In that way, these tavern management games fit into a comfortable framework.īut there’s still something more to it. The power fantasy in those latter experiences is that you can design and build a profitable, working machine. 'Tavernier' screenshot courtesy of From The BardĪgain, though, we have to ask what unifies all of these approaches? Video games are very comfortable in the realm of the power fantasy, and builder games like Rollercoaster Tycoon and social games about decorating spaces like The Sims have plugged into those fantasies as Mario or Batman games do. Various people come into the tavern, and you need to chat with them, building your reputation with groups like Guards and Rogues while increasing stats like “cool.” In this game, the fantasy is less based on building your own adventuring teams or specific tavern structures and instead it hinges on how good you are at managing patrons themselves. The player is less a god’s-eye manager (although you can buy items to decorate and food to supply) and more a person just trying to talk their way through their job.
They’re those kinds of games.Īnd finally, Tavernier takes the furthest approach from any of these. While playing each of them, I found myself looking at the stats of individual servers and wishing they were higher so that they could cover more tables. While Crossroads Inn is certainly the most specific of these two (asking you to do things like manage trade routes for specific supplies), they both have an ethic that goes beyond something like Rollercoaster Tycoon and instead starts looking a lot more like Crusader Kings II. You have to design seating areas and position serving areas and make sure that you can manage storage options. Both have you building specific functional rooms like kitchens and rooms for your patrons to stay.
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Where Epic Tavern’s building and setup is largely pre-packaged to free you up for adventure management, these two games demand that you plan and operate your inn in exacting detail. This is markedly different from Tavern Tycoon and Crossroads Inn, two games that sit somewhere closer to the builder game genre. You’re the friendly face who takes their coin and transforms it into temporary happiness. You’re the person who gets them a stout drink when they emerge from the Tomb of NecroSnakes. You’re the place that makes the adventures happen. They’re all populated with heroes and rogues, peasants and pike-wielders, and they ask the player to act as the backdrop for those actions. They all take place in worlds of high adventure.
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They task you with making choices about how to handle customers, and each gives you some form of direct interaction, from Tavernier’s almost-visual-novel vibe to Epic Tavern’s robust system for recruiting and managing adventurers.įor all the meaningful difference between them, everything these games do is fundamentally in service to a shared fantasy.
Each puts you in the position of a tavern owner who oversees the construction and management of a tavern. Tavern Tycoon, Crossroads Inn, Tavernier, and Epic Tavern all share some basic qualities in common. And yet there is obviously something alluring about running one, as evidenced by the (mostly) recent video games that are entirely focused on simulating that experience.
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