So today, food allergies like peanuts are common. In game terms, a player could justifiably pick such an allergy as a negative quality from the common field. In 2070, with such a prevalence of synthetic foods, would a peanut or milk allergy actually be considered common?
How rule ye, league of extraordinary gm's?

The megas run most of this, and they just don't care. See the thread on chemistry sets...

http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?showtopic=25383

I disagree. Corporations are still required to obey national laws outside of their extra-national holdings. Which means they can be sued in court and lose lots 'o money. More importantly though, is the opportunity that would be lost if they didn't label their products with allergy information.

Think of how many products are on the shelves today that advertise "all natural", "pesticide free", or "organic". There is a big business selling those products to people who are willing to pay more for them. Now consider the warning on the side of a pack of cigarettes. How many people bother to read it, much less decide not to purchase based on the dire warning on the side of the pack?

With the number of products that have milk, peanuts, wheat, etc (would iron fortified foods present a threat to those with a iron allergy?) as an ingredient, the general populace isn't going to take note of it any more than they do with Sodium Diacetate or Thiamin Mononitrate. However, the opportunity to sell those with an allergy a product without these common ingredients presents a chance for significant profit.

I expect that the labels would be even more detailed than today to the point of being useless: "These peanut butter cookies contain milk, peanut and wheat ingredients? You don't say!" - special note: I've actually purchased peanut butter cookies with just such a warning on the label.

As I think upon it, I think maybe that even the wrapper would be included in the allergy labeling. I mean if you're allergic to plastic and your food is wrapped in plastic...

But would there be enough natural food around for allergies to them to be common?

Why does food have to be natural to be an allergy threat?

No, suing Ares is like suing Saudi Arabia. They are both independent nations, and I'm sure in fine print there is a shrinkwrap contract that says you have to assert to Ares jurisdiction to use/eat the product.

To use a current example, it's exactly like suing an Indian tribe, which will get you nothing but legal bills as they can and will successfully claim Sovereign Immunity. Like this story shows.

https://www.glgroup.com/News/Tribal-Soverei...hips-29421.html

Everyone plays Shadowrun differently. For me , its a dystopic future where the governments are laughable. So, the government angle doesn't stick to me.

As for the label angle... Sure on real food. Why only real food? Because only those rich enough to buy real food read. Everyone else is illiterate. Sure, you could put icons on but man thats a boatload of icons.

^^
If it was made of something other than what its... made of... why would you be allergic to it still?
If I am allergic to bananas I'm not allergic to banana flavored candy.
If I'm allergic to peanuts why would I be allergic to a synthetic compound design to taste and feel like peanuts?

I can understand an allergy to the brown-28 dye in Stuffer Shack Peanut Butter pies, though... Wouldn't that kind of allergy be more likely in Shadowrun than an allergy to peanuts?

The RFID chips embedded in your cookie (!) would let you know allergy information etc. The megacorps would like to avoid people dying from their products because accidentally killing people with foodstuffs is not a strong business model and is likely to hurt sales. The bottom line is king.

I do, however, disagree with the poster who says that you submit to megacorp law when eating their food. Megacorps have to abide by appropriate national law when outside of their extraterritorial domains.

My observation is that national governments have gotten more and more important and played a bigger role in Shadowrun over the last twenty years.

In theory yes, in practise not so much, there isn't really much a local goverment can do if a AAA dosn't abide.

Heck, even with packaged foods, the RFIDs on them would likely have that information, and your Commlink be programmed when looking at them to highlight the relevant sections.

There might even be pro-active things at restaurants where you go in, and your allergy info is flagged for your server to know about, and the AR menus you get avoid listing the things you are allergic to. I mean, that is part of the dystopianism of SR: the lack of privacy, the constant Big Brother feel....things like that help the corps track not only what you buy, but even some of why you buy it. Every bit of information they get about your purchases, even if you got the cereal because you are allergic to Red Dye number 50, and it had Red Dye number 58 while its nearly identical competitor(you know..you make the competitor under a different "brand name") is avoided due to Red Dye 50...and, if you start seeing alot of people in that area with Red Dye 50 allergies, do you think you are going to keep selling the Red Dye 50 product there, and losing money? Or start sending it to where there are more people buying it?

I just love to make my characters allergic to something really very common in the 6th world. Like soy for example....

"Contents, Soy, damn... Contents, Soy, son of a... Contents, SOY! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Here we go, Krill-O-Bite! Contents, Krill 2.0, good. What the, SOY FILLER??? Of all the..." *Starts shooting randomly in Stuffer Shack*

Precisely

I would allow a food Allergy.

Whether or not they're common depends entirely on how the GM interprets the world. Mycoprotein and soy are far more common than milk and peanuts, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the latter are "Uncommon".

Basically, consult your GM about his or her interpretation of the world. If you're the GM, you'll need to make the call (and stick with it).

My personal take on it...

If you're eating pre-pack foods, then the bulk of what you're eating is made of artificially flavored, mass produced "factory foods" like krill, soy, and mycoprotein. You have very little chance of encountering "real" ingredients like milk and peanuts. That peanut flavor really is a peanut flavor - no peanuts required.

If you're eating mostly "real" foods - either buying and preparing them yourself, eating at an upscale restaurant, or visiting a nation that uses more traditional agriculture - you're far more likely to encounter milk and peanuts than you are factory foods... less so if you prepare your own foods.

As a GM, I'd rule that once ingested, you're stuck with the penalty for 24-48 hours. (And given the experiences of a couple people I know with gluten allergies, that's probably being very generous.)

-paws

We need to revisit the difference between common and uncommon. "Uncommon" doesn't mean it's hard to find. It has its own definition that you can glean from the examples.

The book tells us that "common" is sunlight, or seawater in a coastal setting. So either it's ubiquitous half the time, or there are billions of gallons of it down the street from you. Is that more or less common than peanuts? It is a HELL of a lot more common than peanuts. Peanuts do not occupy 100% of the outdoors at any time like sunlight, there's no way they fit into the same category as sunlight and other common allergens.

Uncommon encompasses just about everything else. An allergy is uncommon if you could expect to run into it, but you can avoid it without totally altering your life. Things like gold, sliver, or peanuts would be uncommon, because while they aren't terribly rare, they are not absolutely eveywhere. Something has to be nearly everywhere, or it has to exist in ridiculously large quantities nearby, like seawater, before it gives points for being common. Again, it is vital to note that from the examples, we're not going off the dictionary meaning of "common" and "uncommon." Those definitions are far too fuzzy to be workable anyway. The qualities, as listed in the base book, ask more accurately whether something is easily avoided. If it can't really be avoided without drastic measures (like never going outside during the day), it's common, if it can, it's uncommon. I would give an allergy to soy points for being common, because literally all food has it, from soyburgers to soy coffee. You'd have to be on some kind of crazy special diet not to eat any of it. But for peanuts, you just have to avoid eating certain foods, mostly uncommon forms of candy which have real peanuts instead of artificial peanut flavor. Not really a big deal if you ask me, and not worth all those extra points for being common. Just stack it up against the disadvantage you'd get from being allergic to sunlight, and you'll see the comparison.

Well put, Larme.

-paws

I guess this is just another example of differences in interpretation because I never understood how peanuts and wheat, which are grown in such abundance today, will somehow be all but totally replaced by soybeans to become rare delicacies. Replace meat with a meat substitute? Sure. Replace coffee with a synthetic substitute? Yeah, I'd buy that. Replace dairy products with artificial substitutes? Again, no problem. But corn? Wheat? Peanuts? Those are harder to swallow.
Anyone ever wonder where they're growing all these soybeans that they're using to replace every other foodstuff on the planet with?

Shadowrun was a game about an alternate future based on 1980's paranoia. It was not the late 1990's plus magic that it has become today and it had no intention of realism.

Also, that "soy" in your soydog may not even be soy. Soy is just a synonym for cheap protein by 2050.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, NutraSoy, Vat-Grown Food that's never seen a farm!

NutraSoy! Now with 10% more real soy!

-paws

How much did it have in it before?

None.

So the 10% increase won't cut into our profits?

Nope.

1 in 30 people in 2072 are allergic to soy. RC, 150: "Because of overexposure, it is estimated that 1 in 30 have an allergy to soy, a disturbing trend that continues to grow."

Runners Companion, advanced lifestyles, talks about food...

Thank you... First appropriate answer on the thread earns a gold credstick. Don't spend it all in one place chummer.