalelands, a dead bard is already judging your soup.