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Madcrafter
2015-05-08, 03:16 PM
Dungeon World has a set of two tables to generate instant NPCs, the first consisting of an "Instinct", similar to what the game uses for monsters, that gives what the person is like or a main goal, and the second being a "Knack", something that they're good at or helps them get ahead. Both tend to be rather vague, allowing an instant imagination leap to what the resulting person might be like, and it's a system I quite like (I typically add on a manner and distinctive feature if the character needs even more fleshing out).

I was rolling up some background NPCs randomly for a Dungeon World adventure, and happened to roll what I believe is probably the most unusually specific result on the Knack table. Number 27: A much-needed bag of taters. That certainly made me stop to think for a moment. Why are they so needed? Is the bag important?

Maybe there's a famine, and they're the only person with any food. Or maybe the potatoes are magical, sort of a Jack and the Beanstalk character. Maybe potatoes are exotic foods, and are needed for a special potion. So many possibilities. So I'm wondering what others might think up: what unusual and creative things or adventures could be done with the much-needed taters?

Other strange random NPC generation stories are also relevant.

Townopolis
2015-05-08, 03:30 PM
The adventurers are working their way through a dungeon full of fairly sensitive pressure plates they need to hold down. There's a lot of these plates, and they're all over the place, but they're sensitive enough that one tater each should do the trick.
Partway through the adventure, the party must cross a bottleneck (single bridge across a chasm, tunnel, etc...) guarded by a troll (if the party is high-level enough, make it a supertroll). The troll demands they pay a fee. When they ask what the fee is, he decides it's been too long since he's had mashed potatoes. Mashed potatoes, or mashed adventurers!
The dwarf fortress that the party needs to recruit as allies lives on the produce of their turnip farms, but there are issues with the turnips (parasites, a turnip disease, or the dwarves are just sick of turnips). The dwarf council doesn't want to just import the food. The adventurers must find an alternative tuber for them to grow (this assumes that taters are, in fact, exotic).
The party wizard is able to devise a remarkably useful new spell--one the party can use to defeat the evil legions of nastiness. Unfortunately, the spell requires and consumes a tater with each casting.
An ancient machine lies dormant in the depths of the dungeon, and the party needs to reactivate it. Unfortunately, its battery is dead. Fortunately, one of the party members knows about potato batteries. Now they just need about a sackful of taters to provide the energy required.


Edit: 6. The party discovers that the only person who knows where the mcguffin is located is Gollum. Gollum is still confused about what taters are precious, and he demands a demonstration before he reveals the information he knows. The party must boil 'em, mash 'em, and stick 'em in a stew.

Pex
2015-05-08, 05:41 PM
Start a war between nations because the other pronounces it wrong.

Maglubiyet
2015-05-08, 06:32 PM
You could feed an army if there's the equivalent of Plant Growth in this game system -- cut/quarter the tubers, plant them, cast the spell, and now you've got a field full of potatoes.

Ammo for a potato gun.

Can be quickly and easily cut into stamps. Carve into seditious symbols of the resistance, distribute with pots of paint, and vandalize a neighborhood with revolutionary messages in a single night. Dip and stamp.

Drop the bag onto passersby in the street from a fifth-storey window then go through their pockets for loose change.

JAL_1138
2015-05-08, 07:11 PM
There was a belief system on the Disc that believed that you'd be all right (including spiritually) as long as you had potatoes...

Sith_Happens
2015-05-08, 07:14 PM
Use them as joints in an elaborate wire sculpture and accidentally discover mundane electricity in the process.

Madcrafter
2015-05-08, 07:27 PM
There was a belief system on the Disc that believed that you'd be all right (including spiritually) as long as you had potatoes...

Hah, given the amount of references in the game, I would be surprised if this weren't where it originates from.

Necroticplague
2015-05-08, 07:54 PM
Rotten ones can be used as valuable sources of spell components, using the various molds and mosses that'll begin to grow on them.

With a good throwing arm, fling stale ones as weapons. POTATO'd sound effect optional (though recommended).

Potatos are relatively easily carvable. Thus, it can be used to make molds if plaster is unavailable.

Use it as a component in a booby-trap. A long string with the potato holding up something, then whip it out to make something topple as a form of remote-trigger. Automate it by having the string be a tripwire.

chainer1216
2015-05-08, 08:17 PM
In the right environment potatoes grow poisonous "eyes" so you could poison things maybe.

Have you ever had a decently made cream of potato, bacon and cheese soup? Give that to someone for an instant boost to morale and social checks to them.

JAL_1138
2015-05-08, 08:23 PM
Potatoes can be used to make booze. Certain types of vodka are made out of 'taters instead of grain. Leading to my preferred epithet/nickname for the stuff, "communist potato juice."

Ettina
2015-05-08, 08:52 PM
You could probably carve a divine focus out of a potato.

sktarq
2015-05-09, 12:08 AM
Taking them to a northern or highland village that is grain dependent and needs a more reliable source of food production. (see British isles/scandinavia)

Trying to expand crop production so that more farmers can be away from their fields long enough to go on raids for nearby tribes (see the musket wars of NZ)

As final round special ingredient in a chef challenge for the position of the King's personal chef and master of the Adamandium kitchen

Ettina
2015-05-10, 03:57 AM
Powering an evil AI (https://www.google.ca/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CAcQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnathanr2013.deviantart.com%2Fart% 2FGLaDOS-Quote-Potato-300215050&ei=HB1PVdufONDhoASR7IDYDw&bvm=bv.92885102,d.cGU&psig=AFQjCNGic3wm-RvCrvNo-JCrr8Vj28HAoA&ust=1431334554563077).

Fayd
2015-05-11, 08:38 PM
Maybe it's not the taters that's important. Maybe it's the BAG. Maybe the bag is a bag of holding stuffed as full of potatoes as possible. Maybe this incredibly massive amount of potatoes floating in the Astral converges into a new potato centric deity.

Perhaps it is a bag that has a portal to the primal elemental plane of potato as its opening.

Perhaps it is an ordinary bag but you are able to use it to blind an enemy with a gaze attack. Perhaps, hidden away in the center of one potato, is a gemstone worth more than the total value of all of the real estate of the continent.

TheCountAlucard
2015-05-11, 08:48 PM
The monster demanded 1,000 eyes as a tribute, and this was more expedient than blinding the village.

Dexam
2015-05-12, 12:01 AM
The NPC needs potatoes to power their Stepper Box so they can get back to Datum Earth.

Feddlefew
2015-05-12, 12:28 AM
A protein in potatoes causes a false positive in most test that determine if blood is human. Make of that what you will.:smallwink:

Hawkstar
2015-05-12, 01:02 PM
The party forgot to bring rations.

Flickerdart
2015-05-13, 09:11 AM
In a pinch, potatoes will serve as marbles - they'll trip you up if you step on one while running.

Potatoes can be processed into delicious vodka, as well as a variety of foods to eat with the vodka.

Boiling potatoes and then breathing in the steam from the hot potatoes is a Russian folk remedy for the common cold (plus then you can eat the potatoes).

Lifting sacks of potatoes builds muscle.

You can dump out the potatoes and pull the bag over someone's head to blind them, or cut holes in the bag and put it over your own head as a disguise.

Hitting someone with a sack of potatoes is going to put the hurt on them. Individual potatoes can be used as projectiles.

erikun
2015-05-13, 09:21 AM
The royal bloodline has the unusual ability to grow a golden potato. As in, they can grow a potato that actually collects and contains gold. Every generation, the children of the late king attempt to grow potatoes, with the one who can grow the golden potato being the one who takes the crown.

The kingdom is current in unrest, with all the children of the former king reportedly have not grown the golden potato. The NPC in question is in fact the bastard child of the royal line, and has successfully grown the potato as proof. They are trying to get to the kingdom as a way to show it, but they need to do so safely and to prevent the current royalty/brigands/simple thieves from stealing it.

Kantaki
2015-05-13, 07:26 PM
As a weapon for assassinations. Don't give me that look. Ist brilliant, no one would ever suspect it even if one of your potatoes gets found near the victim. You can use them to choke someone by shoving one down their throat, You can use the entire bag to beat them to death if you need to fake a robbery you can make vodka to poison them in a covert manner. And I am sure there are many other ways to kill with potatoes.:smallbiggrin:

nedz
2015-05-13, 07:48 PM
To compliment the crate of Mr Potato Head toys, which would be of no use without them.

darkscizor
2015-05-14, 07:15 PM
As a weapon for assassinations. Don't give me that look. Ist brilliant, no one would ever suspect it even if one of your potatoes gets found near the victim. You can use them to choke someone by shoving one down their throat, You can use the entire bag to beat them to death if you need to fake a robbery you can make vodka to poison them in a covert manner. And I am sure there are many other ways to kill with potatoes.:smallbiggrin:

You scare me.





On the topic of potatoes, I believe that they can be distilled into alcohol. Concentrate all from a bag after a few weeks of fermentation and you have enough for an improv molotov or two.

Kantaki
2015-05-14, 07:35 PM
You scare me.

Thank you very much. :smallbiggrin:

On topic: The potatoes all look like VIPs. This collection must be worth quite a bit gold.
Potatoes are a sacred plant of a nature goddess, this gives them incredible magical properties that boost the effect of healing potions, undead-wards and most importantly love and fertility amulets and potions. As it happens an high ranking noble is willing to pay a high sum to the person who can cure his wifes infertility.
Potatoes where only recently discovered and the various academys and universitys pay high sums to anyone who can provide them with samples to explore the properties of these unknown plants.

Karen Lynn
2015-05-15, 03:19 AM
There was a belief system on the Disc that believed that you'd be all right (including spiritually) as long as you had potatoes...

Someone else shares my faith?

I've always said: Potatoes are Life.

Anonymouswizard
2015-05-15, 12:24 PM
There was a belief system on the Disc that believed that you'd be all right (including spiritually) as long as you had potatoes...

I believe you just had to have the one, and the (very simple) character who was the last believer realised that it was more complex, but as he still metaphysically had his potato he was able to spend a long time waiting to become truly sorry and then move on to a happy next life

Kami2awa
2015-05-15, 12:28 PM
Potato alcohol is also great for making fuel, and was even used to fuel the German V2 rockets.

Yukitsu
2015-05-15, 03:28 PM
In one campaign, rather than doing anything sane, we all decided to create, and be the villains of a massive underground dungeon. After filling it with traps and monsters and such, we filled the end vault with a small bag of potatoes. It's a legendary dungeon within the campaign and had contributions to its difficulty by an epic artificer, an epic wizard, a two deities and some random hags, but it's not impossible to get to the end. It's just that you'll end up with a sack of potatoes.

I'd imagine anyone that makes it out of there alive with a bag of potatoes, they'll probably assume there's something special about them, or that by damn, they earned those potatoes.

JAL_1138
2015-05-15, 04:34 PM
I believe you just had to have the one, and the (very simple) character who was the last believer realised that it was more complex, but as he still metaphysically had his potato he was able to spend a long time waiting to become truly sorry and then move on to a happy next life

I'm pretty sure he wasn't the last one. It's apparently got a following in Uberwald. Another character's parents had been members of the Plain Potato Church, which had split from the Ancient and Orthodox Potato Church, although that character himself was an Anoian.

Theodred theOld
2015-05-16, 03:58 PM
I'd like to reference Lord of War in which Nick Cage uses a shipping container of rotten potatoes to conceal guns that he's smuggling.

Anonymouswizard
2015-05-16, 04:18 PM
I'm pretty sure he wasn't the last one. It's apparently got a following in Uberwald. Another character's parents had been members of the Plain Potato Church, which had split from the Ancient and Orthodox Potato Church, although that character himself was an Anoian.

He was certainly the last of his village, implied in the book (or I at least inferred) to be the only village that followed the religion, and the other mention was much less plot relevant and so I forgot about it. Sorry for spreading misinformation.

Carve potatoes into little figurines to go along with your cubes of chance and character parchments.

JAL_1138
2015-05-16, 08:00 PM
He was certainly the last of his village, implied in the book (or I at least inferred) to be the only village that followed the religion, and the other mention was much less plot relevant and so I forgot about it. Sorry for spreading misinformation.

Carve potatoes into little figurines to go along with your cubes of chance and character parchments.

The reference to the other character's parents was purely a continuity joke in a throwaway line or two in a much later book, so it'd be easy to forget. No worries. Also, both could be simultaneously true--if there's any discrepancy, "History Monks." That incident in Bad Schüschein left history a bit more fractured than usual in Überwald.

Battlebooze
2015-05-17, 01:14 AM
Potatoes can easily be used for taking the impressions of keys, for you rogue types.

As many people said, you can make alcohol from Potatoes. And with alcohol, you can make Molotov cocktails.

You can eat them.

You can hide things inside them.

You can throw them.

You can poison them and give them to your enemies.

You can make poison from the eyes and skin if you let them sit in the sun.

You can feed them to animals.

You can carve them into cool things.

You could mash them up and make a big slippery mess.

You could sell a bunch of them, then spend the money on something more useful. (As if!)

Hawkstar
2015-05-17, 07:59 AM
Boil'em, mash'em, stick'em in a stew.

JAL_1138
2015-05-17, 08:03 AM
Without potatos, you cannot have chips. Without chips, you cannot have fish and chips. Without fish and chips, London will starve.

Anonymouswizard
2015-05-17, 08:13 AM
Without potatos, you cannot have chips. Without chips, you cannot have fish and chips. Without fish and chips, London will starve.

Sir, in a pinch, the British can survive on twenty gallons of tea a day and the occasional biscuit.

Of course, if we ever have a potato famine and sugar famine, London is doomed.

Kami2awa
2015-05-21, 11:35 AM
Google inurl:lifehacker "with a potato"

http://lifehacker.com/321014/change-a-broken-bulb-with-a-potato

http://lifehacker.com/5953892/relieve-minor-burns-with-a-potato

http://lifehacker.com/5822087/remove-rust-from-cookware-with-a-potato

http://lifehacker.com/391328/clean-cast-iron-cookware-with-a-potato

http://lifehacker.com/5939146/clean-up-broken-glass-with-a-potato

http://lifehacker.com/5485831/keep-car-windows-from-fogging-with-a-potato

http://www.lifehacker.co.in/jugaad/Use-Potato-Juice-To-Help-Your-Hair-Grow/articleshow/40596426.cms

Kantaki
2015-05-21, 11:43 AM
You can use the whole bag as a baby-dummy. Why you need this dummy? Don't ask me, it is your quest brave heroes.

Malak'ai
2015-05-21, 12:28 PM
You could use a spud to plug up a hole in the wall, preventing deadly/noxious gas from coming in (just look out when the pressure builds too much).

Spud skins are slippery. Peel a few and chuck the skins on the floor then sit back and laugh as your enemies go sliding face first into a wall.

Rotten spuds STINK! Use as a distraction/deterant.

No rocks or pebbles to throw into the bushes as a distraction? Never fear, spuds are easy to throw!

Spud-on-a-string makes for a cheap and nasty morning star or flail.

Spud-on-a-string also makes a good lure for leprechaun's.

Waterskin got a hole in it? Hollow out a spud and add a cork.

Need a base for a poltice? Raw mashed spud is cooling, and contains enough moisture so that you dont need saliva!

Spuds make brilliant ablative armor, though a bit messy.

Dont have a handy travel sized Holy Book to put in your shirt pocket? Use a spud!

Paint a spud gold and cause an uproar as everyone rushes out of town to 'Hit the big one'!

There's so much you can do with the humble Spud. Go nuts!

Ralanr
2015-05-21, 12:54 PM
I find it hilarious that I am seeing potatoes more often after I introduced a new player to tabletop RPGs.

She had an elf rogue named Potato.

Madcrafter
2015-05-21, 04:01 PM
Truly, people are ingenious when it comes to uses for root vegetables. I would not have expected this many applications. Burn salve, how useful.

Though I don't know about the ablative armour one, they aren't that resistant or dense.

Kantaki
2015-05-21, 04:14 PM
Target practice. Just place the potatoes in the middle of a village and it will lure out the villagers. Right into your line of fire. To evil you say? Fine use them in the forest to lure out the wildlife. No difference. The Party-Hippie complains about this? Just throw the potatoes into the air and (shoot him when he tries to catch them) I mean shoot them out of the air.

Aunt Edith says: I do not advocate the shooting of either people or wildlife (or hippies) to improve your accuracy in real life. If it is a roleplaying session or a video-game? Go ahead.

Bard1cKnowledge
2015-05-21, 05:41 PM
Two words

Potato Golem


Applause everywhere

Endarire
2015-05-21, 06:18 PM
GLaDOS's core was removed and transplanted into a potato. GLaDOS is the villainous supercomputer from the Portal series. Yes, that happened. Watch more on YouTube if you're interested.