This Holiday One-Shot Special takes place aboard The Wandering Tavern. A colossal island-sized airship campaign setting inspired by the works of Studio Ghibli.

The 20+ page PDF for this One-Shot includes:

• A step-by-step guide to running this festive adventure
• Brand-New “Naughty or Nice” Mechanics
• Brand-New Dance Off Downtime Activity/Mechanic
• 3 Festive NPCs
• 4 Magical Items
• Yummy Seasonal Cookie Recipe
• System Agnostic Stat Blocks for creatures/NPCs encountered on this adventure

How this Holiday One-Shot came to be:

Earlier this year, HaTD launched the Wandering Tavern setting via crowdfunding on Kickstarter.
It was written by Emily Harrison and Bodhi Kambouris.
From here Emily has her own story to tell…
“Getting to show this book to my mom was amazing. She loved it, but has never played a TTRPG before and didn’t quite get it. I thought, running a one-shot for my family when I get home this Christmas would help introduce her to my world.”

So Emily got to work on my Wandering Tavern Holiday One-Shot Special.

“I wanted to get my whole family interested and engrossed in a holiday themed adventure that ties into the world that I wrote with Bodhi. I created 3 new NPCs that I knew would be fun for my family to bounce off in their roleplay. Bodhi’s mom Tracy helped me come up with a Holiday Cookie Tray Bake that I could whip up with my mom. Eventually, I realised that this idea might appeal to the wider TTRPG community as well.”

In the HaTD office, it was full steam ahead working on our next project (Scorched Basin).

“I am having a lot of fun writing Scorched Basin alongside Bodhi, but we don’t have much time at work for anything else. Taking things into my own hands, I wrote the holiday one-shot, to a publishable standard, in my spare time at home as a secret project. I decided to include Tracy’s amazing recipe in the one-shot for other people to bake and use as one of the 4 new magical items in this one-shot.”

While coming up with ideas make this adventure more festive, Emily invented “Naughty or Nice” Mechanics.

“These will reveal the players’ true nature and give players some very real consequences for their actions. Don’t get me wrong these aren’t there to simply punish “naughty” behaviour or reward “nice” behaviour, but rather to give the players a world that responds to their roleplaying choices and makes it more fun to lean into your character’s chosen morality or lack there of.”

“When I finally showed it to the HaTD Team, everybody was blown away and wanted to get behind it! I was over the moon of course.”

Alek (art.of.caustic) our long time friend and artist, even created some artwork for it.

“I’m so excited to run this for my family and watch their faces light up when I make the big reveal.”

We really hope you all have an amazing Christmas/Holiday Season whatever you choose to celebrate.

We know we will 😉

Full description for The Wandering Tavern below:

The Wandering Tavern is a 200+ page travellers’ guide to an expansive Studio Ghibli inspired floating TTRPG setting. Explore this immense soaring city with 15 battle maps that detail its every nook and cranny. Delve deep into the devious underbelly of the Tavern while getting to know its wide range of unique NPC patrons and staff. The Wandering Tavern’s dark mysteries and entangled truths are yours to unlock. While traversing this vast metropolis use remarkable magical items to protect yourself from the twisted Spirits stalking the halls. However, if you have to escape, you can glide through uncharted skies on never-before-seen Zephyrs, constructed from a plethora of brand-new Parts and Stations.

This is a system agnostic floating TTRPG setting with optional D&D 5e stats included. It’s packed full of plot hooks, mysteries, threats, and everything you need for a campaign. However, if you already have an established world/setting, The Wandering Tavern is the perfect pit stop for your Players to visit, take a load off, and delve into a whole new sort of adventure.  

This content is 100% Human created with absolutely NO A.I. involvement.

24 sample pages of The Wandering Tavern draft (unedited)

 

Expansive Battle Maps filled with Key Locations

We have deconstructed this humongous drifting city into 15 giant battle maps. These stunning maps detail The Wandering Tavern in its entirety. They not only act as a perfect visualization tool for your table but your Players can enter combat on any floor, hallway, or secret room they wish.

Each Key Location on these maps is fleshed out with in-depth descriptions, deep lore, and a purpose. Many of the locations have Plot Hooks that a GM can use as inspiration for incredible side-quests or as fuel for dark mysteries to solve and unravel. Every time a Player enters a Key Location there are always a host of possibilities for fun, roleplay, and plot progression. There is so much to discover! Just ensure you don’t lose your way, because the Spirits will come for you…

New NPCs

The Wandering Tavern is home to a myriad of extraordinary characters. There is never a dull day with strange and curious folk gambling, partying, trading, and roaming. From imperfect secret love stories to quiet rivalries, the patrons and staff are in some way all interconnected. Each character comes with a full description, backstory, personality, and room for growth/development. 

For those characters/creatures you may skirmish against in a dark alleyway, or those who may be persuaded to join your cause on the battlefield, there are full D&D 5e stat blocks.

Plot Hooks

Littered throughout the streets, and held on the lips of the patrons and staff, are a host of interwoven intriguing plot hooks. Some of these hooks lead to dark forgotten secrets, youthful rebellions, and black market empires, while others focus on petty personal rivalries, forbidden love, and twisted histories. You will never run out of curious tales to tell, deep conversations to have, and wondrous mysteries to unlock.

Plug and Play Zephyrs

This gargantuan setting comes with 5 never-before-seen Zephyrs (Airships). These include tiny Mafia owned fighters, massive cargo vessels, and home-style Zephyrs used by nomads to cross the turbulent skies. Unlock even more storytelling possibilities by using these Zephyrs for sky battles around The Wandering Tavern, epic chases to escape the ruthless Claw Militia, and protection from deadly creature attacks.

These Zephyrs have full D&D 5e stat blocks and function using the HaTD Sky Zephyrs vehicle movement and combat system. To ensure you can get started on your very own wondrous sky adventures using our Zephyrs, we have included our Sky Zephyr Quickstart Guide! 

We have also deconstructed these 5 Zephyrs which consist of 50 brand new Parts and Stations that you can use to custom build your dream Zephyrs. There are wild new abilities and actions to spice up Zephyr combat and take your flights to new heights. These Parts will also be made available in the HaTDBuilder for those who back The Wandering Tavern.

Spirits and Their Mechanics

When the sun sets on The Wandering Tavern and the street lanterns ignite, Spirits pour out of the shadows. These Spirits fill halls and the streets. Some search for friendship and pleasant conversations, while others just want to inflict grievous damage upon anyone without a Spirit Ward. Within this travellers’ guide you will find information and mechanics on the various types of Spirits you may encounter, how they came into existence, methods to protect yourself, and some example Spirits to help get GMs started. So keep your Spirit Wards close, and whatever you do, don’t die anywhere near the Stone Of Remembrance, for if you do, you will suffer the same fate as these unfortunate Spirits.

Additional Content Included

Magical Items: We have provided a plethora of Magical Items to populate adventures on The Wandering Tavern. There is everything one could need, from mechanical backpacks with wings that allow you to soar effortlessly from place to place, to magic masks that help you to commune with the Tavern’s Spirits. Many of these Magical Items tie into the various Plot Hooks, Key Locations, and NPCs. Players can organically find the items or they can hunt them down in the name of a quest. 
All the items come with descriptions and D&D 5e Stats. 

Downtime Games: The Godspeed Gaming Hall gives players a chance to take a load off and try their hand/paw/claw at gambling on a few of the most popular games. If you’re an archery fanatic, Lucky Shot may be the game for you, or for something that requires a bit more deception and deduction, give Fifties a go. Either way, these games are the perfect outlet for Players to pass their Downtime on The Wandering Tavern.

Recipes from a Top Rated Chef: There are numerous bars and restaurants serving food aboard The Wandering Tavern with scrumptious menus for patrons and tavern dwellers to enjoy … If they have the coin, that is. To help bring this world to life, we have included a collection of delicious recipes that exist on The Wandering Tavern. All of these delectable dishes come from the mind of Tracy the HaTD mum who is a top rated professional chef. 
Tracy has cooked for the likes of Presidents, Film Stars, Religious Leaders, and Influential Families all across the world.
These succulent recipes can all be eaten around the D&D table. The dishes range from mouth-watering snacks to delightful feasts. So, tuck into and fill up on the amazing dishes straight from The Wandering Tavern.

Illicit Goods/Substances: No floating city would be complete without a dark and dangerous black market underbelly. Within The Wandering Tavern, there are marvellous Illicit Goods that may be found, traded between Tavern Dwellers, or quietly auctioned off to rich and powerful patrons. Additionally, we have included a number of mind-altering Illicit Substances (included are trigger and sensitivity warnings). Each one comes with mechanics to allow Players to experiment with as much or as little as they would like. (These do not need to be included and can be fully excluded if a table doesn’t want to or doesn’t feel comfortable using this content)

Workforce Insignias

We also have logos/insignias for the various workforces aboard The Wandering Tavern.

 

This product also contains content from two of the stretch goals from The Wandering Tavern Kickstarter:

Our backers and discord community voted on their favourite vehicle part ideas they wanted to see made as well as voting their top 10 favourite NPCs from the book for us do vocal samples on. (The NPC results ended up with a tie so we voiced 12 instead)

HOMIEandTheDUDE have been hard at work creating the HaTDBuilder, a modular vehicle stat block generator. This builder allows users to create their dream Zephyrs (Airships) from a huge selection of Parts and Stations. It then provides a full Sky Zephyrs D&D 5e compatible stat block for your custom Zephyr.

Become a master vehicle builder as you can take control of how large your Zephyr is, what weapons/Confrontation Stations are at your disposal, and what sort of Utility Stations you want aboard. Make sure to choose carefully when selecting between Foundation and Propulsion Parts so that your Zephyr has the exact look, feel, and functions you desire.

Save your creations to your PC and export the full Zephyr stat block and an in-game construction bill!

The HaTDBuilder is still in its early stages with (NOW 250+) Parts and Stations to choose from. But fear not, for more Parts and Stations are being added all the time, giving you many more unique combinations to choose from. Currently, the website is focused on Airships, however, Submarines, Land Vehicles, and Spaceships are all on the horizon.

So, DON’T MISS OUT on this vehicle revolution for your D&D table!!