Food in a fantasy world

Food is one of the most basic necessities of life. All creatures must eat in order to survive. This fact alone makes the subject worth exploring, for in any role playing world the characters must eat. At some point in the game the characters will order food at their favorite inn, or stock up for the long adventure. So the question becomes what do they eat? Do they eat the same pizza and chips scattered about the playing table? Do they have the same spaghetti and meatballs you are planning for supper?

It is simple enough in a campaign to have the character order 1 common meal for 3 silver pieces and a mug of ale for 4 coppers. Or to load their backpack with 5 days of “trail rations”. But good role-playing consists of telling a story, immersing ones self in a fantasy world.

Since most fantasy worlds are just that, FANTASY, the food could be anything. The GM could use common foods of today, pick a modern culture different than his own and follow their diet or pull out one of his gaming reference books, randomly pick a creature, and serve it for dinner. However would you really want to eat roasted cockatrice with violet fungus sauce, and what kind of wine goes with dragon?

The following article provides information about food that could easily be used in a fantasy world. Since most fantasy worlds are modeled on a medieval European setting I have used that as a basis for food in this article. Additionally I have tried to answer questions like what some of the common fantasy races would eat.

How to use this information?
The sections on meats, potherbs, and others will consist of a list. It is my contention that this list be the basis of foods for the most common race, usually humans. Since humans are usually the most diverse and adaptive of the races, it stands to reason that they would have the most variety of foods. However the other races inhabit the same lands as humans and have the same resources, so the list of food should not be discarded when it comes to food for the other races. This list would be the basis for the other races as well. Modified slightly so that some foods are more common and some less. A section on each of the common races of a fantasy world is provided so you can see how this basic list can be modified to give each race a distinct diet.

As stated earlier the foods found on this website are foods that were eaten in medieval Europe. Europe is a large continent with different cultures and climates. Not all the foods listed would be found everywhere in Europe. These foods are primarily from Western Europe with a heavy emphasis on the British. While meat, poultry and potherbs would stay fairly consistent throughout the continent, fruits, nuts and spice (herbs) would very from region to region.