Reading the McKraken thread (really good stuff - thanks Kyle!!)...
Something jumped out at me - the 'Snacks before System' thing. Sure it's funny and all. But then it got my wheels turning... there's some real truth to this.
When I was young, we couldn't even afford snacks half the time. As we got older obviously, chips and soda etc. But even then it was never a big thing for me (I was too busy GMing). As I got older, I've noticed it definitely has become a thing for me.
These days - chips and soda are pretty rock-bottom for us. I've noticed we have started putting out a full spread. We've accumulated a full-bar of alcohol - we do 8-man BBQ platters, Mexican food, pizzas, etc. I never realized how our "gaming snacks" have morphed into practical small feasts.
I'm not sure that this trumps the system we're playing - but it's definitely a big part of the gaming session.
How important is the chow at your gaming sessions? And what do you all consume?
Depends on the host, but most often people supply their own food. When there's a good break point, typically when some PCs have split off or need to work on something that doesn't involve everyone else, some people go out for food, and take orders for those staying. Occasionally we game at a restaurant, cafe, or game shop with food or nearby food. There is also a pretty amazing game hangout/restaurant in Everett, WA, with game-themed food & drink etc. AFK Tavern - check out their menu (they have a game menu too): //www.afktavern.com/
Okay, that's pretty cool.
I guess it also depends on what time you game. We don't start until early evening - 4pm-5pm. So we tend to have everything ready to go as soon as we arrive.
I've never been a fan of breaking up the momentum of the game to stop and eat. But again, depends on your game-time.
Playing with you and your group would make me fatter than I am! :D
Depends. This Saturday I ran what should have been an awesome game; D&D, lots of prep, all the player's showed and were enthused, great story, setting, characters and system - everything was on track. However, we had dominos pizza, tequila (gads), cheap beer, and we had to play in an un-air-conditioned room. It must have been 90 degrees. 6 hours of sweat and rot-gut. Gygax and Tolkien running as co-DMs would have struggled under those conditions. It didn't destroy the game, but no change of system would have made it better.
Quote from: tenbones;907767...I've never been a fan of breaking up the momentum of the game to stop and eat. But again, depends on your game-time.
Yeah that's why we try to send the people who didn't bring food shopping when there is something for others to do that doesn't involve them.
Quote from: tenbones;907760How important is the chow at your gaming sessions? And what do you all consume?
Not that important. I host 95% of the game sessions, and always offer up chips, snacks, and beverages. Players bring their own beverages, typically, and also add chips and sometimes cookies to the mix.
The sessions are always on Sundays, twice a month, between 2pm-6pm. That time was chosen, specifically, so that lunch and dinner wasn't going to be a factor in the session. I've played in other groups around dinner-time, that have included BBQs and large spreads. And while that can be nice to chow down and socialize about non-gaming topics, it was often a distraction to gaming. It would
eat up ;) quite a lot of time, leaving us with some sessions where you didn't feel like you got enough playing in.
Ah yes, and here was I fearing Cheetoism (http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?7320-RFI-Gygax%27s-Roleplaying-Mastery&p=136103&viewfull=1#post136103) would pass into legend and half-understood whisper.
On the subject of gaming feasts, we tried them (though we were still no match for Benoist's epic spreads (//www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?23080-Food-and-Snacks-at-your-RPG-sessions!)), but the sheer Epícurean joy tore us all away at the game itself, not to mention taking at least one player away from the game and into the kitchen for most of the night. God knows I wish I could GM and man the grill at the same time, but both require a fair bit of attention.
Nowadays we try to cook up tapas-style "finger food" plus beer, wine or spirits of choice. Big fan of sandwiches, bruschetti/tostas and dips (love hummus and guacamole, which also happen to be Good For You), which can be prepared in advance and consumed with minimal interference on the game itself. And of course, when all else fails, summon forth the pizza.
Well my old group would meet on Saturday when the library opened at 9 am and we would stay till they closed at like 4 at night.
But we did take an hour or so to stop and feed are selves around noon.
Quote from: Skarg;907763Depends on the host, but most often people supply their own food. When there's a good break point, typically when some PCs have split off or need to work on something that doesn't involve everyone else, some people go out for food, and take orders for those staying. Occasionally we game at a restaurant, cafe, or game shop with food or nearby food. There is also a pretty amazing game hangout/restaurant in Everett, WA, with game-themed food & drink etc. AFK Tavern - check out their menu (they have a game menu too): //www.afktavern.com/
That place sounds cool.
Quote from: The Butcher;907793Nowadays we try to cook up tapas-style "finger food"
I never thought about tapas style food. That is an awesome idea! I love it!
Well seeing as it's a Tekumel campaign we usually have samosas, naan, maybe guacamole, beer, wine, and bourbon (me:D). Normally we start play Fridays after supper so food isn't usually top of the list. When we play the occasional weekend game we have a bigger feed with curry and rice, or maybe vindaloo.
Shemek
I still support this, that snacks are more important than system. Roleplaying is a social occasion, and social occasions have food. There's a reason every religion has feast days, that every wedding is followed by a meal, that when someone dies we bring food to the relatives, and that when you go on a date you suggest coffee or dinner. Sharing food brings people together, and sharing good food even more.
Quote from: The Butcher;907793Ah yes, and here was I fearing Cheetoism (http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?7320-RFI-Gygax%27s-Roleplaying-Mastery&p=136103&viewfull=1#post136103) would pass into legend and half-understood whisper.
On the subject of gaming feasts, we tried them (though we were still no match for Benoist's epic spreads (//www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?23080-Food-and-Snacks-at-your-RPG-sessions!)), but the sheer Epícurean joy tore us all away at the game itself, not to mention taking at least one player away from the game and into the kitchen for most of the night. God knows I wish I could GM and man the grill at the same time, but both require a fair bit of attention.
Nowadays we try to cook up tapas-style "finger food" plus beer, wine or spirits of choice. Big fan of sandwiches, bruschetti/tostas and dips (love hummus and guacamole, which also happen to be Good For You), which can be prepared in advance and consumed with minimal interference on the game itself. And of course, when all else fails, summon forth the pizza.
Yeah Benoist and Vreeg are off the chain with the gaming food. I remember last summer a bunch of us were doing a low-carb thing so we had lots of rotisserie chicken (Set it and Forget it!) or Tri-tip out on the grill.
I think it was Melan once posted a thread about the food they had at the game table. He had cheese fondue. Fucking cheese fondue! Now that's taking your snacks seriously.
Quote from: Kyle Aaron;907834I think it was Melan once posted a thread about the food they had at the game table. He had cheese fondue. Fucking cheese fondue! Now that's taking your snacks seriously.
Heh, we actually had three fondue pots at one session, one for the cheese, one for the meat and one for the chocolate. One of our players moved all over Europe as a kid. He was the fondue master.
I host the gaming sessions, which run from around 11 AM to 6 PM. Usually various vegetables and cookies appear on the table right off, and people take turns providing the meal for a circa 2 PM lunch break: two of the players usually pop for a run at the corner sub shop, my wife and I'll cook. (It was homemade chicken fajitas this past Saturday.)
We have some good pizza places in the area, so usually some of that. A few of us are into beer so we go buy interesting things for everyone to try or bring some of our homebrewed stuff. Occasionally someone will go hit up a Thai or Mexican place and grab food from there.
Quote from: Kyle Aaron;907834I think it was Melan once posted a thread about the food they had at the game table. He had cheese fondue. Fucking cheese fondue! Now that's taking your snacks seriously.
Hah! We often do a big crockpot with chili-cheese dip and tons of chips... and that's almost as often just the side-dish. Sucker lasts all night.
If that's the normal spread for Benoist - yeah, he's got us beat. But I think we can give him a good run for his money. I love his selection - we're a bunch of Texans... so it's usually red meat and carbs. But one of our players is a trained chef, when we can get him off his ass to cook, it's pretty amazing.
The AFK Tavern in Everett is cool. It's so chill and the gamer vibe is very welcoming - they like nothing better than for gamers to show up and game out all day. There's on in Renton, WA too. It's too bad their menu is down on the web site because it's hilarious. Oh, here is a link to a version of it on the wayback machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20150502113457/http://www.afktavern.com/menu/ some of it is written up in PDF like a game manual: https://web.archive.org/web/20150426011300/http://www.afktavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/taverndrinkmenu5e-1.pdf
This thread is also reminding me of the session where the party slew a giant snake, and cooked and at some of it, and lunch time came around in real life, and we decided to head out to a rare meat shop we knew of to see if we could buy some snake meat... but when we got there, the shop was closed.
I love snacks! But I deliberately go to LFGS, also known as the Gamer Bar, to avoid the temptation of the refrigerator. When I have to start paying by the snack or can of soda, my inner miser kicks into overdrive. Comparing this to sitting at home eating the known-universe, you can see why though as much as I love snacks I have to put the kibosh on it.
It's how I quit smoking, too. Stop buying and bum cigs shamefully until you can't stand being a shitheel. Avoidance technique.
Trust me, if we lived any closer and wanted to splurge in great feasts of food we could. But I already avoid regular attendance of the exrended family's weekly gathering because it was affecting my health. Attending a potluck buffet twice a week would be the primrose path to a myocardial infarction.
Quote from: Skarg;907868The AFK Tavern in Everett is cool. It's so chill and the gamer vibe is very welcoming - they like nothing better than for gamers to show up and game out all day. There's on in Renton, WA too. It's too bad their menu is down on the web site because it's hilarious. Oh, here is a link to a version of it on the wayback machine: ttps://web.archive.org/web/20150502113457/http://www.afktavern.com/menu/ some of it is written up in PDF like a game manual: https://web.archive.org/web/20150426011300/http://www.afktavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/taverndrinkmenu5e-1.pdf
This thread is also reminding me of the session where the party slew a giant snake, and cooked and at some of it, and lunch time came around in real life, and we decided to head out to a rare meat shop we knew of to see if we could buy some snake meat... but when we got there, the shop was closed.
That place sounds so cool and yet as normal im shocked and appalled.
Like with every bar i have ever been in they lack my stapels.
No MR.Boston rum,No MR Boston brandy,No lost lake, and most importantly No La cross.
How can one survive??????????????????????
But they do have Glenlivet 21.:)
the gauntlet is thrown...
Quote from: kosmos1214;908060That place sounds so cool and yet as normal im shocked and appalled.
Like with every bar i have ever been in they lack my stapels.
No MR.Boston rum,No MR Boston brandy,No lost lake, and most importantly No La cross.
How can one survive??????????????????????
They got Hendricks and Bombay Sapphire, I'll live. :)
This place looks amazing.
Quote from: The Butcher;908271They got Hendricks and Bombay Sapphire, I'll live. :)
This place looks amazing.
But but its not what i drink.
:p
Question is, how do we handle the junk food hangover? After 33 years I still don't have a solution.
Quote from: Kyle Aaron;909033Question is, how do we handle the junk food hangover? After 33 years I still don't have a solution.
Better quality food.
I've noticed the difference after gaming with processed snacks vs. fresher "real" food. I not saying replacing potato chips with carrots, but replacing shitty corporate chips (or crisps) with a better brand. That said, I really like baby carrots & hummus.
Quote from: Kyle Aaron;909033Question is, how do we handle the junk food hangover? After 33 years I still don't have a solution.
That's how you strengthen your body for the next session!!!
Quote from: Kyle Aaron;909033Question is, how do we handle the junk food hangover? After 33 years I still don't have a solution.
Last time we were shopping for gaming food I realized for $10 I could buy a roast chicken or ham. I think we got both. Why would someone even consider junk food when meat is available and easy to obtain?
Quote from: Kyle Aaron;909033Question is, how do we handle the junk food hangover? After 33 years I still don't have a solution.
Rehydration, long-chain unsaturated fats (olive oil, avocado), a nice, fresh salad, and ending the day with a bit of exercise have been working for me.
Quote from: Kyle Aaron;909033Question is, how do we handle the junk food hangover? After 33 years I still don't have a solution.
Are you not a personal trainer or some such thing? Shouldn't you know a way?;)
Seriously this,
Quote from: Spinachcat;909058Better quality food.
Not unlike liqiour, better whisky, equals a better next day. And this,
Quote from: The Butcher;909131Rehydration, long-chain unsaturated fats (olive oil, avocado), a nice, fresh salad, and ending the day with a bit of exercise have been working for me.
Quote from: Ronin;909184Are you not a personal trainer or some such thing? Shouldn't you know a way?;)
Yes: don't eat crap in the first place.
But this is not compatible with gaming. One of the reasons I only game once a week!
Quote from: Kyle Aaron;909200Yes: don't eat crap in the first place.
But this is not compatible with gaming. One of the reasons I only game once a week!
I find meatballs with chilly sauce, followed by pancakes, go extremely well with gaming.
Quote from: Kyle Aaron;909200But this is not compatible with gaming. One of the reasons I only game once a week!
Does your crew really eat crap? Or does crap have a different definition for a personal trainer? Also, I wonder if Aussie "junk food" is a different breed of chow compared to USA "junk food"?
Even just talking chips (crisps), there is the bag o' potato powder dropped in cheap oil versus spending a couple extra bucks (or not) and buying real potatoes done in quality oil.
I'm a spoiled brat because we have Trader Joes in Los Angeles (I believe they're Aldi's in Europe) and I can get great quality "junk food" by spending the same I'd spend for megacorp shit in a bag.
No, I mean by "junk food" what anyone would: generally, food where the packet is more colourful than the contents.
Your ordinary old crisps and chocky bikkies and all that.
These days, for me, snacks are the least important thing. They used to be huge. I'd regularly go to a local Italian bakery or donut shot before each game, sometimes I'd make huge pots of pasta. But now, it is bring your own snacks (and usually just 1 or 2 players will bring a small packet of something to keep their energy up during the game). I find this works about ten times better. I never realized how much time we wasted on food (also how much needless mess and grease it produced). For me, this approach works better. We don't set up snacks before hand and we don't order food during the game (which really slowed things down for us).
...and thus the Brendan Heresy begat the Cheetoist Schism.
Quote from: Krimson;909094Last time we were shopping for gaming food I realized for $10 I could buy a roast chicken or ham. I think we got both. Why would someone even consider junk food when meat is available and easy to obtain?
This is definitely me. I eat ketogenically - which generally repulses most of my cohorts. But if you put a bunch of good meat and green-leafies on the table next a cheesecake or cookies, I'll do the meat and greens every time out of habit.
Quote from: Spinachcat;909452I'm a spoiled brat because we have Trader Joes in Los Angeles (I believe they're Aldi's in Europe) and I can get great quality "junk food" by spending the same I'd spend for megacorp shit in a bag.
LA is very different from the rest of the country I think in terms of food and fitness. Where I live, it was generally stuff like like donuts, doritos, potato chips for snacks at games; pizza, roast beef and subs (or maybe Chinese food) for meals if people wanted lunch.
Quote from: Krimson;909094Last time we were shopping for gaming food I realized for $10 I could buy a roast chicken or ham. I think we got both. Why would someone even consider junk food when meat is available and easy to obtain?
We started cooking for two reasons: (a) we were poor, and realized that feeding everyone a good meal cost my wife and I half of what just we two spent on the biweekly sub run, and (b) well ...
One of my players is a lifelong diabetic (as in dialysis when he was a teenager). About ten years ago, he was outright dying, he'd moved back home, he couldn't work any more, and my game was the very last non-medical reason he left the house. He'd get a sub or some such, and promptly throw up. Him also being my oldest friend, the next time his parents called to tell me he couldn't make a session because he was in the hospital, I asked them what I could feed him that he'd keep down. That's what started us cooking good meals.
(No, not to worry, he had a double transplant, and made a brilliant turnaround -- much more energetic, no longer dying, able to work again, it's all good. Thank God.)
And I hear what Brendan says, but look. I game with old friends. The only player I've known
less than 25 years I've known for nineteen, and I'm married to her. A 45 minute meal break is not wasted air: we talk, discuss our weeks, mention the funny thing we saw, commiserate over the storm that knocked the neighbor's tree over Andrew's shed, hear Dave break us up in laughter over his latest outrageous quip. It's all good, and we all enjoy our friends.
Then it's back to deal with screaming indigs in the frontier jungle. Work, work, work, I'm swamped!
Quote from: tenbones;909515I eat ketogenically
Atkins like for weight or full blown epileptic therapy if you don't mind the question?
Quote from: Ravenswing;909530
And I hear what Brendan says, but look. I game with old friends. The only player I've known less than 25 years I've known for nineteen, and I'm married to her. A 45 minute meal break is not wasted air: we talk, discuss our weeks, mention the funny thing we saw, commiserate over the storm that knocked the neighbor's tree over Andrew's shed, hear Dave break us up in laughter over his latest outrageous quip. It's all good, and we all enjoy our friends.
I am not recommending people do things my way. Just stating how we do things and why doing it this way works for us. I don't imagine it would work well for all groups. I still do game among friends, but to us food is just not as important as other things now (like gaming and conversation, etc). Also it is way easier for me on the clean up side. There are other reasons as well. To be clear though, I wasn't launching an anti-snack manifesto.
Quote from: CRKrueger;909537Atkins like for weight or full blown epileptic therapy if you don't mind the question?
Huh, I didn't even know ketogenic diet might be used for controlling epileptic seizures until I googled it because of your post. Thanks for that, I learned something new today:).
And I think for the next session I'm going to do a roasted chicken, because this thread is its own kind of inspiring;).
Quote from: Kyle Aaron;909033Question is, how do we handle the junk food hangover? After 33 years I still don't have a solution.
Interesting i never knew such a thing existed.
We never eat junk food, except for rare occasions where someone might bring some chips. I live in the neighborhood that is basically the Brooklyn of Montevideo, and we're surrounded by fabulous restaurants that we can walk to or have delivery.
Lately we've been on an empanada craze, because of one truly amazing artisanal empanada-place that's a block from my house.
Quote from: CRKrueger;909537Atkins like for weight or full blown epileptic therapy if you don't mind the question?
Sorry for the long response - been on staycation!
Weight. I have fantastically good genetics, I used to be in great shape up until after college. Then I went straight to shit. I wrestled and played football throughout high-school and a little into college before I started writing full-time. Yeah eating 5k calories a day for years was fine when I was burning it all off...
So last April I decided to "get serious" about my lifestyle change, and went ketogenic. I discovered I'm very sensitive to carbs, more than most. So I have to keep my carbs down to about 20-grams a day. I didn't walk into this lightly, I did a shit-ton of research, which of course a lot of it was spelled out by many on Keto Sub-Reddit - but I work at one of the best healthcare and research centers in the nation (if not the world) so I have my pick of nutritionists and metabolic specialists to bounce my questions and concerns off of. Long story short - keto was the way to go.
I've dropped 52lbs since April 18th. With ZERO exercise, and very little effort other than changing my diet. It freaks people out that I eat so much fat and protein, but I also devour a lot of green-leafys too. My blood pressure has never been high - and it's completely normal. All my bloodwork is perfect.
As a corollary - I keep my calorie intake to about 1800-2k a day, 20g carbs, and I aim for higher fat than protein - because if you overdo protein your body will convert it into sugar and toss you out of ketosis.
Coffee is your bestest friend too while on keto. Thankfully I'm almost as big a coffee nerd as I am a gamer (I roast, and brew with different methods, and can talk with the best snobs - though I break several coffee-nazi rules regularly).
How does this impact my weekend gaming feasts? Not much. When you eat BBQ, sausage, etc. - it's right in line with Keto as long as you plan for it. Easy peasy.