Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Tavern Keeper: Hospitality at Its Finest

It is a common fantasy role-playing trope for the bar or tavern to be a center of strategy and planning for countless adventuring parties. For game leaders and those character’s controllers, the paperwork and record keeping involved can always be a challenge to keep updated and organized. Why not collaborate with your Tavern Keeper and let him do the mundane so you can focus on the story?

On Sunday, Kristi and Bill Centinario held an open Q&A for Tavern Keeper, a campaign advertising platform for game leaders with bookkeeping and game session support. I had an opportunity to learn more about their current beta version, as well as their Kickstarter plans, stretch goals, and licensing opportunities with game designers and producers. The passion for their product is evident, and they've already laid the groundwork with initial product development and community outreach. A Tavern Keeper is out of work without a tavern to work in and happy, engaged, and repeat customers. Fortunately, their initial users who have listed their games on the beta website are these first few happy patrons, proof of concept, and will be the first to enjoy the improvements as this project is funded and developed.

Currently, Tavern Keeper Beta is a solid backbone on which all of the functionality will be built. There are already plenty of games being advertised through the system, and the generic character sheet is still a great start for rules light systems like FATE and Numenera. The functionality I’m most excited for is their plans for Dynamic Character Sheets, which would allow the sheets to derive and look up all of the stats and bonuses associated with base stat, race, and class choices (ex. D&D stat modifiers, Initiative, Attack Modifiers, etc.). They also talked about some great ideas for a game leader display which would make finding any system information a snap.

One of the toughest things I've found about my new venture is that I’m trying to do everything and anything to improve gaming experiences. This is overly ambitious, and without a more narrow focus, is doomed to suffer feature bloat and countless delays. Luckily there are plenty other entrepreneurs in the Google+ community who are spearheading the development of complimentary products to my own. I’m looking forward to working with the Centinario's and Tavern Keeper in the future as we both help enhance the experience of our role-playing customers.

Gamers United!

Cavin “Pox” DeJordy


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