Making Them Useful: Innkeeper

Fun book, if not a little bit
unfocused.

So, finished with Dungeon Fantasy 4, I move onto Dungeon Fantasy 10, where the tongue in cheek, but not really that bad, Innkeeper template can be found on p. 8. Of all the templates I've looked at so far, this one has the least advice for either players or GMs, so it'll take a bit of creativity to actually come up with something. Oh, well, let's sally forth into proverbial slightly murky waters and see what lessons learned and conjectures we can turn up from my experience with Innkeeper PCs.


Previously, I said that the Scholar was a bit of a Jack-of-all-trades, and looking at the Innkeeper, and trying to stick with the card metaphors, she is actually a bit more of an ace-in-the-hole, whereas the Innkeeper is a true generalist. All of his attributes are pretty well balanced, but the template speaks to two unusual proficiencies. The first is that the Innkeeper has a lot of the wildcard abilities like Wild Talent and Luck to help him take the spotlight in unusual circumstances, so some of my notes and thoughts on the Scholar's more wild strengths might apply here.

A lot of the growth options
here can help give an
Innkeeper some kind of
mechanical focus.

The other is his social capabilities as hinted in the Mr. Popularity style Customization Notes, so a lot of the suggestions for Bards in Dungeon Fantasy 2, provided the appropriate build is being used, could just as well apply to an Innkeeper.
So, at first glance he looks again to be the slightly odd, decently malleable extra guy that can do duty in one capacity or another, but what can an Innkeeper do that no one else can do?

• Unlike a lot of the other generalist and wildcard characters, an Innkeeper has decent ST and HT, meaning that he can fill in for even more vacuums than the Scholar, though, he isn't as intensely focused on IQ either.
• While the Bard typically has a bit of a high class, courtly air about her, the Innkeeper has a bit of an ear-to-the-ground skillset. "Low-Brow" skills and street smarts might enable him to get places where a pompous hoitey-toitey Bard might not.
• Because of an Innkeeper's ability to improvise equipment, a situation where the party might be locked out of carrying their normal arsenal around might give the Innkeeper a chance to be a star (alongside a Martial Artist.)
• Innkeepers are really good at evaluating the value of rare treasures, and Dungeon Fantasy 11 has power-ups to make them even better. 
• Even though it probably doesn't need to be mentioned, Innkeepers are especially potent in drinking contests.

As for the types of rewards that are especially compatible with an Innkeeper, they need to carry a lot, so anything that can lighten that burden would be appreciated. Besides that, it is very hard to predict exactly what is appreciated, and will depend on how the player intends to develop the Innkeeper.

Final Thoughts and Closing

It is imperative that the GM and player are on the same page for making sure the Innkeeper is doing what the player wants. Some players are absolutely content to be a supporting role, and an Innkeeper can perform that job admirably. However, it's no difficult stretch to make an Innkeeper a star if the player decides to buckle down and specialize. Even if they don't specialize, a guy that is good at three or four completely different things might have more opportunities to be awesome than the lady that is the absolute best in her specialty. Maybe not in as incredibly cool capacity, but someone that can psychoanalyze a monster, fight it into non-lethal submission, and then negotiate a surrender is pretty cool just for being able to do all those things. The trick is that an Innkeeper is so malleable, that everyone gets a chance to make something incredibly unique with it, so the advice for making one Innkeeper have a good time, might not work with another.