Adding Flavor to the Races

[mgshamster]

Each race is unique in their culinary habits, and serves as a distinguishing feature which clearly separates their differences.

Dwarves - in their hills and mountains - are strict with their paleo diets. They are, once you think about it, essentially cave men. But beyond that, they take pride in their ancient heritage, and keep to the diets of their ancestors. They insist (in their stubborn way), that "modern" diets are unhealthy, because we have not yet evolved to properly consume them.

The lithe elves are primarily vegetarians - though they are capable of consuming meats if they so choose (usually fish). Proper elves do not. High Elves are Vegans, while their forest cousins in the Woods prefer gluten free foods (they have a moral quandary against agriculture, and therefore wheat). The drow - hated by all the other elves - eat meat almost exclusively (though they're not above garnishing with some mushrooms or other fungus).

Halflings are consummate agriculturists. They love growing their own food and eating them right off the plant. They're strict Raw Foodists, insisting that cooking destroys the nutrients and the flavor for healthy living. They refuse to cook anything, even their meats! And raw milk, they claim, has the greatest flavor of all.

Dragonborn prefer their foods prepared in specific manners. They eat their food through their breath weapon - Red, Gold, and Brass share a kinship by searing their foods and providing some extra burnt flavors. Silver and White like it near frozen - and enjoy delicacies prepared by flash freezing (an interesting side note: some cultures have discovered that food "prepared" by these types of dragonborn last much longer than any other food preparation method, and can later be thawed and properly cooked for consumption). Blue and Bronze char their meals to an absolute crisp. Black and Copper dragons prefer theirs liquified by chemistry - almost as if they're pre-digesting it. Green seem to be the most normal, but they flavor it up with some seasoning that's practically poisonous to most others (try not to hire them as your personal chef).

Gnomes are of a peculiarity. They're the only race that doesn't have some sort of similarity between the subraces. Forest Gnomes follow the practice of fruitarianism - partly for the delicious fruits and nuts of the forest (even to the point of consuming any botanically defined fruit, which is the seed bearing part of any plant), and partly for the long name of the word. As you may be aware, gnomes are fond of long names. Rock Gnomes, on the other hand, use their technology to break their food down into sub-molecular soups. They prefer to eat their foods from the genome (g-nome) level.

Half-elves are most similar to humans, and can eat a variety of foods, but because they often don't stick to pure vegetarianism in some form, the High Elves and Wood Elves look down their noses at them.

Orcs are faciatarians. They only eat food that once had a face. Fortunately for most civilized races, half-orcs are not bound by such dietary restrictions, but they do have a genetic taste for food that once had a face, and find such meals to be tastier than others.

Tieflings prefer to eat things with a soul - or things that once had a soul. Food that didn't have a soul can still be of nutritious benefit, but often tastes bland and flavorless. Food that once had souls, however, are absolutely succulent. Because of this, most Tieflings have adopted a philosophy of animism, which opens up their culinary experiences far beyond every other known race. I've even seen some Tieflings consume gravel and drink brimstone! It matters not to them what they eat - it's the soul that provides the flavor.

And then there's us. The Humans. I shouldn't even have to talk about us, you already know what you eat! Humans have the most normal diet of all the races - we don't do anything fancy, we don't have any particular need to cook a specific way (unless we want to!) We have our likes and dislikes, but what we do is the norm. We humans define normality. Which is why we're better than the rest of them.

[Theodoxus]

My halflings would have to disagree with your halflings. My Elf Ear Soup is of prime succulence, and I've won competitions with my Goblin Brain Goulash. Now, depending on how you define cannibalism, it might be such that my culinary arts are frowned upon in your circles... but mama always said 'eat what the gods give you, and don't complain! just make it as delicious as you can.'

[Regitnui]

The halflings in eberron are the bearers of the Mark of Hospitality; they're expert chefs.

I can't argue with the rest though.

[mgshamster]

My halflings would have to disagree with your halflings. My Elf Ear Soup is of prime succulence, and I've won competitions with my Goblin Brain Goulash. Now, depending on how you define cannibalism, it might be such that my culinary arts are frowned upon in your circles... but mama always said 'eat what the gods give you, and don't complain! just make it as delicious as you can.'

Bah! They're outcasts! Every chef of note knows that Goblin Brain Goulash is an Orc recipe (a modification, no doubt, from the Illithid's Humanoid Brain Hummus). There's no question that your halflings stole it and betrayed their heritage!

[JeenLeen]

It seems a cool thing to add to a setting, but some of it seems a bit hard to accept. The idea of some of them having the idea of 'gluten' sounds funny, but if that's just how you explain their view on wheat to players (i.e., it's an OOC explanation, not an in-character concept), that's okay. I would think the only needed thing is that they CAN eat most anything, but culturally prefer to eat what you list. Elves should be good at hunting deer, rabbit, and other forest-dwelling creatures, even if they prefer just eating vegetable matter and the rare fish.

But, that being said, it works as a setting. I could see orcs liking some plants that have face-like shapes in their flowers or fruit.

The only very odd thing to me is the description for tieflings. First, needing to eat something with a soul just rings evil, but (according to the PHB), tieflings do not lean to evil naturally, just to chaos. But animism solves that issues.

Second, and more important, it sounds like their dietary needs are not shaped by whether something actually has a soul but whether they believe it has a soul, hence belief in animism being popular.
If the inverse was true -- they knew they could only get nutrition from soul-having things, yet they saw rocks gave nutrition -- I could see that causing them to believe animism. But as I read what you wrote, it sounds like they changed their belief so that they could eat more things.

That makes belief a powerful tool, which has interesting metaphysical implications. That's cool, but be aware of it in case that messes up your setting.
(I'm big on internally consistent settings and metaphysics therein. Most players probably wouldn't care.)

[mgshamster]

It seems a cool thing to add to a setting, but some of it seems a bit hard to accept. The idea of some of them having the idea of 'gluten' sounds funny, but if that's just how you explain their view on wheat to players (i.e., it's an OOC explanation, not an in-character concept), that's okay. I would think the only needed thing is that they CAN eat most anything, but culturally prefer to eat what you list. Elves should be good at hunting deer, rabbit, and other forest-dwelling creatures, even if they prefer just eating vegetable matter and the rare fish.

But, that being said, it works as a setting. I could see orcs liking some plants that have face-like shapes in their flowers or fruit.

The only very odd thing to me is the description for tieflings. First, needing to eat something with a soul just rings evil, but (according to the PHB), tieflings do not lean to evil naturally, just to chaos. But animism solves that issues.

Second, and more important, it sounds like their dietary needs are not shaped by whether something actually has a soul but whether they believe it has a soul, hence belief in animism being popular.
If the inverse was true -- they knew they could only get nutrition from soul-having things, yet they saw rocks gave nutrition -- I could see that causing them to believe animism. But as I read what you wrote, it sounds like they changed their belief so that they could eat more things.

That makes belief a powerful tool, which has interesting metaphysical implications. That's cool, but be aware of it in case that messes up your setting.
(I'm big on internally consistent settings and metaphysics therein. Most players probably wouldn't care.)

Gnolls - a demonic abomination made from the laughing hyena (which are an abomination in and of themselves) - dine on the wit and humor of their victims, leaving behind undead corpses striped of any sense of humor.

Those undead then proceed to post on satire pieces found on Internet comic sites in a serious manner.

Fortunately, they are still bound to their soul, and as such are a prime hunting target for Tieflings.

Edit: it is a nice post, and I like your insights, but to was too good an opportunity to pass up. :)

[RedMage125]

The halflings in eberron are the bearers of the Mark of Hospitality; they're expert chefs.

I can't argue with the rest though.

I think mghamster's dietary assignations would have to be altered for ANY campaign settings with wildly different race-culture divides than the norm.

In Eberron, for example, most Elves live among humans seamlessly (Khorvarian Elf). Others, the Valenar, are a nomading warrior-people, and their food preferences likely lean towards non-perishables, or other foods which can be transported and maintained over long periods of travel (such as jerky). Aerenal Elves might adhere to the vegan thing, though.

Also in Eberron, Halflings are even more nomadic, following their herds of dinosaurs. Having dietary traditions that depend on staying in one place and cultivating plants (like any form of gardening) would be nonsensical. And of course, those of House Ghallandra would be experts chefs, like you said.

I think Eberron Orcs (at least, those of the Eldeen Reaches) would be less faciatarian. These were the first druids, after all. I see them as being more likely to be vegetarian, or even full-vegan.

Another campaign setting where these would not work is Dark Sun. In Dark Sun, halflings are explicitly cannibals, and prefer the flesh of sentient humanoids. Thri-kreen will also eat humanoids (especially elf). And Athasian Elves, while not explicitly "cannibals", remind me a lot of the Fremen in Dune. They seem like the kind who would kill a traveler and "take his water".

Anyway, point remains that some campaign settings so wildly alter the initial assumptions of racial cultures that these wouldn't work.

By the way good job mgshamster! I must admit that I never thought about what kind of diets the various races might adopt, culturally. It adds a new level of depth and color to any scene where the players might be invited to a dinner or banquet in another race's lands.

EDIT:

Gnolls - a demonic abomination made from the laughing hyena (which are an abomination in and of themselves) - dine on the wit and humor of their victims, leaving behind undead corpses striped of any sense of humor.

Those undead then proceed to post on satire pieces found on Internet comic sites in a serious manner.


BWHAHAHAHAHAHA! That's great!

On a serious note, that reminds me that gnolls are the only race I have ever seen mention of what they eat (might have been a previous edition, tho). Namely because gnolls eat anything and everything. They are fully capable of chewing and digesting bone, so that they leave no corpses of their victims behind. And as scavengers, they usually take the clothing, armor and weapons of their victims and use them or incorporate them into their own. A Goblin raid might leave bodies laying on the ground and a lot of valuable taken, but a gnoll raid leaves nothing but tracks, as the bodies of the fallen (even their own) are taken by the survivors for consumption.

[mgshamster]

The only very odd thing to me is the description for tieflings. First, needing to eat something with a soul just rings evil, but (according to the PHB), tieflings do not lean to evil naturally, just to chaos. But animism solves that issues.

Second, and more important, it sounds like their dietary needs are not shaped by whether something actually has a soul but whether they believe it has a soul, hence belief in animism being popular.
If the inverse was true -- they knew they could only get nutrition from soul-having things, yet they saw rocks gave nutrition -- I could see that causing them to believe animism. But as I read what you wrote, it sounds like they changed their belief so that they could eat more things.

That makes belief a powerful tool, which has interesting metaphysical implications. That's cool, but be aware of it in case that messes up your setting.
(I'm big on internally consistent settings and metaphysics therein. Most players probably wouldn't care.)


A bit of history for D&D: Tieflings as a playable race were introduced in the Planescape Campaign Setting, where belief literally shaped the world around you. You have a city in the outlands where enough people have a specific alignment, and the entire city literally shifts into the appropriate plane. There are published adventures where that happens.

Another form of belief shaping worlds are deities. Most campaign settings have the gods literally subsist on the belief of their followers, where the stronger the belief, the more power the gods have. To kill a god, you have to first kill all their followers, then whipe any mention or memory of them from existence.

I haven't seen any mention of it for 5th edition yet, but in some of the older editions, low level divine spells were literally powered from the belief of the individual; only higher level spells were powered by the gods. Wait, scratch that - we have seen it. The paladin. Their spells literally come from the strength of their convictions, according to the PHB, not from a divine source. So the paladin is actually casting spells and changing reality from pure belief.

D&D has quite a bit of reality shaping events occurring from nothing but pure belief. Pretty cool, huh? :)

[smcmike]

Hmmm.

High elves might be vegans - maybe they just eat goodberries - but wood elves are hunters. Maybe no agricultural products allowed - the true paleo.

Dwarves are most strongly associated with ale (not a particularly paleo product). Maybe they are all around masters of fermentation ale and fermented cabbages and cheeses aged for unspeakably long times in their deep storehouses, served on dark, sour bread that human teeth can barely debt. Smoked or fermented or pickled meats, too. The older, the better.

Halflings are definitely the most conventionally domestic of the races. If you want a chef, you want a halfling. Piles of scones with jam and a duck stuffed with mushrooms and herbs.

Half-Orcs don't have a well-defined cuisine, but most seem to share a taste for extreme spice levels, well beyond the capacity of most races.

Dragonborn eat only raw meat.

[Regitnui]

On a serious note, that reminds me that gnolls are the only race I have ever seen mention of what they eat (might have been a previous edition, tho). Namely because gnolls eat anything and everything. They are fully capable of chewing and digesting bone, so that they leave no corpses of their victims behind. And as scavengers, they usually take the clothing, armor and weapons of their victims and use them or incorporate them into their own. A Goblin raid might leave bodies laying on the ground and a lot of valuable taken, but a gnoll raid leaves nothing but tracks, as the bodies of the fallen (even their own) are taken by the survivors for consumption.

Now that sounds like a quest. I can picture a few scouting expeditions into Drooam (eberron monster country) just disappearing, because even good- or neutral-aligned gnolls get hungry...

[EvanescentHero]

Oh wow. I came into this thread with the sole purpose of making a dumb joke (something along the lines of "seasoning helps add flavor") only to discover that I wasn't as far off as I thought. Glad to see we were on the same page here. 😆

[mgshamster]

Oh wow. I came into this thread with the sole purpose of making a dumb joke (something along the lines of "seasoning helps add flavor") only to discover that I wasn't as far off as I thought. Glad to see we were on the same page here. 😆

I had plans to include something along those lines in the OP, but forgot to when I wrote it up. :)

[Blue Lantern]

The lithe elves are primarily vegetarians - though they are capable of consuming meats if they so choose (usually fish). Proper elves do not. High Elves are Vegans, while their forest cousins in the Woods prefer gluten free foods (they have a moral quandary against agriculture, and therefore wheat). The drow - hated by all the other elves - eat meat almost exclusively (though they're not above garnishing with some mushrooms or other fungus).

I could use that as an excuse to go adventuring, mu high elf loathe vegan food, so he has to leave for human lands to get a decent steak. :smallbiggrin:

[JumboWheat01]

If you need to add flavor to something, no matter the race or species, just throw on some good ol' salt and pepper. Maybe hot sauce.

Soaking in flavoring over-night's pretty good too.

[Belac93]

In my main setting, this is what happens;

Humans enjoy trying new things. Their entire culture is mainly based around adventure and new experiences, so it's no surprise.

Hill dwarves eat mainly grains, with some meat, a they are primarily farmers.

High Elves eat mostly like people did in medieval times. They are often at war, so dried food is common.

Wood elves eat like the old tribes on the African savanna. Mostly meat, with some roots and insects as well.

Drow eat like Aztecs did, with lots of bugs, meat, and fruit.

Lightfoot halflings eat mostly dried food, and mainly scavenge while traveling. Their main source of meat is goat, it being one of the only animals they take with them.

Stouts eat anything. They are also often cannibals.

Aarakocra are much like vultures, and so usually eat dead savanna animals, and sometimes wood elves.

[Sigreid]

I think the dwarven diet would revolve around grubs, insects, fungus and lichen that can be found under ground. Maybe dwarven ranchers raise Bulettes and Ankhegs the way humans raise cattle. Cultural foods do usually start out as simply being what is available in the environment around the civilization after all.

[mgshamster]

The whole thing started as a joke to figure out which races would subscribe to modern diet beliefs. Paleo diet, vegan diet, fruitarianism (yes, it's a real thing - actually knew a guy who ate only fruit), raw foodists, etc...

Then I expanded it to the orcs' requirement to eat only things with faces, as a nod towards some vegetarian's request for people to not eat things with faces. Because why not? Orcs are hated and now we have an even stronger reason why! And I made up a name for it.

The Tieflings requiring souls just cracked me up. They're already thought of as evil, and that just really plays in to it. Of course, they don't have to be evil - they could just eat bland food their entire lives.

The dragonborn naturally have to use their breath weapon, so I played on that a bit.

And the gnomes - well, I just couldn't resist a gnome-genome joke. (Genome? Uh.. It's pronounced "nome," the G is silent. Everyone know that).

The whole thing started with a joke about how wood elves always leave gifts whenever you leave their forest, but it's not always something you like...

"What they give us this time?"

"Um.. A box of dirt, a clump of deer fur, and a stack of pancakes."

Then I figured it would be even funnier if the pancakes were gluten free - because man are those disgusting (one of my previous players was gluten free, so I've done a lot of gluten free cooking; it does not taste that good and it's tricky to overcome that).

[Regitnui]

If any race would come up with 'gluten-free' or the other fad diets (put down your keyboard. I know some people have medical reasons), it would be humans. Everyone else would just eat what they can get, but only humans from a trading city could really be choosy enough to eat only what tastes 'healthy'.

[RedMage125]

Hmmm.

High elves might be vegans - maybe they just eat goodberries - but wood elves are hunters. Maybe no agricultural products allowed - the true paleo.
Now that I think about it, I have to agree. Wood Elves are frequently shown wearing leather, and being a true Vegan is about more than what you eat. A real Vegan uses no animal products at all.



Dwarves are most strongly associated with ale (not a particularly paleo product). Maybe they are all around masters of fermentation ale and fermented cabbages and cheeses aged for unspeakably long times in their deep storehouses, served on dark, sour bread that human teeth can barely debt. Smoked or fermented or pickled meats, too. The older, the better.
Maybe it's because I also prefer bitter, hoppy ale, and I find it pairs well with aged cheese (if you haven't tried an IPA with an aged Gouda I highly recommend it-assuming you are of legal drinking age, of course), that I like this as well.


Halflings are definitely the most conventionally domestic of the races. If you want a chef, you want a halfling. Piles of scones with jam and a duck stuffed with mushrooms and herbs.
Lightfoot halflings, perhaps. Stouts seem to me to be more like Hobbits, to me. I see Lightfoots as the wandering, nomadic kinds with vast and varied palletes, while Stouts are as mgshamster described, homebodies with flourishing gardens.

[Joe the Rat]

A fun thing here is moving between obligate diets and preference diets.

We're treating elves as preferring vegan / hunter-gatherer as a matter of taste or lifestyle.
But consider the Panda.
You have a creature with an omnivore's digestive system adapting to a grazer diet, and a preference for some really challenging grass at that. This is your high elves. They're herbivores, possibly obligate, but not perfectly adapted, requiring a lot of meals (no wonder halflings like them), or high-energy-density foods (The infamous elvish waybread). No wonder they're so skinny.

Wood elves eat like "regular" bears (or raccoons, I forget where everyone clades out). A fair amount of fruit-grazing and root-digging, with a bit of meat. Heck, I'd do "fishing wood elves" as a tradition. Since they are not large angry mammals or adorable miscreants with a gun fetish, it's more about the types of things (whatever's handy) than how they get them.

Dwarves. We're talking cavemen and burrowers. Is the stereotype really raw meat and radishes? I thought it was "drunk all the time."
It's not just about maintenance to ease the tremors - perhaps dwarves are obligate vinovores (rename as you like. alcohol-eater would be better, but wine-eater flows better). They have to have booze with every meal to digest properly. Heck, they might have some sort of reverse-yeast biota that changes booze to sugar, and are able to subsist on alcohol alone.

[KorvinStarmast]

Dwarves. We're talking cavemen and burrowers. Is the stereotype really raw meat and radishes? I thought it was "drunk all the time."
It's not just about maintenance to ease the tremors - perhaps dwarves are obligate vinovores (rename as you like. alcohol-eater would be better, but wine-eater flows better). They have to have booze with every meal to digest properly. Heck, they might have some sort of reverse-yeast biota that changes booze to sugar, and are able to subsist on alcohol alone. The guy who plays the dwarf fighter in our group has this as his archetype. From an RP perspective, don't get between him and the ale, or the rum, lest ye care to face the swinging ax.

[Sigreid]

The whole thing started as a joke to figure out which races would subscribe to modern diet beliefs. Paleo diet, vegan diet, fruitarianism (yes, it's a real thing - actually knew a guy who ate only fruit), raw foodists, etc...

Then I expanded it to the orcs' requirement to eat only things with faces, as a nod towards some vegetarian's request for people to not eat things with faces. Because why not? Orcs are hated and now we have an even stronger reason why! And I made up a name for it.

The Tieflings requiring souls just cracked me up. They're already thought of as evil, and that just really plays in to it. Of course, they don't have to be evil - they could just eat bland food their entire lives.

The dragonborn naturally have to use their breath weapon, so I played on that a bit.

And the gnomes - well, I just couldn't resist a gnome-genome joke. (Genome? Uh.. It's pronounced "nome," the G is silent. Everyone know that).

The whole thing started with a joke about how wood elves always leave gifts whenever you leave their forest, but it's not always something you like...

"What they give us this time?"

"Um.. A box of dirt, a clump of deer fur, and a stack of pancakes."

Then I figured it would be even funnier if the pancakes were gluten free - because man are those disgusting (one of my previous players was gluten free, so I've done a lot of gluten free cooking; it does not taste that good and it's tricky to overcome that).

I got that you were kidding and then got images of a dwarf in a cowboy hat riding a giant beatle in an under ground range. Yeehaw