We ate like D&D characters for a day and lived!

Any fans of Dungeons & Dragons will tell you that it tends to occupy a lot of your thoughts. Whether that’s strategising how to win the next big fight, creating playlists and art for your character, or just dreaming about what it would be like to really live in that world. Well, Liv and I decided that we wanted to bring some of those dreams to life by really living like our characters. Neither of us can actually wield a sword or play the lute (yet) but something that we can do is eat. D&D characters are always snacking on rations, dining around a campfire, or settling down to a hearty stew in a tavern. But what does that look like in modern times? Could we make a D&D-worthy meal? And would it sustain us?

Liv and I came up with a rigorous scientific test to see if we could survive as D&D characters for the day eating only rations. Our food had to hit five targets. Firstly, transportability, this is how well our rations fare when carried around in a backpack for days at a time. Second, is taste. We want to actually enjoy our food, D&D characters would have taste buds after all. Of course we also need to test our energy level from this. My cleric does a lot of fighting and running around so I know she’d need a good boost of power from her snacks. Next up is longevity. Sometimes our D&D characters don’t visit a town or merchant for weeks so they need their food to last all that time. And finally we have the food’s D&Dness.One sip of Lucozade would surely knock out a medieval peasant, so we need to make sure the food is accurate and believable for our bard and cleric to enjoy it.

What followed was an action-packed day of very good science. We set off to collect meals for each other with only ten minutes on the clock and a market of random stalls we’d never visited before. After some careful preparation, rigorous testing, and actual eating of the food we also planned a final challenge for our food based on the classic D&D stats, from dexterity saving throws to our passive perceptions. Find out how the food did and how both Liv and I fared crafting the medieval meals in the full video! There are poetry competitions, tasty applewood cheddar shots and even a mysterious crone who kept showing up.

If you want more fun D&D science, let us know! If you’re a fan of D&D or RPGs in general you should also head over to the Dicebreaker YouTube channel where we cover everything from great new RPGs you should play, fun actual plays, and great tips to make your GMing and playing even better. We also cover all sorts of other tabletop-related topics from board game reviews to painting minutes.