The Inkeeper's Bell
- By
A tavern-themed drink and break reminder for WoW Retail and Forever. Customize timers, use Done or Snooze, track your session and local time and choose chat, screen and sound alerts. Includes combat delay, dungeon quiet mode and a movable, scalable widget.
The Innkeeper's Bell
A small bell for the player behind the hero.
World of Warcraft Retail & Forever
Built for the player behind the character
I created The Innkeeper's Bell because caring for the person playing matters just as much as caring for their character.
Adventures have a way of carrying us along. Another dungeon, another attempt at a boss, another evening with friends: before we notice, hours can pass without a drink, a stretch or a moment away from the screen.
For me, the thought behind this addon is simple: even the greatest hero in Azeroth is only as strong as the person behind the keyboard.
I do not want to lecture you about how long you play or decide when you should stop. I want to offer a friendly nudge that fits the atmosphere of the game and leaves those choices with you.
My approach to addons is to make playing more comfortable, with fewer distractions and less interface management. With The Innkeeper's Bell, that also means making a little room for yourself: a drink, a pause, and some awareness of the time you spend in Azeroth.
What The Innkeeper's Bell Does
The Innkeeper's Bell is a lightweight, tavern-themed companion for longer adventures. Keep track of drinking, taking a short break and the time you have spent playing, with two independent reminders and controls that stay focused on the essentials.
Supports World of Warcraft Retail and WoW Forever with one shared addon and the same reminder features on both platforms.
Main Features
- Separate drink and break reminders with adjustable intervals.
- Done controls and one-click Snooze for 5, 10 or 15 minutes.
- A movable tavern-themed widget with countdowns and session time.
- A local clock with 12-hour and 24-hour formats.
- Optional local chat messages, screen alerts and sound.
- Combat delay and optional quiet mode for dungeons and raids.
- Optional playful reminder lines.
- A freely movable bell button, saved positions and Blizzard addon settings.
- No required third-party addons or libraries.
Set Your Own Reminder Rhythm
Start with a drink reminder every 30 minutes and a break reminder every 90 minutes, or choose intervals that suit you. Drink intervals range from 5 to 180 minutes; break intervals range from 15 to 240 minutes. Either reminder can be disabled independently. Existing saved choices are kept when updating.
When an alert becomes due and is allowed to appear, its row offers two ways to respond:
- Done: acknowledge that reminder and restart its full configured interval.
- Snooze: postpone that reminder by 5, 10 or 15 minutes.
These controls become available for the matching due reminder. Handling Drink does not reset Break, and handling Break does not reset Drink or your session. A due reminder waits for your response instead of repeatedly starting new alerts.
A Tavern-Themed Timer Widget
The widget brings your local clock, current session duration and both reminder countdowns into one illustrated window. Move it when it is unlocked and no reminder is due, lock its position, or adjust its scale from 50% to 200%.
You can keep the widget visible or leave it hidden between reminders. A due, non-deferred reminder brings it forward and keeps it visible until handled. Hiding the normal widget is not the same as disabling the reminders. Once all due reminders are handled, it returns to your chosen visibility setting.
Combat and Instance Quiet Mode
Combat delay is enabled by default. New reminders wait until combat restrictions end. Optional dungeon and raid quiet mode also holds reminders while you are inside a party or raid instance.
These settings delay the alert, its sound and the newly due widget prompt together; they do not restart the original interval. If both settings apply, the reminder waits until both restrictions have ended. They are not a promise to hide a reminder that was already on screen before combat began.
Local Alerts, Your Way
Choose local chat messages, raid-warning-style screen text and sound independently. Sound options include Blizzard alarm or raid-warning tones alongside the bundled reminder sound. Optional funny lines add a little tavern atmosphere without changing your timers.
All reminder output is local to your own client. TIB does not send automatic Say, Yell, Party, Raid or Instance messages, and screen alerts are not real raid warnings sent to your group.
Simple Controls and Saved Settings
- Left-click the bell button: show or hide the normal timer widget.
- Right-click the bell button: open addon settings.
- Drag the bell button: position it freely on screen.
- Settings: use
/tib optionsor Game Menu > Options > AddOns > The Innkeeper's Bell.
Settings, interval choices, widget scale and positions are saved account-wide within the same WoW client. Retail and Forever keep separate saved data; the addon does not copy or synchronize settings between them.
Session Continuity and Reliability
TIB attempts to preserve active reminder and Snooze state through reloads and character changes when it recognizes the same running client session. It does not promise perfect restart detection under every clock condition.
Running session and countdown displays use an elapsed-time clock when available to stay consistent during computer-clock changes. A safeguard prevents an old bell-button drag callback from interfering with a newer drag. Both improvements use the same code for Retail and Forever.
Known limits: a computer-clock change followed by a reload can still affect session recognition or restored deadlines. Without a usable session clock, the existing 15-minute continuity fallback can mistake a quick full client restart for a continuation. If no usable elapsed-time display clock is available, the display falls back to the previous wall-clock calculation.
Getting Started
- Choose a file marked for your WoW client and close that client before installation.
- Extract the complete TheInnkeepersBell folder into the selected client's Interface/AddOns folder, without an extra enclosing version folder.
- Enable the addon, then open
/tib optionsto choose your intervals and alert settings. - Use
/tib drinkor/tib breakto trigger a real reminder for checking the controls. Combat and quiet-mode settings still apply.
For updates, back up your addon folder and saved settings, then replace the complete addon folder. Keep SavedVariables; do not use /tib defaults as an update step. No external development tools are required to run the addon.
Useful Slash Commands
/tibor/tib help- Show command help./tib options- Open settings./tib status- Show session and reminder status./tib drink//tib break- Trigger the selected reminder./tib done drink//tib done break- Complete the selected due reminder./tib snooze drink 10//tib snooze break 15- Snooze a specific due reminder./tib snooze 5- Snooze a due reminder; Drink is selected first if both are due./tib interval drink 30//tib interval break 90- Set reminder intervals./tib enable drink//tib disable break- Enable or disable a reminder./tib widget on//tib widget off- Choose normal widget visibility./tib widget reset- Reset widget position and scale, and show it./tib minimap on//tib minimap off- Show or hide the bell button./tib minimap reset- Reset the bell button's position./tib chat on//tib chat off- Toggle local chat alerts./tib screen on//tib screen off- Toggle local screen alerts./tib sound alarm//tib sound raid//tib sound off- Select or disable sound./tib combat on//tib combat off- Toggle combat delay./tib instance on//tib instance off- Toggle dungeon and raid quiet mode./tib clock 12//tib clock 24- Select the local clock format./tib funny on//tib funny off- Toggle funny reminder lines.
Use /tib defaults only if you intentionally want to reset the addon's settings.
Compatibility and Feedback
The Innkeeper's Bell supports World of Warcraft Retail and WoW Forever. Both use the same addon folder, reminder controls and settings layout. Use the file's listed game versions and release notes when choosing a download, and install it separately for each client.
If something goes wrong, please include:
- Your addon version and whether you use Retail or Forever, including the game build.
- The steps to reproduce the issue and any Lua error message.
- Your reminder intervals, Snooze choice and combat or instance-delay settings.
- Whether it followed a reload, character change, restart, standby or clock change.
- For display issues, your UI scale and a screenshot with private information removed.
Do not post your entire WTF folder or account information. Reports from each client help keep the shared implementation reliable for both.
A Reminder, Not a Medical Tool
TIB offers configurable prompts, not medical advice or health monitoring. It does not measure how much you drink, verify that you took a break or automate gameplay. Choose the reminders that work for you.
Support ArcAnvil
The Innkeeper's Bell is free to use. If you would like to support development, testing and maintenance, voluntary support is welcome on Patreon and is never required to use the addon.
Created by ArcAnvil.
Take a sip. Take a breath. Return to the adventure.
The Inkeeper's Bell Team
