Eat up! (Cannibalism in gameworlds)

soltakss · February 22, 2015, 04:30:34 PM

In Glorantha, ogres eat other humans, the Cannibal Cult eat other humans (and maybe Morokanth, which counts in a very specific context), trolls eat other trolls and so on. Aldryami are described as "Vegetarian cannibals", but I think that applies to them eating normal plants, which doesn't count, in my book.

I've used cannibals in several ways:
To gross people out (Didn't work)
To stretch taboos (Didn't really work, as the PCs either refused to eat or accepted that they did not know what they were eating)
As Bad Guys (Didn't work, as the players knew the Bad Guys were culturally cannibals and accepted it)

TristramEvans · February 22, 2015, 04:35:58 PM

Quote from: Omega;817031Remember kids. Ewoks are not in any way cannibals because they dont eat their own kind. (That we have ever seen...)

Werent they going to eat Chewbacca? Because Ewoks were just Wookies on a budget with the name spelled backwards.

Omega · February 23, 2015, 12:35:52 AM

Quote from: TristramEvans;817074Werent they going to eat Chewbacca? Because Ewoks were just Wookies on a budget with the name spelled backwards.

Yep. And bemusingly the Ewoks look like pint sized versions of the original design sketches.

Novastar · February 23, 2015, 02:23:03 AM

Quote from: Lynn;816439Food 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?

How poor are you, and do you live somewhere where hunting culture is venerated (like the American south), or despised (like Berkeley)?

Most of my family from South Carolina have eaten anything the walks, runs or slithers in the area. My friends in the Bay Area seem to think Fuddruckers offering Buffalo or Ostrich meat is "outrageous".

Quote from: danskmacabre;816475A 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.

Hook Mountain Massacre had hillbilly inbred Ogrekin, and yeah, "Mama" had a collection of girl skeletons under her bed ("she don't like competition!").

Nexus · February 23, 2015, 07:46:10 AM

"Soylent Green? What's that stuff like?"

"Varies from person to person."

RPGPundit · February 27, 2015, 06:59:27 PM

I've used cannibalism in my game mostly as a marker for particularly dangerous primitive tribes/creatures.

Tetsubo · February 28, 2015, 08:05:47 AM

Quote from: RPGPundit;818249I've used cannibalism in my game mostly as a marker for particularly dangerous primitive tribes/creatures.

Why is cannibalism the mark of a 'primitive' culture? Why couldn't it be part of an 'advanced' culture? I mean we see body mutilation in 'advanced' cultures *now*. It doesn't seem to be much of a leap towards cannibalism...

RPGPundit · March 03, 2015, 03:33:08 AM

Quote from: Tetsubo;818309Why is cannibalism the mark of a 'primitive' culture? Why couldn't it be part of an 'advanced' culture? I mean we see body mutilation in 'advanced' cultures *now*. It doesn't seem to be much of a leap towards cannibalism...

There were of course some advanced cultures that did engage in cannibalism. The Aztecs, for example.

But generally speaking, cannibalism tends to very quickly become a social taboo in cultural development.

TristramEvans · March 03, 2015, 03:59:39 AM

Quote from: Tetsubo;818309Why is cannibalism the mark of a 'primitive' culture? Why couldn't it be part of an 'advanced' culture? I mean we see body mutilation in 'advanced' cultures *now*. It doesn't seem to be much of a leap towards cannibalism...

Well , for one the practice induces a neurological disease...

The Butcher · March 03, 2015, 07:36:36 AM

Quote from: TristramEvans;818652Well , for one the practice induces a neurological disease...

Technically, cannibalism transmits prion disease, and does not "induce" it. It's a vector, like mosquitoes are to malaria, not the causative agent.

And while any prion disease, theoretically, could be transmitted through cannibalism, kuru amidst the Fore of Papua New Guinea (who practiced mortuary cannibalism) is the one documented incident.

ThatChrisGuy · March 03, 2015, 01:21:33 PM

Quote from: Lynn;816439That'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?

My redneck cousins (and their preeteen/teenage children) in Baldwin County and Mobile will eat anything that stands still long enough to shoot. They get more feral pigs than anything else since there's no bag limit or hunting season.

Baron Opal · March 03, 2015, 03:09:44 PM

Quote from: The Butcher;818669And while any prion disease, theoretically, could be transmitted through cannibalism, kuru amidst the Fore of Papua New Guinea (who practiced mortuary cannibalism) is the one documented incident.

And, it's why I never eat any neural matter (any more). Plus, it tastes icky. No head cheese for me!

The Butcher · March 03, 2015, 03:37:26 PM

Quote from: Baron Opal;818733And, it's why I never eat any neural matter (any more). Plus, it tastes icky. No head cheese for me!

Not a fan of brains either (beef brain, sliced, breaded and deep-fried, is a thing around here), but we end up consuming little bits of nerve tissue with every cut of meat.

crkrueger · March 03, 2015, 05:37:20 PM

Quote from: The Butcher;818736Not a fan of brains either (beef brain, sliced, breaded and deep-fried, is a thing around here), but we end up consuming little bits of nerve tissue with every cut of meat.

Yeah, you can't "de-nerve" meat. If the animal has it, you're probably ingesting some prions, but it take a real long time to express, but once it does...bye bye, 100% fatality I believe, Butcher can check me on that. Also there's no way you can treat meat to kill prions that will leave the food edible. The good news is, it's very very hard to cross species lines, because the proteins have to be near exact in order to have the prions induce the mal-folding in other species. Even going from Mad Cow to Creutzfeld-Jakob isn't easy. That's why cannibalism is a proven vector in cows and people - the proteins are exact going from cow to cow or human to human.

Lynn · March 03, 2015, 08:45:38 PM

Quote from: ThatChrisGuy;818713My redneck cousins (and their preeteen/teenage children) in Baldwin County and Mobile will eat anything that stands still long enough to shoot. They get more feral pigs than anything else since there's no bag limit or hunting season.

Its good that they have that kind of diverse experience. Too many suburban / urban youth don't get much more exotic than whatever gets blended into McNuggets.