Troperville
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Elan: Next, we go to the tavern.
Elan: That's where adventurers are hired, silly!
Roy: Why? It's not like they're looking for jobs on the wait staff.
Elan: I dunno, it's just tradition.
So two Tropers walk into a bar...
The stereotypical opening to an adventure in tabletop RPGs: the protagonists are all gathered by prior intent or a "coincidence" of authorial fiat by the Game Master in an inn, bar room, or other common public meeting spot. Once there, some mysterious stranger or NPC of varying dubiousness will approach them with some job offer or plea for assistance. These strangers tend to seat themselves in the darkest corner of the tavern for some reason (probably to make themselves seem even more mysterious). Thus do our heroes receive their ticket to board the plot.
Careful, though, for the mysterious stranger has an odds-to-even chance of being the Big Bad or a similar miscreant. Expect a Bar Brawl or two in the tavern as well, particularly if the P Cs start to get rowdy. Fortunately, though, the barkeep is usually a retired former adventurer willing and able to kick the asses of anyone who gets too uppity.
No less an author than Chaucer had his adventuring party meet in an inn—making this trope Older Than Print—but these days it's a bit of a Dead Horse Trope. Actually starting an adventure with the words "So, you all meet in an inn..." may be seen as roleplaying's equivalent to " It was a dark and stormy night..." Thus, a lot of sources advise against using it, and give pointers on how to avoid it. The 3rd Edition Dungeonmaster's Guide for Dungeons And Dragons, in a list of ways to bring a party together, dubs this "The Cliche". David Morgan-Mar, of Irregular Webcomic and Darths And Droids fame, provides a list of less overused ways to start an adventure. Note that both list include You All Meet In A Cell.
On the other hand, it really is a logical opener, save for the cliche factor. Taverns are the center of social life in many cultures, making for a good place to meet new people, and food and drink are good for bonding with new acquaintances. Where this once looked to become a Dead Horse Trope, it has definitely evolved into an Undead Horse Trope instead. Some people even use the trope deliberately as an invocation of gaming tradition. It's also quite easy to play for laughs, emphasising the comedy potential of enjoying a few pints down the pub and deciding to go out and slay a dragon with your new-found acquaintances.
Real Life group meetings at an Inn are usually a convention of some description. The "adventuring" usually takes place entirely within the building, and does not normally involve bloodshed, swordplay or dragons.
Compare You All Meet In A Cell. Contrast Closed Circle, for when the DM wants to keep you in the tavern.
Examples
Literature
- As noted in the intro, all the characters meet at an inn before starting their pilgrimage in Chaucer's - The Canterbury Tales making this trope Older Than Print.
- In the 14th century Chinese wuxia novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Lui Bei and his sworn brothers first meet in a small town tavern.
- Although it is the origin of a huge number of fantasy tropes, The Lord Of The Rings avoids this one. By the time Frodo and his companions meet Strider "At the Sign of the Prancing Pony" the four hobbits have been travelling together for some time. Plus they were suppose meet Gandalf but he couldn't be there for a very good reason. The Fellowship Of The Ring, the closest thing to an adventuring party in the novel, is not formed until The Council of Elrond, when Gimli, Legolas and Boromir are introduced for the first time.
- The first Dragonlance novel (based on Dungeons And Dragons to begin with) opens with the heroes meeting at an inn. This is justified; not only are the protagonists old friends who promised to meet here many years prior, but one of them has backed out on her promise, foreshadowing far worse things to come.
- The action of Robert Jordan's enormous Wheel of Time series begins with Rand al'Thor meeting up with both established friends (Mat & Egwene) and newcomers (Moiraine, Lan & Thom) at the Winespring Inn in the local village. Which, to be fair, is pretty much the only location of note, in the widest sense of the term, in the entire region.
- Whilst it happens halfway through the book, the chance meeting at an inn between Catelyn Stark and Tyrion Lannister in George RR Martin's A Game of Thrones kick-starts the civil war that dominates the first three books. Several new characters, most notably Bronn, join the action at this point as well.
- Ed Greenwood subverts this classic trope deliberately in his first Forgotten Realms novel (Greenwood is the creator of the Realms setting) Spellfire, by having a party of adventurers meet at an inn, spontaneously decide to investigate the nearby ruined city of Myth Drannor, and then be annihilated (the main character aside) by the denizens of the ruins, whom they lacked the ability or experience to face.
Tabletop RPG
- Feng Shui, which makes no effort to hide the fact that everything in the game that's not a fight scene is a mechanism to get to the next fight scene as quickly as possible, demands this. GMs are instructed to decide where all the players will be when the story begins, and then simply inform the players of this unassailable fact. Players must then give a reason for why their character is at this place, with rewards given for reasons that tie well into their character's backstory in some way. An example:
GM: You're all in a restaurant. Tell me why.
Player 1: I heard a rumor that some operatives for the shadowy cabal that kidnapped my sister like to eat here and I'm staking the place out.
Player 2: Since my character's very poor, he's been taking odd jobs lately to help pay the bills. I'm cleaning tables here.
Player 3: This place has really good noodles.
- Shadowrun has its own version: "You all get a call from a man calling himself 'Mr. Johnson'..." This was intended to be a Shadowrun trope from the beginning, as it's established in the rulebook that all sorts of "Mr. Johnsons" all over the country are looking to hire Shadowrunners to do their dirty work.
- It's worth noting that "You All Meet In An Inn" is also played straight in Shadowrun. Since Johnsons often treasure their anonymity, places like Bars, Taverns, Restaurants and Nightclub are often the place where runner teams will meet up. White Noise generators help ensuring privacy from anyone trying to listen in. Some establishments who deal more regularly with the Shadowrunning business often have booths with built-in white noise generator to allow for private meetings between Mr. Johnson and Shadowrunners.
- There's also the "Stuffer Shack" convenience stores. One module has the PC's patronizing such an establishment when it gets robbed.
- In the Sega Genesis and SNES Shadowrun RPGs, nightclubs are specifically used as a place to purchase fellow Shadowrunners services.
- Warlord, a self-referential D&D-inspired card game, had a card called "Meet At The Inn". Its flavor text:
"Come on, guys! I have an overwhelming urge to go to the nearest inn and meet a pair of strangers who will help us in our quest!"
"What, so soon after our two friends died?"
- This trope should also include the phenomenon of "You All Meet At A Nightclub", which is prevalent in RPGs with modern settings. Overwhelmingly, in some cases. Given the typical diet of the denizens of, say, Vampire: The Masquerade, you could easily see the nighclub as just another inn, providing food, drink and entertainment. Often simultaneously.
- In Eberron, the city of Sharn has two adventurers' district. Those districts both have taverns that are specifically designed to serve this trope: They do not only offer the usual services expected of a Tavern but also offer services allowing adventurers to find people to team up with, as well as employment. Incidentally those taverns tend to be owned or be operated by retired adventurers.
- The WFRP rulebook actually justifies this trope: taverns are common meeting places; and, given the likely diversity of the party members, may well be the only reasonable way for the P Cs to meet.
Video Games
Comic Books
- Legends From Darkwood involves several scenes with characters posting jobs or looking for jobs in "adventuring" posting to a bulletin board in an Inn
Web Comics
- Goblin Hollow includes an arc where the characters are playing D&D. The GM opens the tale with the traditional phrase, is interrupted by snarks from the players about his lack of originality, and continues by smugly adding, "...and wake up the next morning in the county jail."
- In the Order of the Stick book On the Origin of PCs, Roy attempts to recruit party members on the street unsuccessfully. He is greeted by Elan, who says that to have a reasonable chance of finding willing party members, he must not only be in a tavern, but also sit in the corner, stare sullenly into his mug of ale, and wear an eyepatch.
- The back cover blurb reads "Like all good stories ever, this one starts in an inn!" and in a fit of undoubtedly intentional irony, the book actually doesn't, and the inn scene quoted above happens near the end of the book.
- Also abused in 'Order of the Stick'': #357.
- Additionally, in "Start Of Darkness", Right-Eye meets Eugene in an inn to attempt to convince him to resume carrying out his blood oath against Xykon. When Eugene mentions he doesn't have a party to take Xykon on anymore, Right-Eye shouts "Anybody else an adventurer?!" and practically everybody else in the room raises their hand.
- xkcd provides an example of this trope eating itself.
- In Heroes of Lesser Earth this trope is so common that taverns normally have bulletin boards for adventurer recruitment.
- Weregeek features a tavern specifically designed with a very large number of dark-shadowy corners to accommodate this trope[1].
- This is double-defied in Irregular Webcomic, where the characters meet this way, even though they didn't.
Film
- The entire plot of From Dusk Till Dawn was driven by the Anti-Hero meeting an ally in a bar.
- Luke Skywalker and company met Han Solo and Chewbacca at the Mos Eisley Cantina in Star Wars, which is basically a sort of space tavern.
- Star Wars is pretty much a fantasy story in space, so it runs into a lot of other fantasy tropes also.
Real Life
- Public Houses, Coffee Houses, Cafes, Beer Gardens, Saloons, etc. Have historically served as meeting places for various groups who would, in turn, discuss politics, religion, economics, revolution, science, etc. Hence, not only adventures, but great societal movements, began with someone MEETING IN AN INN.
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