Dear FFG-Team,

I have some questions regarding different foods mentioned in different books. In addtion, are you really sure with the prices? I remember that after the "Obscura prices" had been pointed at as this forum, you "double checked" & "fixed" them. Perhaps, the same is in order for the food stuff?

As a reminder
Working Class (Rank 1 / Rank 5) 30 to 45 gelt a month
Fighting Class (Rank 1 / Rank 5)

Belly Churn (p. 106; IH)
How many "man/days" of food does "Belly Churn" (1kg; 10 gelt) provide? Please cross-reference to "Emergency Rations" (same price / same weight)

Ration Grub (p.155 IH) (Weight: - ; 15 gelt)
If these only feed you for a day, taste horrible and are detrimental for your health..why does anyone "buy" them for that high a price? Is it because you can free-dry them and that they are "light weight"? Or is other "durable" food stuff that hard to get hands on at the world of Dusk?

Cilivian Relief Rations (p.183; IH) (0,5kg; 2 gelt)
Me thinks, this is the most "reasoable" of the food stuffs

Daily Prayers (p.183; IH) (weight _ ; 1 gelt)
What are the detrimental effects of "only living on prayer" and at which point do they kick in? They are not mentioned. Rules-wise players will stick up on "Prayers" since it is cheaper then CRR and weights less

Emergency Rations (p.183 IH) (1kg; 10 gelt)
How do they work? Do they turn a "one day ration" into a "one week ration"? If so, what are the detrimental effects?

Long Duration Packs (p.183) (1kg; 5 gelt)
Again, what are the game mechanics behind it? What reason does a player have to spend more then double the gelt of a relief ration? (besides the "extra fluff")?

Thank you very much!

Dark Heresy has a breezy, easy-going rules approach

The Laughing God said:

Thanks for your opinion.

Still, I hope that a member of FFG might have a look at it someday. It would be nice to have something akin to actual "effects" for these items. Otherwise, they are just a "black industrie fluff lines".

They are, really. There are many more of these weird rules.

For example, the costs for space travel. First you pay for the type of ship, and then when you think you got everything, you find a table which states costs for hiring a berth and buying meals aboard the ship. What was the first cost for, then?

Many players come up with explanations but IMHO it's still clunky.

What DH needs is just a dumb as a box of hammers, lifestyle system.

Pay X amount of Thrones a month to live and maintain a certain level of comfort, clothing and all the other generic crap like food and what-not. Anything left after is what you get to spend on guns, ammo and sharp objects. (Plus it'd keep Nobs from going off the hook with cash if they have to be keeping up appearances/entertainment befitting their station in society) At certain levels/ranks it'd probably include a vehicle, transport costs and remove all that additional book keeping rubbish I really dont want to deal with!

MKX said:

Frankly, my group doesn't fully deal with this day to day hum-drum. We want to investigate heresy, destroy the enemies of mankind and protect the Imperium. Generally, if you can explain to the GM what you're doing during down time, that's good enough. On missions it's been assumed up til now that we have brought the requisite amount of food for the journey. If the situation comes up where food is destroyed or we have no access to resupply, that's where we'd most likely have to start using up our rations.

An easier way to treat food (and/or Lodging) is to consider each players income is what's left over after they've paid their living expenses for the month. If they need to have a higher lifestyle you can set the additional cost that needs to come out of their income. You can assume a basic living condition for those of most classes. For those of the Noble background, I'd set a higher standard of living for them.

Now, I'm not saying give anyone free stuff, by any stretch of the imagination, this built in cost only covers food and lodging. All other products must come from their income which, in effect would be their discretionary spending.

Now, if you really want to go down the route of having concrete rules around food, lodging or whatever, why not come up with some rules of your own and post them here?

My thoughts are that most people playing the game are not looking to get bogged down in doing their virtual checkbook to make ends meet. I think that's why there was little thought put behind these rules for the most part. It's pretty much there as a guide for those that want to deal with it.

I agree that food is pretty 'rules-light', but I'm okay with that.

~Mike

LeBlanc13 said:

Thanks for your contribution.

Still, as I do like to add this from time to time (for example when the group ventures into the wild and a loss of provisions due to the loss of a packing animal to a giant carnosaur) I would really appreciate it if the different food items described would have some "mechanic" behind them.

My basic opinion: If you make an item with a price tack out of it, (instead of "line in a fluff text"), please give it an mechanic.

I totally understand & accept that the majority of players will think different (and might think ill of me for it) but really-really hope that someday my request will be heared.

Not now, not next weak...but perhaps some day...

If that's your goal, why not make them suffer a penalty of 1 fatigue for every day they go without food? This is permanent fatigue until they can fill their bellies. Rest will not allow it to go away. After 3 or 4 days of fatigue, most players will pass out. Then they go into starvation mode.

Each day further after passing out they need to make a toughness test at the end of the day. Maybe after 3 failures, 3 days in a row they die of starvation. So generally, someone would have to go between 5 to 7 days before starving to death, which is pretty close to accurate.

You can add in a mechanic where if they get water during this time frame they get a +20 to the toughness test to make it easier.

I don't think that food should have a mechanic unless it's bad. Then it either could damage them or cause fatigue (illness).

Food offsets the starvation mechanic detailed above. It wouldn't do anything other than hold off the roles for dying of starvation.

Just some thoughts to get your juices going.

~Mike

LeBlanc13 said:

Thanks for help. But I already made some "house rules" (see "House rules" topic "Provisional rules for provisions") for the items I am "asking for an errata" for.

But as written in the topic, my goal is to get official rules from FFG.

As already mentioned, my opinion is that if they "stuff it" into a book I "bought & payed for" and they stuff it in as part of an item list, me would greatly value it if some official rules mechanics would be granted.