by Kathdys » Fri Jan 02, 2015 7:33 am
Sericulture fits better than you might think. It originated in China over four thousand years ago, but it was brought to Europe over a thousand years ago. Mulberry cultivation is more common in Southern Europe, but they aren't tropical plants. Tea follows a similar story, although herbal teas can be brewed from many things, so it's sort of ambiguous. The domestication of wild silkmoths and wild windsown weeds are a compromise for gameplay's sake, the full Marco Polo experience could be a game on its own.
Pumpkins come from North America, though they can grow almost anywhere. Turnips were used before pumpkins in Europe, for the same purposes. Pumpkins are bigger, and look cooler than turnips, while filling the same niche... I'm ambivalent about this one. Cultivated tobacco also comes from North America, and pipes for smoking it were probably invented by Native Americans, but believe it or not, it can be grown as far north as the south shore of the Baltic sea.
So... What these four things have in common is they all do fit in to the right culture and biome (albeit with some anachronism; try telling an Irishman that potatoes aren't Irish.) Though, some of them come from China and some of them come from North America, they all thrive under cultivation in a temperate forested (or manually deforested)region, and perhaps except for the pumpkin, they're all archetypical trade goods in the English-speaking world. And pumpkins look cooler than turnips.
I guess they don't have to be native to Europe so long as they became really popular in that region and were brought there to stay, anyway. Maybe I'm being mean to monkeys, bananas, and coconuts. I'm definitely being mean to turnips, but I'm remorseless in that regard.