Greetings!

In my own campaign, the various cities often boast of a variety of restaurants that offer distinctive cuisines of food for the characters to enjoy. Such restaurants are often excellent introductions of different recipes and styles of food and cooking for the characters, who often embrace specific restaurants as favourites. The various restaurants also serve as environments for the players to role-play, building various relationships with NPC's, as well as meeting new characters.

Caravan tents on the trail, distant border towns and foreign cities, open up new cuisines and food for the characters to explore and enjoy.

I also make liberal use of valuable food resources as treasure. Salt, pepper, and a wide variety of spices, fruits, vegetables, preserved where suitable, can oftentimes be worth considerable fortunes by themselves, entirely aside from more traditional treasures.

Eating and food often serve as a centerpiece for important meetings between characters and NPC's, where stories are told, legends and myths recounted, and news passed on, and commentary and discussion is embraced.

Distinctive Food Cuisines often provide character and detail to a specific culture, and even when using a historically based cuisine, including various fantastic elements into specialized regional cuisines adds to the overall flavours.

Have you used food and spices as treasure in your campaigns? Have you developed or assigned particular cuisines to distinct cultures?

Beyond the characters in the game, do you also embrace distinctive cuisines of food with your group?

In one of my groups, I have routinely embraced gathering us together before play begins in a restaurant, where we typically enjoy Greek food, Persian food, Indian food, or Chinese food. It has been a very popular tradition that everyone looks forward to.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Great topic.

I don't put any personal effort into this but, as I normally run games in the Realms, I have the Volo's Guides to ... to draw upon. One of the many things those invaluable little books provide is the details of the "provender" in many a tavern, inn, or taphouse. If the players are interested, the details are available.

I'm currently prepping a Dark Sun campaign and have spent some time coming to grips with the food and drink this unusual world serves so as to help deliver on the theme of alienness.

I ran a thread on this here a few years ago.

Local cuisine can add some personality to a region.

For example Halflings might favour soups and sauces. And various noodles and pastas with a sort of Italian theme. Wines might be a common drink. Or flavoured milks.
Elves might go with various types of sushi and fish based dishes. Or other asian dishes using birds for example. Teas might be very common.
Dwarves might employ alot of really strong spices comparable to those from India, Asia or South America. Really strong alcohols might be common. Or heavily flavoured drinks. Or both.
Orcs might make really good pastries. (This was actually in the 3e D&D setting book for Crushed.) And like coffee. With cream.
Dragonborn might have a thing for sweets and craft all manner of candies and iced confections like milkshakes snowcones and so on.
and so on. Even have differing styles within a country. Long pasta in one area, short in another. Hard candies here and chocolates over there.

There might also be cullinary incompatibilities. Chocolate might be poisonous or at least very hazardous to one race. Or tea acts like alcohol to Tabaxi. In the old DC comics for Forgotten Realms in one issue it was shown a certain type of cheese was dangerously addictive to Halflings.

I'm currently running an adventure with a smuggling theme as a background. So yeah, lots of food stuffs to be found in smugglers caves that can be classed as treasure such as brandy, wine, liqueurs, salt, spices, pickled fish, fermented sauces and my old favourite to gross out the player characters, a few barrels of undead pickled eyeballs, still twitching on the plate.

I don't always pay enough attention to this sort of detail, but attempts have been made here or there at various times over the years when a special type of food or beverage might be common or special to a people or region. Often this takes the form of local alcoholic beverages, like dwarven whiskey, halfling honey mead and lots and lots of elven feywine. In Dark Sun fermented nectar made from kank honey would be found, etc. At a recent campaign Storm Dragon Ale would be found at the local tavern at the town the PCs started out (where some of them lived), named after the Storm Dragon Mountains (a mountain range circled by constant storm clouds rumored to be generated by storm dragons who reside around the area), which can be seen to the distance north of the town.

One high level campaign I ran decades ago (when I was a teenager in the 90s) had a green dragon infestation in the forest around the town the PCs ultimately settled and green dragon stake became common for a while. The meat had to be processed to drain out the toxins first (that toxic breath weapon of theirs sips into their veins), then it had to be heavily tenderized so it could be chewed (dragons have a tough hide). The meat was served soaked in some type of stake sauce.

I don't usually detail the cuisine unless it's key to the situation, such as in an icy village when I included a brew made from fermented seagull that was part of a drinking game the PCs could play. Not enough time.

Quote from: SHARK;1117977Have you used food and spices as treasure in your campaigns?

Sure. Often, food items are a pretty bulky kind of treasure, so it's not usually something the PCs prefer, but spices or bottles of rare wine could be valuable exceptions.

QuoteHave you developed or assigned particular cuisines to distinct cultures?

Again, sure. It's mentioned (usually in passing) as it comes up in the game, much like I'd describe regional dress or architecture.

QuoteBeyond the characters in the game, do you also embrace distinctive cuisines of food with your group?

Food is usually a part of getting together, but it's often whatever is convenient for the game. The old standby of delivered pizza is most common. But we've had some Texas meet-ups at a private room at a Tex-Mex restaurant. And we've had delivered Chinese food. And when I lived in Japan we'd often get massive quantities of gyoza, or bento boxes. (When I lived in Hawaii it was often bento boxes, there, too.) Depending on the ethnic background of players, sometimes people would bring foods for the group to share, like a guy bringing in homemade tortillas and barbacoa, or someone bringing homemade kimchi. I guess I don't really think about that as "embracing distinctive cuisines with the group." It's not that formal: it's just the way it works out.

Quote from: Chainsaw;1118000I don't usually detail the cuisine unless it's key to the situation, such as in an icy village when I included a brew made from fermented seagull that was part of a drinking game the PCs could play. Not enough time.

Same here. I often will mention foods that are regional in the campaign, but it's just color, not something we spend much game time on unless it's important for some reason. For example, I'm currently running a game where the PCs are based out of the "City State of Krokus", which you could think of as being "eastern Mediterranean," and the players rescued the daughters of a wealthy rug merchant. When they delivered the daughters, they were feasted by the merchant, and I mentioned the food served in passing (dates, cheeses, grapes, fresh fruits and vegetables, bread, hummus, roast goat/mutton, fish, wine, et cetera). I used those descriptions, as well as the description of the merchant's house and the seating (an outdoor terrace on a house overlooking the sea, with tents/pavilions, rugs, cushions, hookahs, etc) to help establish the tone of the place and the wealth of the merchant. Useful color, basically. Rarely more important than that, though.

Here's another example from my write up of the Morgul Vale Work Camp (early Fourth Age Middle Earth campaign). Food (and spices) are mentioned as part of the description to help establish the color/tone of the place, but it's not something that I'd expect to have much game-focus beyond providing that color (emphasis added in the quote, below):

QuoteMorgul Vale Bridge / Work-camp

The settlement at Morgul Vale bridge started as a simple work site which grew into a day camp, and has gradually evolved into a sort of parallel settlement with Crossroads Manor. While Crossroads Manor has something of a frontier feel about it, the work camp is even less developed. The few buildings are of wooden construction, and most shelters are tents, although some tents are quite elaborate, reflecting the significant Haradrim and Easterling presence in the camp.

The Gondorian men who stay here tend to be single (men with families prefer Crossroads Manor) and of a rougher sort. The Haradrim and Easterlings are almost all warriors who fought against Gondor in the war, but have been pardoned by the King and volunteered to serve in the clearing of Minas Morgul.

Given the nature of the men who live and work here, keeping peace in the work camp is a thankless task. During the day, the Tumahir has a squad on duty, here. Nominally, the soliders are there to protect the workers, but equally important is their function as a deterrent to conflict amongst the workers. The Haradrim and Easterlings are surprisingly earnest in their pursuit of orcs (preferring such activity to manual labor), but less enthusiastic about forays into the wild parts of the city ruins, fearing the ghosts they believe haunt the place. The Tumahir is aware of these factors, and if restlessness is reported in the camp he mounts a patrol towards Gorgorath or into the Morgai to relieve pressures.

During the work-day, there are roughly equal numbers of Gondorian men and foreign-born men around the camp. In the evening and at night, the foreign-born outnumber the Gondorians (as many of the men of Gondor retire to Crossroads Manor). About two-thirds of the foreign-born men are Haradrim, with the minority being Easterlings (mostly of the Asdriag and Sagath tribes). The work camp has an exotic air about it, as the Haradrim and Easterlings have erected tents and felt-lined quarters, and there are even women and children present, in some cases. There is also a herd of goats, and the Easterlings, in particular, keep their horses close by.

Food is delivered from Minas Tirith and distributed at Crossroad Manor, but the Haradrim prefer their own dishes to the bland Gondorian fare, so the Tumahir has requested merchant deliveries from the south, as well. These are always well-received by the camp, and the air is filled with the smells of spices after such an arrival.

Notable NPCs

• Fuad Junar, Haradrim Chieftan - Although the camp lacks any formal leader, Fuad is the senior and most important of the Haradrim in the work-camp. He is also respected by the Easterlings, so the Tumahir considers him a crucial asset. The respect shown to Fuad by the Tumahir has also increased Fuad's own prestige, so he is content to assist in the management of the work camp.
• Degonar, Gondorian Work-Boss - Degonar oversees the work details and day to day management of the camp. He is not a solider, but is a tough, no-nonsense man who is able to command the respect of most of the men. He works closely with the dwarves who reside at Crossroad Manor, and enjoys drinking with them. He gets along well enough with Fuad, but has not developed a rapport with the Easterling leaders.
• Khuzik Mar, Asdriag Chief - Khuzik Mar is senior among the Asdriags. He gets along well with the Tumahir, respects Fuad, and tolerates Degonar. He is touchy, and alert for any slight, which can make him difficult to deal with. Despite being from different tribes, their similar cultural backgrounds in this nest of foreigners have brought Khuzik Mar and Dwur Tan, leader of the Sagath, into a friendship which surprised both men.
• Dwur Tan, Sagath Chief - Senior man among the Sagath. He is less touchy than Khuzik Mar, and delights in raiding, riding, and all manner of physical games and contests. Always smiling, he tends to be well-liked. Dwur Tan is also quite shrewd, and uses his friendly demeanor in combination with feigned cultural ignorance to his advantage. He also enjoys orchestrating jokes and pranks, although he avoids being the active prankster. The dour Degonar is a prime target.

I like to do this. My Exalted travelogue campaign had a character that was very much all about sampling the local cuisine wherever she went, which meant I had to detail it. I'm a bit of a foodie, so it was fun and soon mushroomed (aha!) into a whole thematic thing. Now it crops up in just about any game I run, and DCC characters in particular end up subsisting on some weird shit.

One of the reasons I like the setting for Blades in the Dark is the effort put into the kinds of food available, from mushroom mash for the poorest, through fried eel and squid, to the rich eating caviar out of tiny wooden shoes (with tiny silver spoons naturally).

You have to remember that between the fall of Rome until the Renaissance, there was a long period where there was very little movement of food products in most areas of Europe. Cuisine was highly local. Even in places where foreigners traveled (big port cities, mostly) there was still little opportunities for "foreign food" because they couldn't bring the ingredients with them in significant numbers.

This started to change in a serious way in the Renaissance. In England, for example, the arrival of sugar caused a huge sensation.  Aristocrats would have these insane sugar-parties where they made recipes of... let's say a very experimental nature. And where the amount of sugar consumed makes you wonder how they all didn't die of diabetic shock on the spot.

Have you read the Redwall books, they have some fantastic descriptions of feasts.

Most food details get glossed over unless it's a "beach episode" session, where the majority of the players' time is spent gabbing in the tavern with each other and NPC's, relaxing, or visiting a fancy party to schmooze a politician or a celebrity or spy on someone, whatever. I like to add some color like that, and highlight the ways various people live and what they have access to, when the pace of the game slows a bit and I have a chance to breathe. Otherwise it's usually "it's been a week of travel, you are dirty and you can smell yourself, your feet hurt, and your stomach has had nothing but hardtack, stale jerky and some watered down beer since you left home."

I like having spices and things like that matter, particularly in mercantile campaigns. Stuff like that is gold, and makes things like caravans and etc. more interesting when it's not just guarding and transporting a chest of gold (although spices could be worth much more at the destination...).

I don't think I've ever had food directly affect morale as SHARK described in the other thread, although that's a good idea and I may use that for my next campaign. Although it has affected peoples general affectations to be sure...

My standby was the menu from the inn in the village of Homlett.

This isn't something I've considered before but I will now.

I think Mountain dwarf cuisine will based on mushrooms, grubs and rats. They import spices and make strong sauces that mask the flavour of the ingredients. Even with access to better quality meats they still regularly eat meals that will make weaker races (everyone else) sweat and on occasion faint. Dwarven restaurants are popular with bands of young men looking to show off by eating the hottest "stunty" they can. The proprietors indulge this trend because they can sell barrels of ale as people try to cool down the spices.

Quote from: Altheus;1118481This isn't something I've considered before but I will now.

I think Mountain dwarf cuisine will based on mushrooms, grubs and rats. They import spices and make strong sauces that mask the flavour of the ingredients. Even with access to better quality meats they still regularly eat meals that will make weaker races (everyone else) sweat and on occasion faint. Dwarven restaurants are popular with bands of young men looking to show off by eating the hottest "stunty" they can. The proprietors indulge this trend because they can sell barrels of ale as people try to cool down the spices.

I figured mountain dwarves would eat a lot of goat. Good for milk and cheese too.

Quote from: HappyDaze;1118529I figured mountain dwarves would eat a lot of goat. Good for milk and cheese too.

It is not good for milk and cheese, I've eaten both and they both taste of goat.

Goat vindaloo dwarf style should be popular though.