From: draphsor@medisg.Stanford.EDU (Matt "Rollie" Rollefson) Newsgroups: rec.games.frp Subject: PBeM: Starting a Game Summary: How to start up a PBeM game Keywords: pbem, starting Message-ID: <draphsor.686221479@medisg> Date: 30 Sep 91 09:04:39 GMT Lines: 270

Copyright 1991 by Matt Rollefson; permission is hereby granted to reproduce for private, non profit use provided that this notice is included and the contents are not altered in any way.

[I wrote this sort of addressed to the prospective GM. I'm not sure if this is the most effective way to write the thing - what do you guys think?]

How to Start a PBeM Role-Playing Campaign

The time has come. Maybe there are no other role-players in your area. Maybe you want to continue a campaign after you and all the players have gone off to different colleges. Maybe you just want to try out the PBeM format. Whatever the reason, you’ve decided to start a PBeM role-playing campaign. Before you can actually start playing it and having fun, though, there are a few preliminaries to be taken care of.

Think Twice

The first thing that you should do is honestly evaluate the amount of time you’re going to have to devote to the game. Running a PBeM takes a lot of work, and a lot of time. Beyond the normal chores of fleshing out the campaign world and coming up with interesting adventures, the GM has to be in fairly continuous contact with his players, through e-mail. You should be able to log in at least once a day for a minimum of a half hour to answer messages and keep track of what’s going on. Once a week (or more, depending on your projected turn schedule) you should plan on devoting three to four hours to come up with a move, send it out, and answer any questions that have accumulated over the week. The specifics of your time commitment may vary depending on your style of play, but this is the order of magnitude.

You should take the time to get to know the computer you are working on and its operating system well enough to be able to use it with confidence. If you are going to be writing the moves on a personal computer, you should know how to upload the files without losing the formatting. You should have a good handle on how the e-mail system you are going to use works. If your computer skills are lacking, get a local wizard to help you. Time spent learning the system before starting the game is time well spent. It’s a lot easier to learn when there aren’t eight players screaming at you because you lost their
moves.

Finally, you should have at least one adventure and the basics to your world already fleshed out. There is nothing more frustrating for a player than to quickly answer a call for players, then discover that the GM doesn’t even know what’s going to happen. If you’re a great improviser, go ahead. But make sure that you have something for the characters to do, or your game may fail before it starts.

Finding Players

So you still want to do it. The next thing to do is to attempt to find some players. If you have friends who also have accounts and wish to play, there is no problem. You can simply send them mail. If you don’t know anyone on the net yet, then you have to ask the general world for players. As a rule, you’ll get more response than you can handle.

One of the widest distributions available is the USENET newsgroup rec.games.frp. Depending on the hardware you are operating on, there are different ways to post (send a message) to this group. On most U*IX systems, the most straightforward way is through the program Pnews. Simply type Pnews at your shell prompt, and the program will step you
through the posting process. Just remember to type rec.games.frp when it asks for the newsgroup. Also, as a courtesy to the readers of the newsgroup, you should include some useful information in the subject line. For instance, if you were planning on running an AD&D PBeM, your subject might read, "PBeM AD&D campaign - players sought". The basic information that you want to get across is that it’s a PBeM game, what system it’s running under, and what the genre is. All this should be included in the subject line. You can get into more detail in the body of the message.

[Anyone know of any other general distributions that would be suitable? Should I include rec.games.pbm? Mailing lists? etc?]

Now before rushing off and posting to rec.games.frp, some consideration should be given to the body of the message. A general call for players will probably get a lot of response, but if the players don’t know what they’re getting into the game may fold rapidly as the players discover that they’re not interested. To avoid this, a call for players should include several things.

1. The system. Even though it’s already been mentioned in the subject line, the system that you’re going to be running should be made clear here. Any ways in which what you’re going to be running differs from the ‘normal’ rules should be indicated, as well as how great a knowledge of the rules is necessary for a player. PBeM allows the rules to be invisible to the player if the GM is willing to do the work, so it’s quite possible to run a campaign with players who know nothing of the system. This is the place to indicate ‘only experienced AD&D’ers need apply’, or ‘no knowledge of Paranoia is necessary to play in this campaign’.

2. What you want from the players. Some GMs choose to create the characters and hand them out to players. Some GMs want the players to make up the characters. Some campaigns will require only the basic stats of the character to start play. Some will require a full personality sketch and detailed physical description. Your prospective players should know what is to be required of them in terms of character design before they reply to the posting. This should also cut down on the number of replies from players who think playing a PBeM would be sort of neat, but aren’t willing to put much work into it. Asking for a detailed character description will also give the GM more information, thus making it easier to choose between players. After all, an e-mail address doesn’t give much information about the person. Finally, this is a good place to indicate the expected time commitment from each player. Not everyone can log in for an hour every day to answer moves.

3. A teaser for the adventure, or at least some amount of background information. This isn’t strictly necessary if the GM is planning on creating all of the characters and starting the players cold, but it is useful information. It gives the players more information so they can decide if this campaign is going to interest them before they get stuck in the middle of it. Again, this helps avoid headaches on the part of player and GM alike, by making sure that both know what they’re getting into.

4. Your e-mail address. Yes, I know it sounds silly, but people do forget this. Ideally you will be on the internet. If so, your internet address (something like user@foo.bar) should be sufficient information. If you are on bitnet or have a uucp address, try to include instructions for internet users as well as the address of your ‘native’ network. Like it or not, the internet seems to be the emerging standard.

[I'm not real sure about this last part - anyone from 'alternative' networks or with more info willing to let me know the real low-down? I'd like to avoid making this article too parochial, but I'm an internet user, and an edu one at that, so I really don't know much about how bitnet or uucp works, or how the various companies have their networks set up.]

Also, be sure to tell your players to send their e-mail address. While you can normally deduce it from the return path, this is not always true. And players are as forgetful as GMs…

5. A time limit for responses. Usually one or two days will be plenty of time to get ten or more prospective players. If you don’t get enough, just extend the time limit.

Finally, before posting it might be a good idea to read rec.games.frp for a week or so to get a feel for how the newsgroup works. Reading news.new-users is also highly recommended. The main newsreader on U*IX systems is rn. To read rec.games.frp type rn rec.games.frp at your shell prompt. On VMS systems the command is NEWS.

[If anyone can give me the basics of how one would read rec.games.frp under VMS, it would be appreciated. If all else fails, I can probably get on a VMS machine and hack around, but I'd prefer to avoid that at all costs... ]

Choosing Players

You’ve posted an announcement for a new game. You log in, and your mailbox is overflowing with enthusiastic responses. Now, it’s time to whittle it down to a manageable number.

There are several things to consider when selecting players. The first thing to look at is, did the player do everything you asked for in your posting. A player who is serious about playing will give what you ask for. Someone who is not serious will probably just send a message saying ‘yeah, I want to play.’ Normally you’ll want the player who is willing to devote some effort to the game.

After you’ve narrowed it down to the serious players, you’ll want to start thinking about what kinds of characters you want in your campaign. Take a look at what the player has sent you, and try to figure out who will fit in best. Then send a test message to those players, to confirm that you have a working pathway for e-mail between you and them.

If you are absolutely swamped with responses, you might consider simply taking the first n responses to arrive. This is an impartial, ‘fair’ method, but probably not the best method for establishing a good group of players. Another method to consider is setting a definite time limit on responses, and then treating all those that arrive before the deadline equally. Eliminate the players who fail to send all of the information you request. Then select randomly from the remaining players, thus giving players who don’t log in every day a chance to join a game.

Communicating with the Players

Communication is essential in an e-mail game. A feature of most mail programs which will aid you greatly is aliases. An alias allows you to substitute a name which makes sense (for instance, the name of the player or the name of their character) for the often cryptic mailing addresses. If you don’t know how to use this feature, consult a local wizard or, better yet, check the on-line help services.

Always tell the players what is going on. If you are going to be away for a week, or even for a few days, tell the players. The players should also let you know when they will be unavailable for an extended period of time, although it’s not so essential in their case. You can convey this information in individual messages, or in a special administrivia section in each move.

Alternative Forms of Communication

Besides e-mail, there are other ways to communicate between machines. Most of these are only available to users with Internet access.

IRC. This is a program that allows several users to communicate with each other simultaneously, in real time. It may be available on your U*IX system. All players should have access if it is going to be necessary to the game.

Talk. This is a command that lets you communicate in real time with one other user. It is available on most U*IX machines.

Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs). These are programs set up on certain machines which allow anyone to log on using a special port. Once you log on to the program, you manipulate a character. It’s a lot like playing Zork. The difference is other players can be logged on at the same time. You can meet them, talk to them, and (sometimes) fight them. Using MUDs allows simultaneous communication, similar to IRC. You must be able to telnet to the ‘experimental’ ports, though. Again, all players should have access if this method of communication is to be used.

[This section needs major expansion. My experience with IRC is nil, talk is very flaky on my machine, and I've only played with MUDs a little. (I don't want to flunk out of school! ) Anyone have any more info, especially on irc?]

Tell the Players How the Game’s Going to Run

After you’ve confirmed that you have a working path between yourself and all of your players, there are some technical details to be worked out. First, you have to decide if you want to allow direct player to player communication. Depending on your style of play, you may wish to keep your players in complete ignorance. Or, you may want to let them speak to each other, but only in character. Or maybe you don’t care. In any event, you should be sure to make your position clear to your players. If player to player communication is going to be necessary for the game, you should make sure that all of the players are able to reach each other.

The next major question is turn frequency. How often are you going to log in? How frequently are you going to send out moves? How frequently are the players expected to log in? How often do you expect to receive a move from them? The answers to these questions will depend on your style of play and the time you have available. But you should be sure to inform your players.

Finally, you have to tell your players what the turn format is going to be. Do you want long, steam of consciousness moves? Do you want detailed description that you can insert directly into your moves? Do you want them to send their moves to everyone, or just to you? How much time do you want their moves to cover? How are you going to determine sequence of actions? What happens if two players try to do things that are obviously inconsistent? (For instance, one player says he is going to heal the injured orc, and the other player says he is going to kill it.) These are all things that should be determined in advance as much as possible. The next article gives some answers to these questions that have proved effective.

– Draphsor vo’drun-Aelf draphsor@medisg.stanford.edu

From: draphsor@medisg.Stanford.EDU (Matt "Rollie" Rollefson) Newsgroups:
rec.games.frp Subject: PBeM: Introduction Summary: An introduction to the concept of PBeM
gaming. Keywords: pbem, advice Message-ID: <draphsor.686221431@medisg> Date: 30 Sep 91 09:03:51 GMT Lines: 147

Copyright 1991 by Matt Rollefson; permission is hereby granted to reproduce for
private, non profit use provided that this notice is included and the contents are not
altered in any way.

PBeM Role-Playing Games

Introduction

What is a PBeM Role-Playing Game, anyway?

Role-Playing Games (RPGs) have been around for quite some time. So have Play By Mail (PBM) Games. The two have, however, been largely disparate categories. PBM games have tended to the wargaming, intensely tactical and strategic without much emphasis on who is actually doing the fighting. RPGs, as their name implies, emphasize role-playing much more. That is, the players adopt the personalities of their characters and attempt to in some sense put themselves into the world of their characters.

One of the major reasons for this disparity is the different formats. Tactical and strategic simulations are well suited to a written format, with well-defined options and moves. They are, in effect, large boardgames. Role-playing, on the other hand, depends heavily on player to player and player to gamemaster (GM) interaction. This is difficult to accomplish in a format where moves are usually separated by weeks if not months.

The advent of electronic mail, or e-mail, has changed this to some extent. Players and GMs may now exchange messages with a time delay of minutes, rather than days or weeks. Enough information may be exchanged in a short enough period of time to make PBeM role-playing possible. Still, it is a radically different format than face-to- face gaming, and as such requires some special handling.

What’s so special about the PBeM format?

Playing by e-mail offers some unique advantages over face to face gaming. One of the major advantages is the fact that all participants have a written record of what has occured in the game so far. Ideally this should read almost like a novel, with each new installment eagerly awaited by both players and GMs. In some ways participating in a PBeM RPG is a lot like writing an interactive novel. Because players and GM(s) have hours or days, rather than minutes, to respond to moves, there is sufficient time to respond to unexpected developments. The GM is not faced with the classic problem of face to face RPGs - "I designed this great adventure in town X, but my players want to go to town Y! What do I do?" Without the time pressure of face to face gaming, the GM can let the adventure go exactly where the players want it to. Admittedly, there are certain GMs who can pull this off even in face to face gaming. However, it requires a world-knowledge and improvisational skill not every GM has.

The written medium allows dialogue and background to take a prominent place in the game. The GM has sufficient time to develop background information which he provides to the characters. The players also have the time and the incentive to develop interesting backgrounds for their characters. Without someone you can actually see, characters in PBeM can often be rather bland. The player who takes the effort to provide an interesting background, whose character gives witty speeches, who describes his character’s actions in vital prose, this player will produce a character to be remembered. The fighter who does nothing but kill bad guys will be much less noticeable in PBeM. Religious characters especially, often mere healing machines, gain needed depth as they now have the time to truly preach to their comrades.

Conversely, combat and fast action are not well suited to the PBeM format. While speedier than postal delivery, e-mail is still not real time. And with players potentially scattered all over the world, it is unreasonable to expect that everyone will be logged on at the same time. A combat which took eight rounds to complete would probably take about
twenty minutes in a typical face to face game. The same combat, done via e-mail, would take at least four *weeks*, and possibly more. Therefore, combat requires special handling. Ideally it should occur rarely, and when it does it should be short and intense. Emphasis should be placed upon the strengths of the format: description and character interaction, not combat tactics.

Finally, one of the most obvious advantages of the PBeM format is it allows you to play with people who live far away from you. When gamers move, they often have difficulty finding a new group of gaming friends to join. At the very least it takes time to get to know new people. If your old gaming buddies have net access, then you can continue gaming with people you know. Gamers with net access can play even if no one in their area plays. And the net offers the unique opportunity of gaming with players in Finland, Great Britain, the United States, and Australia - all at the same time!

Sounds interesting - what do I need to do to start one?

The first thing to do before joining a PBeM RPG or attempting to start one yourself is to realize pbem is not for everyone. If you live for combat in RPGs, but find description and plot development boring, you’ll probably find the PBeM format uncomfortably restrictive. The PBeM format, from the player’s point of view, is one of intense bursts of action followed by long periods where nothing happens. If you aren’t the type who can pick up a book, put it down, and come back to it, you may find that PBeM can’t hold your interest. Finally, a certain level of writing skill is necessary to make the game interesting for the other people involved. One of the main things that makes a PBeM interesting is being exposed to the writing of others. If your writing is not very well developed, a greater burden is going to be placed on the GM to make your actions interesting.

Running a PBeM is a demanding task. It requires, first of all, a good knowledge of the computer system. If the GM is unable to send mail to his players, he’s going to have a tough time. He should know how to use the mail system well, and should have at least a working knowledge of a text editor on the host machine. He should be prepared to spend several hours each week reading and responding to his players’ moves, in addition to the time spent creating the adventure, detailing the world, and sending out the main moves. He should be organized - there’s nothing worse than a GM who forgets when the next move was due, or loses a player’s move. The players don’t know when to expect responses to their actions. They cease to pay as much attention to the game, resulting in late moves on their part. Eventually the whole thing falls apart because of a simple lack of organization.

Playing in a PBeM isn’t easy either. The player must be prepared to read his mail at least once a day in a typical game. He must develop an interesting, fully fleshed character and learn to express that character’s personality in the written medium. He must write moves and get them in on time. Depending on the exact format the GM adopts, these moves can range from a paragraph to several pages in length. Good players typically write longer moves, giving the GM lots of description and dialogue that he can insert directly into the main move. Moves like "I avoid getting killed" aren’t interesting to the player or the GM - in essence, the player is choosing not to participate.

It may seem from all this that PBeM is too difficult to even attempt. Well, it’s not true. Ordinary mortals can and do run successful PBeM games. Players who have no relation to Zelazny or Brust provide interesting, amusing moves. The mailer doesn’t crash every week. (Well, hopefully…) And you can get a lot out of a PBeM. A well-run PBeM can be as much fun as a well-run RPG. While the skills are somewhat different, the rewards are similar. If you’re still tempted to try one, go for it!

– Draphsor vo’drun-Aelf draphsor@medisg.stanford.edu

—————————————————————
THE COMPLEAT GUIDE TO CHARACTER CREATION
Questions to Aid in Character Design
a.k.a. Four Steps to Better Role-Playing
By Paul Tiseo tiseo.paul@mayo.edu
Reprinted without his permission as taken from rec.games.frp.dnd
—————————————————————-

Disclaimer: Use is made of the male pronoun only insofar as it minimizes my typing. I do not mean to offend any PC who is a member of the female sex. Heck, I don’t even want to offend hermaphrodite races too!

This text was written in order to help anyone, DM or player, who is having difficulty fleshing a character get over any writer’s block the might be experiencing. Also, it help more weathered RPGers flesh out their character in ways they might not have yet had addressed. Simply follow through the questions and write down short answers. Then take the answers and compose your history/ personality text for your PC/NPC sheet.

1a. Early History/Family Milieu/Childhood Environment:

1. Exactly where and when was your character born? Under what circumstances? Was he wanted? Was he adopted
2. Who raised him? How did he live? What was his quality of living/standards?
3. What was happening in the region while he was growing up? Any marking events?
4. Does he have any immediate relatives? If so, how did he get along with them? What are they doing now? How many sisters or brothers does he have? What of their names? Where are they now? What are they doing?
5. Any marking events in his family’s history? Fortunes made or lost? Migrations? Lost members? Found members? Deaths? Births? Crimes? Great acts of philantropy?
6. Is he well-educated? Where and under who did he study?

1b. Recent History/Entry into Adulthood:

1. Where is he living now? Is he patriotic about his current locale? How is he living? What are his living conditions? How does it affect him?
2. Who are his close friends? Why? How did they become close friends? Does he currently have a love or exclusive relation of some sort? Who is this special person?
3. Who does he deal with on a frequent basis? Why?
4. Does he have anyone who dislikes him? Is each person currently acting on it, or just passive about it? Why does he dislike him?
5. Does he have any enemies with deep-seated hatreds? Blood feuds Vendettas? Why? How are they acting out this hatred in relation to him?
6. Any marking events in his recent past? Did he commit a crime? Any acts of great philantropy/heroism?

2. Motivation:

1. What are your character’s immediate goals in the next year? What does he want out of life at the moment?
2. What are his long-term goals, in the next five, ten or twenty years? What does he want out of life in the long run? Fame? Fortune? Family? Land? Enemies crushed? Nothing?
3. What type of person, briefly, would be his ideal mate?
4. Who is his patron deity? Is he a devout worshiper?
5. Is he a member of any nonreligious/secular cause? (i.e., is he a loyal servant of a king, baron, organization, etc.)
6. Is there any race, creed, alignment, religion or the like which he cannot stand? Does he fight against it?
7. What is his greatest fear?
8. What is his greatest hope?
9. What is the one task he absolutely refuses to do?

3. Idiosyncrasies/Character:

1. What is your character’s motto or favorite saying?
2. What is his favorite color?
3. Describe what he would wear if money were no object. What does he usually dress like?
4. What is his favorite food? His favorite drink?
5. What is his favorite animal?
6. What habits of his friends annoy him most?
7. What are his pet peeves, if any?
8. Does he have any mannerisms?
9. Does he have any distinguishing marks?

4. Personality Traits (a.k.a Virutes and Vices):

Use of the concept herein will thankfully make the alignment system useless. With personality traits well-defined, alignment becomes extraneous as a guide to role-playing your PC. Alignment was designed as a quick and dirty system for explaining a character’s behavior, but inherent in the system are limits that do not make for very "realistic" and "3-dimensional" characters.

Pick traits that you see your character possesing and rank them in their tendency to dominate in the character’s personality as indicated just below. For example, the most freqent traits in an Arthurian, Good-type character would be the Positive traits, with maybe a couple of negativ traits here and there. (hey, nobody’s perfect!) It’s up to you to "paint" your character with the traits, thus one should not necessarily impose a limit on the number of traits to use. Think about the following aspects of a character’s personality: his outlook, his openess, his emotionality, his self-esteem, his sense of humor, his sociability, his mannersisms, his political inclinations, his sense of ambition, his attitudes, etc.

Always: Frequently: Genrally: Occasionally: Never:

Hereafter are listed the list of traits and behaviors to pick from. Note, Negative, Neutral or Positive traits are not necessarily Evil, Neutral or Good, respectively, in the AD&D sense of the alignment system. For example, being obedient to an Evil lord would make you evil, in a sense, since you will execute his draconic orders which in turn forces you towards evil acts. Obedience is a neutral trait, but the character could still be considered LE in terms of "official" AD&D. Some of the negative traits are simply traits not desirable, while others are perhaps closer to what could pass as a common idea of Evil. Also, the classification is not hard and fast and is somewhat personally biased. Societal values, whether ours or in the game setting, would be a strong influence on whether something is negative or positive. For example, Adultery could be else than negative in some settings where marriage isn’t an institution like in our world. Well, enough disclaimers.

Positive: Accepting, Affable, Altruistic, Ascetic, Austere, Benevolent, Careful, Cheerful, Chivalrous, Clean, Comfortable, Compassionate, Congenial, Conscientious, Considerate, Courteous, Creative, Dapper, Dignified, Eager, Earnest, Educated, Enlightened, Enthusiastic, Forgiving, Friendly, Gallant, Generous, Genial, Gentle, Giving, Goodhumored, Graceful, Gracious, Handsome, Happy, Helpful, Honest, Knowledgeable, Lively, Mannerly, Mellifluous, Neat, Optimistic, Outgoing, Paragon, Patient, Peaceble, Perseverant, Philantropic, Pious, Polite, Pretty, Provident, Quaint, Reliable, Resolute, Respectful, Sociable, Tranquil, Trustworthy, Unselfish, Valorous, Vivacious, Well-read, Wise

Neutral: Accurate, Ambitious, Anarchistic, Anticipative Aristocratic, Bold, Calm, Candid, Celibate, Charismatic, Chaste, Competant, Concilliatory, Contemplative, Cunning, Curious, Dainty, Daring, Demonstrative, Diplomatic, Discerning, Dogmatic, Dreamer, Eccentric, Efficient, Eventempered, Fair, Faltering, Fascinating, Fearless, Frank, Honorable, Humble, Impartial, Inquisitive, Instinctual, Intelligent, Just, Keen, Lawful, Lawless, Liberal, Loyal, Meticulous, Modest, Mollifying, Moral, Non-conformist, Obedient, Obscure, Obtuse, Odd Ostentatious, Passionate, Perfectionist, Phlegmatic, Prideful, Prudent, Rational, Righteous, Scheming, Shrewd, Sober, Solitary, Straightforward, Virginal, Zealous

Negative: Absentminded, Abusive, Addictive, Adultering, Agressive, Aloof, Antagonistic, Apathetic, Arrogant, Barbarous, Bigoted, Bitter, Boisterous, Boorish, Boring, Bullying, Callous, Capricious, Careless, Caustic, Cheating, Clumsy, Compliant, Conceited, Condescending, Confusing, Conniving, Contradictory, Controlling, Corrupt, Covetous, Coward, Crazed Criminal, Cruel, Cynical, Dark, Deceptive, Deformed, Delinquent, Depressive, Derogatory, Despondent Destructive, Dictatorial, Difficult, Disdainful, Disfigured, Dishonest, Disorderly, Disturbed, Drunken, Dull, Envious, Erratic, Exasperating, Foolish, Frivolous, Gluttonous, Greedy, Haughty, Haunted, Imbecile, Immature, Immoral, Impatient, Impetuous, Incompetant, Incorrigeable, Indifferent, Insensitive, Insidious, Insolent, Irritating, Kleptomaniac, Lazy, Lustful, Malevolent, Manic, Manipulative, Megalomaniac, Merciless, Messy, Moody, Naive, Neglectful, Obstinate, Perverted, Plotting, Reluctant, Resignation, Reticent, Rude, Ruffian, Ruthless, Self-serving, Severe, Shallow, Shy, Sinister, Sly, Sniveling, Stubborn, Stupid, Submissive, Surly, Savage, Traitorous, Ugly, Uncertain, Unclean, Undecisive, Vainglorious, Vapid, Violent, Weak-willed, Wicked

Here is a collection of tavern and bar names from different people. These were collected from the rec.games.frp.dnd newsgroup.

klipka@ford.com

Here are some from my games:

The Blind Basilisk (created by a pair of PCs)
The Bullseye Tavern (run by retired ranger)
The Open Book (caters to sages, students, etc.)
The Wild Chessman (run by a wild mage)
The Dragon’s Hoarde (’cause that what it costs to stay there)
The Golden Stool (a barstool is plated in gold - the owner’s best
customer always sat there before he died)
The Flame (name of a real bar in Ann Arbor, MI)
The Greasy Squeal (created by a fellow DM)
The Whistling Pig
The Happy Hooker (caters to fishermen)
The Trough (serves BIG drinks)

From: lawrence@netuser.com (SL Nyveen)

Here are some in my world:

Grobo’s Grotto
The Nanny’s Arms
Spend the Knight Inn
The Wig and Thistle
The Fig and Gristle
The Woolystonecrafters Inn (homage to MWShelley - the locals carve pillow lava)
Seabreeze Inn (I can’t keep up with myself sometimes…)
The Broken Kender Arms (with good reason…)
The Drunken Cow
Hearthstone Arms
Hillshire Farm
We’re Not Hostel
Farlanghn’s Rest (after the Greyhawk god who exists in my pantheon)
The Grumbling Dwarf
The Sleepiing Demon
The Lonely Haystack
The Wistful Wyvern

and my absolute #1 inn name… The Victorious Egret (get it?)

From: cdershem@netcom.com (Carl Dershem)

The Strangled Cat
Bunch o’ Grapes ( an old traditional name)
The Kraken (near the waterfront, of course)
Sign of the Sign (the sign out front has a recursive painting of a sign on a sign on a sign…)
The Black Hole
Halflings’ Revenge
The Ent Tent
and, of course, Valabar’s

From: jwc3@Lehigh.EDU

Well, I don’t have a lot of them, but some that seem to have been of interest in my campaigns are the following:

The Slugfest — owned and operated by a h-ogre by the name of Brok. Located in the city of Waterdeep, prone to quite a few fights!
Wolf’s Den(cliche), Dragon’s Lair(again, surely cliche), Chipped Chalice, the Alicorn(a friends)
Knyte Lyfe — owned and operated by Daemon Knyte. Bar/gambling den.
World’s End Inn — name had a campaign connection. Located in the city of Sigil, Planescape.

From: anndavis@nando.net (anndavis)

The Happy Harpy Tavern
Turkey Cove Sleep and Eat
The Fox Hole
Horwrath’s Haven
Clan of the White Wind
Thurston’s Brass Tankard
Cinna’s Bar (A joke this one - my cat is named Cinnabar.)
Ice Dragon House
Divine Delights (This is also a temple to the god of wine and good fun.)
Short Neck Clam Town Inn and Tavern (Let me tell you this story, please!)

and my favorite… The Baalzebub Pub

There was also a tavern in the Ravenloft: Strahd’s Possession computer game. It was called “Blood of the Vine.” I REALLY like that one.

I lost the person’s name who wrote this

The Old Pink Dog (named for the one surviving artifact of my infancy)
Ram’s Lord’s Tavern
Frog and Peach (Moore and Cook)
Frog and Duck
The Cloven Hoof
The Dirty Dog
The Blue Duck (Sim)
Dog and Thrush
The Rampant Dragon
The Weigh Inn
The Mermaid’s Smile
The Silver Axe
Kraun’s
The Rampaging Rabbit
The Pleasure Palace
The Silver Oak Inn
The Orange Ogre
The Tower Tavern
Haudhla’s
Gory’s Tavern
The Boar’s Chase
The Knight’s Tournament
The Helix
Geezul’s Place
The Stinking Cow
The Prancing Pony
The Green Dragon
Ivy Bush
Golden Perch
The Cat and Mouse (from The Village?)

From: Creature from the Deep (michael.scannell@nokia.ntc.com)

Here’s my input to the list :

The Heart of Oak
The Thieve’s Knot
The Murdered Priest
and my all time fave The Crossed Daggers (a notorious dive in the City of Badwall, frequented by brigands, guttersnipes, beggars, cost accountants, and other such riff-raff and ne’er-do-wells).

From: gemjmd@kodak.com (Scooby)
Recently I found this on my hard drive at home. It is a list created by
Jay Charney(JJC11@psuvm.psu.edu). Thanks Jay (if your still around)

201 names:

( 1) The Blind Basilisk
( 2) The Wild Chessman
( 3) Swashbuckler’s Luck
( 4) Inn of Clowns
( 5) The Wizard’s Tower
( 6) The Golden Stool
( 7) The Snake Pit
( The Golden Chain
( 9) Inn of Rose Gem
( 10) The Iron Fist
( 11) The Wild Lobotomist
( 12) Inn of Forsaken Souls
( 13) The Wandering Mistrel
( 14) The Yawing Portal
( 15) The Black Pearl (near the ocean)
( 16) The Shining Gem
( 17) The Buxom Wench
( 18) The Golden Lady
( 19) Dragon’s Spittoon (must have black dragon head spittoon inside)
( 20) The Toss-It-Back (patrons throw mugs back at bartenders, who have gloves of missile catching)
( 21) Slade’s (yeah boring name, but you have to meet the owner…)
( 22) The Razorback Inn
( 23) The Black Swan
( 24) The Lotus (high nobility only, “escort services” encouraged)
( 25) The Inn of the Lonely Wanderer
( 26) The Harpy’s Hideaway (those of you who IRC may have been here…)
( 27) The Golden Gryphon
( 28) The Boar’s Bristles
( 29) Derrin’s Divine Brews
( 30) The Inn (yes, the only inn in town)
( 31) The Broken Fist
( 32) The Golden Dragon Inn (I a world without dragons)
( 33) Sword’s Sleep
( 34) The Half-way Inn
( 35) The Black Boar
( 36) The Mended Drum
( 37) The Gaff and Slasher
( 38) The Quene’s Hed
( 39) The Inn of the Great Arm
( 40) The Inn of the Well Worn Wench
( 41) Feetal’s Gizzard
( 42) Stumpy Bob’s House of Beer
( 43) Six Flags over Mead
( 44) Here’s Sin in Your Eye
( 45) The Horny Halfling (Gnome Bowling on Tuesday Nights!)
( 46) The Rolling Meadows
( 47) The Dustbin of Death
( 48) The Dirty Laundry
( 49) Friends of the Queen (outdoor sign has winking eye..)
( 50) Looter’s (with barmaids that are theives)
( 51) Site of the Harvest
( 52) Kibbles n’ Bits’ Inn
( 53) Happy Saturday’s
( 54) The Crow’s Nest
( 55) The Cat’s Claw Inn
( 56) Crippled Griffon
( 57) Splintered Ego Tavern
( 58) The Full Moon Tavern
( 59) Boar’s Rest
( 60) Boar’s Head Inn
( 61) Kettles Inn
( 62) Orcs Head Inn
( 63) The Full Tankard
( 64) The Gray Wizard
( 65) The Old Lantern
( 66) The Pot Belly
( 67) The Behir and the Beholder
( 68) The Nag’s Head
( 69) The King’s Coin
( 70) The Fox and Hound
( 71) The Woolpack (or Wolfpack, if you prefer)
( 72) Blood of the Vine
( 73) The Cock and Hen
( 74) The Horn and Hounds
( 75) The Fox’s Tail
( 76) The Drunken Sailor
( 77) The One-legged man
( 78) The Pipe and Tabac
( 79) The Flaming Snake
( 80) The Wolfhound
( 81) The Sign of the Jester
( 82) The Boil and Youth
( 83) The Jade Terrorist
( 84) The Puzzle and Egg
( 85) The Adulteress’ Lookout
( 86) The Monk and Eggplant
( 87) The Yellow Necromancer
( 88) The Lascivious Fairy
( 89) The Licked Monk
( 90) The Sahuagen and Lady
( 91) The Violet Vein
( 92) The Sign of the Golden Orange
( 93) The Spread-eagled Bugbear
( 94) The Maggot’s Rest
( 95) Old Rubin’s
( 96) The Diarrhoetic Warrior
( 97) Laurence’s Mug-house
( 98) Quincy’s
( 99) The Banjo and Zigzag
(100) The Ranger’s Lookout
(101) The Sign of the Talon
(102) The Thug and Succubus
(103) The Fawning Orc
(104) Old Grant’s Ale-house
(105) The Master and Aubergine
(106) The Voluptuous Elf
(107) The Virgin and Nightmare
(108) Vincent’s Gin-palace
(109) The Chicken’s Rest
(110) The Lecherous Virgin
(111) The Plastered Imbecile
(112) The Satyr and Stiletto
(113) The Whisper and Boil
(114) The Emetic and Rhinoceros
(115) The Basque and Feijoa
(116) The Sign of the Cringing Eunuch
(117) The Organ and Poinsettia
(118) The Khaki Garter
(119) The Squalid Claw
(120) Ales ‘n Beds ( said very quickly )
(121) Rock Rock Rock (a dwarven run beer tavern … loses meaning in translation to common)
(122) The Broken Drum ( Can’t be beat (courtesy of Terry Pratchett)
(123) The Bent Elbows
(124) The Hobbit’s Armpit (A continental chain)
(125) The Chicken’s Crotch
(126) The Joker’s Maniacal Frogleg and Nosewart Cafe
(127) Joe’s
(128) The Dragon’s Breath
(129) Musty Moldan’s Mighty Morsals
(130) The Bowl’s Rim
(131) The Giant’s Nose
(132) The Svirfneblin’s Ear
(133) The King’s Rest
(134) The Wayfarer’s Lay
(135) The Singing Boar
(136) The Wine of Heaven
(137) The Roamer’s Pillow
(138) Bob’s place
(139) Inn of the Northern Road
(140) The Inn of Eastern Delights
(141) The Fisherman’s Friend
(142) The Only Port in a Storm Inn
(143) Last Port Tavern
(144) Tavern on the Edge (Oasis)
(145) The Thirsty Whale
(146) The Puking Unicorn
(147) The Green Griffon
(148) The Golden Schooner
(149) The Wayfarer’s Home
(150) The Ruby Blade
(151) Sea Barrel
(152) The Red Lantern
(153) The Hammer, Anvil, and Stirrup
(154) The Octopus Club
(155) The Thunderbird Club
(156) Eye of the Specter
(157) Foresthome Rest
(158) The Frosty Mug
(159) The Raging Flea (whatever…)
(160) The Drunken Boar
(161) Crossed Swords
(162) The Two Halfling’s Inn (The Whole Inn)
(163) Days End Inn
(164) The Imps intestine
(165) The Wanton Wench
(166) Strange Brew
(167) The Rain Song
(168) Erics Erotic Dancers (a real dive full of perverts)
(169) The Succubus (bar and brothel)
(170) Trog Scent Tavern (not a nice place)
(171) The Efreeti’s Wish
(172) The White Tree
(173) The White hand
(174) Aerie of the Eagles
(175) Citadel
(176) The Dirty Dwarf
(177) Karnov’s Pub (Character in one of my games)
(178) The Bag and Flagon
(179) The Sexist Pig
(180) The Tavern of Ever-full Jugs
(181) Momma’s (actually a franchise)
(182) The Stinking Boar Inn (the place for assassins, thieves and all dirty stuff)
(183) The Pink Dragon (gay bar)
(184) The Noisy Bed Inn (a motel)
(185) The Mousehole (really filthy place)
(186) Battle Axe Inn
(187) The Horn and Haunch
(188) Pink Lady Inn
(189) The Lions Den
(190) The Labyrinth
(191) The Gnoll’s Belly
(192) The Gelded Ranger
(193) The Manicured Mouse
(194) Inn of the Highlighted Eye
(195) The Ruby Lips
(196) The Perfumed ‘Possum
(197) The Three Gables
(198) The Two-Fingered Troll
(199) The Frozen Axe
(200) The Broken Cane
(201) The Olde Fox Decieved (courtesy of Martha Grimes)

From: jimbo@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu (James Joseph Cook)

Several more for your perusal:

The Tipsy Tarrasque
The Candi Bar (another fine erotic entertainment center)
The Rotgut Room
The Cesspit
Inter-planar (or Inter-planetary, depending on the system) House of Spam
The Barf Bag
Rasvi & Vijay’s Stop and Eat
The Lips & A++holes Tavern (best home made sausages in Lankhmar)
The Shot in the Dark
The Knife in the Back
The Only Bar in the Multiverse Without a Conveinient Back Door
The Old Man and the Smee (a pirate bar)
Isle of Lesbos Cafe (soon to be renamed by the Greek government)
Fat Jack’s Blues & Grub (famous dinner club in Ankh-Morpork)
The Honest Barrister (very few establishments in this chain)