Not on Bread Alone!

[GutterFace]

A few of the people im playing with are bringing up that we never allot time to eat and drink. aside from a tavern visit i guess.

i never really thought of food as part of the whole D&D experience. i suppose that is my own fault. anyways - how do i make eating more interesting?

to elaborate further - how often should i have the players stop and eat. and if they are out of food/water what kinds of penalties should i impose?

also if your profession was a Chef/Cook etc...is there a way to make "magical" food (think of the cooking profession of modern mmo's)?

[GnomeGninjas]

I don't bring it up much. I just have the players lose 1 trail ration per day and start taking the penalties for starvation when they run out.

[Squirrel_Dude]

An important note about trail rations is that they only stay good if they don't get wet. That simply isn't going to be the case for most adventurers.

[Darrin]

how do i make eating more interesting?


I think a better question would be, why would you want to?

(My own group has very limited time to game. We'd rather spend more time doing the fun stuff than keeping track of rations.)

You need to talk to your group and find out what kind of game they enjoy. If they really do enjoy the gritty realism a game of Excel: The Spreadsheet, where they keep track of every meal, every ration, every waterskin, and the effects of malnutrition/dehydration/starvation, then I'd probably grab Sandstorm and start steering the group towards some Dark Sun material.

I suspect your group actually doesn't want that level of realism, though. Lampshade it or handwave it and move on to the more interesting stuff.

[Hand_of_Vecna]

Unless your running a low resource game like Dark-Sun, food is really trivial. Rations are cheap, create food and water is a 3rd level spell and Survival's forage function can easily feed a party if one character has the skill maxed.

If everyone else attempts to aid another you can probably stretch it out to foraging every other day around level 5. Technically having the unskilled folks make their own rolls would be better, but it seems reasonable that doing so would require splitting the party for most of the day.

I've been considering introducing Elder Scroll style alchemy to a game recently using DMG prices for potions. The mechanical process would be simple. Half the potion cost in materials that are gained through herbalism checks to harvest herbs in the wilderness that requires either moving at half speed on an overland trip like survival does or just wandering in a circuitous route around your base camp. The other half of the base price has to come from alchemy checks following normal crafting rules.

You could apply some small benefit to good food but I'd advise keeping the Heroes' Feast spell in mind as something no mundane meal should approach the power of, unless your running a very heavily house ruled game.

[Deophaun]

Rings of sustenance, everlasting trail rations, create food and water. Really with as many easy ways available to completely negate the need for tracking food and water, it's amazing 3.5 bothered to include such things at all.

BTW, if you're tracking food consumption, are you also tracking the by products? Has the barbarian made use of the wizard's spellbook after answering nature's call?

[Telonius]

Personally, it's one of those things that doesn't matter, unless it does.

Under normal circumstances, it's just not going to matter. Within the game world, the characters aren't going to forget to eat. If players are going to be going on a typical adventure, I just assume that they've got enough to survive on. If you want to include typical sorts of foods of the town as background fluff, then sure, go nuts. If Profession (Chef) is in a PC's background and you want to play it up (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0476.html), I'd fully endorse that. But if the DM starts really describing the food in any great detail, the players are likely going to start checking it closely for poison, investigate the chef, and generally derail whatever plot is supposed to happen.

But If you've trapped them in the middle of the desert with no towns around, then running out of food and water are going to be part of the challenge. Tracking it is totally appropriate there. If the town is under siege and the food stores are running low, and they have to choose whether to Create Food and Water to feed the starving townsfolk or cast beneficial spells to help the defense? That's an interesting situation, with consequences for either choice.

[Slipperychicken]

if they are out of food/water what kinds of penalties should i impose?


The penalties outlined in the rules (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/environment.htm#starvationAndThirst), perhaps? :smalltongue:

[GutterFace]

i was just seeing how others (you guys) handle this. since it looks to be moot i wont really bother with it.

its too much work keeping track of weight (unless its nonsense) and water.

thanks ill just table to great food debate :)