Tavern Tales plays over a variable number of rounds. In each round, players take turns as follows:

STEP 1: Using your hand of hero cards, stake your claim. Select one of the locations in play and identify which treasures you claim to have found or how many monsters you slayed there.

STEP 2: Dispute your companions. Other players may now use their hand of hero cards to dispute your claim and attempt to take the glory for themselves.

STEP 3: Turn your stories into legends. After a bit of one-upping and strategic bluffing, a final victor for the claim is declared. That player collects the disputed treasure or monster cards and score points based on how many of those identical cards they have previously collected. Through this set collection aspect, players are incentivized to remain in the lead on one or several types of claims in order to prevail.

The game ends when one player has achieved enough fame to become the most renowned hero of epic legends!