For whom the (dinner) bell tolls...

[phoenix240]

This is more of a "What is your character like?" than what would your character do. I've been on a food kick recently so I thought I'd ask: What's your characters favorite food and dining habits? Do they like fine cuisine eaten in the classiest restaurants or more likely to snatch a greasy cheeseburger from some dive between stake outs? What sort of food do they prefer and how does this relate to their personality and background? Do they have a comfort food or something they crave (A character in one of our games is a raging chocoholic, for instance). Are they a vegetarian, a Of course, this all assumes your character can eat and likes to.

[Vulcan]

Re: For whom the (dinner) bell tolls...

 

That is actually a standard question I ask myself about all my characters. Back in (I think) 4th edition, there was a character development form that had that question and many like it in the back of the book.

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: For whom the (dinner) bell tolls...

 

Vixen probably eats mostly 'upscale' kinds of stuff. She's pretty wealthy (amazing what having access to Time powers can do for your bank account), and as her primary motivation for superheroing is fame, she'd try to live a famous lifestyle.

[psyber624]

Re: For whom the (dinner) bell tolls...

 

Psyber's latest incarnation is very "mad scientist" so his favorite food is whatever is presented to him (he doesn't like having to stop whatever he is currently working on for such mundane issues as food consumption.) Pizza Delivery is a must tho, so I guess Pizza would be his favorite food (with Chinese delivery a close second... he really must find the time to hire a servant who can cook).

[sinanju]

Re: For whom the (dinner) bell tolls...

 

Iron Maiden is an adventurous eater, always ready to try to new things. She likes trying out new restaurants, especially upscale ones when she can afford it. But occasionally she likes to eat comfort food--the sorts of things she ate when she was a child (and poor): mac and cheese, various soups and simplye homemade dishes.

 

The Black Knight grew up in the 1930s in the midwest and was a young married adult in the 40s and 50s, very traditional. He's now in his 20s again (physically), but remains a product of his environment in some ways. He's a real meat-and-potatoes kind of guy on a daily basis. But he's also an adventure addict. He'll try anything once, twice if he likes it.

[Badger]

Re: For whom the (dinner) bell tolls...

 

Badger- Probably a bit voracious in eating. Probably knows table manners from his childhood, but living alone doesnt use them. I would imagine heavy on carbs and proteins to keep his energy up.

 

 

Frosty Bob- Thought of this one. Definitely a carnivore. (or steak and potatoes type). And must be cooked rare, if at all. Only girly men like it well-done.

[assault]

Re: For whom the (dinner) bell tolls...

 

Depends on "age". Most of my characters aren't more or less adventurous than me.

 

Golden Age: meat and three veg.

Silver Age: likewise, but a little more adventurous.

Bronze Age: lots of curries. Anything non-European is fine too. Actually, a lot of non-British/Irish is OK. Vegetarian food is just fine. No real objection to British/Irish either, except for a fondness of sticking any non-soup dish between or on bread. Or, where appropriate, rice or pasta. Left to himself (all my "personal" characters are male), will cook at most a couple of times a week and stick what is left over in the fridge to be warmed up later. Yes, that's student food.

Iron and "Modern": Iron doesn't exist. See Bronze for "Modern".

[hfergus]

Re: For whom the (dinner) bell tolls...

 

Olorin - Definetly has a favorite drink - Tart with sweet note lemonade, ... which he summons from nowhere. He likes foods that need no utensils - so pizza is a must (pepperoni and bacon)

 

Volt - likes pizza (pepperoni, bacon and onion) and also is a meat and potatoes guy. Preferred meat is meatloaf (no green peppers in it though)

 

Black Tiger - Chinese and lasagna

 

Lead man - Favorite drink: "Coffee. Hot. Lots of it. Now." Takes it black and unsweetened. Pot roast kind of guy. - Or any "not fancy" meat

 

Futurian : Indian - likes curry. Chicken Vindaloo (fairly hot ) is his favorite.

[Drhoz]

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Vitus: Prefers to cook for himself. He finds it relaxing. Mutton, Leek, and Beetroot stew is a favourite.

Girl Anachronism: Apparently subsists on a diet of Slurpees.

 

Zero: Microwave meals and regular restaurant dates with his Significant Other.

[Kal'El Wayne]

Re: For whom the (dinner) bell tolls...

 

Eldritch is a powerful evil mage of the cackling, "lets have fun doing evil" kind. So he doesn't need to eat at all but does. I think he probably takes a group of good-looking people hostage (because if you are going to have to keep track of hostages, they might as well pretty to look at). Then he'll summon up an incredible feast of every kind of luxury food under the sun, all the really unhealthy, fattening junk that people might eat if they didn't have to worry about their health and forces the hostages to gorge themselves right along with him. Not only does the food not affect him one way or the other, it actually magically makes the hostages immune to heart failure or starvation. This is partly because he doesn't want to risk his hostages dying on him for any reason. But it's mostly because he makes his food extremely fattening (as in "10lbs an hour" fattening), in order to drastically reduce the inevitable escape attempts.

[Balabanto]

Re: For whom the (dinner) bell tolls...

 

Depends on "age". Most of my characters aren't more or less adventurous than me.

 

Golden Age: meat and three veg.

Silver Age: likewise, but a little more adventurous.

Bronze Age: lots of curries. Anything non-European is fine too. Actually, a lot of non-British/Irish is OK. Vegetarian food is just fine. No real objection to British/Irish either, except for a fondness of sticking any non-soup dish between or on bread. Or, where appropriate, rice or pasta. Left to himself (all my "personal" characters are male), will cook at most a couple of times a week and stick what is left over in the fridge to be warmed up later. Yes, that's student food.

Iron and "Modern": Iron doesn't exist. See Bronze for "Modern".

 

 

Iron: MRES! When you can get it!

 

"Modern": Better flavored MRES that may produce changes in your powers or abilities! When you can get it!

[Christopher]

Re: For whom the (dinner) bell tolls...

 

I do not think the food habits of my character very well through. It's not a high priority for me personally. But I do have soem ideas:

 

Landslide:

Brick, based on a human whose body was fused with the DNA of a extradimensional, silicon based critter. (She is in large parts based on a race from a SciFi RPG).

Part of the changes is that her tastebuds got "wonky". She has to season all her food with sand or other minerals. She can even try unusual spices like arsenic, uranium or ceasium 137 (her body can adapt to posions and radoactivity). As she is vulnerable to cold (it is painfull), and restant to warmth she would hate cold food but could eat stuff so hot that it would boil most peoples mouths. Also her metabolism keeps an ideal weight (at about 4 times normal human density), so she could eat regardless of callories.

Part of her adoptive ability is that her body can run for extended periods without need to eat or sleep - but as soon as it has to adopt to something more pressing (like radiation or 100 times normal atmospere) she would feel the deprivation immediately.

 

GLG (Green Light Girl or Green Lantern Girl):

A Green Lantern Homage for a game that did not got of the ground. She is also a very advanced robot (to the point where she can be treated like a living thing). Her design requires food, but she can sustain on very little. An apple here, a small drink there and she is happy. As she is freeloading this certain helps alot.

 

Septa:

She has to keep in form for her Secret Identity in wich she is exotic dancer. But both her job and playing superhero gives her a pretty good and regular workout.

But she also has acess to the power of the Hexagon staff (gives power over six different elements). In the short run she will develop the ability to draw power directly from it's magic (reducing enduracne cost for STR). In the middle run it could allow her to manipulate her metabolism, thus eliminating the need to mind what she eats.

[psyber624]

Re: For whom the (dinner) bell tolls...

 

Okay, just found out that Burger King is now doing delivery so changing Psy's response to this.

[FrankL]

Re: For whom the (dinner) bell tolls...

 

Bolt - teenager, eats like it. Likes to take dates to either Mi Casa, Su Casa, or a French place that means the same thing.

 

Garett - military man. Three square meals a day. No junk food between meals. Allows himself one small dessert per day.

[Matt the Bruins]

Re: For whom the (dinner) bell tolls...

 

Super Model: salads and tiny, tiny servings of grilled seafood and poultry. She gets most of her calories out of martini glasses.

 

Kurzhaan the Conqueror: enjoys being adventurous and trying the vast assortment of unfamiliar foods available in the modern world. He's used to roasted meat, grains made into bread or meal, and stewed root vegetables so things like sno-cones and exotic fruits are fascinating to him.

 

Young Scratch: tends to eat like a teenager, so unhealthy junk food and lots of it. His demonic nature means he doesn't need to eat, it's just an affectation.

 

Earth Girl: derives nourishment directly from the soil, and doesn't really have internal organs, so she technically doesn't eat. She does need access to fertile soil to keep her strength up though.

[Whippersnapper]

Re: For whom the (dinner) bell tolls...

 

Kid Dragon, a spoiled yakuza princess whose breath ignites when she gets excited, has an internal body temperature of one hundred degrees... Celsius. She likes the taste of raw meat, and hey! It cooks itself on the way down! Additionally, she has the amazing ability to make scrambled eggs by swishing a raw egg around in her mouth, or simply popping the whole thing in and boiling it in its shell.

 

Heat Special Effects > PS:Cooking! (for lazy people, anyway)

[st barbara]

Re: For whom the (dinner) bell tolls...

 

You know I had never given any thought to what "St Barbara" likes to eat. Given her slight stature and athletic prowess it is probably not very much and features a lot of high energy healthy foods. (Exactly the opposite to the person typing this, I might add ! Roleplaying is just great for pretending to be something , or someone, you are not !)

[phoenix240]

Re: For whom the (dinner) bell tolls...

 

Thanks for the really great responses! I feared I would get allot of strange looks and silence. Thinking about what your character eats probably isn't a very big priority but I like getting into those little details. It helps get me into the character's head space and figure them out even if it never actually affects play.

 

 

 

Knighthawk: He's very much a child of two worlds and his diet shows it. His mother is quite strict, enforcing a healthy vegetarian, bordering on vegan diet in the family home with lots of traditional Japanese cuisine and similar dishes from other backgrounds, very nutritious but somewhat bland unfortunately. She seems food as fuel for the body not a pleasure.

 

 

 

So when out from under her watchful eyes, Akira tends to "pig out" a bit on American junkfood like burgers, pizza, etv. Hot dogs are a personal favorite and his paternal grandmother owns a soul food restaurant he likes to frequent. Needless to say his mother and grandmother have issue with each other as far as food goes though are surprisingly close otherwise.

[McCoy]

Re: For whom the (dinner) bell tolls...

 

Dolphin doesn't need to eat, but when he does its vegan.

 

Iron Will a hypoallergenic concentrated liquid nutritional supplement.

 

Cheeta is a jock, and a speedster. His favorite food is seconds.

 

Snow Leopard considers all vegetables a garnish.

 

Millennium prefers organic food, but is not strict about it.

[Tigereye]

Re: For whom the (dinner) bell tolls...

 

Deuce: Staples are grilled sole, veal, steak and French fries or cold roast beef with potato salad. Mixes in a green salad once in a while. Breakfast is his favorite meal of the day; bacon, sausage or ham and eggs, wholewheat toast, Jersey butter and a choice of strawberry jam, marmalade or honey. Really, really likes eggs; soft-boiled, scrambled or Benedict; so much so it gets him into trouble with his secret identity. Loves speckled brown eggs from French Maran hens with nice, firm golden yolks. Will eat any culture's dishes, but actually likes simple foods (despite a rep from his friends as a picky gourmet), but always wants his food well-made, fresh and as much "made from scratch" as possible. He'll frequently send back restaurant food if it doesn't meet his standards. (He will tolerate badly made food at someone else's home; he's very polite to his hosts, and understands that top-notch food is not always available when money or time prevents it.) Likes black coffee, hates tea and soft drinks. Drinks way too much liquor, although he handles it well. Life's too short to eat at McDonalds, unless there's almost the option of that or starvation.

 

Guardian: Beef stew, steak tartare, meat, fruit and vegetable medley. Primarily carnivorous, but blends in other plant matter roughly like a bear or canid. Not much for what people would consider "gourmet" food. Has a real taste for Twinkies with spicy brown mustard. (She's an alien, don't you know). Body conserves water very well, so she rarely drinks it unadulterated.

[drunkonduty]

Re: For whom the (dinner) bell tolls...

 

Knight Sabre, a Japanese fashion model (now runs own fashion business and has largely reited from the catwalk). Eats very healthy, low fat low carb foods. Eats a lot of tradiitonal Japanese food. Salads play a big part. That being said she fancies herself something of a gourmand and definitely eats high quality food. She would love the chance to be a guest judge on Iron Chef, either in Secret ID or not.

 

Darkstar is not much of a foodie. He eats what is there and easy to get. He looks weird (not outright monstrous but weird) and so prefers to get food from the sort of greasy spoons that don't pay much attention to their customers and stay open late.

[Tigereye]

Re: For whom the (dinner) bell tolls...

 

Oh, almost forgot: Spellvis: unlike his doppelganger, Spellvis does not like fried peanut butter sandwiches. His diet is largely informed by his brief Army career, which is actually pretty well balanced if you are physically active, which he is. His Cherokee heritage also plays a part - which is to say, many dishes now considered "Southern" or "Soul Food". Still, he tries to avoid the most fattening ones - he was a Young Elvis impersonator before he became a superhero, and does not want to be an Old Fat Elvis impersonator now. His powers (which convert electromagnetic energy to sound energy, Dazzler in reverse) consumes piles of calories.

[phoenix240]

Re: For whom the (dinner) bell tolls...

 

Oh' date=' almost forgot: [b']Spellvis: [/b]unlike his doppelganger, Spellvis does not like fried peanut butter sandwiches. His diet is largely informed by his brief Army career, which is actually pretty well balanced if you are physically active, which he is. His Cherokee heritage also plays a part - which is to say, many dishes now considered "Southern" or "Soul Food". Still, he tries to avoid the most fattening ones - he was a Young Elvis impersonator before he became a superhero, and does not want to be an Old Fat Elvis impersonator now. His powers (which convert electromagnetic energy to sound energy, Dazzler in reverse) consumes piles of calories.

 

 

There has got to be a great story behind this character.

[Tigereye]

Re: For whom the (dinner) bell tolls...

 

Sure hope so.

 

Jesse Garand was born in a small town just outside of Nashville, Tennessee, to a Cherokee mother and a Scots-Irish father. His parents were distant, more into their religion than their children, so Jesse was really raised by his older brother and the other women at the church the Garands attended. He became a bit of a loner, but excelled in music, having a natural ear for it, particularly gospel, blues and soul. It was when he was a teenager that he became interested in the life of another young man of the South, Elvis Aaron Presley. Jesse was first struck at how his name was similar to that of Elvis' stillborn twin brother, Jesse Garon Presley. Elvis, however, was just one of his many musical heroes. At 17, he left home to become a singer. He played piano and guitar at local venues, then (when it was noted that he looked a lot like the young Hillbilly Cat) he became a successful Elvis impersonator. He concentrated on the earlier days of Elvis' repetoire, adding other songs that he thought Elvis would have no problem singing, even modern ones. Critics and fans alike were delighted. They especially noted how his act really became powerful when the spotlight was on. The band even noticed that there seemed to be an added depth to their music when Jesse was around. He did such a good job that he was approached by Hollywood to make a biopic of the younger Elvis. The production company went bankrupt, so the movie was never released but everyone who saw the dailies said Jesse had a natural flair.

 

About six years ago, at the age of 22, Jesse became bored, and decided to join the US Army. He was trained by Army Intelligence to infiltrate domestic enemy organizations, as he had a flair for letter-perfect mimicry. He also learned to fly helicopters. After training, and only on his first intelligence-gathering mission, Jesse was captured by an unknown party and held in brutal confinement for more than a year. Forced to abandon his own personality to avoid harsher interrogation, Jesse retreated into a imaginary world. But because the human mind must have a personality to form around, Jesse's shattered psyche reassembled around the man he had learned to impersonate. Jesse in effect became Elvis Presley. Three years into his captivity, Jesse/Elvis learned more about his abilities to convert light into sound. During interrogation, he delivered a massive sonic attack to his captors and escaped. Recovered by the Army, he was sent to the best psychiatric care they could offer. The psychiatrists despaired of ever recovering Jesse's old personality ever again, as the personality he'd adopted was so powerful. Even after months of therapy, he insisted he was Elvis.

 

However, a bit more than a year ago, he was recovering in a VA hospital in St. Louis when he just as suddenly recovered. Rumor had it he was watching an Elvis film festival at the time, and finally referred to himself and Elvis separately. Although he now knows he is again Jesse Garand, his ability to imitate Elvis is now secondary to his newly-found commitment to justice. There is no southern branch of the Champions, but he qualified for the Midwest branch as he's lived in Missouri for more than a year. His respect (some say obsession) for Elvis is still very evident in his new role as a superhero.

 

Jesse's motivation stems from his confinement at the hands of his mysterious captors. Having witnessed their evil first-hand, he wants to bring as many villains to the hands of justice as possible. His love for all things Elvis stops a little short of an obsession; he is a true fan but not a fanatic, and is quick to state that he has far broader musical tastes, among other things. He points out that he has to act as much like Elvis as possible when in his hero guise (it allows him to use his powers) but does not want to replicate his life. Still, he almost subconciously imitates the King even out of costume, and his treatment remains in progress. Someone once said of Jesse, "He'd be Elvis, if someone had shot Colonel Parker when Elvis was 20." He shares Presley's modesty and love for common people. He is charitable and generally kind. His biggest flaw is with women - he can't resist flirting with any girl who catches his eye.

[phoenix240]

Re: For whom the (dinner) bell tolls...

 

Jesse's motivation stems from his confinement at the hands of his mysterious captors. Having witnessed their evil first-hand, he wants to bring as many villains to the hands of justice as possible. His love for all things Elvis stops a little short of an obsession; he is a true fan but not a fanatic, and is quick to state that he has far broader musical tastes, among other things. He points out that he has to act as much like Elvis as possible when in his hero guise (it allows him to use his powers) but does not want to replicate his life. Still, he almost subconciously imitates the King even out of costume, and his treatment remains in progress. Someone once said of Jesse, "He'd be Elvis, if someone had shot Colonel Parker when Elvis was 20." He shares Presley's modesty and love for common people. He is charitable and generally kind. His biggest flaw is with women - he can't resist flirting with any girl who catches his eye.

 

Great background. Thanks for posting it.