Intended to be the first part of a series that, so far as I can tell, never got any further than this, this is essentially a collection of 25 NPCs. They have no stats, although some are rated as above average for combat ability and the like. For many of them, you probably wouldn't need stats anyway, since they'll mainly serve as background flavour. Each typically has one or two paragraphs of description.

They are all of the kind that might be found in cheap taverns, whether because they're career criminals, outcasts of some kind, or just poor labourers. There's a good variety here, and plenty of ideas. Many of them could be used as NPCs in other contexts, although a tavern is as good a place as any to meet them. The book rounds out with a list of 20 plot ideas, some generic, and some tied to specific NPCs in the book.

A useful set of NPCs when you need to come up with some quickly.

Raise your hand if your players are more likely to remember the NPC with a an overzealous personality and a lisp more so than the NPC with the two epic feat progressions of two weapon fighting you designed him with.

If you are wiggling your fingers in the air, then your players are not of the hack and slash variety and would enjoy meeting the colorful characters in Generic Universe Publishing’s Tavern Denizens: Book I The Dives.

Tavern Denizens uses an original system called Sparks to allow that allow their products to be used in any system. Sparks uses a series of simple, generic terms for Physical, physical, combat and magic traits so that dungeon masters can easily determine a Sparks character’s abilities compared to a statted one in their game. It alleviates the writers from concentrating on skills and making perfect builds and instead allows them to focus on unique personalities where their skills obviously shine.

There are 29 unique NPCs to filter your campaign world. Many of them are quirky and add a neat new friend or interesting new foe for pcs. These NPCs are all random people to be found in any inn or tavern the PCs come across.

For the DM This book is great for those random occurrences where players encounter people whom are important to the situation but were not important enough to the campaign to remember them ahead of time. My favorite NPC was Jack the Braggart. A person with an habitual lying problem with important information is a fun way to antagonize your players.

The Iron Word The Sparks system allows for easy insertion into any campaign book, though some of the NPCs would have benefited from additional skills. Still, Tavern Denizens: Book I The Dives gives the busy DM over two dozen NPCs with enough uniqueness to make them distinguishable enough in an eventful campaign world.