We are proud to sponsor Power Word Meal, a charity fundraiser powered by the TTRPG community to raise hope, awareness, and money to save lives fighting world hunger with ShareTheMeal. This organization’s app makes fighting hunger accessible to everyone by allowing users to easily choose and support hunger crises around the world or create a monthly donation plan for lasting impact. Together, we can provide the support to save vulnerable lives and secure a future for each other and our planet, so please join us in supporting the Power Word Meal campaign alongside fellow adventurers from around the realm!
Everyone who donates to this campaign can receive a free PDF bundle including an epic one-shot adventure and a new playable species for Pathfinder and Dungeons & Dragons, letting you and those you love play the heroes in your games that you are in real life. You are saving real lives while forging bonds and memories across the game table.
As a part of our support for Power Word Meal, we’re partnering with creators to contribute this awesome food-themed DMsGuild content the PDF bundle rewards!
- Recipes Of The Realms: Recipes For Famous Foods In The Forgotten Realms and Beyond
- Shops Collection (Tea, Cookie, Nutty, Fast Food Deluxe)
- Gimrig’s Gastronomicon – A Resource for Food, Drink, and Foraging
We had a chance to sit down with the creators of these D&D supplements and learn more about the importance of food in world-building, what inspired their creations, and why the tabletop RPG community is so powerful when we come together to support a good cause.
Can you tell us about the piece of content you’ve contributed for Power Word Meal donors?
B. Wraven Wright: Recipes of the Realms was our answer to the Game Of Thrones Cookbook that was released several years prior. The Forgotten Realms is such a rich, storied setting that we knew that if we were going to do a cookbook about it, that would be the D&D setting that we would take inspiration from. We had a sense that Ed (Greenwood) would have already mentioned specific food amongst the details of the Realm’s he’s always sharing with us, his fans. Sure enough, after a little legwork, we found several dishes that he has mentioned via social media that we took to modeling a recipe around based on his description! It was a fun journey to go down especially since we really cut our teeth as a small publisher with 5e class supplements on DMs Guild. Imagine our surprise when only a few short months later, Heroes Feast was first released!
Sean Cooke: Gimrig’s Gastronomicon is a world-building tool to help DM’s develop the culture of different regions by focusing on diversity in food and drink traditions. By uncovering the types of food that would be grown or foraged in the region, DM’s can create more memorable places as their adventurers travel to exotic lands and try foods they had never heard of. The resource is filled with tables to help DM’s choose what produce might grow naturally in different climates. It also features a new hunting mechanic that you can use when the party camps in the wild to see what kind of food they might hunt or forage.
David Jansen: The Shops Collection are 4 ready shops for GMs to put into their campaign. Every shop has a different theme with an easy to use map, menu, 4 short stories to have a sense of the npcs living in it and a little encounter to help GMs out. I wanted to create something that is a twist on the classic: ‘the party starts in a tavern’. And asked myself what would I need as a GM to help alleviate some of the preparation time. With every shop I wanted to show something I see rarely in D&D. My tea shop I wanted to have a magical twist on a wheelchair, and a honey cleric using her beehive to move felt like a nice way to do that, while my nutty shop has someone with down syndrome leading it. Something I have not seen till this day anywhere else. Besides that I really liked a shop to have two purposes, a twist when you get to know the proprietor better. So does my fast food restaurant have the proprietor teach orphans in the back, and does my cookie shop have entertainment for people with other desires.
With so much to spur the imagination in epic scale D&D worldbuilding, what made you want to write content about food?
B. Wraven Wright: With very little exception, many of the great high fantasy novels that have inspired past and present D&D worlds put an emphasis on food! The Lord of The Rings had Lembas, Game Of Thrones had lemon cakes and the infamous “Bowl Of Brown”! The list really goes on and on! In recent years, it’s been exciting to see all the great and creative ways that players seek greater immersion in their gaming and Recipes Of The Realms was our way of trying to get setting-specific foods into players hands.
David Jansen: I always loved the food in anime, which with my family we call ‘unobtainable anime food’. It always looked so delicious. My first writings were long descriptions of dinner parties and meals so it came only naturally to make my first ever designs for D&D around food.
Sean Cooke: I developed this content while running a homebrew game. I had two characters who were the survivalist type and one who was from the feywild. The more I described their night’s activities settling in for camp and wandering off into the woods, competing for who could find the better contribution to the night’s meal, the more the players looked forward to travel sessions. This created a fun, friendly rivalry between the two and sparked lots of opportunities for character development as they sat around the campfire enjoying the day’s prize.
What do you typically eat with your party on game night?
David Jansen: Often it is a pizza, sometimes ordered, sometimes home made.
Sean Cooke: Our group rotates who brings pizza.
B. Wraven Wright: I was wondering how many people are going to say pizza?! Ha! Yep, it’s going to be pizza for most nights since there’s no clean up and it’s easy to move around and keep clean at the game table. We do make items out of our Recipe Of The Realms series when we do campaign wrap ups and retrospectives as part of a closing ceremony for sorts. Savander with Mlael sauce has been a staple during these sessions!
Why is coming together as a community to support efforts like Power Word Meal important to you?
David Jansen: I feel that everyone that walks this earth deserves a full stomach, and often it is rules and/or money that prevents that from happening. A lot of food goes to waste while it could go to the less fortunate that walk among us. Every little bit that helps them through another day is a thing to cherish and support. Which is why I gladly offer some of my shops to help people get that necessity and hopefully find that extra bit of joy in life.
B. Wraven Wright: D&D has such a larger and diverse community that coming together to help address world hunger is just a no brainer. Some of the most kind and generous people we’ve ever known are people that we’ve met via D&D and it makes all the sense in the world to focus that spirit of generosity towards addressing world hunger. Also, tackling hunger isn’t just about feeding people; it’s about breaking cycles of poverty, improving global stability, and unlocking human potential. Said another way, solving world hunger brings us all together and who better to do than players of D&D; one of the best games that brings people together!
Sean Cooke: The TTRPG world is a large community made up of millions of small communities. It’s inspiring to see how small groups of 4 to 5 people can come together as a world-wide community to play heroes in real life as well as in their campaigns.
Thanks for taking the time to learn about this important cause and these creators who are supporting it. We hope you’ll consider supporting Power Word Meal in fighting hunger alongside the