Kickstarter Preview: Find your Game with TAVRN!
By: Mithrandiel
We know: you're itching to play some more D&D, or Pathfinder, or something like that...but getting a group together for D&D can be a herculean task in and of itself! While there may be plenty of forums and digital spaces to create D&D games, Caleb Hager is hoping to revolutionize the way people connect for TTRPGs with his upcoming Kickstarter for TAVRN.
Caleb was kind enough to answer some questions for us so we could shine a light on this promising project. Take a look!
To start - what's the elevator pitch for Tavrn? What is this system?
Tavrn is a TTRPG social media app to find friends and form groups based on how you want to play the games you love. We are trying to make a platform for the nerdy, eccentric, enthusiastic community we love. Tabletop Roleplaying is an amazing hobby, so we wanted to make it easier for new players to get involved and more fun for the veterans to play the games they already love.
Tell us a little bit about your personal background and how that plays into your idea for Tavrn.
At my heart I’m a storyteller and I always have been. I’ve been writing since I can remember, I published a novel when I was 9 (it’s not good), I got into acting because I loved the performance element of storytelling. So when I started playing D&D originally, I totally fell in love. To not only tell a story, but to tell an adaptive story alongside people you love is a truly amazing thing, and it becomes so immediately personal in a way anyone who has played will know. Even if you hate roleplay and are purely wargaming, you are still telling a story in every combat.
I was lucky enough to have a family as nerdy as I am to play with, but a lot of people are looking in through the glass without the opportunity or people to play with. As amazing and passionate as the TTRPG community can be, it can also be very unapproachable. When I really love something I want to share it with others, so that was kind of the heart behind my decision to start Tavrn. I want to help other people get involved and help them tell good stories.
There have been a number of virtual systems that have spun up or expanded during the COVID era, what do you think sets Tavrn apart? What opportunity is it addressing?
A lot of these amazing new tools provide great resources for playing together, live virtual tabletops, voice and video chat, and a bunch of other cool mechanics. Some of these also have the ability to look for groups to play with, but what I’ve noticed is that most “Looking For Game” forums like this all have the same format involving a list of games to scroll through and find one that sounds interesting. You can probably filter by game system, but at its heart it’s a forum. We have a really big focus on matching people based on their playstyle so they can find people they like and start games they know they will have a good time in. Each player fills out their play preferences, their favorite games, what they expect out of a session, and what they love most about tabletop roleplaying. So while you are being matched with someone or searching through people who match your playstyle, expectations have already been set. Tavrn is kind of like a universal session 0. While we hope to add some play together features with our stretch goals, we think this focus on understanding the stories we each want to tell will create better games and much more opportunity for the community to grow.
The preview images showcase a variety of "settings" players can choose, from 'Serious' to 'Shenanigans', as well as preferences on combat vs roleplay etc. What other distinctions and data will you be collecting from players to try and promote more community and play in the TTRPG space?
That is a part of profile creation. In addition to your favorite games and GM/Player preference, we’ll have a number of sliders, almost like a personality test, to help place your playstyle. The current options are: Roleplay vs Combat, Serious vs Shenanigans, Story-Based vs Episodic, Character Development vs Murder Hobo, In-Person vs Online Play, Good vs Evil, Homebrew vs Published, and Rules as Written vs Rules as Intended. We understand that many of those aren’t mutually exclusive, so you can also select whether you love both or are ambivalent. We made a mockup of the profile page, so when the Kickstarter campaign goes live we’ll have a section on our website where people can fill out their own play preferences and define their playstyle.
Our goal with this system is to help people find players that want to tell the same kinds of stories they do. At Tavrn we don’t believe there is a wrong way to tell stories, but the example I always give is that if you are coming into a game hoping to be a fantasy hero riding the winds of fate, but your GM is running a grimdark world where everything is trying to beat you down, you might not get the type of escapism you were hoping for. That GM could be running an amazing game with a great story, but if it doesn’t match your expectations, you’re not gonna have a great time.
You're launching a Kickstarter campaign soon, what are some things you took into consideration when putting the campaign together, and what can you tell us about some of the other talent involved in this project?
When building the campaign I kinda just wanted to make it clear that the point of this project is fun. I love love love tabletop roleplaying and that’s the only reason I’m doing this. I’ve stayed up until 2am finishing a climactic battle, I took a weekend and built a table with a TV in the middle for battlemaps, I’ve spent thousands of hours in my notebooks building worlds. I see how popular D&D and other games are becoming lately, I see people one the edge who want to play but have no one to play with, I hear the horror stories of games gone wrong, and I felt like I could make something that could help, so I wanted to give it a shot.
We want to grow with the community and adjust to its needs to become something that lets people have fun together. And I guess that’s what I wanted to emphasize most when we were making the project. That’s why one of the Kickstarter rewards is a TTRPG system we’re going to make based on backer suggestions. Like we were thinking about doing a social media themed one with classes like ‘Influencer’ or ‘Pet Instagram’, but well work in whatever suggestions backers throw at us. It’s never going to be run at something like Adventurer’s League, but it’ll be a fun way for us to say a very sincere thank you.
As far as talent, we’ve been really blessed to have some amazing people helping us out. For the primary development phase we are partnering with Crowdbotics. They are world class designers who have shown so much experience and passion for the project throughout the extended predevelopment. Our project manager ran a gaming store for 15 years and still goes to every major gaming convention. The whole team at Crowdbotics is really excited about Tavrn and that was very important to us. I’ve also been working with Brannon Zahand, who is a head of accessibility in gaming over at Microsoft. He is an unbelievably nice guy who spends all of his time and heart helping make games more accessible to people with disabilities. I understand that tabletop roleplaying is very big with the differently abled community for its ability to provide escapism and surpass your own limitations, so I wanted to make sure we were doing everything we could to be accessible to that demographic. Brannon has been a huge help in brainstorming accessibility features for Tavrn.
Beyond the Kickstarter, what's next? What does your timeline look like from here?
After the Kickstarter we’re going straight into development. We’re looking at about a 10-12 month development period followed by a closed beta. So if everything goes well, the full app should go live in a little over a year, at which point we’ll keep working to add features and fix bugs to make Tavrn a great platform for this awesome community.
Any other plugs or comments to make?
We’re only going to grow and succeed if this is something the community genuinely wants. If it sounds interesting, tell your friends about it. If it seems fun, share it on social media. If you want to see it happen, back it on Kickstarter. Check out tavrn.org to stay updated on the kickstarter, or feel free to tweet at us @tavrn_app.
