Jan 30, 2020 6:26 pm
In the medieval period, which this game tends to pattern itself after, there was a distinction between the different establishments and we will be using those distinctions and assigning them names.
A Brewhaw is an informal place that serves a brewed beverage (ale, hard-cider, etc...) and may (or may not) provide food and overnight lodging. Neither of these will be formal and the lodging may be no more more than sleeping in the common room on the floor. Note in these facilities the common room serves as the kitchen as well.
A Tavern is a formal place that serves drink (brews and maybe even wine) and food and may (or may not) provide lodging. The sign above a Tavern is circular with either a tree-like canopy or garlanded with foliage in some other manner along with the taverns insignia that denotes its name in the center of that circle.
An Inn is a formal place the serves drink (brews and maybe wine) and food and with varying forms of lodging (common room, shared rooms, and perhaps even private rooms). These establishments may even have a stable as well as yard area depending on how elaborate they are. The sign above an Inn is in the shape of a pitched roof house, even if the Inn is flat-topped, with the insignia in the center the denotes the name of the Inn
All three of these will consist of a Common Room where folks are served. The Inn and sometimes the Tavern will have a kitchen off this main room which will have access to the cellar either inside or just outside the back door. The Brewhaw, if it even has a cellar at all, will have its access outside and it may not even be under the building. One of the main elements found in the kitchen will be the brewing of drink as this is an on going process in such establishments. Of course some of the cooking may even be taking place in the common room depending on the nature of the establishment. Depending on their location these facilities may also have
a garden and few chickens out back as well.
It should be kept in mind that travelers during the medieval period were viewed with suspicion (as people from the next town over were 'foreigners'; and those from other countries, "aliens"), as such any place which catered to these unnatural folk naturally fell under the same suspicion. While the reputation that tavern-keepers colluded with thieves is not entirely undeserved, it is not necessarily actual what most tavern-keepers were up to as many are just simple honest business-folk with some spare room and a talent for brewing beer, ale, and hard cider. Of course because folks often paid their bills in kind, tavern-keepers often (intentionally or unintentionally) served as fences for dubiously obtained goods and Innkeepers often became money-lenders.
In the medieval period static tables and chairs of today were an extreme luxury and only found in the most upscale Inns as in the lower establishments these expensive furnishings not only unnecessarily took up valuable space within their limited spaced facilities, but were also prone to breakage during brawls and other drunken attempts at feats of acrobatics. Thus in most Inns, Taverns, and Brewhaws one will find board stands (basically a saw-horse), covered with free standing boards (so do not put your elbows on the table or you may end up with all the hot food in your lap), and forms (basically boards laid upon boxes or cut off barrels to make a bench) This allows the furniture to be dismantled and stacked off to the side to clear the floor for sleeping. Furhter the floor will be covered with straw to help soak up the mud and other liquids that might get upon the floor. And this would be cleaned up nightly and fresh straw put down in preparation for a good nights sleep.
So there is no "barkeep" because their is no bar, if their is a chair it belongs to the inn/tavern keeper who is the "chair"-man of the board (table) so if you sit in it you will most likely get in a lot of trouble. Further no tables or chairs just make shift (stackable) stools, trestles, boxes, and boards. In some of the mid to high grade Inns there may be a high-backed wooden sette with broadsides and such tacked to the back sitting near the hearth otherwise these broadsides will be posted on the back of the door or next too it for those very few folk that can actually read that is.
Of course all these places may provide bones and other board-top games as well as bowling out back in the alley or horse shoes or even short range archery, or axe throwing, darts are typically the only game allowed inside of course any other such games depending on what the local clients find fun to do may be present as well.
A Brewhaw is an informal place that serves a brewed beverage (ale, hard-cider, etc...) and may (or may not) provide food and overnight lodging. Neither of these will be formal and the lodging may be no more more than sleeping in the common room on the floor. Note in these facilities the common room serves as the kitchen as well.
A Tavern is a formal place that serves drink (brews and maybe even wine) and food and may (or may not) provide lodging. The sign above a Tavern is circular with either a tree-like canopy or garlanded with foliage in some other manner along with the taverns insignia that denotes its name in the center of that circle.
An Inn is a formal place the serves drink (brews and maybe wine) and food and with varying forms of lodging (common room, shared rooms, and perhaps even private rooms). These establishments may even have a stable as well as yard area depending on how elaborate they are. The sign above an Inn is in the shape of a pitched roof house, even if the Inn is flat-topped, with the insignia in the center the denotes the name of the Inn
All three of these will consist of a Common Room where folks are served. The Inn and sometimes the Tavern will have a kitchen off this main room which will have access to the cellar either inside or just outside the back door. The Brewhaw, if it even has a cellar at all, will have its access outside and it may not even be under the building. One of the main elements found in the kitchen will be the brewing of drink as this is an on going process in such establishments. Of course some of the cooking may even be taking place in the common room depending on the nature of the establishment. Depending on their location these facilities may also have
a garden and few chickens out back as well.
It should be kept in mind that travelers during the medieval period were viewed with suspicion (as people from the next town over were 'foreigners'; and those from other countries, "aliens"), as such any place which catered to these unnatural folk naturally fell under the same suspicion. While the reputation that tavern-keepers colluded with thieves is not entirely undeserved, it is not necessarily actual what most tavern-keepers were up to as many are just simple honest business-folk with some spare room and a talent for brewing beer, ale, and hard cider. Of course because folks often paid their bills in kind, tavern-keepers often (intentionally or unintentionally) served as fences for dubiously obtained goods and Innkeepers often became money-lenders.
In the medieval period static tables and chairs of today were an extreme luxury and only found in the most upscale Inns as in the lower establishments these expensive furnishings not only unnecessarily took up valuable space within their limited spaced facilities, but were also prone to breakage during brawls and other drunken attempts at feats of acrobatics. Thus in most Inns, Taverns, and Brewhaws one will find board stands (basically a saw-horse), covered with free standing boards (so do not put your elbows on the table or you may end up with all the hot food in your lap), and forms (basically boards laid upon boxes or cut off barrels to make a bench) This allows the furniture to be dismantled and stacked off to the side to clear the floor for sleeping. Furhter the floor will be covered with straw to help soak up the mud and other liquids that might get upon the floor. And this would be cleaned up nightly and fresh straw put down in preparation for a good nights sleep.
So there is no "barkeep" because their is no bar, if their is a chair it belongs to the inn/tavern keeper who is the "chair"-man of the board (table) so if you sit in it you will most likely get in a lot of trouble. Further no tables or chairs just make shift (stackable) stools, trestles, boxes, and boards. In some of the mid to high grade Inns there may be a high-backed wooden sette with broadsides and such tacked to the back sitting near the hearth otherwise these broadsides will be posted on the back of the door or next too it for those very few folk that can actually read that is.
Of course all these places may provide bones and other board-top games as well as bowling out back in the alley or horse shoes or even short range archery, or axe throwing, darts are typically the only game allowed inside of course any other such games depending on what the local clients find fun to do may be present as well.