Coffee?

[Chaldfont]

Coffee is definitely in my campaign world. Other vices include:

Tobacco--My artificer/rogue in an Eberron campaign has several pipes
Wine--The players in my main campaign run a winery.
Hagga--Dried seaweed, smoked or chewed. Euphoric in small amounts, hallucinogenic in large refined doses. I ripped the name from Conan the Barbarian ("I would sell hagga to slayers such as you?"). The sorcerer named his sleep spell, "The Dreams of Hagga".
Beer--all kinds. Two of us are homebrewers, so beer shows up alot in and out of game.

BTW, having your players run a business is a great way to hook them into adventures. Just threaten what they've worked hard to establish.

"Bandits? Who cares, let the authorities deal with them."

turns into...

"Someone hijacked a shipment of our Year of the Snake Briarwood Reserve Cabernet!? Thats it. ITS ON!!"

 

[Warrior Poet]

Check out barsoomcore's story hour about, uh, well, Barsoom.

Coffee in my Wild West Games, for sure. "Of course the coffee tastes like dirt! It was ground this morning!" (old cavalry joke)

. . .

. . . Were those cavalry troops supposed to be here tonight?

Honestly, I hate that kind of anachronism. Starting the day with coffee, orange juice, and cereal screams "late 20th-century America" to me.

People have been starting the day with fruit and grains since before highly-developed fore-brains. And coffee, as a brewed drink, has been in Europe since at least the late 17th century.

Warrior Poet

Edit: Late again. Just noticed Patryn of Elvenshae's notation. Nevermind.

 

[Mark Hope]

In my old homebrew, coffee was something of a delicacy, having been imported into the gameworld by planar travellers many years ago. Decent coffee would only grow in one or two areas and so commanded exorbitant prices ("No! I don't want any of that Southland muck! Give me the finest Dyrn eth Mal blend or give me death!!")

 

[mmadsen]

Coffee's an old drink.

In Europe, coffee goes back to around 1600 -- after the middle ages -- when it was an exotic import from the Middle East. Over the next century or two, coffee houses became popular hangouts, especially with intellectuals and merchants.

I don't believe it became a popular breakfast option until fairly recently.

 

[mmadsen]

People have been starting the day with fruit and grains since before highly-developed fore-brains.

They certainly didn't start the day with breakfast cereal until very, very recently -- the first breakfast cereals only date back to the 1890s. And orange juice didn't become a breakfast staple -- rather than an exotic treat -- until the 20th century, as I recall.

 

[Warrior Poet]

They certainly didn't start the day with breakfast cereal until very, very recently -- the first breakfast cereals only date back to the 1890s. And orange juice didn't become a breakfast staple -- rather than an exotic treat -- until the 20th century, as I recall.

Absolutely correct, which is why I said fruit and grains (general), which are the forebears of (but which may include) oranges and baked wheat flakes. But I'm betting that 100,000 years ago, on what we now consider to be the Iberian or Italian peninsulas (for example), local hunter-gatherers loved pulling those wonderful globular fruit (probably smaller than they are now) off the tree and watching each other make funny faces as they got a citrus assault to the tongue.

But yes, figuring out to squeeze the thing into a glass and pour milk on the other bits, those are much more recent (and vaguely lascivious-sounding, the way I just described it ).

Warrior Poet

 

[Tonguez]

of course nothing beats a good breakfast beer - the best way to get your does of grains, malt and beverage

of course waters pretty good too and the usuall breakfast imc comprises dried fish, cold sweet potato (or yam), a mango or breadfruit and a drink of either fresh water or coconut milk

 

[Warrior Poet]

of course nothing beats a good breakfast beer - the best way to get your does of grains, malt and beverage

Guinness: a glass of bread. It's not just for breakfast anymore!

Warrior Poet

 

[TheAuldGrump]

In Europe, coffee goes back to around 1600 -- after the middle ages -- when it was an exotic import from the Middle East. Over the next century or two, coffee houses became popular hangouts, especially with intellectuals and merchants.

I don't believe it became a popular breakfast option until fairly recently.

Strangely this is around the time period of my homebrew (badum bump!) game. Chocolate houses also serve as nests of gentile intrigue.

I seem to recall some of the first coffee beans in Europe were served boiled over spinach...

The Auld Grump, Elizabeth I?...

 

[Samothdm]

#2 -- small beer (aka near beer -- like water, but safer to drink!)

Anyone drinking such a thing in one of the campaigns I play in would be killed immediately for being evil.

People in taverns drinking "light beer" are always evil in this campaign. It's become a quick sign for us to identify bad guys.

"You enter the tavern and peer through the thick haze of smoke rising from the spit of meat in the fire. There are a few seats available at the bar, near a few tough-looking gentlemen."

"What are they drinking?"

"It appears to be some sort of ale..."

"Is it light beer? They're drinking light beer? We kill 'em!"


We haven't been wrong yet. The paladin doesn't even bother to detect evil on 'em any more.