Imagining Elyria - Chronicles of the Angry Boar

With D&SS coming up, but still some time away, I decided to do something productive with all the Hype and Excitement. I present to thee, “Chronicles of the Angry Boar”. Experience the evolution of a tavern and the town around it, get tips for planning your very own dream tavern and immerse yourself in a small piece of (fictional) Elyria.

This is a series studying the development of Inn/ Tavern in correlation to the development of a city. In this case, my very own city, Wyvenor. To illustrate the changes I will build 3 versions of the Angry Boar with the Minecraft-Mod, Conquest Reforged and post them in this thread. If you want to see these builds live come and visit us at Darwin Reforged, the true paradise for every MC Builder ;)

If you are on the server simply type “/plot visit Kellock93 3”.

With that said, I hope you enjoy my little project. And if you ever stop by my humble city, feel free to visit the Angry Boar and check if my vision has come to fruition.

Your friendly neighborhood Cookie Monster,

~Kell

Age II: A little party never hurt nobody

Roughly 200 years later the small hamlet of Stump had turned into the port town of Wyvenor. The Angry boar had been expanded and rebuilt a couple times already. But when the current owner died because of an accident during construction of the new main building. His son, Richard “The Capricious” Reedfield took over the Tavern. This marked the beginning of a new Era for the Angry Boar.

*Excerpt of a report to the mayor by the Guard Captain Brameth Barleyforce *

….. As reported earlier the occasions of disorderly behavior has risen steadily in the vicinity of the aforementioned establishment. The district around the business has started to attract shady figures and illegal substances have started to turn up on the streets. As it is impossible to engage the owner of the tavern due to their high-class clientele we are in dire need of more men, before we lose the grasp on the whole area. ...

Taproom on the Ground Floor with stage for performances

Inner Yard

View from the first floor

For the full album click here

What kind of tavern/ Inn would you like to run ?

When running a business the location is one of the most important aspects, that is no different in this case. But even before that, you will have to decide what kind of establishment you want to run and for that, you have to understand the premise of a Tavern in-game. First, you have to consider that you do not have to cater to IRL people, but players.

But players are IRL people, no? Yes, but also no. While a Tavern in-game offers the same services as one in the real world, mainly Entertainment, Food and a place to stay, the concept behind them is fundamentally different.

For players, a Tavern offers 2 boons, Residence and Entertainment. As CoE is supposed to be a game where your Character will not physically leave the game after you log off, you will have to be sure to do so in a secure location. And that is where the tavern comes into play, providing a secure location for you to “quick-save” while traveling.

Now you will have to keep in mind, that if you only want to offer a secure place to stay and a refill of the hunger bar, running a tavern is simple. But when you also want to entertain players, it gets a lot harder. Why? Because things you would do usually when going to a bar are not possible in-game and are in fact not interesting for many players. That means as long you do not own Tavern that doubles as a sightseeing spot, you will have to create your own entertainment to pull customers in. There are many ways to achieve this, promoting your Tavern as RP hotspot, host events such as a concert or even turn it into a shady place where players go to offer /dirty/ work. But it also means there is considerably more effort involved.

Lucky enough for you, unlike IRL people, players won’t care much if the tavern is next to a tanner or all the rooms are in the basement. But this also means you, as the future owner of a tavern, have a lot of things to consider before even thinking about what kind of service you want to offer players. And after you have decided that, you will still have to consider the cost of such services. So thorough planning and gathering information about your city and region is one of the first steps for a successful, and what's even more important, enjoyable life as Tavern proprietor.

After deciding what kind of tavern you want to run choosing a location is the next step. But this is something I will touch up on in the next post, alongside some tips how to specialise your tavern. Stay tuned.