Robert Ranting
First Post
While I can't say that I consciously try to emphasize food, looking back on my previous campaigns, it seems that food definately does play a role in establishing the "feel" of a place. I think that this is probably more true in games where the PCs spend a lot of time journeying to foreign countries or dealing with non-human species in a diplomatic sort of way. Food can also play a role in character development. In addition to the old cannibal warrior trope, the differences in the eating tastes of a party can be a source of in-character amusement or consternation.
In my urban fantasy d20 campaign, the party rarely agreed on anything, but there were few topics more contentious than "What's for dinner?". Of the six PCs, the fighter/mage was of the beer and steak persuasion, the ratling would eat almost anything, the "zen" fighter was a vegan, the gnome couldn't stomach red meat and loved fruit, the child-like savant had a sweet tooth, and the wizard's family ran an ethnic restaurant (spicy latin cuisine). Since the group had room and board provided by their patron in exchange for their services in bettering the community, they took meals together, and thus ran the housekeeper ragged cooking seperate dishes for all of them.
Other incidences of food playing an important part in that game:
1) The fighter/mage and the ratling were bound and determined to get the vegan to eat a steak, going so far as to question other members of his race and doctors if it was possible, or if there was some sort of dietary supplement to get around his intolerance.
2) Since the PCs lived in a rough part of town (they were trying to clean up their home neighborhood) their housekeeper needed to make trips to other districts of the city in order to do her weekly shopping. To ensure her safety, they would give her an armed escort to the nearest safe district, and wait to pick her up and escort her back once she was done.
3) The mage would occassionally lend her cooking expertise to help the housekeeper, as well as keeping her part-time job at her family's restaurant. Unfortunately, the bland palletes of her comrades came into conflict with her culinary heritage, meaning either she felt demeaned by making such awful food for them, or they couldn't stomach it.
4) After a recon mission into an affluent district yielded him an ice-cream cone, the savant became obsessed with the stuff, going so far as to spend his hard-earned gold on a crank-operated ice cream maker that he found in an "oddities and antiquities" shop.
5) During one of the holidays of my campaign world, an export company from a tropical island chain hands out free fruit (oranges and tangerines mostly) in major cities to help increase business and educating people on the dangers of scurvy. For days afterward, the slums smelled of citrus.
6) One of the antagonists of the campaign was a socialist coalition of slaughterhouse workers who were willing to use violence in their campaign for better wages and living conditions for their fellow men. Unfortunately, the party decided that they were best left alone and focused their attention on other crimes, figuring the police and military could be counted upon in the case of a riot.
7) When the PCs saved a young witch who had been brainwashed into aiding a villainous ratling, they took the amnesiac girl back to the boading house, where she helped the housekeeper with chores and meal preparation until such time as they discovered her true identity and returned her to her parents.
Robert "Things That Make You Go Mmmm" Ranting
In my urban fantasy d20 campaign, the party rarely agreed on anything, but there were few topics more contentious than "What's for dinner?". Of the six PCs, the fighter/mage was of the beer and steak persuasion, the ratling would eat almost anything, the "zen" fighter was a vegan, the gnome couldn't stomach red meat and loved fruit, the child-like savant had a sweet tooth, and the wizard's family ran an ethnic restaurant (spicy latin cuisine). Since the group had room and board provided by their patron in exchange for their services in bettering the community, they took meals together, and thus ran the housekeeper ragged cooking seperate dishes for all of them.
Other incidences of food playing an important part in that game:
1) The fighter/mage and the ratling were bound and determined to get the vegan to eat a steak, going so far as to question other members of his race and doctors if it was possible, or if there was some sort of dietary supplement to get around his intolerance.
2) Since the PCs lived in a rough part of town (they were trying to clean up their home neighborhood) their housekeeper needed to make trips to other districts of the city in order to do her weekly shopping. To ensure her safety, they would give her an armed escort to the nearest safe district, and wait to pick her up and escort her back once she was done.
3) The mage would occassionally lend her cooking expertise to help the housekeeper, as well as keeping her part-time job at her family's restaurant. Unfortunately, the bland palletes of her comrades came into conflict with her culinary heritage, meaning either she felt demeaned by making such awful food for them, or they couldn't stomach it.
4) After a recon mission into an affluent district yielded him an ice-cream cone, the savant became obsessed with the stuff, going so far as to spend his hard-earned gold on a crank-operated ice cream maker that he found in an "oddities and antiquities" shop.
5) During one of the holidays of my campaign world, an export company from a tropical island chain hands out free fruit (oranges and tangerines mostly) in major cities to help increase business and educating people on the dangers of scurvy. For days afterward, the slums smelled of citrus.
6) One of the antagonists of the campaign was a socialist coalition of slaughterhouse workers who were willing to use violence in their campaign for better wages and living conditions for their fellow men. Unfortunately, the party decided that they were best left alone and focused their attention on other crimes, figuring the police and military could be counted upon in the case of a riot.
7) When the PCs saved a young witch who had been brainwashed into aiding a villainous ratling, they took the amnesiac girl back to the boading house, where she helped the housekeeper with chores and meal preparation until such time as they discovered her true identity and returned her to her parents.
Robert "Things That Make You Go Mmmm" Ranting
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