I saw a Reddit post where a DM tried to figure out how a city in their campaign could exist and feed itself. But in the end, after many hours with Excel spreadsheets, it couldn't. And they were disheartened.
But I thought instead it was actually a great justification for fantasy adventure gaming's active and close gods who meddle in mortal affairs. Most of the time we ignore this, but why? Why not give a very strong reason your mortal population is praying to the gods.
How can a city exist when it can't produce enough food or have access to water?
The city exists because the gods allow it and will it to. And this is why we pray.
This is why we pray...
To ensure continued mana from heaven on the holy days, to ensure each tree yields 10 times its bounty, and the statues of St. Neptune pour forth water into pearlescent basins with fish we no longer see
And sacrifice, because the 100 children let the gods know we remember loss even under their divine continuation-- St. Hades will see their souls rest easy
And wail and lament because our tears are a liquid offering to St. Demeter to bring the oceans of Typhoon back...and sew their parents' mouths shut, so in their weakness, they do not blaspheme
And chase non-believers from our streets, our homes, and our hearts as instructed by St. Hera
And build our statues in gold, toil to polish the silver temple roads, and walk the gods to the once-shore as St. Zeus to allow them to observe the departing sea
And tear down lesser gods, foreign gods, and our seers fight the god beyond-- they will not help the city, they will not love us as St. Venus-the-last-of-the-Sea does
And listen to the serpent maidens, allow the god-mad equoids to roam the streets, and avoid the shadow of Tartarus-- they are the voices of the gods, the hounds of the gods, and they grasping jealousy of the gods
And this is why we wear the mask of St. Ares to let him know we are his legion and move as one as his sword and brace as one as his shield
And observe the celebrations of the verdian moon, Elysium, so that its guardian, St. Diana, will allow us passage to its lands of blue and green- the colors of heaven
Naming the Greek gods as saints is some good worldbuilding, mmm MM!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I've had that rolling around in my head for a little bit. The true "gods" would be the Titans which I listed here: https://icastlight.blogspot.com/2025/04/the-tropics-of-cancer-gygax-75-minute.html
DeleteI've had similar thoughts about certain spells in 5th edition D&D that seem to have just been casually dropped in without regard to their impact on world building: the "ritual" application of plant growth, for example, or the lesser effects of goodberries and created food & water.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, one could imagine a campaign with those spells being an important pillar in society so maintaining them give a cleric/religious order a solid reason to keep doing their thing
DeleteI love this angle. Big ole thumbs-up.
ReplyDeleteThank you for reading!
Delete"I saw a Reddit post where a DM tried to figure out how a city in their campaign could exist and feed itself. But in the end, after many hours with Excel spreadsheets, it couldn't. And they were disheartened."
ReplyDeleteLink, please?
I don't remember anything else about it only just the part about stoping the whole exercise but it might be in the OSR subreddit or r/worldbuilding
DeleteThank you!
Delete