The biggest thing that irritates me from this is the implication that anybody is arguing for “historical accuracy” to medieval Europe in a setting that has dragons and goblins that shoot lightning from their fingertips. If, for whatever weird reason, the DM doesn’t want potatoes to exist that’s okay, but you’re not waiting for the Columbian exchange to bring them over from the Americas because the Americas don’t exist here. If you have a player character that’s a shape shifting sentient blob who casts illusions and is on a quest to seduce every milliner they can find then a plain tasting sausage made from fine ground questionable cuts of meat shouldn’t be seen as a stretch.
Additionally, as someone who majored in History in college, I can assure you that most people insisting on “historical accuracy” on any one or two things they learned from a tweet or a tiktok about are almost definitely getting fifteen other things wrong in any given session.
I think one could argue that fantasy isn’t based on the reality of the medieval ages, but on the collective beliefs and myths of that era.
As a side effect, though, the countryside would probably be filled with giant snails that you’d have to fight.
…which sounds awesome…
People want to feel like they’re in a historic setting, but they also want dragons and potatoes. 🤷♂️
Why wouldn’t your setting have potatoes? Does your setting have Peru in it? No, no Peru? Gee, then it sure sounds to me like you get to decide where potatoes come from in your setting; they don’t have to be a “new world” food if you world doesn’t have or has a different “new world.”
Potatoes come from the Elemental Plane of Earth.
The mighty DM has spoken!
Pomme de Terra
I’m saving that for a “journey to the new world” campaign at some point in the future.
Potatoes? What are potatoes?
You know - boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew.
Can you explain how potatoes led to hotdigs?
At one point when people on Twitter were arguing about the historical accuracy of LGBT+ groups in a DnD setting, I made the argument that anyone who includes potatoes in their setting doesn’t care about historical accuracy anyway. This led to a discussion about what would be missing from a medieval setting and the conclusion that a “historically accurate” DnD setting would have gay people, but not potatoes. This became a running joke.
Fast forward a few months, and during a fair there’s a vendor selling “sausages in a bun, topped with mustard sauce or sauerkraut.” The players caught on to them being hotdogs, and it sparked another discussion about what foods were available in a “historically accurate” setting.
(Which, all those ingredients would have been available to the setting, even of they weren’t eaten in that configuration.)
My take:
It’s not even set on Earth in the first place, so “historical accuracy” is a non-starter. This world can be whatever you want it to be.
