Where Do They Go For Food?

Sustenance and the lack of it has driven wars, informed politics, caused revolutions. The humble potato is a great example of food’s potential to drive history and narrative. It was introduced to Europe after contact with the Americas, and then became the staple food of a third of Ireland’s population. A potato blight then caused the Great Famine which killed a million and triggered the mass emigration of Irish people to the US.

Sustenance and the lack of it has driven wars, informed politics, caused revolutions. The humble potato is a great example of food’s potential to drive history and narrative. It was introduced to Europe after contact with the Americas, and then became the staple food of a third of Ireland’s population. A potato blight then caused the Great Famine which killed a million and triggered the mass emigration of Irish people to the US.



The potato itself would not have been as important to the Irish cottiers had they been allowed to own their own pasture land or sow other crops. Those two factors were driven by English corn laws and the policies of absentee landlords. Food was in fact still being exported from Ireland even in the worst of the Famine - beef, dairy products and grain among them. It was not the lack of food that had killed so many people, but rather its unaffordability due to such policies.

A great banquet and its many subtleties sets a very different scene from a supper of rough bread and pottage. Food can be used as a reward or payment (Seven Samurai), a plot device (the newts in Ethan of Athos) or a punishment (nutra-loaf). The price and origin of food can also make a large difference to a setting. The European hunger for sugar drove much of the triangle trade of the Atlantic in the 1800s. Profits from the sale of sugar were used to purchase trade goods, which were bartered for African slaves, and profits from the sale of those slaves (to a sugarcane plantation owner) were in turn used to purchase more sugar.

Access to spices drove the colonization of Southeast Asia, which then allowed cheap spices to enter the markets of Europe. Their availability to the lower classes devalued spices in the cuisine of the wealthy, which led to a new emphasis on the natural flavors of food. Lobsters and salmon were formerly the food of the poor, until increasing scarcity turned them into delicacies for the rich.

An army marches on its stomach, according to Napoleon. The logistics of food can provide entertaining obstacles for PCs fighting in remote areas. Froissart’s Chronicles makes note of the Scots, who marched their food with them in the form of cattle. They baked bannock on griddle-stones heated on a fire, and slaughtered the cattle as they needed. The meat and organs would then be boiled in the raw hide of the cow, stretched over the flames. In this manner they avoided relying on a supply train, which afforded them more mobility than their English counterparts.

Food can even be used as a McGuffin as in the Norse myth of Loki and Idunn. In that myth Loki, after threats from the giant Thiazi, lures the goddess Idunn into a forest. Thiazi then abducts her while in the form of a great eagle, stealing her and the apples she carries - the apples of eternal youth. Denied the apples, the gods begin to age, and Loki has to hatch a plan to return Idunn to Asgard.

Check out my next column two weeks from now to read more about how one can use food in worldbuilding and setting creation.

Contributed by M.W. Simmes. See her previous worldbuilding article in this series here.
 

log in or register to remove this ad

sphere830

First Post
Great short piece for world building. Who needs a monster manual for a game world? Lack of access to a biological need can generate real monsters.
 

Counterpoint: Food is boring. The easiest way to get an eyeroll from players is by asking them to decrement their ration counters. Ask that enough times and the party simply pools enough money to buy a Murlynds Magical Spoon, and never deals with it again. After all, they have a storage bag that opens into another dimension and can travel thousands of miles in a matter of minutes; it's a given that they won't run out of food unless the DM forces them to.

Asking details about the food they eat (or the amount they have) is generally the equivalent of asking a player "were you wearing gloves when you touched that"? It telegraphs the fact that a "gotcha" moment is coming, which ruins any chance at surprise/suspense and makes the players feel like their DM is going to play "gotcha" games with them.

Occasionally, food can be an interesting diversion. Adventurers can be stripped of their gear for a mission and need the druid to forage, or a player can use eating habits to flush out a character. But generally, food is just another macguffin, and often one that breaks the setting. Oh no, the town's XXXX is stolen! When XXXX is a magic rock, it makes sense for the players to hunt the big bad and get it back. When XXXX is a barn full of wheat, it's more logical for a party of true heroes to use their abilities/tools/gold to actually help the town farm and become economically and ecologically stable than to go on a wild adventure (while carrying a pack full of rations and/or a magic spoon to feed them on their trip).

RPGs settings require a balance of realism and fantasy. Generally, food is on the same side of realism as worrying about where the players go to the bathroom. You can build an occasional plotline around hunting in the city sewers, but if sanitation becomes the focus of the game something has gone wrong.
 
Last edited by a moderator:



That's not an argument, it's just a contradiction. The OP gave reasons why food is historically important (duh), but so far I'm the only one in this thread that even attempted to link the topic of food to the practicalities of RPGs.

It wasn't intended to be an argument. It was a dismissal.
 

A

amerigoV

Guest
My favorite gameworld Hellfrost (for Savage Worlds by Triple Ace Games) this is an important topic. The theme of the setting is not that winter is coming - but that winter is here. Shorter grow cycles puts many towns and settlements at risk. That adventure where you killed the dragon but not before it ravaged the crops turns more interesting. The next time you wander through the area you may find it bandit infested as that is the only way the starving people can survive.
And if you starve to death you might come back as a Famine - an undead that continually eats and destroys food in an area - thereby perpetuating the problem.

Its not a big deal for individual PCs, but fun to drive bigger plots and adventures.
 
Last edited:

Jhaelen

First Post
Well, e.g. in an Ars Magica campaign these kinds of consideration could clearly be an interesting source for a story. Famine, or scarcity of food caused by armies marching by in a medieval setting is something completely different from tracking food rations for an adventuring party in a highly magical setting.
 

I use food in my campaign to immerse my players. The campaign takes place in a tropical setting, so I get to describe all sorts of fruit to my players that are foreign to them, thus enhancing this feeling of being on an exotic adventure. On top of that, some tropical foods may be poisonous if prepared incorrectly, leading to all manner of tropical illnesses. Food can also be an interesting random encounter. The players may find a tree bearing fruit, which they can consume or sell.
 

Derren

Hero
Speaking of potatoes.

There is a myth that when Frederick the Great introduced the potato to Prussia people were reluctant to adopt it, partially because they consumed the leaves and not the potato itself. Frederick then ordered potatoes to be planted on royal fields and had them heavily guarded. Yet the guards were instructed not to stop thieves. The common folk saw the heavy guard and assumed that potatoes were something very special, so they stole them to plant them themselves.

Anyway, I think that supplies, food water but also things like ammunition, is very overlooked in D&D which imo diminishes the game settings. With the current way supplies are handled any for of overland travel becomes meaningless except for 1-2 random encounters. But the PCs can basically wander wherever they like.
But as soon as you use encumbrance and use sensible supply rates a week long trek to go to a dungeon, kill everything and take its stuff becomes a 10 man expedition with several horse carts to carry all the supplies and potential loot. And this opens up so many new story and adventure possibilities and make the world a lot more immersive.

Also, realistic food needs also opens up new tactics for PCs and monsters alike. Now starving out the other is a possibility. When the PCs sit at the dungeon entrance they can prevent monsters to hunt outside, meaning they have to turn on each other to survive. Likewise a dragon can burn the food supplies of the PCs and watch them starve instead of engaging a prepared adventuring group.
 

Related Articles

Remove ads

Remove ads

Top