Scarcity, Banh Mi, and Inventory Systems

Pick up an RPG and there’s a good chance it has an inventory management system.

No, not all of them, but I’d wager probably more of them do than do not. So why is this? To answer that question, I’m going to talk about the iconic Vietnamese sandwich, the Banh Mi.

Vietnam is certainly not alone in this, but their cuisine is in part a story of colonization. The French colonized Vietnam for nearly a century. You can see this is so much of their cuisine. Pho is a great example – the cuts of meat used in this infamous soup are the cuts the French colonizers didn’t want. This is why there is often beef tendon in it.

For those who don’t know, a Banh Mi is a sandwich on a pseuo-baguette (more on that in a sec). It often has mayo, a sort of pate (though all kinds of proteins are used now), jalapenos, and a pickled carrot/ daikon mix. They are delicious and I really wish I had one right now.

But the baguette is not a normal baguette. It’s lighter somehow. Maybe even crispier. Why is that? Well, wheat flour was sometimes scarce, so it was supplemented with rice flour. This created the iconic roll that a Banh mi comes on.

“Cool story, bro,” you say. “But wtf does this have to do with me killing goblins, nerd?”

Okay, kinda mean, but let’s continue.

The point is, this sandwich is made this way on purpose now, despite the prevalence of wheat flour around the globe. People who know get upset if they get one and it’s just on a regular sub roll. It’s the bread that makes it what it is!

And this all happened because of scarcity.

Get it now?

Inventory systems are a method of enacting scarcity. They limit your tools. Interestingly, the less tools you have, the more important they become. Old School gamers LOVE to talk about the 10ft pole. When you can only carry so much and you don’t have tons of magic to solve your problems, you get real creative.

There’s a lot you can do with a 10ft length of wood.

I wanna talk a bit about how different systems handle inventory, but this is getting a bit long. I also have a LOT of other stuff coming up this week, so it’s gonna take a sec.

I’ll post it in a few days Keep an eye out for the title, “All the ways to track your crap”.

I swear, I’m actually an adult.