Grimshackle
Tavernwright
The cast How it works The board FAQ
Open Tavernwright
For the night your party ignores your dungeon

There's always a tavern.
Make yours alive.

Most generators hand you a name and a stat block. Tavernwright hands you a room with a pulse — a barkeep with a grudge, a sellsword with a secret, two strangers who plainly know each other and wish they didn't. One click, and the whole place is waiting. For D&D 5e, Pathfinder 2e, and Daggerheart.

D&D 5e
Pathfinder 2e
Daggerheart
Open Tavernwright See it come alive
31
ancestries ready
3
game systems
0
installs · all private
Tavernwright · The Board
Tavernwright relationship board: NPC cards connected by labeled threads — arguing, watching, heads together, the back door — for a D&D tavern
The moment every GM knows

Your players just walked into a tavern you didn't write.

You planned the dungeon for a week. What you didn't plan was the roadside inn they'd duck into first — and now four faces are looking up, waiting, while you invent a barkeep's name, a drink list, and whoever's brooding in the corner on the spot. Twenty minutes later you've improvised three ales, a dog, and a suspicious cousin — and completely lost your own plot.

Tavernwright never touches a GM's creativity. It clears away the mundane — and leaves the epic.

One click later

The whole room, the moment they walk in.

Staff and visitors, grouped and counted — each with a name, an ancestry, a role, and what they're doing right now, over a sign, a read of the room, and a beat already in motion. This is the actual app.

Tavernwright · The Scene
Tavernwright scene view — 'Who's in tonight' with staff and visitors grouped by type: Borin Ashmug the dwarf barkeep, Pell Quillfoot the halfling barback, and patrons Faelan, Tomas and Wick, each with a role and a current activity
How it works

From a few clicks to a room full of trouble.

01
Set the scene
Pick a setting, a style, and how much trouble you are in the mood for — or hit Surprise and let the house pour itself.
02
Open the doors
The whole establishment appears at once — the room, its hanging sign, a full menu, and a cast of regulars.
03
Meet the room
Barkeep, workers, patrons, travelers, and the odd stranger — every one a person with a name and a reason to be here.
04
Draw the web
Drag the cast onto the board and string them together — conflict, scheme, romance, debt — in your own words.
05
Reroll & make it yours
Refresh a single name, a face, or the whole menu in a tap. Bookmark the ones worth dragging back three sessions later.
The signature

Every NPC is a person, not a number.

Each one arrives with a name, a face, a voice, a quirk, a secret, a reason they're here tonight — and a complete stat block the moment steel is drawn. Around twenty distinct traits per character means the cast never blurs together.

~20 traits per soul
Name, face, eyes, hair, build, voice, gait, clothing, a carried possession — roughly twenty independent traits, so no two NPCs ever blur together.
Secrets & motives
Every face hides a quirk, a secret, a motive for tonight, and a thing they are already doing as the party walks in.
31 ancestries, true names
Names are built from ancestry-specific sounds — tens of thousands to over a million possible per ancestry, across thirty-one of them.
Steel when it is drawn
A full stat block waits under every character — weapon, ability scores, defenses, hit points, and signature moves, in the system you chose.
One click, one whole person

They won't remember "the barkeep."
They'll remember Borin.

The singed apron, the one tooth short, the gruff clipped voice and the oak cudgel behind the bar — the read on him, what he wants tonight, and the cut he's taking to let the courier use the back door. Reroll any single thread — or the whole soul — until he's right.

Built in a heartbeat
Tavernwright NPC detail card for Borin Ashmug the dwarf barkeep — D&D 5e ability scores, two signature abilities, AC and HP combat line, the read, sounds, looks, motive, secret, and who he's tangled with tonight
The relationship board

A roster becomes a plot.

Drag your cast onto the canvas and draw the connections between them. Now the tavern isn't a list of strangers — it's a map of grudges and alliances your party can pull on all night.

Conflict Scheme Tension Bond Romance Debt
Tidy up · auto-layout
Focus one soul's web
Close-up of Tavernwright's relationship board — NPC cards joined by labeled threads reading 'heads together', 'the back door', and 'arguing'
Everything a tavern should have

Every detail you never have time to invent.

A menu with house character
Specials, the cellar, and bites — priced and flavored so a cult house never reads like a noble hall.
Tavernwright food board — daily specials, from the cellar, and bites, each with flavor text and prices
The vibe of the room
What you smell, what you hear, and the one detail you can't help but notice — plus an at-a-glance read of how busy and loud the room is.
Tavernwright vibe read — a headline for the room, what's in the air, what you can hear, and the detail you can't help but notice
A sign, and a room in motion
The tavern's hanging totem sign, an at-a-glance read of the room, and a "right now" beat already unfolding as your party clears the door.
Right now
A bard's drowning out a corner argument while a card game by the fire turns sour.
The read
Room packed, noise loud — a quick gauge of how busy and rowdy it has gotten.
The sign
A carved totem out front, matched to the house and graded Squalid, Common, Fine, or Grand.
3
game systems, one file
8
tavern styles
31
ancestries
20+
traits per soul

Walk your party through the door.
The whole place will be waiting.

A living tavern in one click — and yours to reshape until the night fits your story. No accounts, no installs. It runs right in your browser, private to you, in a blink.

Open Tavernwright
Tavernwright — there's always a tavern. Make yours alive.
Grimshackle Tavernwright beta v2.003 FAQ Licenses & Attribution
Fully attributed across all three systems — D&D under the OGL / CC-BY 4.0 (SRD 5.1), Daggerheart under the Darrington Press Community Gaming License, and Pathfinder 2e under the OGL v1.0a / ORC License.