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The Vanguard
Hi as fan and a hopeful Writer/Creator I need to know what type of Food and Drink are in Shadowrun?, I'm guessing that real food is quite costly.


kevyn668
Soyfood. NERPS Cola/sportsdrink/etc. Nukit Burgers. Soy Sloppies.

Mmmm...
Luke Hardison
Don't forget about Aztec Cola! (FirstRun)
FlakJacket
Soy substitute is big for food. Likewise the aritificially grown sea fungus that NatVat makes, who's name I can't for the life of me remember, is also another major staple.
SomeGuy
Cant you still get the real stuff, like a good steak but they just cost a crap load more then they do now?
Fygg Nuuton
I only buy NERPS brand NERPS

because any other NERPS is hardly NERPS at all
Cain
QUOTE (SomeGuy)
Cant you still get the real stuff, like a good steak but they just cost a crap load more then they do now?

Pretty much, yeah. Real food is a luxury item. Everyone else gets by on soy and mycoprotien substitutes.
tisoz
Krill and krillfillers. Myco-protein, filamentous mycelium cakes that can be flavored, formed and textured into products resembling whatever the consumer desires (chicken, pork, beef...)
Fresno Bob
Aren't NERPS Net Enhancements for RolePlaying Systems? How did that acronym find its way in?
kevyn668
QUOTE (Voorhees)
Aren't NERPS Net Enhancements for RolePlaying Systems? How did that acronym find its way in?

wink.gif

Keep looking.
RangerJoe
Folks in my games stay away from FizziPop. Turns out FizziPop is made of people! People! Tell the world! It's people!
Large Mike

Shadowbeat is how NERPS became everything.

Nerps for headaches. Nerps for your car. Nerps for couples. Nerps for dinner.
A Clockwork Lime
I'm a big fan of Soylent Red as well as Blue and Green. Great snack food. Available at most convenient stores and gas stations. See Rigger 3 for details.
The Canterbury Tail
NERPS NERPS NERPS NERPS. NERPS for headaches. NERPS for dinner. NERPS make a good time great. Take NERPS. Eat NERPS. Drink NERPS.
Nath
Who need NERPS when there is... Amber Gel devil.gif
Rock-Steady
QUOTE (A Clockwork Lime)
I'm a big fan of Soylent Red as well as Blue and Green. Great snack food. Available at most convenient stores and gas stations. See Rigger 3 for details.

Not to forget Orc Rinds.
Abstruse
Real food isn't prohibitively expensive, as all but the lowest income families have probably had a real food meal or three in their life. Most families probably eat soy/vat for most meals but save real food for special occations (birthdays, holidays, etc) or Sunday dinner with the whole family. Others might treat themselves when they get a sudden windfall of cash (how current day, people will go to a nice restaurant for lunch instead of McDonalds when they get a bonus).

Of course in different places it's different. People in rural areas would be more likely to eat more real food, esp. in the CAS and the midwest of the UCAS as that's where the real food is grown and therefore is cheaper (much like lobster is reasonably priced in Maine, but expensive as hell in Colorado). And even processed foods will contain some "real" food. That microwave burrito would have real rice in it as rice is very cheap, as are beans and flour. The cheese and meat, however, would be soy-based food-like products.

Beef, however, would probably be much more expensive as the demand for it would drop. Why buy the family actual ground round for your "homemade" Hamburger Helper when ground soybeef tastes almost the same? Fruit is also rare as it isn't needed as much for flavoring. No need for actual strawberries in your strawberry icecream when artificial flavoring is much cheaper. Therefore, it's more expensive to get the real thing. Basically, if it's used commercially and can be replaced by something else (soy, seaweed, whatever), it got replaced and is expensive to get now. If it can't be replaced by something else cheaper (rice, beans, flour), it probably didn't and it's still relatively inexpensive.

The Abstruse One
A Clockwork Lime
SR3 p. 240

In a nutshell...

Low Lifestyle individuals and lower are lucky if they see real food on special occassions.
Middle Lifestyle individuals eat the real stuff on a regular basis (about half the time).
High Lifestlye inviduals have access to it almost daily.
Luxury Lifestyle indivduals eat it exclusively, and then only the best, unless slumming or snacking.
Siege
QUOTE (Nath)
Who need NERPS when there is... Amber Gel devil.gif

Who's Amber and do I really want her gel?

-Siege
Pistons
Amber Gel was the food product mentioned in the Queen Euphoria adventure.
Siege
QUOTE (Pistons)
Amber Gel was the food product mentioned in the Queen Euphoria adventure.

Yes, but I preferred my innuendo-laced, slightly cheeky response. grinbig.gif

-Siege
A Clockwork Lime
The truth behind it is far worse than your innuendo implied if memory serves. Think Futurama's Slurm Cola.
Voran
QUOTE (The Canterbury Tail)
NERPS NERPS NERPS NERPS. NERPS for headaches. NERPS for dinner. NERPS make a good time great. Take NERPS. Eat NERPS. Drink NERPS.

Heh. Seeing the word NERPS that many times in a row made me think of the Badger song.


You bastard nyahnyah.gif Now that's going to be running in my head for another few hours.

Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Badger Mushroom Mushroom
Crimsondude 2.0
QUOTE (Abstruse @ Apr 5 2004, 05:28 AM)
Fruit is also rare as it isn't needed as much for flavoring.  No need for actual strawberries in your strawberry icecream when artificial flavoring is much cheaper.

How much Strawberry ice cream actually has real fruit in it now, anyway? Sure, the super premium ones that you buy by the pint (and Breyers. See <--). But it's not that big of a deal to have processed foods in 60 years given the sheer amount of processing that goes on now.

but in your mention of real/soy mixes in a soy burrito, I'd add corn. Corn is in everything now. It's used in plastic, it's the predominant sweetener over sugar, it's the butter flavoring in popcorn, and it's a fuel additive. (Reminds me of the Lil Lisa Slurry from The Simpsons).

The flavoring business is also huge. I read a great article in the Atlantic Monthly two years ago about the scientists in New Jersey (where else?) making cheesburger flavoring as well as a massive repetoire of fruit and vegetable flavors. It was amusing, too, when one scientist held up a vial that contained enough flavoring to make the Atlantic Ocean taste like banana.
Moon-Hawk
QUOTE (Crimsondude 2.0)
It was amusing, too, when one scientist held up a vial that contained enough flavoring to make the Atlantic Ocean taste like banana.

Does anyone else find this disturbing and/or frightening?
Nikoli
I'm wondering, what did they accidentally dump that made it taste like it does now?
Joker9125
QUOTE (A Clockwork Lime)
The truth behind it is far worse than your innuendo implied if memory serves. Think Futurama's Slurm Cola.

Ya ur right that is alot worse.

QUOTE (Crimsondude 2.0)
QUOTE (Crimsondude 2.0)
It was amusing, too, when one scientist held up a vial that contained enough flavoring to make the Atlantic Ocean taste like banana. 


Does anyone else find this disturbing and/or frightening?


Doesanyone else see the potential for the biggest frat prank of all time?
Fresno Bob
Thats the first thing that went racing through my mind when I saw that.

Super concentrated banana taste. We must procure this for ourselves, and the mischief will ensue.
lacemaker
I've often wondered about the decline/price rise in real food - the explanation that strawberries cost more because they have been largley replaced by flavouring doesn't make the slightest bit of economic sense, so it must either be:

a) A gradual decline in the desire for "the real thing" in favour of an acceptance of artificial flavours

This is certainly a possible trend, but the books seem to indicate that real food remains widely desired...

b) Areas formerly used to produce real food have become too damaged to use or have been given other to other uses

The fact that large parts of the US and the world have been returned to nature or contaminated would seem to fit this theory- -but I like the CP2020 idea that America's bread bowl is now being used to grow grain for the manufacture of ethanol based fuels - that seems quite a believable explanation both for "petrochem" and for the radical change in the nation's eating habits...
gknoy
QUOTE (kevyn668)
QUOTE (Voorhees @ Apr 5 2004, 05:02 AM)
Aren't NERPS Net Enhancements for RolePlaying Systems? How did that acronym find its way in?

wink.gif

Keep looking.
broho_pcp
QUOTE (Nikoli)
I'm wondering, what did they accidentally dump that made it taste like it does now?

Mercury, concentrated for your pleasure.
The Vanguard
What about Coffee, Tea and alchoal. has the shadowrun got rid of them?. I figured that a Coffee bars due very well in the corporate sectors in that world,


CardboardArmor
They have concentrated, processed chemical supplements that do the job of those stimulants but better. That's what the normal people get.

Coffee and tea as we recognize them are served only to the rich. Though, I think tea in general gets a lot of growth play thanks to its popularity in Japan and the general disbursement of Japanese culture in the Sixth World.

Alcohol, well, it's easy enough to synthesize, I guess...
Sunday_Gamer
No universe that has computers could get rid of coffee. I read that in the Bible somewhere.

I eat mana, was raised on it. =)

Summon food with a buttload of successes for extra yumminess. Granted for the most part, I summon purple bananas that taste like grape.

Kong
gknoy
The teeming masses of the streets, and those looking to save nuyen, buy soykaf as a coffee substitute.
CardboardArmor
I can't believe I forgot soykaff. Well, it looks like seppuku time for me.

I never thought I'd have to do this again...
The Vanguard
Well there goes Starbucks most of Shadowrun does take place in Seattle,
hp_warcraft
Our campaign is currently at the Year of the Comet ... and my decker loves Comet Slurpees. If you get all 5 pieces/letters that spell out C-O-M-E-T, you win an all expenses trip to the Shibanokuji Freefall Resort to watch Haley's pass by earth.

( Rumors on Shadowland are speculating that Yamatetsu deliberately did not distribute the "M" piece ) biggrin.gif
lacemaker
I think I've also read references to synthathol - which would be an odd concept - probably just an industrially distilled spirit with synthetic flavours added...
A Clockwork Lime
...and once again, real food and drink is not as uncommon as you guys are making it out to be. Yes, there's lots of alternatives. But if you're living a Middle or higher lifestyle, you're eating and drinking the good stuff on a regular basis presuming you like it. That includes real coffee.
Voran
Synthathol strikes me as a bit wierd. Historically, hasn't the alcoholic beverage been one of the second things people turn foodstuffs into?

Then again, if there is less 'real food' there may be a need for 'fake alcohol'.
Hutchman
Don't forget the Vat Grown Foods. These serve the consumer gap between real "hoof" or "stalk" grown foods and the totally soy-based foods most of us poorer 'runners think about day-to-day.

I have a file on a company I created called Vat Grown Food technologies, or VG Foods, but it is probably too large to post here in its entirety (its about 2 pages long). If anyone is interested, I'll see if I can get it posted somewhere....
Hutchman
OK, interested or not, I found a site to host the file. Here is the link to a company profile for Vat Grown Food Technologies, Inc. Enjoy.

http://www.oldforest.net/sr/VatGrownFoodTe...echnologies.doc

Please feel free to provide feedback, comments and suggestions.
Abstruse
I can't believe I forgot Soykaff either...but Synthahol and Dirk Montgomery's much loathed synthetic Scotch makes sense to me. People like alcohol but don't want to pay 50¥ for a good night's buzz. Therefore, they spend 10¥ and get an artificially flavored version of that alcohol which tastes ALMOST the same but is basically the cheapest moonshine you can find with flavoring and crap added in.

The Abstruse One
Garland
I read through the "Vat Grown Foods" thing and a horrible thought occurred to me. When you're growing that amount of meat in bulk and in a manner that definitely wouldn't happen in nature, surely you'd end up with a certain amount of... anomalies in the finished product.

The idea of biting into a vat-grown steak and having my teeth sink into an enormous hunk of tumor makes my stomach clench just thinking about it.
KeyMasterOfGozer
It's not a Tumor!!!
shroud
Food in SR has always been one of those things that added flavor to the SR world(no pun intended). It seems every author and writer does there own thing with it. If you look at the original Seattle sourcebook most of the restaurants are soy based, including many of the high class ones. The New Seattle SB has the soy centered on the no frills eateries. In the novel Streets of Blood the mage has a hard time digesting real food since his diet has been all synthetic soy goop. In the London sourcebook written by the same authors the "soy diet" is hard to find, even the local pubs serve real food, well if you call jellied eel real food.

If you want an inspiration for SR food I suggest watching the movie Soylent Green . It's a classic. If your interested in finding out how costly food is, the SSG has full price range. In it vending machine food is 2 nuyen.gif and dinner at a fancy restaurant is 100-200 nuyen.gif . You can assume the former is the soy/synthetic junk and the latter is gourmet real food.
Crimsondude 2.0
QUOTE (Abstruse)
I can't believe I forgot Soykaff either...but Synthahol and Dirk Montgomery's much loathed synthetic Scotch makes sense to me. People like alcohol but don't want to pay 50¥ for a good night's buzz. Therefore, they spend 10¥ and get an artificially flavored version of that alcohol which tastes ALMOST the same but is basically the cheapest moonshine you can find with flavoring and crap added in.

The Abstruse One

Isn't that why Thunderbird and PBR exist?
gknoy
QUOTE (A Clockwork Lime)
if you're living a Middle or higher lifestyle, you're eating and drinking the good stuff on a regular basis presuming you like it. That includes real coffee.

Unless your character is allergic to it. It's one of my favourite ones, actually ... for an UNCOMMON one (uncommon since oncethe character knows it, they will try to avoid it). The fun part is, when your character has a low lifestyle and has no IDEA they are allergic to it, having never tried it. (I might be allergicto bee stings, but I have no idea since i've never been stung smile.gif)
Kanada Ten
Mmm... Toxic Candy, now in 65 thousand flavors. Beryllium's my favorite; what's yours?

And one can't forget Wunderbar... The German answer to NERPS.
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