Elaboration of Things

I do have a post for what happens after entering the dungeon, but first ...

Would anyone like the comment on the absurdity of including this in a book for dungeons and dragons?

It's taken me some time to realise that part of the reason people aren't more inventive with dungeons or outdoor settings is that most people don't actually know anything.  Until researching the above, I didn't know most of this about marmalade.  I know what it tastes like.  I didn't know it came from quinces, I didn't know it was as old as the Romans and I certainly didn't know about the development of the mixture.  Since I'm the sort that usually knows about things, I feel safe guessing that the above is new to most of you.

There are a few things in the above that have D&D applications, at least as description fluff.  The mage can have a garden full of quince trees, the innkeeper might be brewing honey in the back yard to make next years marmalade supply.  Really expensive marmalade can be used as a sort of treasure, as anything made of boiled honey keeps for a long time.  I have a container of honey in my non-refridgerated pantry that's been there for two years.  Still good.  But ... I live in a cold country.

It's larger that this, though, because marmalade's not the only thing on this very large list.  There are four complete pages on confections, odd beverages and condiments, together suggesting a complicated state of affairs that gives some sense of what cities and towns are really like.  It's not just people buying and selling, there are hundreds who are fixated on the manufacture of substances that won't keep long, that must be rushed out to inns and ornate houses in time to appear on someone's dinner table.  This puts something on the carts being pushed around, or the boxes being carried, that can be tripped over by thieves or smelled as the players step out the inn's door.  All this adds tactile sensory detail to the game world that gives dimension ... but if it never occurs to the DM that none of this is going on, because the only things that seem to exist in the world are a few animals and bits of equipment that adventurer's might need, then city life is rather stale, all round.

Which is what I mean when I say that a lot of DMs, including both adults and children, have simply never had cause to search for far-reaching and elaborate details that could be used to describe the game world.  I believe that the overall collection of things, things of every kind, might insidiously fetch themselves into the DM's thoughts, so that suddenly all sorts of fascinating things emerge inside dungeons or along the roads, or on a tavern's eating bench.  I mean, things other than beer.