Should RPG meals really take up a single backpack slot?

[Hellebore]

Obviously I'm talking about non Kai characters as most Kai characters will have Hunting Discipline.

I understand for the game books this works as the game doesn't ask you to eat them all the time.

However the RPG requires that you eat one meal per day. As your backpack only contains 8 slots, you can only carry a maximum of 8 days worth of food, assuming you didn't want to carry anything else (which you most certainly will want to).

Perhaps the RPG meals should be 5 to a slot or something, maybe 3. Or perhaps there could be emergency trail rations (10 to a slot) that mean you only lose 1 EP, instead of 3.

It just seems really difficult to have enough food for any length of time if a single meal takes up one slot. The game books got around this by not having regular meal requirements, so you had enough slots to feed yourself for the whole book.

Hellebore

 

[Sir Brad]

Do you know how much food it takes to keep a physically fit adult going? especially when their doing activities that have them running at a high metabolic rate? your looking at about 2kg per day of modern nutrient enriched foods and that's without the throw away bits and even then you will be running the body down and feeling hungry due to lack of Filler mass. that doesn't include water that depending on environment and activity level can run from 2-5L (at 1kg/L).

a "Meal" will see you braking your teeth on twice baked bread or Biscuit, choking down dried vegetables and unidentifiable meat that is some combination of dried, smoked and salted to an extent that it tastes the same as any other piece of you've ever had, since you are eating food that has had the liquids removed your going to need to drink more. If you are very lucky you may have the time to set a fire and turn your Twice Baked Bread, meat and some lard in to a porridge like concoction.

 

[Random Code]

I think you need to arrive at what feels right for your game Hellebore. If you want a degree of realism then Sir Brad's comments are absolutely spot on, but if you aren't bothered about such things then go with any one of your houserules.

Personally I stick with the one meal per backpack slot rule and that a character needs to eat one per day to avoid EP loss.

 

[The Wolf]

You could even say that the one slot holds a week's worth of 'meals' aka 'rations' if you want. If something doesn't gel from the rules, it's not set in stone. No RPG rule should be ever be set in stone.

Houserules are the meat-and-potatoes of the RPG world.

 

[Hellebore]

Do you know how much food it takes to keep a physically fit adult going? especially when their doing activities that have them running at a high metabolic rate? your looking at about 2kg per day of modern nutrient enriched foods and that's without the throw away bits and even then you will be running the body down and feeling hungry due to lack of Filler mass. that doesn't include water that depending on environment and activity level can run from 2-5L (at 1kg/L).

So I am right in assuming all your RPG games hold to this? That you're happy this is the first RPG to truly follow the realities of food? Or are you simply defending a rule for the sake of it?

Your numbers are off anyway. High energy foods with sugars and fats provide more energy per kg. A jar of honey has enough energy to keep someone going for more than a day, it doesn't weigh 2kg. It isn't a sustainable diet, but eating in the wilds isn't exactly a full time job either. 2kgs per day per person is the best, not the only. If all you want to do is keep someone's energy levels up for two weeks you only need carbohydrates, sugars and fats.

Trail rations like hardtack and so on used honey as it didn't go off and provided high levels of energy. People have been travelling for months on travel rations over the last 6,000 years without having to stop every 8 days to get more meals. Trail rations aren't the greatest nutrition but they are high in energy so as to keep a person going until they can find proper food. It certainly wasn't an 8 day cut off, nor did it required that you carry nothing else.

Water isn't included in the backpack meal slot and can be found far more readily than food. It doesn't take Hunting to fill a canteen with water from a stream. Unless in a wasteland water supplies are the least of your worries.

a "Meal" will see you braking your teeth on twice baked bread or Biscuit, choking down dried vegetables and unidentifiable meat that is some combination of dried, smoked and salted to an extent that it tastes the same as any other piece of you've ever had, since you are eating food that has had the liquids removed your going to need to drink more. If you are very lucky you may have the time to set a fire and turn your Twice Baked Bread, meat and some lard in to a porridge like concoction.

And? Putting it in some boiling water is hardly difficult and heating food allows for easier digestion and less energy spent on it.

Am I to take up backpack slots with armour polish, oil, tools and so on to keep my armour in good repair? Why so stuck on food per day when the terrible crime of negligent armour maintenance is being performed? If a meal is 2kgs why can I not carry 3 potions of laumspur in a single slot? They are hardly 2kgs each, nor as bulky as such a required meal.


Hellebore

 

[Sir Brad]

I've done some Historical Recreation work and am of the opinion that a days food per backpack slot is being generous as an abstraction seeing that your getting a lot of basic Survival & Expedition gear for free, stuff like your Mess Gear, Bed Roll and such. the LW RPG works on the KISS principle and am willing to except many abstractions for the sake of simplicity and fun. If I want to get funky with the logistics of survival I drag out T2K or a like game.

the Field Rations of the Ancients or even not so far back as the American civil war in the short term where surprisingly nutritionally well balanced if lacking variety. provided you where doing the right kind of physical activity otherwise they where a ticket to an early grave (Oho! the Salt and Fat content)


eating on the move is a less than appealing option (unless you can forage some wild fruits) with Twice Baked Bread, Jerky (usually Pork or Fish), dried Root vegetables and dried legumes (Beans), if you can stop and throw a few odds and ends in to a pot (or your helmet) with some water, dripping and Forage (normally mushrooms, fresh wild root vegetables and wild herbs) things are looking up, the further you want to go a day the less time you have to forage and the less appealing your diet becomes with the stuff you've brought from "home", that won't go as far.

 

[Random Code]

You could even say that the one slot holds a week's worth of 'meals' aka 'rations' if you want. If something doesn't gel from the rules, it's not set in stone. No RPG rule should be ever be set in stone.

Houserules are the meat-and-potatoes of the RPG world.

Exactly. Just go with what fits your game!

Life is way too short to engage in discussions about the weight of foodstuff and high energy giak bars! Well, unless you're the personal trainer of Darklord Gnaag - and then it'd be a life or death matter:

"Sprouts! AGAIN?!? You're fired!"

Zzzzzzaaap!

 

[AguilaSaber]

I guess it is most likely not the size of the meal that is the problem. It is quite generous.

What would have been needed is Hunting (etcetera) as gathering meals, while you travel, or the option to spend some time hunting when you come across some game, or even the option to visit places that serves meals or sells food more often than the game currently offers them.

To some extent Hunting works fine. Not everything you find with Hunting can be stored for use later. Most of it has to be eaten more or less directly when found.

Most adventures wants to abstract this away.