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The Bardmaid's Tale — Player Guide

You are in a tavern at the edge of something you don't fully understand yet. The people here have agendas, histories, and odd hours. Talk to them. Take risks. Find out what they want from you.

The Interface

The game is played entirely through text conversations — the UI is designed to feel like a messaging app. Each character has their own thread. Tap a name in your Contacts list to open their conversation. Everything happens through dialogue.

Tap Contacts (top left) to see who is available. The Innkeeper is always there. Other characters appear as you meet them or progress in the world.

Enter sends a message. Shift+Enter adds a new line.

The Innkeeper

The Innkeeper is your starting point. He manages the tavern, knows everyone, and posts the job board. Talk to him first when you arrive each day.

Things he can do for you:

Type menu or help to see a list of what he can do.

Adventures

Adventures are dangerous jobs posted on the tavern board. Each one is a series of challenges — moments where you must choose how to act. Your stats determine how likely each approach is to succeed.

Three difficulty levels:

DifficultyChallengesRetriesXPRetry Cost
Easy31 (free)50 / 25Free
Medium51250 / 12510 gold
Difficult102500 / 25050 gold each

Each challenge presents 3 choices, each testing a different stat. The stat being tested is not shown — read the choice description to guess which attribute it leans on. A 4th option is always available to safely return to the inn.

When you choose, a die is rolled. The result plus your relevant stat is compared against the difficulty. Success or failure determines what happens next.

Using a retry halves your XP reward even if you eventually win.

Your Character

Your character sheet is at the bottom-left of the screen.

Stats

Five stats govern everything you do in the field:

StatGoverns
STRStrength — direct force, physical confrontation, endurance
DEXDexterity — speed, stealth, precision, agility
INTIntelligence — knowledge, logic, reading situations, deception
WISWisdom — intuition, patience, social awareness, judgment
LUCKLuck — unpredictable outcomes, narrow escapes, fortune

Stats start at 1. Raise them by:

When any stat reaches 5, The Witch will offer you a Player Class — a permanent title that unlocks new abilities and flavor.

When LUCK reaches 5, you gain a Death Save — a one-time coin flip that can pull you back from the edge of death.

Health

You start with 100 HP. Failed adventure challenges deal damage. If you reach 0:

Restore HP by visiting Seraph (1 gold per HP) or by waiting — midnight regeneration restores 30% of missing HP once per day.

Leveling

LevelXP RequiredRewards
2100+1 stat point, 100g, 1 item
3200+1 stat point, 150g, 1 item
4300+1 stat point, 200g, 1 item
5400+1 stat point, 250g, 1 item
6–10500–4000+1 stat point, scaled gold and item

Gold

Gold pays for healing, equipment, stat upgrades, and second chances. Ways to earn it:

Your Coin Purse limits how much you can carry. It starts at 100g capacity. Upgrade it through the Innkeeper (100 → 500 → 2000 → 10000).

Equipment

Items drop from adventures and can be bought or sold at the Innkeeper's shop. Each item fits one of eight slots:

Weapon · Shield · Armor · Helmet · Boots · Ring (×2) · Amulet

Five quality tiers:

QualityStat BonusBreak ChanceSell Price
Low+120%1–3g
Average+215%4–10g
Good+310%15–35g
Amazing+45%50–100g
Godly+61%100–200g

Shields reduce incoming damage. Rings and Amulets may carry special effects — including Cancel Death, which prevents one killing blow.

Click Wear next to any stash item to equip it. If the slot is occupied, the old item moves to your stash. You can also ask the Innkeeper to "equip best loadout" to auto-equip the strongest gear you own.

Items have a chance to break on a failed adventure check. Godly-tier items are destroyed on death.

The People Here

Characters appear in your Contacts list as you meet them. Each has a different relationship with you, different hours, and different things they want.

The Innkeeper

Hub of the tavern. Knows everything. Talks to everyone. Start here.

The Witch

She lives in the back. She sells knowledge and power, but she doesn't give either away for free. Visit her to purchase permanent stat upgrades or unlock your Player Class once you've earned it. She can be… difficult. The Innkeeper knows how to handle her if things go wrong.

Seraph

Heals wounds for 1 gold per HP. Professional, calm, doesn't ask questions about how you got hurt. Find her through your Contacts after your first serious injury.

The Scrollkeeper

Keeps records. Manages anything that needs to be written down and stored. Talk to her if you need to retrieve something you've filed away.

Lilith

You won't meet her until you've been here a while. She appears after encounters — watching from the edge of things. If she gives you her number, she chose to. You'll know when that happens.

She posts on a social feed you can see in the Contacts list. She sometimes sends messages unprompted. If you accumulate enough of her attention, she may offer something more structured — a session, a conversation with a shape to it.

Lilith's status message in Contacts reflects her current state. If it reads as something personal, she's less guarded than usual when you open the chat.

Random Encounters

While adventuring, you may run into other figures — travelers, wanderers, people passing through. Some have names. Some are just passing through. A few might end up in your Contacts if the meeting goes a certain way.

Audio

The tavern has its own soundtrack — fire in the hearth, music from the corner. Open Settings to adjust Music and Effects volume. Music uses a shuffle system; you'll hear everything before anything repeats. Adventure scenes have their own atmosphere.

When a sound effect fires, a small italic annotation appears in the chat bubble so you know what triggered it.

Settings

Open Settings (gear icon, top right) to adjust your display name, avatar, music/effects volume, and account options. Your display name is shown to NPCs — some of them use it.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Enter — Send. Shift+Enter — New line in message.