Game History

Tavern Tales was created and developed by Dabney Bailey over the course of a number of years. In 2017, Dabney discontinued development and chose to release all versions of the game and their associated art under Creative Commons.

After that, the community continued development of Tavern Tales, the changes that resulted from this process are listed below. By 2021, the community development seems to have halted, and this copy was made by Aaron Councilman for easier access and to make small corrections. The material here was taken from taverntalesrpg.weebly.com with small modifications since then.

  1. Minor spelling, grammar, and readability edits throughout, including the removal of the gender neutral masculine pronoun.
  2. The addition of the community-built Heritage theme.
  3. The Adventuring Gear section made reference to two traits that did not exist. They have been added back into the game, matching their descriptions there.
  4. A change to weapon retraining. In the original rules, retraining was essentially instantaneous, allowing keywords to be switched constantly if so desired.
  5. The “Passive,” “Interrupt,” and “Quick Action” categories were added to the game. This is for clarity. They don’t change the way any Trait works, they only clarify and categorize existing implicit rules.
  6. Description of required dice modified to reflect the game’s current requirements.
  7. Removed keywords from the index that never appeared anywhere else.
  8. Added grapple rules from the keyword section to the combat section.
  9. Added “Focus” as a generic action and “Biting Wit” in Bardic Lore.
  10. Some traits tweaked to remove “strictly better” versions of Bolster and add flavor. “Zone of Honesty” added to Faith because I’ve been listening to a certain podcast.
  11. Modified “Evoker” in Arcane for clarity.
  12. Added “Give and Take” in Occultism, “Mutation” in Transformation, and the “Firebomb” option in Alchemy’s “Volatile Mixture.” (Credit to Almechik and Bleube123)
  13. Added “Effigy” in Occultism and “Lay to Rest” in Undeath. Corrected a typo in “Counterspell” in Arcane. (Credit to Almechik).
  14. Added “Riddle” in Dragon.
  15. Clarification about carried objects in “Tree Meld” and “Earth Walk.” Addition of “Magic Missile” in Arcane.
  16. Simplified starting adventuring gear and expanded the options. Moved the starting gear section to the Character Creation page. Also added the “Explosive” weapon keyword.
  17. Changed “Tai Chi” in Martial Arts to “Jiu Jitsu” for accuracy. Changed “Noble Savage” in Savagery to “Strong Silent Type” to be less offensive.

The following are the changes made since the copy by Aaron was made.