Believable taverns

Story & Setting
#21

There seems to be two quite wide-spread opinions everywhere on the internet and both simply can’t be true: that medieval people drank water and that they didn’t.

E.g. arguments for drinkng water:




"Misconceptions About the Middle Ages, by Stephen Harris and Bryon L. Grigsby, says: “The myth of constant beer drinking is also false; water was available to drink in many forms (rivers, rain water, melted snow) and was often used to dilute wine.”

and arguments against:
http://www.sca.org.au/st_florians/university/library/articles-howtos/what-people-drank.htm

I would say neither of those sources is particularly reliable or well-founded. Is there some reliable authority we could consult?

#22

Hi!

It highly depends on the period Tunak.
If we’re talking about times when great diseases happened, water drinking did indeed fall, and instead came very low percentage alcohol. And it varies per region. But then when all is fine and healthy, nothings wrong with water (Well, not alot anyway).

It’s like people trying to decide in 1000 years why we had OASIS (drink brand, of flavoured water…)

Regards,
Warrior Rose.

#23

That makes sense of course, especially the fear of poisoned / contamined wells. (Contamined wells falsely described and believed to be poisoned by Jews were in fact the primary reason of the first great wave of pogroms in southern France / Rhineland in 11th century.)

#24

Since I am looking forward to exploring the world the most, I think believable taverns with a great atmosphere are a very important aspect!

The worst thing in almost every RPG ever in taverns is, that there is absolutely nobody there. Skyrim Vanilla had like 3 or 4 people at most walking around in them… and a bard singing the same two songs over and over again to absolutely no audience.
Divinity: Original Sin’s taverns are a whole lot better but still not what I expect from this game.

I want music, drunk people chanting and talking and playing games and all that stuff. I imagine a tavern back in the days at a busy hour was a very loud place. And that’s exactly what I want.
And please don’t kill the atmosphere with ambient sounds like people laughing even though nothing happened and they are clearly just background sounds with absolute no reason to exist!

Thanks in advance, Warhorse!

2 Likes
#25

This is exactly what I mean! But it is really difficult to do something like this. I mean no development team says: “Hey, lets make our taverns boring”, its only above their abilities.
Maybe warhorse can make it, I hope so.
As you say, atmosphere should not only be an ambient sound during a boring scene. The NPC go to the tavern to have fun, and the player should be do the same. The player should be understand why people like it to go into a tavern and why they stay. They are there to meet other people and enjoy their social life. But to create a vitual social life is difficult.
NPCs should laugh and have fun, but they need reasons to do so. I think Armwrestling competions, Minigames, and Stories could be a good reason. And let them feel the joy of Schadenfreude.

#26

what you think of the idea that the atmosphere in the tavern is determined by the situation in the country?
For example, Is peace and good weather, all are healthy - exuberance, joy fun
If a war before or someone is missing - depressed mood, taciturn, whispering, when Henry enters - so in that sense …?

1 Like
#27

This is a very good idea, but could be even more difficult.
I think it also could result not though a global mood measurement, but through a individual mood measurement. If people had a good day, they could be in a good mood. If they have lost a fight, can´t work through bad weather conditions or lost some friends in a fight, they could be in a bad or depressed mood. So if there are problems in the country there are good chances that there are many peoples with problems and therefore many peoples with depressed mood in the taverns.

#28

I’m not sure about jokes or gags or anything like that, but I would LOVE to see a magician-type entertainer, even if only in one town in the whole game. Not sure how historically accurate this would be, but it would sure make me happy. :stuck_out_tongue:

#29

I would like to be able to get people drunk and get some information out of them, some rumors etc.
That’d be a pretty interesting mechanic.

1 Like
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