Community Flashback ~ The Bear Tavern

Once in a while, we like to check back in on our Community Spotlight Sites and see how they’ve grown.  This past week, I had the privilege of chatting with Vallas over at The Bear Tavern as they celebrate their one-year anniversary.

So, tell us a little about The Bear Tavern.
The Bear Tavern is a community which is building towards the establishment of a fully working Tavern within Shroud of the Avatar. Our aim is to build a landmark, providing everyone a place to freely interact with others in a neutral environment. We aim to become a prominent feature within the lore of New Britannia, both as a leader in our craft as well and a contributing member of the wider community.
We operate primarily across both East Coast US and EU timezones. We have a broad membership, which we intend to expand even further as time goes on..

Why a tavern? Why not a conventional guild?
You’d be hard pressed to find any major fantasy setting which doesn’t employ taverns to form the hub of social interaction. Arguably this is one of the most important aspects of any MMO, with the interaction between players providing the most rewarding experience.  Our aim was to create an environment where people could experience this, which is where the idea of The Bear Tavern was born.

The Bear Tavern does maintain a guild at its core, to keep the Tavern running as it should. However, the project is much more than that. The Tavern is designed to form the centre of a much larger community, which could span the entirety of New Britannia. We aim to open our doors to everyone, regardless of affiliation, giving the chance for all to come in and get involved. The more the merrier in my opinion.

Why Shroud of the Avatar?
The truth be told, for some time I’ve have been keeping an eye out for new MMOs where a Tavern in the strictest sense would even be possible. Shroud of the Avatar’s approach to crafting and housing finally made this doable, which has since attracted a number of like-minded individuals to the cause. It seems like it is a popular fit.

What is it that you feel your group will uniquely provide?
It goes without saying that we plan to offer a venue where people can not only socialize, but also catch a wide range of entertainment. Taverns are the setting of choice for all manner of bards and showmen, providing a stage for increasing their notoriety while making a few coin in the process. The Tavern will be laying on a wide variety of events from market days to fairs and tournaments, again to further its role as an entertainment hub.

In terms of what we will offer, the Tavern will almost certainly provide a wide range of food and drink to cater to the needs of travelers and regular patrons. We plan to have an extensive range of wine, beer and spirits, together with a varied menu from the Tavern kitchens. As an ideal meet-up point, we also plan to sell a few minor goods to aid adventurers before heading off on a good dungeon crawl.

Our Militia offers an opportunity for everyone to band together to take part in wider events, regardless of Guild affiliation. It’s not exactly the UN, however it provides a good opportunity to pay together regardless of affiliation. Fancy breaking away from your normal role for an hour or two? Want to meet new people without having to give up your current guild? Then it’s the Militia for you!

As neutral ground, the Tavern offers a number of intriguing opportunities for discussion and business. I think we’ll leave that there, make of it what you will.

This sounds like a big undertaking, is it a challenge?
A huge challenge. The Bear Tavern is a massive undertaking, spanning from building a community from scratch, to laying the foundations for keeping the Tavern stocked with supplies. That being said, we are well on the way to having everything in place post-release with the intent to be in business shortly after.

Our current structure, while relaxed, does allow us to react to how the game will shape during the Alpha and Beta phases. We remain confident that we will maintain a workable community system, including an open market for craftsmen and gatherers across the community. We hope that this will give everyone an opportunity make a bit of gold while furthering the cause, which is nice.

Communication is key. In fact, this is arguably the cornerstone on which the Tavern has been built. Since early on into the process we’ve made significant efforts to ensured that everyone who has contributed has a fair chance to make their feelings own on critical votes and issues. We’ll be continuing to work with comments, suggestions and feedback as time goes on.

What are you working on prior to release?
Currently, we’re looking at how we can improve what we currently have to expand on the services that we can provide. The generosity shown so far has been nothing less than staggering, with the Tavern grown from an idea to a substantial building to act as the Tavern proper. We’re making the most of this good fortune to get into as good a position as possible so that we can bring the tavern to life.

We’ve recently come into the possession of a city-sized plot which we’re discussing how best to use. Aside from a tavern, the other staple of the fantasy setting is of course the market. We plan to offer a venue for regular market events as well as larger open air entertainments including fairs, plays and concerts.

We’re looking to improve the out-of-game communication systems we have in place to keep the conversation flowing. We have a fully-working website, complete with forums and chat interface. We have a functioning TeamSpeak server, which is handy for the test releases. We also have a presence on steam, to help community members with other games when the mood takes us.

As release draws closer, we’ll begin to organize ourselves to look for a location to call home. This will be a significant undertaking, since the community ranges from guests looking for barracks accommodation right up to lords of the manor. We’ll make further announcements regarding the co-ordination effort in due course.

How can people get involved?
There are three ways of getting involved with The Bear Tavern.

1) You can become part of the community as a guest. No pressure, no commitment, no requirements and all are welcome. This accounts for the vast majority of the community, primarily that of Tavern patrons and visitors.

2) You can join the Tavern Guild. This is for those who either are looking to become a little more hands-on with the Tavern. We have a range of posts, from guards keeping the peace to barkeeper and cooks keeping the patrons happy, to craftsmen and rangers keeping the Tavern ticking over. We have a Tavern to run, no need for anything complicated.

3) You can enlist in The Bear Tavern Militia. The Tavern will operate a volunteer defense force that will be charged with protecting the community in times of need. The membership is drawn from across the community, from both guests and guilds-men. Aside from protective duties, the Militia also will carry out dungeon raids to take the fight to whatever nasties are threatening the populace.

We are accepting signees for all three categories via out website. We’d like to welcome any and all individuals to apply and get involved!

What do you hope that The Bear Tavern will achieve in the future?
There’s still a significant amount of time before Shroud of the Avatar goes live. In that time, we will continue to attempt to both establish ourselves as the premier tavern community within new Britannia. We will continue to grow both in terms of facilities and membership, so that we can hit the ground running.

Now that we are established, we’ll be looking to provide support to other guilds and communities as release gets closer. We’re all in this together, and so it makes sense that we do our best to help out others who are also preparing. We would like to throw open the doors and ask that everyone interested in visiting or doing business with The Bear Tavern to get in touch, by personal mail or via the forums. We would like to invite everyone to make full use of our TeamSpeak server as a means to promote more communication and collaboration across the SOTA community.