Retirement. That’s the dream, and a tavern sim is finally honoring it.
There’s a new Dungeons & Dragons game in town, and it isn’t Warlock, the much-anticipated action-adventure game presented during Gamescom Opening Night Live. You might ask what’s better than playing a kick-ass warlock with the coolest patron in D&D. Managing a cozy tavern for adventurers, of course.
Where it’s set and when you can play it
Dungeons & Dragons: Long Rest Tavern comes from developer Homo Ludens and publisher Dotemu, and it drops you in the Dalelands region of the Forgotten Realms setting. It’s headed to PC in 2027.
You play an entrepreneur who takes over a decrepit building and turns it into a tavern for the region’s many adventurers. Expand it. Decorate it. Hire staff, craft recipes for food and drinks, then brace for the evening service rush.
Keep your adventuring customers happy and you can send them out on quests, which pay you back in rare ingredients for your recipes. The whole thing feeds itself.
The ghost bard came with the building
This isn’t only a management sim. The developers are big fans of D&D and understand that the game’s appeal comes from storytelling and lore, so there’s an overarching plot waiting underneath the recipe crafting.
It involves a ghost bard you inherit along with the property. You’ll also get a chance to interact with some iconic Forgotten Realms characters, including everyone’s favorite ranger and his miniature space hamster companion, Minsc and Boo.
Four steps, one D20
The loop runs on four sequences: expand the tavern, craft recipes, serve clients, send them on quests. That’s the variety, and the story bits unlock gradually enough to keep you invested as you go.
Here’s the catch. This isn’t really an RPG, and you can’t take control of the adventurers during quests. But the developers made sure to include at least some D&D elements. Quests resolve with a D20 roll against a set difficulty, with bonuses coming from your party’s composition and how well you’ve fed them.
Picking the right party for the right job will be crucial to success. Your cooking is, in a real mechanical sense, someone else’s survival.
Why a non-RPG D&D game still works
A D&D game that isn’t an RPG is a hard sell on paper. Then you talk to the people making it.
I spoke with game director David Ranineau during a hands-on preview this past April, and his knowledge of and passion for the tabletop game came through immediately. Those 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 you’d better make sure the service is top-notch.
Dungeons & Dragons: Long Rest Tavern launches in 2027 on PC. Somewhere in the Dalelands, a dead bard is already judging your soup.
