The whole General Store thing is because one of the biggest influences on D&D that’s not in Appendix N is the American Western. The classic D&D village with the church, blacksmith, saloon/hotel, and general store? The elected mayor? Being convienently located to a large underground source of gold so they can make money selling picks, shovels, rope, weapons, pleasurable company, and alcohol to outsiders who come in search of gold? Local pastimes include listening to music in the saloon, drinking, whoring, and getting into bar-fights? The law’s enforced by a sheriff who has an actual jail to put offenders in? All you need to make a classic Wild West town is adding a train stop and a telegraph- which are, incidentally, the necessary technologies to make general stores make sense.

this makes a surprising amount of sense (via brotherentropy)