Salutations!
In an old episode Ken & Robin talked about adventurers eating the monsters they kill, or even selling the meat as a foodstuff. Rather to my surprise they did not mention the possibility of getting powers and benefits from the ingestion of magical monster bits. My mind flew at once to Fionn mac Cumhaill and Taliesin burning their fingers on the salmon of wisdom and putting their fingers into their mouths, to Sigurd or Siegfried roasting and eating the heart of the dwarvish dragon Fafnir/Fafner, or Sigurd bathing in Fafnir’s blood to become the Northern Achilles. I even thought of Herakles’ arrows dipped in the blood of the Lernaean hydra and his shirt dyed with the blood of Nessus.
Is there anything else of the kind? Do you get anything from eating a phoenix?
Has the theme been used in fantasy RP that you know of? Have you used it? Could it be?
Valedictions!
The video game Dungeon Master (1987 on the Atari ST) had monsters turned into rations after you killed them (worm rounds, dragon steaks, etc.), but the only effect that carried over was that more powerful monsters were more hunger-slaking per inventory slot.
I think the typical fantasy setting has an awful lot of things you wouldn’t really want to eat.
Though it could be an interesting variant on the escort quest: bring the gourmand down the dungeon with you, as well as his personal chef, so that he can have a truly fresh minotaur rump with shrieker cap sauce.
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Oh, indeed!
The heroes in mythology never seem to know what they ought to eat. But there are some big rewards for getting it right.
There was an old Tunnels and Trolls adventure called Rat On A Stick where the object was for the adventurers to set a fast food franchise in the dungeon selling food made from monster parts – so no powers just gold. Also Savage Worlds has the setting called Rippers (sort of Victorian steampunk) where the monster parts can be used rather like cyberwear – so you can graft on a werewolf arm to give you claws and strength etc
One of the Grimtooth’s books had rations made of frozen (or otherwise stabilised) troll meat. But once you eat them…
Stomach acid not going to do the trick, then?