A Black Dog Tavern retrospective
The fire crackles low in the hearth, the kind that throws sparks like sprites before they vanish into the dark.
My boots are steaming dry by the flames, cloak hung heavy with the long miles of road, and the first mouthful of Black Dog ale is settling into my belly. This seems as good a time as any to tell the tale of how far we’ve come, and where this curious road may lead.
A private place, shared with friends.
Not that long ago, the Black Dog Tavern was just a workaround for our Alien RPG nights during lockdown, a private corner table in Discord where we kept the dice rolling. What began as necessity slowly became a permanent home for everything we love about tabletop roleplaying.
There was no sign on the door, no roaring crowd, just the spark of something we thought might grow.
There were a few issues on the way, not least of all the week that it took us to work out how to move players between maps on Roll20. We brought new travelers in, we endured the eternal Foundry vs. Roll20 debates, but most of all, we span tall tales, fought dragons (and Space Dragons), and have completed hundreds of games, campaigns, and one-shots.
And now, a Discord hall that bustles, a website hung with lanterns, a SubStack to carry our tales beyond the walls, and the first mugs poured to welcome travelers new and old.
The Tavern Grows
We’ve been building in layers:
The Discord server has taken shape like the rooms of a growing inn. A community space, Game Boards, an events calendar, a scriptorium for our own fiction, blogs, and a channel dedicated for in game bloopers. Some rooms are loud with chatter, others quiet and candlelit.
The Website (blackdogtavern.co.uk) has become our noticeboard, a place where stories, opinion and tools are hammered into shape and pinned for passersby to take on the road.
The SubStack (https://blackdogtavern.substack.com/)is relatively new, our bard’s corner where long reflections, essays, and tales can wander further afield.
The Community itself. This is our living heart. A tavern is only walls and smoke without the folk and stories who fill it, shaping stories together.
What We’ve Learned Along the Road
Like anyone who takes their first steps on an adventure, it hasn’t all been clear skies. Nothing like facing a Mind Flayer in the Underdark, but, we’ve tripped over our share of roots: tangled category tags, stubborn CSS formatting, the eternal mystery of “why won’t these boxes align properly?” shouted at the ceiling at 3 in the morning. But with each stumble came a laugh, and a new tool sharpened for the road ahead.
We’ve also learned that the spirit of the Tavern is collaboration, creativity, and a little mischief. It’s about handing GMs something useful for tomorrow’s session, but also about telling bigger stories — stories that stretch beyond dice rolls, into why we play and what tales we want to leave behind. The whole purpose of the tavern is to provide a safe haven for those that love tabletop RPGs and those that are maybe curious, just starting out and want to get in on the fun. Where legends begin and stories gather.
Every day is a school day
One of the things I love most about the Tavern is the people.
We’ve got veterans who have been running games for decades, the kind of GMs who can weave a rule into story so smoothly you don’t even notice the dice behind the curtain.
We’ve got rule-goblins, too, who can quote not only the clause that governs your impossible feat but also trace its ancestry back through twenty editions, complete with footnotes. Every party needs one.
Then there’s our resident “blender”, a character crafter who specialises in breaking systems. At one expo game, his creation dealt so much damage in a single strike that the GM had to scoop up every dice on the table to calculate the monster’s suffering. The GM winced. We cheered.
We’ve got a language expert who can tell you the origin of his Goliath’s family motto in ancient Norse, decipher runes for fun, and breeze through puzzles that leave the rest of us scratching our heads.
And of course, the meta-player who can’t resist tinkering under the hood. He writes code in Roll20 on the fly to calculate his rolls instead of clicking the buttons. (Think Cypher from The Matrix: “The image translators work for the construct program.” That’s him.)
And then there are dozens more, each with their own quirks, wit, and wisdom. What binds them all isn’t just their skills, but their generosity of spirit, their willingness to listen, share, and help others find their place at the table. Like any good adventuring party, we blend our strengths and shortcomings until everyone has space in the story. That’s the magic of the Tavern.
As someone who’s been writing, running, and playing games longer than I care to admit, my biggest takeaway is this; the collective wit and wisdom at our tables is unbelievable. So the idea of these posts, musings and opinions is to share that with first time, new or veteran GMs and players. I love this genre, but I am constantly learning, I think that is where the beauty of tabletop RPGs is born. The only limit is your willingness to lean in.
The Road Ahead
So where are we going? The map on the table has a few clear waypoints:
More GM tools and zines. Some free, available from the website or Discord, some maybe destined for DriveThruRPG, when they’re good enough. The aim is to make them practical, playable, and made with love.
Regular essays and blog posts. We’re at the end of a series of “Pop Culture for the GM” posts. Inspiration from some great books and movies that can be used in creating great games and other reflections on the craft of play. A new series for first time GMs has just started and we have some great guest posts coming!
Community events. Writing prompts, polls, maybe even shared adventures where the Tavern regulars leave their mark on future zines.
The road isn’t straight, and there will be forks we don’t see yet. But that’s the joy: like any campaign worth its salt, the story unfolds in play.
Pull Up a Chair
“If you’ve read this far, you’re already one of us. Pull up a chair…”
There’s a seat by the fire, a mug on the table, and room in the story for you. The Black Dog Tavern isn’t just a project, or a server, or a stack of posts — it’s a gathering place. A place for dreamers, schemers, storytellers, and GMs who know the joy of watching the dice tumble and hearing players gasp.
The journey so far has been just the prologue. The real tale begins now.