Very easy "OMFG look how fucked up this guy is" indicator to be used sparingly in horrific games.

VtM Rev had the Conspicuous Consumption flaw that required a vampire to devour parts of a victim (usually blood-rich organs such as liver and spleen) in addition to drinking blood, to replenish one's Blood Pool. I played a character with this flaw once, and there was a lot of gallows humor but precious little horror; and it was a pretty big challenge from my end, since I had to feed very rarely (and risk getting caught into a scruffle low on blood, or even outright torpor), or kill one person a day which would be a huge, giant Masquerade breach. And of course, I had to take a Path of Enlightenment or my Humanity would be gone in a couple of months.

Thankfully the campaign only lasted two sessions, for out-of-game reasons, so I didn't really get to experience the full trainwreck that was bound to happen; but for what it's worth, these two sessions had plenty of teenage gallows humor and precious little body horror. In my defense, well, we were adolescents. I would certainly not play this character, and I'm not sure I'd allow it as a GM nowadays; "let's be Chaotic Evil bad guys" as a premise doesn't really take you anywhere particularly interesting.

I find playing horrible bad guys only entertains me if I'm actually rooting for my opponents.

Quote from: TristramEvans;816336I heard it tastes like pork

Long-pigs!

At one point I was horrified when a work colleague related that he had eaten horse and dog at various points.

And then it dawned on me... pigs are very smart and self-aware. Could I really pass judgement when I eat pig? Either I should shut up about people's food choices, or give up eating similarly sentient animals.

I lasted about a month.

So now I refrain from commenting about dog eaters.

It also made me wonder if, in some alternate universe, some variation of me is feeling a bit put out about how delicious long-pork is.

My friend ran a very short lived game of Cthulutech that had a villain that called us on video and proceeded to bite of and eat the fingers of a friend of ours that he'd captured.

Needless to say, it both drove home the fact that this guy was evil as shit, and he needed killing in a very big way.

Sadly, due to one of the players being a dick, the group dissolved, so we never were able to put the bad guy in the ground.

It would make for an interesting spin on the superhero genre. Sort of like Highlander made by Deodato. You can gain heroes (or villains) powers by consuming them.

I'd say that sentients being eaten, sometimes by other sentients, is pretty much standart fare (heh) in fantasy.

As with all violence and touchy subjects in RPGs the real question is how far on the implied to explicit scale the portrayal is placed.

I'm more on the explicit scale, as with most things, for the simple reasonthat it opens up more options. But if someone at the table isn't comfortable, it is far from a dealbreaker.


Now for a more precise definition of cannibalism, meaning humans or very human like beings eating their own species.

It tends to be implied to happen in most games including ghouls, who have cannibalism as a common origin story. Monstrous humanoids are often portrayed as true cannibals.

In this way, it still is a rather standart thing, though commonly only implied.

Including cannibalism amongst humans or elves, dwarves, etc. is where I believe people will get uncomfortable in numbers. I can see three ways of including this in a campaign or setting:

1. Desperation. It takes a lot for people to go for cannibalism for actual sustenance. I'm not a fan of including this version, for the simple reason that things have really hit rock bottom when this happens. This not only makes a game world a very horrible place, most players and DMs do simply not have the ability to portray this amount of drama in a way that isn't cheap, cheezy and awkward, making this an active detraction from the game.

2. Because the person doing it is very, very disturbed. I'm not a big fan of this one either. There are thousands of ways to portray a person as evil and/or insane and many aren't so over the top. It's fine once in a blue moon, but more and I'd consider it in the same light as 1.

3. Due to ritual. This is the one I find has potential in games, particularly as the power of ritual tends to be very real in fantastic settings. This is also the option that isn't necessarily about evil and horror. Still mostly a background thing though.

The game I currently run is Hellfrost, which has a cannibalistic group called the Vendahl in it. I used them in one adventure but the cannibalism wasn't a major part of it.

Cannibalism is also a part of Deathwatch and other 40k RPGs featuring Space Marines. They have an implanted organ, the Omophagea, that lets them eat the flesh of another to gain part of its memory. I ran a short-lived DW campaign once but the Omophagea was never used.

Quote from: Will;816397At one point I was horrified when a work colleague related that he had eaten horse and dog at various points.

That's a very American thing - and it changes over time too. Many of us grew up thinking of dogs are man's best friend, the horse is #2. Somehow, we tossed in dolphins (Flipper!) and whales for good measure.

Food culture fascinating. For all the variety of meat that is available today, what actually gets eaten seems quite limited. How many people under 20 (in the US) do you know who have eaten venison, elk, rabbit or duck?

Other than not eating dog or horse, I try to be a bit adventurous (for a USian); I love blood foods, for example.

I find our food habits odd. Like lamb -- lamb is delicious, but rather uncommon here. (Though not TOO hard to find, most places)

I haven't played Firefly, but I imagine Reaver cannibalism is addressed somewhere in the book(s).

Also, a couple of the monsters/cryptids (mostly supernaturally-warped humans) I designed for Corporia have cannibalism as part of their main 'ick' factor.

The Morlocks include elements of Torchwood's weevils and HG Wells' morlocks. They hide out in sewers and underground access tunnels and kidnap people for food.

The Phages are cannibalistic serial killers with spider abilities, and are a bit like the Reavers in that you never know if they will kill you or eat you first.

Quote from: Will;816291Has anyone touched on cannibalism in their games?

Yes, I've found it quite useful.

Cannibalism is the palatable (ahem) taboo in gaming. It lets you point out a group or entity and say "they're not just bad, they're REALLY bad" in a way that most people don't find squicky. Much like slavery, it lets players get all noble on somebody's ass and feel completely justified. They might get uncomfortable, but "horror movie" uncomfortable.

And, if things are set up right, you can get them to be a little tempted when there is some kind of specific, defined advantage to it. Magical transfer of skill, strength, or whatever, the player just might have thier character take a nibble if they stand to gain.

I've used cannibalism a few times in RPGs as appropriate. Some Horror RPGs, I think I used it in Rolemaster many years ago, when the adventurers went into a major Orc lair in a mountain (does Orcs eating Elves count as Cannibalism? or do they have to be the same race?).

A couple of years ago I ran "Rise of the Runelords" and I'm sure one of the Rise of the Runelords scenarios had Cannibals in it.

Of course I did. In fact, the last major PC to die in my campaign was retired due to him engaging in an act of cannibalism with ghouls, then taking the road into Dreamlands to dance forever in the pale light of moon of dreams.

Quote from: One Horse Town;816420It would make for an interesting spin on the superhero genre. Sort of like Highlander made by Deodato. You can gain heroes (or villains) powers by consuming them.

Aberrant (of course) had a rather vile cult of personality that believed that eating a Nova was like eating a god. The PCs end up discovering a slow regenerating Nova that these freaks had captured and been eating alive till he went insane.

Marvel had a mutant called Dirtnap who ate people and gained their appearance and powers. He ate a rat to escape and ended up stuck as one. Theres been a few others like Reverend Styge in Nightstalkers who ate people to maintain his power granted by one of the pages. And of course Wendigo, who is a person cursed to turn into a monster after eating someone. Needless to say every time they put one down a new one pops up sooner or later. What is it about Canada that engenders that? yeesh! It was statted out in MSH as was I think Styge?