W. F. Smith

Barkeep on the Borderlands

At a Glance 

Players      3-5
Play time    Long (3-4 hours) and Epic (4+ hours, multi-session)
Ages         18+
Genre        Fantasy, Comedy, and Inspiration
Complexity   Intermediate
System       Old School and 5e
Mechanics    Poly dice
Format       Zine · Digital Downloads

What if carousing were its own adventure?

Barkeep on the Borderlands is a barhopping, fantasy adventure amidst Mardi Gras-like festivities, including 20 detailed pubs and dynamic drinking rules.

Get the Barkeep Pubcrawl Bundle that includes map, coasters, and drink recipe bookmark!

Barkeep on the Borderlands flips the script on the tired trope of starting in a tavern. In this adventure, players explore the many taverns  of  the Keep in search of a missing antidote, getting into shenanigans along the way. The pubcrawl is like a dungeoncrawl  but with bars and streets instead of rooms and corridors. 

The adventure includes:

  • 20 detailed taverns, with unique premises like a speakeasy run by cultists, an undead dance club, a gambling den for kobold gangsters or a cozy bar in a witch’s cottage
  • 36 character backgrounds for potential pubcrawlers
  • 5 intertwined factions vying for control of the Keep, including a wizard academy, a cult of chaos and an NGO run by goblins
  • A timeline detailing a precarious political situation that the players can interact with and disrupt 
  • Over 100 full-color illustrations, with some on every page
  • 100 random tables with 745 total results to facilitate endless sessions of adventures in a fantasy city

Gold ENnie Award Winner 2023 for Best Supplement

60 page, 8.5 x 5.5 inch, full color, perfect-bound softcover

Purchase includes digital package with singe page and spread hyper-linked PDFs and printable bookmark with drinking game instructions and drink recipes!

Credits

Author/Designer   W.F Smith
Illustrator       K.T Nguyen
Editor            Ava Islam, Nick LS Whelan, and Ty Pitre
Layout            K.T Nguyen