The first thing most adventurers ask when they step into a tavern isn’t, “What’s the political situation in the capital?” It’s “What’s on tap?” But sometimes, those questions aren’t so different.
When I write, I like to snack on the same food as my characters : if I'm hosting a TTRPG, I like to cook a regional specialty for the party. I guess that's why I have a whole bookcase of recipe books!
Lots of good points about how to make the tavern in your novel stand out. I will add a couple from my very large tavern located near the city's military compound.
Decorations. The walls are decorated with family crests of the families that led military campaigns. It also has flags and weapons from the battlefields, some captured from the enemy.
Special purpose rooms. It has game rooms for such things as dart and knife throwing. The second floor has meeting rooms for various group gatherings.
This was a great post! What vivid ideas! I'm so going to be doing this! You wouldn't believe how many taverns I have and how many times my characters just at some nameless soup!
Which animals are raised for meat? For wool? For milk? For draft animals?
Sheep were the milch animals in many areas in medieval times. Breeding for milk does bad stuff for wool, and vice versa.
Horsemeat has the problem that horses are inefficient ways of turning grass into meat. Better to raise cows for meat and horses for draft -- once you get the horse collar right and stop using oxen.
That was surprisingly interesting, thank you for sharing. I love the swing back and forth as farming methods and social food trends shifted over time. Fascinating stuff for a worldbuilder!
An excellent read! In the story I've been writing, my characters travel great distances across different ecosystems which of course have different fruits and things to offer. The protagonist's family runs a tavern so they're excited to discover new dishes and ingredients to try to bring home and incorporate into their menu.
I absolutely love this approach!
When I write, I like to snack on the same food as my characters : if I'm hosting a TTRPG, I like to cook a regional specialty for the party. I guess that's why I have a whole bookcase of recipe books!
That's so cool! It was actually when inventing food for a story that I first realised I was a total worldbuilding nerd!
Great write up
Thank you!
Lots of good points about how to make the tavern in your novel stand out. I will add a couple from my very large tavern located near the city's military compound.
Decorations. The walls are decorated with family crests of the families that led military campaigns. It also has flags and weapons from the battlefields, some captured from the enemy.
Special purpose rooms. It has game rooms for such things as dart and knife throwing. The second floor has meeting rooms for various group gatherings.
That's a great way to reveal information about your world. And I can just imagine what stories might play out in those rooms...
This was a great post! What vivid ideas! I'm so going to be doing this! You wouldn't believe how many taverns I have and how many times my characters just at some nameless soup!
It won't be namesless anymore!
It certainly won't!
I love all of your emails, by the way. Even the gated ones give me inspiration!
Bless you, thank you!
Which animals are raised for meat? For wool? For milk? For draft animals?
Sheep were the milch animals in many areas in medieval times. Breeding for milk does bad stuff for wool, and vice versa.
Horsemeat has the problem that horses are inefficient ways of turning grass into meat. Better to raise cows for meat and horses for draft -- once you get the horse collar right and stop using oxen.
There was a great article in Archaeology Magazine just recently about the evolution of the "pork taboo" in the Levant that is a great example of this.
https://archaeology.org/issues/march-april-2025/letters-from/on-the-origin-of-the-pork-taboo/
That was surprisingly interesting, thank you for sharing. I love the swing back and forth as farming methods and social food trends shifted over time. Fascinating stuff for a worldbuilder!
An excellent read! In the story I've been writing, my characters travel great distances across different ecosystems which of course have different fruits and things to offer. The protagonist's family runs a tavern so they're excited to discover new dishes and ingredients to try to bring home and incorporate into their menu.
Perfect! You can have so much fun with this!