Quote from: Will;816441I find our food habits odd. Like lamb -- lamb is delicious, but rather uncommon here. (Though not TOO hard to find, most places)

Yes, that's one that's disappearing. I was fed whale one time in Japan (some of that 'harvested for scientific purposes' that can show up in supermarkets) and didn't much care for it. One region is famous for its "horse sashimi".

A note about lovecraft - cannibalism isn't just for ghouls! The Picture in the House is an example of implied cannibalism. The Rats in the Walls someone munches their friend. In the revision "The Mound" the K'n-yan people blend humans with other critters for riding, slavery and eating.

It is interesting that the effects of the disease Kuru, caused by canabalism among tribes in NEw Guinea, does have symptoms that would be entirely appropriate to ascribe to a ghoul; body tremours, unstable stance and gait, and uncontrolled pathological bursts of laughter.

Quote from: Will;816441Other 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 eat lamb everyday. Gyro place across from work.

Another cannibal sighting. Steve Jackson's Sorcery FF-style gamebooks.

And theres the cover to the Forgotten Realms set, The North.

Quote from: Omega;816498Marvel 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.

Interesting... there's a spell in Delta Green like that, popular with ghouls. 'You can take on the appearance and mannerisms of a target! Component: eat the target'

Quote from: TristramEvans;816507I eat lamb everyday. Gyro place across from work.

mmm. Now I'm hungry.

(I love ground lamb burgers, meatballs, in shepherd's pie... mmm)

Maybe I'd love ground people, too!

It's an occasional theme in my campaign.  The rock troll race in my world is heavily influenced by RuneQuest trolls, and varying levels of ritual cannibalism is de riguer.  There's a troll cult requiring its members to eat a ritual amount of vegetables once a month, and elves are canonically classified as "vegetables" for that purpose, although the trolls hotly protest that there's nothing requiring them to eat elves ...

Since the funeral ritual for the most worthy and honored trolls is to be popped into the stewpot and shared out at the funeral feast, "May your flesh be eaten" is a polite parting phrase.  It's rather funny to hear my wife, whose character likes trolls and speaks their language, say that in a chirpy little-girl voice.

Nope, never used cannibalism as far as I can recall.

As for lamb, I think I tried it once and didn't like it. But that may have been a bad example since the restaurant didn't normally serve it. Last August I was in New Hampshire and tried a bison sirloin steak at a restaurant and that was pretty good. Never tried elk, venison, rabbit or wild boar.

Actually this thread brings up an interesting side notion. In many games characters find magical items that grant various bonuses, rings of +1 protection, necklace of +2 vs. evil, etc. But in old timey myths primitive people believed that carrying around totems from powerful individuals or beasts provided protections, health and other benefits. (How many Christians believed that having or touching a piece of the True Cross would save their lives?) Has anyone ran a campaign where instead of a +1 ring the NPCs wore a "bone from Mighty Jim" which provided a boon? Or had to eat an organ from the Horrible Beast to gain a boost for a time?

Bison is quite good. Also fights cancer.

Quote from: Will;816518Interesting... there's a spell in Delta Green like that, popular with ghouls. 'You can take on the appearance and mannerisms of a target! Component: eat the target'

That was likely drawn from one of the modern short stories set in the Mythos by other authors. One I recall had a female ghoul falling in love with a graveyard poet who was pining for his dead love. She eventually was allowed into the locked crypt to eat the body so she could assume her form for one last tryst.

One of the Cthulhu LIVE scenarios is a mad priest whos going town to town killing people and serving them up at a BBQ party as part of prepping them unknowing for a ritual which is woven into the big sermon at the end.
Another one had a serpent man wizard. One of his spells was to consume someone and assume their form. Jan, who LARPs once a year on a C-LIVE event said she and a friend were, true to Jans knack for that, cooked up by some serpent men. "And I wasnt even a half-orc this time!"

How are you defining cannibalism? Is it just eating your own species? Or is it a fantasy or sci-fi setting with numerous sapient species? If so, does it count if a Klingon eats a Ferengi? I tend to define it as a sapient species eating another sapient species. Which means eating dragon is an act of cannibalism. Lots of fantasy and sci-fi races are sapient even though they aren't humanoid.

I've used cannibalism extensively over the years. I tend to have my orcs engage in ritual cannibalism. Consuming the hearts of opponents they respected. It is a sign of honor for the fallen. Many non-orcs don't see it that way. I've used goblins that eat their dead because they live in a subterranean world. That much protein can't be allowed to be wasted. They keep the bones and encase them in clay. They fire harden the clay and glaze it with pigments. Each family keeps the immediate dead in their homes. Older family members are moved to communal tombs.

I view cannibalism as a morally neutral act.

Quote from: Tetsubo;816826How are you defining cannibalism? Is it just eating your own species? Or is it a fantasy or sci-fi setting with numerous sapient species? If so, does it count if a Klingon eats a Ferengi? I tend to define it as a sapient species eating another sapient species. Which means eating dragon is an act of cannibalism. Lots of fantasy and sci-fi races are sapient even though they aren't humanoid.

I've used cannibalism extensively over the years. I tend to have my orcs engage in ritual cannibalism. Consuming the hearts of opponents they respected. It is a sign of honor for the fallen. Many non-orcs don't see it that way. I've used goblins that eat their dead because they live in a subterranean world. That much protein can't be allowed to be wasted. They keep the bones and encase them in clay. They fire harden the clay and glaze it with pigments. Each family keeps the immediate dead in their homes. Older family members are moved to communal tombs.

I view cannibalism as a morally neutral act.

I think I've mostly defined it as eating sapient (humanoid) species, yes. Good point on the dragon, never thought about it - but it's a good way also to paint the cultural differences of the setting. Eating dragon meat can be widely acceptable, because it gives you power, or it can be still considered an evil/sinful act in "cultured" societies (The Portable Door by Tom Holt comes to my mind in that regard), while orcs eating their dead can be seen as odd and evil, for a variety of reasons - if only because we all know that orcs are ugly and evil, right?

Quote from: TristramEvans;816310I didn't recently find out that the founder of Jameson liquor bought a 9 year old slave girl in Africa just to give her to a cannibalistic tribe in return for getting to watch (and sketch in watercoulour) them dismembering and eating her). For a few handkerchiefs.


So...that happened.

In answer to the OP, no I haven't touched on cannibalism in my games. Just like rape, its just not a subject I find enjoyable or interesting to explore through play-acting. And I play RPGs for fun.

Wasn't the founder technically, it was his son I believe - or grandson. Someone down the line of dilettante heirs in any way. But yes, an interesting and definitely dark story:
 http://knowledgenuts.com/2013/11/09/the-gruesome-cannibalism-behind-jameson-whiskey/

And I will admit myself a morbid understanding of his act.

Quote from: Tetsubo;816826How are you defining cannibalism? Is it just eating your own species? Or is it a fantasy or sci-fi setting with numerous sapient species? If so, does it count if a Klingon eats a Ferengi? I tend to define it as a sapient species eating another sapient species. Which means eating dragon is an act of cannibalism. Lots of fantasy and sci-fi races are sapient even though they aren't humanoid.

I've used cannibalism extensively over the years. I tend to have my orcs engage in ritual cannibalism. Consuming the hearts of opponents they respected. It is a sign of honor for the fallen. Many non-orcs don't see it that way. I've used goblins that eat their dead because they live in a subterranean world. That much protein can't be allowed to be wasted. They keep the bones and encase them in clay. They fire harden the clay and glaze it with pigments. Each family keeps the immediate dead in their homes. Older family members are moved to communal tombs.

I view cannibalism as a morally neutral act.

In a fantasy world I tend to use it to mean sapient humanoid species, though deep down, I know it probably really ought to mean any sapient species (or at the very least, there needs to be a word for eating something sapient as well as something that is sapient and visibly resembles you).

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;816343I've done it a bit. In one of my settings there is a myth floating around that eating sorcerers gives you their powers, so people occasionally test this idea out.

Same in my campaign, although it's typically seen in the form of "animal eats a wizard then ends up more intelligent".

Quote from: Tetsubo;816826How are you defining cannibalism? Is it just eating your own species? Or is it a fantasy or sci-fi setting with numerous sapient species? If so, does it count if a Klingon eats a Ferengi? I tend to define it as a sapient species eating another sapient species. Which means eating dragon is an act of cannibalism. Lots of fantasy and sci-fi races are sapient even though they aren't humanoid.

Remember kids. Ewoks are not in any way cannibals because they dont eat their own kind. (That we have ever seen...)