PDA

View Full Version : Food in your games?



danielxcutter
2017-07-09, 08:37 PM
Do you guys ever go beyond "oh everyone has Everlasting Rations, problem solved"? Like, I'm not expecting you to describe it so good everyone's character sheets are wet with drool... but, well? Have you ever descr

Mastikator
2017-07-09, 08:52 PM
Nobody has ever lasting rations in any game I've ever played, but if there's civilization then food is not an issue.
Having believable survival mechanics can be great fun if the players are into it (and I am)

Psyren
2017-07-09, 10:37 PM
I only tend to describe food if my character has a unique approach to it in some way. Like a Dhampir character I had once who would crack open rats to drink while on the road. Some dwarf getting jerky stuck in his beard doesn't really cut it for me.

As for survival mechanics - when thery exist I just feel compelled to play something that ignores them, like an Elan, Android or Astomoi. If that's not an option then I play a class that can help the party deal with the problem, like a druid with goodberry.

legomaster00156
2017-07-09, 10:42 PM
Food only really comes into play when an appropriately extravagant meal is mentioned, or else when a meal is plot-important (such as meeting a nobleman over dinner). It has been mentioned quite frequently in a game where many of the PC's are minor nobles, and tend to eat well both alone and with company.

LordCdrMilitant
2017-07-10, 01:48 AM
In one campaign, the party spent an extended amount of time in the backcountry and I made them track how much rations they had, and the had to take the rations off of killed enemy soldiers when the supply they brought with was exhausted.

However, in all other campaigns, we haven't dealt with it. At most, it manifests itself as a flat rate for resupply.

oxybe
2017-07-10, 02:26 AM
Food, especially ye olde tymes travele foode, generally wasn't anything special.

Several repeated instances of "I, yet again, eat another meal of boiled salt pork, mashed rehydrated peas, hardtack and cheap ale" does not for a riveting story make.

Now, depending on the character, they may indeed travel with some flour, oil/lard/butter, wine or rum of adequate quality, basic spices, a mess kit and some basic cooking gear so they can supplement the salt pork, peas & biscuits with flavour or help make a decent meal out of wild game and edible flora they find.

If there is one way to make friends while traveling, it's being the guy who can warm everyone's belly with food that satiate hunger.

Or they may just go "Bugger it: everlasting rations and an everfull mug will suffice until town" or "Ring of sustenance and I'm done" like the pragmatist they are because in a dungeon you can't sit down and prep a proper meal without alerting the locals; you eat your trail mix and you keep hydrated while on the move.

As for how I feel about tracking food... unless it's important I don't. I generally assume the party has supplies to get where they want to be and can supplement it with hunting or foraging on the move. Unless the party is in a very harsh terrain where hunting and foraging isn't possible or advised, I see no reason to count the coppers that go towards that.

Calthropstu
2017-07-10, 02:42 AM
The adventure path I am running describes the food of Tian Xia quite extensively. Most of it looks highly unappetizing.

goto124
2017-07-10, 03:45 AM
Food could also be used to highlight various cultures. What food is the country famous for? What food would feasibly grow or be found in the country's climate? Does a harsh climate mean a lot of preserved food? What sort of herbs and spices are used?

A seaside village would feature a lot of seafood. A nomadic tribe would likely have meat, milk, and cheese from the goats and sheep they herd. A rainforest tribe would have plenty of fruits and vegetables, alongside fish, bird meat, and even insects.

Real-life examples help a lot here.

John Campbell
2017-07-10, 04:10 AM
Lessee... my recent PCs:

1) System abstracts food, under normal circumstances, into a generic monthly Lifestyle cost. Also had two different ways of feeding herself magically, not counting things like using magic to hunt rats or knock over the nearest Stuffer Shack.

2) Minor deity, needed neither food nor drink nor air to breathe; he subsisted on the prayers of people who were trying to make things stick together.

3) Had a background feature that allowed her to live more comfortably in raw wilderness than the rest of the party did in the inn; also could cast goodberry, which I established early on that I did routinely every morning and fed the whole party on any from the day before that I hadn't used for healing.

4) System handwaves normal living expenses, and he was Filthy Rich anyway.

5) Could subsist on sunlight.

6) Had a ridiculously high Survival skill, could easily feed the entire party. I did often mention when we set up camp that my wolves and I were going hunting. At one point early on, though, we, and a large circle of temperate grassland around us, got dropped into a frozen wasteland on another world. While the rest of the party was arguing about what had happened and where to go next, I proceeded to butcher the corpses of the orcs we'd been fighting immediately before, and then when I was done that, I started cutting and bundling the grass for transport.

This (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?521656-Things-I-May-No-Longer-Do-While-Playing-XI-I-May-Not-Postpone-Naming-My-Thread/page14&p=22176266#post22176266) came from somewhat later in that campaign.

danielxcutter
2017-07-10, 05:15 AM
Hmm, it looks like I'm not the average. Most of my characters I've made so far have both ranks in Survival and 2 ranks in Proffession(cook).

Yklikt
2017-07-10, 05:18 AM
The adventure path I am running describes the food of Tian Xia quite extensively. Most of it looks highly unappetizing.

Culture different, probably.

hifidelity2
2017-07-10, 06:50 AM
If the party are moving between villages / in towns etc then I ignore food / rations. (I tend to change each PC a fixed monthly amount – pending on to what standard they want to live to) for day to day food / lodging etc.

If out in the wilderness then we loosely track it unless they are away an extended time, in harsh conditions, lost their baggage and on the run etc

Having said that in a 3.5 game my Wizard (me and the DM) spend a long time researching a new spell – “Dehydrate Food” . It turns any food into a small pile of dust, add water and it became the meal again ( in the same state as when it was dehydrated)

Most of the party in that game now carry may weeks of dehydrated stew with a few posh meals for special occasions

Anonymouswizard
2017-07-10, 07:25 AM
We once almost had to track out many coffees the group bought while waiting for an operation to start, but we put that on expenses so as to not cut into our equipment budget. Otherwise, most games I play or run tend to be set in cities, and so the characters can just grab some food when they're hungry. Lots of stew in fantasy games, otherwise it's whatever the character ordered.

wumpus
2017-07-10, 08:30 AM
If you care about encumbrance rules, it should matter (ask any backpacker). Presumably you can pack mules to get to the dungeon (you did buy mules and somebody has ranks in "handle animal", don't they?), but they aren't coming into the dungeon (exception: there was the story on these boards about the paladin's ass).

In practice, it doesn't really matter (since treasure is going to displace food anyway). I think starting characters should throw a few gold to a couple of weeks of iron ration and a normal week of rations (since only starting players would notice the cost), but beyond that it only comes up in roleplaying feasts and similar social functions.

BWR
2017-07-10, 12:01 PM
Sure have. From tracking number and encumbrance of rations for dungeon/hex crawls to listing what sort of food is served at any given tavern, to minor luxuries (like chocolate, alcohol, tea/coffee) to banquets to exotic (for wherever the PCs in question are from), to ignoring it when you have Create Food and Water or Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion or Ring of Sustenance available.

One of our most memorable instances of food listing was a low-level D&D party, just reached 3rd level. We were on the run from the authorities and stuck out in the wilderness in the dead of winter and almost no survival skills. We had managed to kill one rather unpleasant beastie and had procured a breastplate from a fallen foe, so we hacked off chunks of frozen beast and used Heat Metal to cook it on the breastplate. If we hadn't done that we would probably have starved to death.

Another low-level party almost starved to death in an underground passage that went on for days with no food. we had exhausted our supplies and were facing imminent starvation. All except my idiot fighter who kept making those damn Fortitude saves to ignore starvation.

In Ars Magica one of my favorite characters was the fat Jewish cook grog who gained a reputation for divinely good food and was even invited to cook for court by a prince of the HRE.

Really, it depends on the game you are playing, and many games want more detail than "we eat magic food off screen".

LibraryOgre
2017-07-10, 12:11 PM
Depends on the game. In the C&C game I'm currently running, I'm not putting a lot of emphasis on it, partially because they're still pretty close to town, and they have a ranger and a druid with them. In Hackmaster, I likely would, partially because the game itself emphasizes the difference between standard rations and iron rations... if you don't have someone who can cook, then you have to go with the far more expensive iron rations.

Knaight
2017-07-10, 12:33 PM
As a player, I had exactly one character for whom food was a very major character concern and a useful characterization prop, the rest of the time it gets glossed over. As a GM, agriculture is one of the things I pay particular attention to in world building, and the food available will effect culture and demonstrate climate. Then there's the matter of my Galactic Fruit campaign I've been planning on running, where the central antagonist is a food company.

Cealocanth
2017-07-10, 01:09 PM
Half of my game is experiencing the unusual and somewhat alien cultures that the players are meeting. Although the PCs may come from an area that is inspired by the late period Picts and they're quite used to grain and hardy vegetables supplemented by fish and livestock, usually stewed, the players are not, and sometimes enjoy the mention of goat's cheese and fresh beastman being served by the moramer. Then the party visits the elven lands, where they are treated to locally grown greens, herbs, and fruits, as well as a lot of exotic game including snake, turtle, troll, drake, and orn (basically komodo dragon). Then they visit the Vendahl tribes and find that, besides wild roots and other survivalist food, that human is primarily what is on the menu. Then they visit the dwarves and find that the menu mostly consists of incredibly dense bread, bland canned mushrooms and imported vegetables, mead or ale, and kobold on special occassions. Then they visit the giants and find that they mostly subsist on entire animals being roasted that usually wouldn't be considered to be practical fare - like cows, trolls, and mammoths. Soon they might visit the glittersands, where they will find that the food mostly consists of hardy livestock like camel and goat, exotic grains, alien spices, and desert insects.

Food is a great way to establish some flavor to a setting. All it takes is a couple lines of prep work (or just making something up as you go along), but a description of a culture's food is a great way to establish their tech level and separate them from modern cultures. It's certainly better than 'trail mix and jerky', though that is what travel food is in most settings.

DeTess
2017-07-10, 01:39 PM
It depends. I'm currently playing a conquest Paladin in 5e, so food is just rations, full stop. A while ago I played a face in Shadowrun (cyberpunk setting) who lived at a far higher life-style than the rest of the party, so I made a point about making sure that whenever we where discussing something over lunch or whatever I picked a restaurant that was set to my tastes (real coffee and sandwiches, not that soy stuff). The Hacker in that group made a point of getting soy-based products, even when the real stuff was available, and kept claiming that it was just better.

TheCountAlucard
2017-07-10, 01:42 PM
…knock over the nearest Stuffer Shack.Hoo boy. My 'runner was a stuffer addict. His van had four different mini-fridges, one specifically just for energy drinks. He also tended to either not bother with cooking his food, or not let the fiddlier parts of cooking it get in the way of tasks he viewed as more important, leading to conversations like…

Cashius: "What's that smell?"
L3NN¥: "Oh, that's right - I threw dinner in the toaster oven before starting on this firewall."
Cashius: "Ugh! I can't even tell what this was originally! I'm throwing it away."
L3NN¥: "Don't waste it just because you don't want it. There should be enough left on the credstick for a couple of pizzas. Put the pan back and I'll eat when I'm done."
Cashius: "I'm putting my foot down, because I don't want to have to listen to you crunch on this, this… charcoal briquette."
L3NN¥: "Relax, it doesn't crunch that much with ketchup on it."

Hilariously, he later ended up rooming with an aspiring chef, who was adamant about cooking healthy meals for him.

Another character of mine was, as a vampire, only capable of subsisting on blood. Vampires in that system usually couldn't even keep food down, and trying would result in a bloody gruesome vomiting scene, but my guy had practiced it enough to the point where he could heave it back up later at his discretion.

LordCdrMilitant
2017-07-10, 01:54 PM
As for describing food, in the game where the party had to track rations, I did make a point to break down what food was in the rations. Some carried dried pork product, some carried dried lamb product, the drow soldiers carried bundles of salted mystery meat and pilot crackers, etc. The shadar-kai patrols from a nearby, concealed forward base carried no rations with them, because they returned to their mess hall at meal time.

But we only tracked it when the party was marching across the middle of nowhere. At all other times, it was assumed that food was available and we didn't deal with it, unless there was a specification for something fancy or a player wanted to interact with it.

stack
2017-07-10, 07:07 PM
I had a DM that went into detail describing food in a PBP game. When done well, as in that game, it was a definite plus for making the game world feel immersive and for facilitating connections with the NPCs (at least the ones that cooked).

bulbaquil
2017-07-10, 08:37 PM
We spend a great deal of time interacting with food and drink in one of my games - to the point where recipes have actually been looked up.

Knaight
2017-07-10, 08:50 PM
We spend a great deal of time interacting with food and drink in one of my games - to the point where recipes have actually been looked up.

Have you familiarized yourself with the glorious document that is The Forme of Cury (http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/foc/)?

Jay R
2017-07-10, 09:07 PM
My current gnome illusionist routinely uses prestidigitation to improve the flavor of food.

But our greatest food related triumph was on the player level, not the character level. Once, the husband of one of my players was cooking home-made sausages. On a whim, he shaped them into rat shapes, and we had rat on a stick.

RazorChain
2017-07-10, 09:25 PM
In one game our wizard botched his spell roll and got the result that all food in 30' radius was spoiled and rotten. This wasn't good because all our supplies where gone and this brought our halfling to tears.

Unluckily none of our characters had any survival sklls whatsoever....my Kislevite Ranger had perished and I was playing a dumb zwei hander wielding Ulrican instead. On our way back to civilization we were reduced to eat roots, berries and the bark from trees. Hilarity ensued when the halfling, delirious with hunger came to the first farmstead on our way and raided the farmers cabbage patch and got chased away by the farmer.

In the same game the halfling always played out his food heists before adventuring trips. He would break into butchers houses, general stores, bakers and fill his sacks with food before we left on expeditions. Then he would invariably ask Max, my character, who was a giant of a man to carry all his foodstuff.

Else food is something you buy and tick down during adventures, takes up space and carry weight. It really doesn't come much into play unless you have none and nobody has any survival skills.

Professor Chimp
2017-07-11, 09:51 AM
Well, my Wizard has ranks in Profession: Cook (had extra skill points left over and its flavorful in-context) while the Barbarian has good Survival, so on the road we often forgo Rations in favor of just foraging as we go. Depending on how successful our respective checks are, we can get small temporary bonuses from it like improved natural healing or +1 to Fort saves vs cold weather.

Also, there have been a few situations where I was able to sway NPCs into being more helpful by cooking for them. Since my charisma is pretty low, Cooking basically serves as a limited Diplomacy ersatz.

Berenger
2017-07-11, 09:58 AM
I found that putting a few skill points into "Cooking" and "Bakery" and investing 20% of your loot in outrageously expensive roasted coffee beans and a hand mill makes the otherwise slightly questionable behaviour of a NE assassin cleric quite acceptable to a non-evil party that previously subsisted on hardtack and beef jerky. Despite the fact that said assassin cleric carries a variety of poisons and the party is well aware of this fact. It's amazing.

gurrumph
2017-07-11, 05:33 PM
In one of my favorite campaigns I played as a gnome tinker (can't remember the specific class I was playing) who was a traveling merchant dealing in rare foodstuffs and elemental powered technology related to food preservation and preparation. As a result of some of my innovations and a DM who wasn't paying attention to the results of my inventions, I soon had about 20 the wealth limit/level and attracted the attention of several monarchs... at 3rd level. As time went on I had maxed out my cooking skills and as a result got hired as chief chef and overthrew some kingdoms and revolutionized warfare on the plane. We may have also started a war with the elemental planes as a result of some of the shenanigans.

some of my favorite innovations were related to permanent stasis spells or tiny elementals bound to containers to keep food and beverages fresh in very hot temperatures.

antipodeF
2017-07-13, 12:40 AM
Rations are really only relevant if the party is liable to spend more then a week away from towns at a time. Past that point and they need to think about encumberance due to rations, if they have lousy strength. Past, say, three weeks, and it becomes possible that the whole party might completely run out of rations before they get back.

Less then that, and who cares? Rations in most games cost so little as to be negligible to even a 1st level party. Or, at least in the systems I've played. Which isn't many, really.

TheYell
2017-07-13, 07:09 AM
Our gunslinger likes to cook the monsters we kill. He rolled a 1 and luckily for him the GM was merciful and just said it was badly burnt. I told him my monk had a vow of fasting.

We have to track our rations each day, and from the way my GM danced in his chair when somebody brought up the environmental hazards rules, we had better keep track of that stuff.

When I build my monastery it will earn a sizeable daily income according to the Downtime rules, so everybody can eat in the refectory for free, but it will serve one meal a day, with beans on the menu four days a week, so I hope they really are hungry.

Nupo
2017-07-13, 08:38 AM
Years ago we were terrible about tracking rations. Frequently a year later, a character would still have the same seven days of rations that they bought when they created the character. They were essentially everlasting rations simply because we were negligent about tracking it. We do a little better job of it now.

Our current campaign the characters have a sailing ship. They made a point to purchase plenty of supplies, and even hired an NPC cook. Just last session, they rescued some elves whose ship had been sunk. When they returned the elves to their home island, the community treated them to a feast of lobster and other sea food as part of the reward.

Pugwampy
2017-07-13, 08:53 AM
Well yes . I expect everyone to eat at least breakfast once per day , or use up trail rations or go hunting . My sessions usually start off from a tavern so we get that part over and done with . This includes drinking or sucking from your waterskin .

Food and water is only really an issue if they for some reason became bandits and have no hub town support which happens more often then i am comfortable with .

I enjoy starting the party off in sub standard taverns of the dwarf or half orc variety . So i can get to roll to see if the food is edible . Either its a 5 course ham , bacon and pork meal or you rolled low and it Goblin Turd Soup again in which case use up a trail ration .

If you have a high CON you could take your chances with the soup if you wish ....

As a start off I usually advise players to buy salt so if they are in the bushes they can go hunting and add to their trail rations.
Usually i introduce new players by having them in some sort of monster soup pot or some such and other players rescue them .

Primus Beno
2017-07-13, 11:12 AM
I tend to use a system where if they are eating well and living the good life, I'll be throwing advantages their way, especially to Constitution and Charisma rolls. On the flip side, if they are on week 4 of iron rations with no bath and still sleeping out in the weather, they get some disadvantages to rolls.

Kane0
2017-07-13, 08:42 PM
I once witnessed a character with the character trait: Violently allergic to eggs. That character payed very close attention to food.

Also, one DM of mine has a humorous and intriguing habit of referring to any kind of cheap or nasty alcohol as Ribena.

Edit: Tangentally related, every time my mage character uses an illusion spell he usually works in the codeword 'Muffins' as part of his turn in order to tip off allies but not enemies. This almost always has the side effect of starting a conversation mid-combat about muffins, the variations thereof and when the characters and/or players will next be consuming some.

hifidelity2
2017-07-14, 04:13 AM
I once witnessed a character with the character trait: Violently allergic to eggs. That character payed very close attention to food.


I had a PC who chose to be Vegan (its was GURPS fantasy so he got points for it)
The party were being chased at one stage by a large group and had to hid in some mountains where they were running out of food and could only hunt for mountain goat etc. The PC nearly died from starvation (I reduced his St and HT (Con)) right down and in the end the party were almost carrying him until they got out of the mountains

DigoDragon
2017-07-14, 08:26 AM
My local group has a simple system we've been using.

Per person per day: 2 pounds meat, 1 days trail rations (assumed to fulfill the daily fruit serving), 1 gallon water. As the party hunter, I track the weight of meat and dried fruit we're carrying and the bard tracks the water supply. We keep a group fund that is used to restock in towns we pass by. We don't worry about the meat going bad because we found a Bag of Holding where time flows crazy slow inside, so we just assume the meat will keep for weeks with nothing but a light salting.

danielxcutter
2017-07-14, 08:50 AM
Me: Hey guys how do you handle food in your games?

Some people: nah we don't care about it much

Me: Damn. Guess it's not a big thing.

Other people: actually we do

Me: lol

#wait a sec this isn't Tumblr

BWR
2017-07-14, 10:14 AM
I had a PC who chose to be Vegan (its was GURPS fantasy so he got points for it)
The party were being chased at one stage by a large group and had to hid in some mountains where they were running out of food and could only hunt for mountain goat etc. The PC nearly died from starvation (I reduced his St and HT (Con)) right down and in the end the party were almost carrying him until they got out of the mountains

Huh. the one vegan I know IRL would have chowed down on that goat without a second thought if he were in that situation. But he's pretty sensible about things in general. Vegan if possible, will eat anything if it's that or starvation.

Guizonde
2017-07-14, 12:43 PM
aside from one-shots, all my games have tracked rations quite precisely due to inflicting morale damage if hunger or foulness of taste was involved. it's a house-rule that makes a lot of sense since a lot of us are hikers (and some were ex-military: an army marches on its stomach. a happy army eats well)

my dwarven cleric was a vegetarian (i always choose quirks like that to give my characters flavor). on a ship, he had to bust out "create bread and water" to feed the crew while we hung out fishing lines to feed the crew and us after a bad storm. the mood was pretty somber, eating boiled fish and bread for 3 weeks, almost going to a mutiny until we charmed the pants off the rebels with good roleplay (and some assassinations). the rest of the time, i specified i either ate fish or just the vegetables.

in my current universe, food is scarce. rations taste horrible, so you break them out when you've no choice (eating one forces an endurance check not to be nauseated). at least one member of the party has survival, and it's quite commonplace to hunt and scavenge. rats, mosses, mutants, humans on occasion... it gets pretty gross pretty fast. then again, it's after the apocalypse, and people have become quite adept at making fried rat taste palatable, and a small part of the population are cannibals, or more precisely, necrophages. i guess that puts into perspective what is considered "foul-tasting".

we track booze religiously as much to drink as to use it elsewhere. sterilizing bandages and wounds, purifying water, incendiaries, toasting with npc's... our characters go through prodigious amounts of booze, from rotgut to things that make dom perignon reserve champagne look cheap. we're always thrilled when we loot booze, and we have a private joke about the sanctity of barkeeps. now that one of the team (the teetotaler, of all people) has become a barkeep in camden it makes it even more hilarious!

Haldir
2017-07-14, 05:39 PM
I have recently been designing some cities that are campaign neutral expansions and in all of them there are quests and substantial infrastructure dedicated to food and water management. It is a huge pull of man hours for any society, so large consequential events like a PC get into should relate to it somewhat.

Lacco
2017-07-16, 05:06 AM
It depends on a game, however overall I use food all the time in games.

When we play Shadowrun, the players actually have their favourite meals, restaurants, soyburger-stands, and always argue whether soykaf or normal coffee is better. We often try to simulate this by ordering similar food as our characters.

When we play fantasy, the food becomes even more important - most of the time, the PC's first thing on "to-do while in a city" list is "find the best inn" (except the one that goes shopping for clean clothes - she always wants to find the inn with cleanest tub). They are able to spend lots of money just on fancy food, good drinks, an often leave an inn if I say that the wine is weathered or bread stale. When on road, they enjoy change brought by hunting.

And it's also used to highlight changes between different civilizations, further hammering home "you are not at home anymore" with food types & customs.

Guizonde
2017-07-16, 06:29 AM
It depends on a game, however overall I use food all the time in games.

When we play Shadowrun, the players actually have their favourite meals, restaurants, soyburger-stands, and always argue whether soykaf or normal coffee is better. We often try to simulate this by ordering similar food as our characters.

When we play fantasy, the food becomes even more important - most of the time, the PC's first thing on "to-do while in a city" list is "find the best inn" (except the one that goes shopping for clean clothes - she always wants to find the inn with cleanest tub). They are able to spend lots of money just on fancy food, good drinks, an often leave an inn if I say that the wine is weathered or bread stale. When on road, they enjoy change brought by hunting.

And it's also used to highlight changes between different civilizations, further hammering home "you are not at home anymore" with food types & customs.

for us in our post-apocalyptic universe, plan a is litterally "let's hit the pub". we've gone through several to find the one where the booze and the food taste the best so as to get some much-needed downtime and morale boosts, but we'll never shy away from a dive bar to hit up the local rumors or find the local rackets to rough up and get intel. i've taken that saying "ok, what do we do?" "plan a?" "plan a" into my pf game, and aside from being rp-compatible (we're all disciples of cayden cayllean), it makes us blast through clues to get ahead, something the dm hadn't anticipated. he's progressing faster than expected, since he's of the "let the players have one session to find one clue out of 6" school of thought.

Yuki Akuma
2017-07-16, 06:31 AM
In the first campaign my current D&D group was in, the DM (who we haven't played with since) was a very "DM vs. players" sort, who made us meticulously track rations and would penalise us if we couldn't eat for a day.

We had a Druid. After the first night, she cast Goodberry every day with all of her remaining spell slots before going to bed.

Suddenly the DM stopped asking us if we had food.

goto124
2017-07-16, 09:54 AM
"The next morning, you wake up to a foul smell. It turns out that over the night, your Goodberries have turned into Badberries."

Guizonde
2017-07-16, 10:08 AM
"The next morning, you wake up to a foul smell. It turns out that over the night, your Goodberries have turned into Badberries."

ouch. even my psycho dm was lenient enough to consider "create food and water" as spammable since it was hard tack and disease-free water... so, you'll survive but lunch will be crummy (no pun intended)

meal5
2017-07-16, 11:37 PM
I think food is not an issue.

Bohandas
2017-07-17, 03:39 AM
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?496301-Giant-in-the-Tavern
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?127897-Fantasy-Foodstuffs

Tipsy_Pooka
2017-07-17, 04:11 AM
I always try to make food important in my campaigns. I think it's great at adding verisimilitude to the game, especially for new players. While it loses importance at mid- high-levels, I find it encourages proper book-keeping, especially at levels where you might find yourself without "enough". It definitely helps with emphasizing in-game cultural differences as well.

Then again, I'm the guy that plays spellcasters fussing over every individual material component...

Whyrocknodie
2017-07-17, 05:39 AM
If there was some kind of plot making food relevant it might get a look in, otherwise it would be in the dustbin with bathroom visits, brushing teeth, waiting for busses, small talk about the weather and other such uninteresting material.

Yuki Akuma
2017-07-18, 04:25 PM
"The next morning, you wake up to a foul smell. It turns out that over the night, your Goodberries have turned into Badberries."

Given he was a stickler for 100% Rules As Written I think there would have been a riot if he'd said that.

Velaryon
2017-07-18, 06:22 PM
In my games, food only ever comes up in certain circumstances.

1. If the PC's are at the inn, food and drink is usually just part of the cost of staying there, unless they want to make a thing out of how much they're eating or drinking.

2. If they're on the road for an extended period, then I'll ask them to track rations or have someone make Survival checks to hunt and forage.

3. If there's some other reason why food would be scarce, such as the massive nationwide drought that caused all the crops to die and food prices to skyrocket to exorbitant levels.

goto124
2017-07-18, 11:50 PM
Given he was a stickler for 100% Rules As Written I think there would have been a riot if he'd said that.

People these days don't appreciate good wordplay :smalltongue:

Xuc Xac
2017-07-19, 03:58 AM
Given he was a stickler for 100% Rules As Written I think there would have been a riot if he'd said that.

Going strictly by Rules As Written, you can't just cast goodberry for infinite free food. You have to cast it on a handful of freshly picked berries. Unless you camp every night next to a berry bush that has fruit on it, you're not casting the spell. Fruits are seasonal, too, so you can't cast the spell every day even if you live next to that bush.

goto124
2017-07-19, 04:15 AM
5e requires 'a sprig of mistletoe', no word on the freshness of the mistletoe. The spell also states that the berries 'appear in your hand'.

Yuki Akuma
2017-07-19, 06:39 AM
Going strictly by Rules As Written, you can't just cast goodberry for infinite free food. You have to cast it on a handful of freshly picked berries. Unless you camp every night next to a berry bush that has fruit on it, you're not casting the spell. Fruits are seasonal, too, so you can't cast the spell every day even if you live next to that bush.

Nope. The material component is a sprig of mistletoe - which doesn't get used up by the spell, so you can use the same mistletoe forever. The berries appear in your hand from nowhere.

goto124
2017-07-19, 07:08 AM
I wonder how many PCs tried to kiss the Druid during Goodberry casting...

Guizonde
2017-07-19, 09:36 AM
I wonder how many PCs tried to kiss the Druid during Goodberry casting...

only on new year's. last time, poor druid was almost crushed to death.

goto124
2017-07-19, 09:38 AM
I'll admit, I feel like I missed a reference.

John Campbell
2017-07-19, 11:09 AM
Going strictly by Rules As Written, you can't just cast goodberry for infinite free food. You have to cast it on a handful of freshly picked berries. Unless you camp every night next to a berry bush that has fruit on it, you're not casting the spell. Fruits are seasonal, too, so you can't cast the spell every day even if you live next to that bush.

It's edition-dependent.

In AD&D 2E:

Casting a goodberry spell upon a handful of freshly picked berries makes 2d4 of them magical. The caster (as well as any other caster of the same faith and 3rd or higher level) can immediately discern which berries are affected. A detect magic spell discovers this also. Berries with the magic either enable a hungry creature of approximately man-size to eat one and be as well-nourished as if a full normal meal were eaten, or else cure 1 point of physical damage from wounds or other similar causes, subject to a maximum of 8 points of such curing in any 24-hour period.

The reverse of the spell, badberry, causes 2d4 rotten berries to appear wholesome, but each actually delivers 1 point of poison damage (no saving throw) if ingested.

The material component of the spell is the caster's holy symbol passed over the freshly picked, edible berries to be enspelled (blueberries, raspberries, currants, gooseberries, etc.).

In 3.5:

Casting goodberry upon a handful of freshly picked berries makes 2d4 of them magical. You (as well as any other druid of 3rd or higher level) can immediately discern which berries are affected. Each transmuted berry provides nourishment as if it were a normal meal for a Medium creature. The berry also cures 1 point of damage when eaten, subject to a maximum of 8 points of such curing in any 24-hour period.

In 5E (where at least the character I referenced was operating):

Up to ten berries appear in your hand and are infused with magic for the duration. A creature can use its action to eat one berry. Eating a berry restores 1 hit point, and the berry provides enough nourishment to sustain a creature for one day.

The berries lose their potency if they have not been consumed within 24 hours of the casting of this spell.

The spell doesn't appear to have been around in 1E, and I abstained from 4E.

goto124
2017-07-19, 11:21 AM
It's edition-dependent.

In AD&D 2E:


Casting a goodberry spell upon a handful of freshly picked berries makes 2d4 of them magical. The caster (as well as any other caster of the same faith and 3rd or higher level) can immediately discern which berries are affected. A detect magic spell discovers this also. Berries with the magic either enable a hungry creature of approximately man-size to eat one and be as well-nourished as if a full normal meal were eaten, or else cure 1 point of physical damage from wounds or other similar causes, subject to a maximum of 8 points of such curing in any 24-hour period.

The reverse of the spell, badberry, causes 2d4 rotten berries to appear wholesome, but each actually delivers 1 point of poison damage (no saving throw) if ingested.

The material component of the spell is the caster's holy symbol passed over the freshly picked, edible berries to be enspelled (blueberries, raspberries, currants, gooseberries, etc.).

In 3.5:


Casting goodberry upon a handful of freshly picked berries makes 2d4 of them magical. You (as well as any other druid of 3rd or higher level) can immediately discern which berries are affected. Each transmuted berry provides nourishment as if it were a normal meal for a Medium creature. The berry also cures 1 point of damage when eaten, subject to a maximum of 8 points of such curing in any 24-hour period.

In 5E (where at least the character I referenced was operating):


Up to ten berries appear in your hand and are infused with magic for the duration. A creature can use its action to eat one berry. Eating a berry restores 1 hit point, and the berry provides enough nourishment to sustain a creature for one day.
The berries lose their potency if they have not been consumed within 24 hours of the casting of this spell.

The spell doesn't appear to have been around in 1E, and I abstained from 4E.



Of course Badberries are in the actual DnD books. Of course. Now if I ever played 2e...

Guizonde
2017-07-19, 11:35 AM
I'll admit, I feel like I missed a reference.

it was new year's eve in leeds' finest pub. 1976, i remember it like it was yesterday. some bloke, probably too happy just shy of the clock chiming midnight, paid the rounds for the crowded tavern. he leapt onto the bar, holding a branch of mistletoe. loudly, he proclaimed "come now! it's time to kiss the person you love the most! happy new year and good cheer!"

poor bartender was nearly crushed to death!

Bohandas
2017-07-20, 12:24 PM
Didn't someone back on the old wotc forum (possibly RMGCLF) stat up monstrous donuts?

goto124
2017-07-20, 01:42 PM
I'm hungry for some donuts.

FreddyNoNose
2017-07-21, 07:09 PM
It's edition-dependent.

In AD&D 2E:


In 3.5:


In 5E (where at least the character I referenced was operating):


The spell doesn't appear to have been around in 1E, and I abstained from 4E.

Goodberry is from UA in 1985.

Goodberry (Alteration - Evocation) Reversible
Level: 2
Range: Touch
Duration: 1 day + l/level
Area of Effect: 2-8 fresh berries
Components: V: S, M
Casting Time: 1 round
Saving Throw: None
Explanation/Description: When a druid casts a goodberry spell upon
a handful of freshly picked berries, from 2 to 8 of them will become
magical. The druid casting the spell (as well as any other druid of 3rd
or higher level) will be able to immediately discern which berries were
affected. A detect magic spell will discover this also. Berries with the
dweomer will either enable a hungry creature of approximately mansize
to eat one and be as well-nourished as if a full normal meal were
eaten, or else the berry will cure 1 point of physical damage due to
wounds or other similar causes, subject to a maximum of 8 points of
such curing in any 24-hour period. The reverse of the spell, badberry,
causes rotten berries to appear wholesome but each actually delivers
1 point of poison damage (no saving throw) if ingested. The material
component of the spell is mistletoe passed over the freshly picked,
edible berries to be enspelled (blueberries, blackberries, raspberries,
‘ currants, gooseberries, etc.).

Blackhawk748
2017-07-21, 07:44 PM
Typically nothing special, but in one game that was more RP focused, i had a knight who brought a goat and like 3 chickens with him when he traveled, so he always had milk that he turned into cheese and a few eggs in the morning. Salted pork cut into bacon thickness strips solved the rest for our "general rations".

After the first few initial descriptions i stopped bothering unless i did something out of the ordinary, cuz as a seasoned campaigner he knew a few tricks on how to make rations less garbage.

Max_Killjoy
2017-07-21, 07:57 PM
Generally I'm more concerned with how what sort of food, how it's prepared, where it comes from, how much of it there is or isn't, etc, help enrich the setting as a place where the characters actually live.

Scarcity of food or difficulty with "rations" only become an issue when the facts at hand demand it.

Concrete
2017-07-23, 12:21 PM
In the latest Pathfinder Campaign I played, my Hunter was the party cook, and I had a lot of fun figuring out what food could be made from the beasties I killed. A giant ferret became some foul, but long lasting rations once I smoked it and rolled it up in flatbread. A boar which turned out to be pregnant turned into a meal fir for kings, and so on. Not every meal was so described, but when I had the chance, I had fun with it. (And yes, I may or may not have been inspired by a certain manga about adventurers who end up cooking their way through a dungeon... (Duengeon Meshi, look it up. Great fun))

In the Pathfinder Campaign I'm currently DM'ing, which takes place almost entirely within a city, one of my PC's ended up something of a Streetfood gormet, and making up foods served by the many races and nationalities in the city is really fun, and ends up giving a bit of flavour to my descriptions of the city's districts.

Kane0
2017-07-23, 09:24 PM
Just last weekend we had a full day one shot based on being sushi shefs, moving into a new city and setting up a new store. I was a big game hunter contracted to acquire fresh ingredients of the 'dire' variety.

LordSamuel
2017-07-25, 05:46 AM
For me and my friends - Food is just umm...decoration. I have a Bag of Holding with monthly rations in it, so we are more concentrating on Storytelling and other stuff, less on - Where have you left your horses, when you entered the town

timjn
2018-03-19, 10:00 PM
The spell also states that the berries 'appear in your hand'.

FreddyNoNose
2018-03-19, 10:47 PM
Nope. The material component is a sprig of mistletoe - which doesn't get used up by the spell, so you can use the same mistletoe forever. The berries appear in your hand from nowhere.

Goodberry (Alteration - Evocation) Reversible
Level: 2
Range: Touch
Duration: 1 day + l/level
Area of Effect: 2-8 fresh berries
Components: V: S, M
Casting Time: 1 round
Saving Throw: None
ExplanationlDescription: When a druid casts a goodberry spell upon
a handful of freshly picked berries, from 2 to 8 of them will become
magical. The druid casting the spell (as well as any other druid of 3rd
or higher level) will be able to immediately discern which berries were
affected. A detect magic spell will discover this also. Berries with the
dweomer will either enable a hungry creature of approximately mansize
to eat one and be as well-nourished as if a full normal meal were
eaten, or else the berry will cure 1 point of physical damage due to
wounds or other similar causes, subject to a maximum of 8 points of
such curing in any 24-hour period. The reverse of the spell, badberry,
causes rotten berries to appear wholesome but each actually delivers
1 point of poison damage (no saving throw) if ingested. The material
component of the spell is mistletoe passed over the freshly picked,
edible berries to be enspelled (blueberries, blackberries, raspberries,
‘ currants, gooseberries, etc.).


Food matters in my world not just for the fun feasts but for day to day needs. Running out of food/water is bad. I do use encumbrance.

The Fury
2018-03-20, 03:29 AM
For a player character I made, I interpreted "high Str + high Con = Big Eater." I wasn't so much that rules for how often my character needed to eat were heavily enforced, she just enjoyed eating.

bc56
2018-03-20, 07:25 AM
I actually make my players pay for food when traveling, although not if they stay home. They often use Teleport to get around though, so that negates the need for carrying rations.

danielxcutter
2018-03-20, 09:00 AM
I'm not sure if I should be pleased or annoyed by my thread being necro'd...

LibraryOgre
2018-03-20, 12:07 PM
The Mod Wonder: This thread is

:smallsmile:
.
.
.
:smallcool:

Past its expiration date.