15 Comments
User's avatar
Liam A Spinage's avatar

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!

Expand full comment
Angeline Trevena's avatar

That's so cool! It was actually when inventing food for a story that I first realised I was a total worldbuilding nerd!

Expand full comment
RPG actual plays's avatar

Great write up

Expand full comment
Angeline Trevena's avatar

Thank you!

Expand full comment
Jay Logan's avatar

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.

Expand full comment
Angeline Trevena's avatar

That's a great way to reveal information about your world. And I can just imagine what stories might play out in those rooms...

Expand full comment
Noah Ballard's avatar

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!

Expand full comment
Angeline Trevena's avatar

It won't be namesless anymore!

Expand full comment
Noah Ballard's avatar

It certainly won't!

I love all of your emails, by the way. Even the gated ones give me inspiration!

Expand full comment
Angeline Trevena's avatar

Bless you, thank you!

Expand full comment
Mary Catelli's avatar

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.

Expand full comment
J K Hoffman's avatar

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/

Expand full comment
Angeline Trevena's avatar

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!

Expand full comment
Nic's avatar

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.

Expand full comment
Angeline Trevena's avatar

Perfect! You can have so much fun with this!

Expand full comment