Random Table: Tavern/Inn Encounters
- Giovanni Crisan
- Mar 9
- 8 min read
Updated: Mar 25
by Giovanni V. Crisan
Phase II x Deimos Infinitum
Published March 10, 2026
A tavern or inn is usually the place of respite for an adventuring party between missions. It’s a place to relax, enjoy some food, drink, and gossip, and it can be a place to find the next bounty or a lead in the grander story. It’s also often the place where the adventurers meet and form their party!
But sometimes the tavern or inn can become a routine where the group just follows the motions and waits for the Game Master (GM) to lead them to the next adventure. I believe this is a hugely missed opportunity to add some intrigue, horror, and even some interesting side quests for the PCs.
This table allows you, as the GM, to quickly add some of these elements to your session and extend the roleplay part of a session when things become too combat-intensive or roll-heavy.
Most of these can be adapted to almost any setting or campaign, even futuristic cyberpunk-style settings (with a few minor adjustments), and the players can choose to follow the hooks or to just mark them as an interesting occurrence in their characters’ story arc. By the way, check out "Horror at Yishusu Landing", a campaign adventure that will enthrall your players at every turn!
Tavern / Inn Encounters: Step 1: Roll 1d6, then roll 1d20 in the corresponding sub-table.
1. A Stranger Approaches
2. Oh, No!
3. Look What I Found
4. Quiet!
5. These Employees Deserve a Raise
6. You Won’t Believe What I Heard
Step 2:
1. A Stranger Approaches (Roll 1d20)
1. Patron Walks in With a Strange Pet
2. Man Walks Into the Tavern Screaming Crazy Things
3. A Man Approaches the Party Offering a Strange Artifact
4. A Man Approaches the Party After They Find a Strange Note
5. A Woman Walks in Chatting With a Human Skull She Cradles in Her Arms
6. A Woman Walks in Accusing the Cook of Being a Murdere
7. Bitter rivalry (two separate men offer to hire the PCs to hurt the other man)
8. A man and woman approach and try to recruit the PCs into their cult
9. An old man approaches offering to sell strange items to the PCs
10. A strange character has a riddle for the PCs to solve
11. A child wanders into the tavern and says one of the PCs took their mother
12. An abused stray dog wanders in and begins licking one of the PCs
13. A man walks in with no clothes on
14. A woman enters and reveals that there is a bounty on one of the PCs’
heads
15. A woman sketches one of the PCs and reveals that she has taken
their soul for ransom
16. A man walks in and challenges one of the PCs to a fight
17. Woman walks in with a huge sack; it moves slightly, and people hear
moans
18. A man tells the PCs that he is their contact and the deed must be done by
sunrise
19. A woman is seen leaving the tavern holding one of the PCs’ treasured
items
20. A blind man tells the PCs that he has a tome with maps of ancient
treasures and relics
2. Oh No! (Roll 1d20)
1, A fire starts
2. Robbery
3. The ground shakes
4. A patron has a medical emergency
5. The drinks are bitter
6. Tavern slowly starts to flood
7. All the glass windows get blown out
8. Rat infestation
9. Guards raid the tavern
10. Tavern becomes unbearably cold
11. Commotion outside (wild animal attacks town)
12. Commotion outside (someone is walking through town covered in blood)
13. Commotion outside (a dead body is found in the well at the center of
town)
14. A strange smell fills the tavern
15. Everything suddenly has a bluish hue for the PCs, but NPCs don’t
experience it
16. The Pcs hear a shrill sound that nobody else can
17. Everything has a metallic taste
18. The PCs start to itch uncontrollably
19. The PCs’ table collapses
20. Everyone in the tavern acts like they know one of the PCs
3. Look What I Found (Roll 1d20)
1. The PCs see their names carved into the wooden table where they sit
2. There is a wanted poster in the tavern with a sketch of one of the PCs
3. The PCs find a ring with a unique insignia (later they will be accused of
stealing it)
4. A trap door under the PCs’ table, hidden under a rug - but too small for an
adult to fit
5. A bloody dagger (with fresh blood)
6. An invisible spellbook
7. A mirror that reflects someone that isn’t there
8. A chest behind the bar with three keyholes and scratches on the metal
and wood
9. A map for a continent that the PCs are not familiar with and nobody else
recognizes
10. A music box that nobody touches - and the staff warn that last time it was
wound up, it “brought something here”
11. A ledger of unpaid tabs with several names crossed out (notes like “see
basement” or “washed away”)
12. A “menu” that doesn’t match the regular menu - may be code for
something
13. The name of the tavern is different every day
14. A jar of pickled eggs - but they don’t look right, and they pulsate
15. A post with tally marks under writing in an unknown language; one of the
PCs notices on their way out that a new mark has been carved while
they were there
16. A song list, but one song is scratched off so completely the parchment is
torn
17. A bloody finger
18. Stairs in the back room that lead to nowhere
19. Eyeglasses that, when worn, don’t do anything, but when held at arm’s
length they show another world
20. A pair of stiff gloves with the metallic smell of blood
4. Quiet! (Roll 1d20)
1. Two rival gangs get into an argument
2. Another adventuring party gets drunk and bullies the waitress
3. There is suddenly a drunk adventuring party at a table where a second
before there was nobody
4. A brawl breaks out in the tavern but nobody knows who started it or why
5. A group of farmers upset they got taxed - they found out the burgomaster
was actually murdered days before - making it some kind of imposter or
shape-shifting charlatan
6. A group of adventurers bragging about clearing out some haunted ruins -
but they are obviously beat up and missing most of their gear
7. Drunk guardsmen, bragging about a bounty that can change their lives.
One of them notices that one of the PCs matches the description “ a bit
too much”
8. A wealthy merchant with two shady bodyguards carrying a chest. Under
the table, the chest moves and the merchant threatens the bodyguards
to “handle it”
9. Dueling bards (doing a rap battle-style duel) begin to get heated
10. Sailors ask the opinion of one of the PCs on something. No matter what
the PCs answer, the sailors say that “the sea claims someone tonight”
11. Ex-cultists getting rowdy; a man then enters with 3 women - and the ex-
cultists get quiet
12. Other adventuring party who were promised the contract the PCs are
here for
13. Seven brothers whose father just died are bickering on the land rights
14, A group of card sharks get caught stealing
15. Monster hunters who are told by a scout who runs in that “The creature
lives!”
16. Strange people who are just not right…
17. Miners, drinking away their sorrows - their foreman was “dragged down by
Something”
18. Traveling circus. One of their own went missing, but they don’t want to
describe the missing “carnie”
19. Loud table laughing, and they won’t stop. They keep getting louder, then
mock the heroes, pounding fists to table until they bleed
20. A table that keeps toasting to “Yuric”, and then cursing Yuric for being
late again. Yuric never shows up.
5. These Employees Deserve a Raise (Roll 1d20)
1. Waitress tells the PCs that a hooded patron sitting in the corner table is
always there and never seems to go home, never says anything (may be
a dead body)
2. Bard sings of the PCs’ adventures, but gets the details backwards (The PCs
as villains)
3. Bard sings of the PCs’ adventures and even foretells of a future encounter
4. A Steady regular hasn’t showed up in three days
5. The bard performs a magic trick after which he slits his own throat
6. The waitress drops dead
7. The cook disappears
8. The waitress looks different to each of the PCs
9. The barkeep tells the PCs that patrons often disappear when the tavern
gets very crowded (there’s a mimic in the tavern eating people)
10. The barkeep stirs all of their drinks and salivates as he waits to see the PCs
drink - even non-mixed drinks like their water, beer, mead, etc.
11. Waitress serves and talks to what appears to be a dummy at a table by
itself
12. A regular insists they must sit in a specific corner chair; the chair splinters
and the guest falls hard, briefly speaking in another voice. The server
quickly cleans up and won’t talk about it..
13. An employee storms up from the cellar, wiping strange black liquid from
his hands
14. The tavern suddenly falls deathly silent; Everything is paused until the
bard starts to play, slowly “winding” everyone back into motion.
15. A patron at a nearby table suddenly collapses with no visible wound. The
cook runs over and resuscitates the patron with surgical precision
16. The barkeep rushes to bar one specific side door, mumbling, “Not this
night”
17. The cook comes out and asks the server if “they” have come in yet, and
she says yes, then the cook smiles and returns to the kitchen
18. As a table leaves, the server finds a single, perfectly smooth coin of
unknown mint; when she touches it, all the candles near the counter
flare, and she quietly pockets it
19. Near midnight, a bell jingles in a back hallway, though no one touched it.
The staff smile and say, “it’s time!”
20. Near closing, a drenched figure shuffles in and sits at a corner table. If any
guest tries to talk to the figure, a staffer appears instantly with a
distraction: free drink, sudden conversation, an urgent “favor”
6. You Won’t Believe What I Heard (Roll 1d20)
1. “The tavern’s cellar is actually the top floor.”
2. “One of the regulars is a retired dragon. They just don’t know it yet.”
3. “If you tell a lie here that everyone believes, it becomes true outside.”
4. “The stew remembers every animal that went into it.”
5. “I am here to die.” There’s a door you can only unlock by dying here.
6. “The tavern owner is in league with demons”
7. “The tavern moves, but nobody changes the maps.”
8. “The tavern’s signboard is slowly spelling out a prophecy.”
9. “If you fall asleep at the bar, you might wake up having already made a
dark deal.”
10. “The tavern owes a life for every year it’s stood.”
11. “Every laughter here feeds something under the floor.”
12. “A demon pours drinks here on nights no one remembers.”
13. “If you hear someone crying in the walls, don’t answer. It’s not for you.”
14. “The upstairs hallway gets one door longer every year.”
15. “The tavern cat keeps choosing people to follow home - and they never
come back.”
16. “The lullaby the staff hum when it’s busy isn’t for the customers. It’s to
keep something in the walls asleep.”
17. “The last owner melted in front of everybody, but nobody will talk about it”
18. “The tavernkeep was a king in another continent, but gave everything up
for an unknown reason”
19. “There’s a man who visits the tavern and always leaves with a patron that
is never heard from again - but nobody remembers who the stranger is
or what they look like.”
20. “If you talk about the sea in here, the Tavernkeep will have you murdered
tonight.”
Follow us on YouTube to keep the conversation going! We have videos discussing this topic in more detail on our channels, Left for the Vultures and Headless Hammerhead:
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