[Rq-rules] Re: Cooking skill

[Paul Cardwell]

--- Ludowick at aol.com wrote:

> Tom Cantine wrote:  
> 
> > I have since abandoned that approach, but I still
> want to make cooking  
> > skill more worthwhile somehow.
> 
> Make it a social influence skill, like calligraphy
> was in some  cultures.  Use
> it to improve the chances to get a good business
> deal with a wealthy  noble
> or merchant.  I'm pretty sure a well made feast can
> serve as a  valid means
> of inducement (read gift or bribe) in Tekumel's Five
> Empires, for  example.
>  
> Michael Hoxie
>  
Cooking is not a worthwhile skill?  Have you no
aesthetics? Concern about your health?  Are you
dependent on someone else for your very survival?  Why
should your character be any different.

In my now out of print America's Camping Book
(Scribner's, 1968, 1976, available at used book stores
everywhere), I mentioned in the introduction to the
do-it-yourself section, the sad story of Kit Carson. 
When he signed on as scout for the Frémont expedition,
he refused to use an army tent and demanded a tipi. 
It was agreed, but they soon realized that even though
Carson had lived in one for years, he had no skills,
or even knowlege, in how to set and strike one.  That
was a woman's property.  They had to pay a hefty
amount to a woman to teach this very basic skill.

The moral was that it showed why the Plains culture
was one of the strongest matriarchies known to
anthropology and that any man should be able cook and
sew, simply to be able to survive in the absence of a
woman.

And so should your characters - including if they are
female.

Paul Cardwell

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