What do dwarves eat?

[Maniac]

The picture I guess most have of dwarves is of large underground cities in mountains, where lots of metals are mined. But what do dwarves eat? Do they farm in the open sky like humans, or do they get their food some other way? (A mushroom diet perhaps? ) Just wondering about this as I'm currently playing the Dwarves but of course still need to farm for food.

 

[Silverkiss]

Well, im most of my RPGs, dwarves or have some colonies on the foot of the mountain or get all food they need by trade from other citys/empires.

 

[Whitefire]

Mudpies.

 

[Xereq]

A more baffling question, where, in thier subterrainian halls, do the dwarves poop? where does it all go?

 

[onedreamer]

There are animals in the underground and also on the mountains. I'd rather see dwarves hunting than farming.

 

[Frozen-Vomit]

They eat dwarf bread or rat, with ketchup.

 

[Gladi]

Bright day
Logicaly? They died of stavation.
Fantasy logic? Undeground fishing. Intesive mushroom farming. Terrace farming on sides of mountains. Pastoralism on slopes that are unusable for agriculture. Dwarven food would be ironically low on minerals and proteins in general.
Fantasy fantasy logic- they trade for it? Nah they make it magically! Yeah magic that is it!

 

[Kael]

Gygax introduced the Rothe, large longhaired cow sort of creatures that lived in the underground. A subterraen yak that consisted on water and fungus. I always prefered giant underground bugs, they seemed more fitting. Beetle farmers, home cooked larva steaks, Mmm....

Another possible explanation is that the world just doesnt obey the same natural laws as ours. For example, photosynthesis disnt exist in Erebus, I needed to remove it to because the sun was eclipsed for a few years and I didnt want the whole world to wither and die. The advantage of not having photosynthesis around was that underground agriculture became a lot easier. Although Im sure there are a million other reasons it wouldnt work given our natural laws I worried more about consistency (one game couldnt have plants needing light, while another game didnt) than the exact science.

Or you could just assume that dwarves live on beer, lots of beer.

 

[Gladi]

But what do they make beer from?

And dwarves are supposed to have developed industry for the time. What do they do with all the waste (and large of it will be toxic fumes)?

 

[Kael]

But what do they make beer from?

And dwarves are supposed to have developed industry for the time. What do they do with all the waste (and large of it will be toxic fumes)?

I think you have an answer to both of your questions here. It would certainly explain why no one else likes their beer.

 

[kevjm]

If Terry Pratchet has taught us nothing else, it's that they bake incredibly hard bread (possibly consisting in part of rocks) that also double as melee weapons when the need arises


On a side note, Vikings did include a small about of rock in their bread baking

 

[woodelf]

Bad beer and hard bread. That's exactly how I picture dwarves.

 

[onedreamer]

Bad beer and hard bread. That's exactly how I picture dwarves.

yeah but they both require farming

 

[Gladi]

And where does the beer come from anyway? Games Workshop?

 

[DarthCycle]

In the same line of thought, why not change the way that dwarves harvest their environment for food?

In game terms, do not allow dwarves races to build farms but give them another way to harvest food. Some ideas:
- mines also produces 1 food
- allow a new mine type that produces 2 food
- generic buildings that generate 1-2 food, like underground mushroom farms under the city.
- a building that generates food, but requires mountain in the city radius in order to build it. Beetle colony harvested in mountain caves.

This would greatly change the way dwarves races are played. Hills and moutains would become valuable terrain for dwarves races, like forest and ancient forest to elves.

 

[upthorn]

In the same line of thought, why not change the way that dwarves harvest their environment for food?

In game terms, do not allow dwarves races to build farms but give them another way to harvest food. Some ideas:
- mines also produces 1 food
- allow a new mine type that produces 2 food
- generic buildings that generate 1-2 food, like underground mushroom farms under the city.
- a building that generates food, but requires mountain in the city radius in order to build it. Beetle colony harvested in mountain caves.

This would greatly change the way dwarves races are played. Hills and moutains would become valuable terrain for dwarves races, like forest and ancient forest to elves.

I really like that idea. In fact, for the Civ3 Warhammer Fantasy mod, I spent a good amount of time making a couple resources (rocks and dirt), which appear in hills and mountains, provide bonuses (rocks +1 production, dirt +1 food), and are only visible to dwarves and chaos dwarves.

Of course, I didn't worry about balancing issues, because this was only for my own play usage. But it had the effect of turning mountains and hills into very valuable terrains for dwarves, changing the whole way they played. And what's more, since the AI could understand simple things like "food bonus" and "production bonus", the AI adapted to it automatically, and played dwarves similarly.

 

[Maniac]

Some fun replies

 

[BeefontheBone]

Come August the 8th, you'll be able to find out here [/shameless plug for somebody else's work]

 

[Kerrang]

In some Fantasy settings, dwarves do not live underground, they just work underground. They have above-ground communities, and the mines are more like outposts. They are often distinguished from a separate race (or races) of dwarves that spend their entire existence underground (Duergar, Dark Dwarves, Deep Dwarves, etc.).

Ed Greenwood took things one step further than Gygax in Forgotten Realms, he created an entire underground ecosystem where the Drow and Duergar had vast kingdoms in the Underdark. The Drow farmed fungi, and raised beasts that fed on the fungi as well, they would also augment their own food supplies with raids on the surface.

When it comes to sanitation, there are just as many rivers underground as there are on the surface, it would not be hard for an underground civilization to work out a viable sewage system.

 

[Horacio]

In some Fantasy settings, dwarves do not live underground, they just work underground. They have above-ground communities, and the mines are more like outposts.

You are not talking about "Snowwhite" here, are you?