I'd rather starve than eat human flesh. I respect the ways of a proper and civilised man too much to eat human flesh like a savage. That said, even morality aside, I'd never eat human flesh because unless you cook it right, the transmittable prions in human flesh will mess your body up. I'm happier sticking to animals and vegetables, thank you.

I don't think I can outright say it should award bad karma. I mean, the food we eat or won't eat is usually determined by the culture we live in.

As an American I won't eat much that isn't seen as "normal" in my country, so the idea of certain cuts of meat or different kinds of animals is extremely off-putting. As everyone always used to say, "it's a delicacy in some country".

As for long pig... There are tribes that think the way we handle our dead is very wrong and disrespectful. Their beliefs see burying the dead as wrongful. Conversely, eating their dead is a cultural norm for them and it's why the Kuru disease is endemic to their tribes. Kuru is kind of a human form of Mad Cow disease in that it's caused by eating the prions (unfortunately prions are highly resistant to.. everything.. including cooking the meat).

So it'd be wrong of me do judge it by our cultural standards of America today. Me personally? I couldn't. I might try in the situation, but it would probably result in me losing even more nutrients through puking than I would by eating it.

As someone else said earlier in this thread, it's easy to say that with a bellyful. In a wasteland, only survivors survive.

The trouble is that what society thinks as a normal cut of meat isn't necessarily what the food industry thinks.

Bad Karma.. You'll eventually get Kuru and die. Anyway, as others have pointed out, there's plenty to eat in the wastes. Brahmin, mirelurk, radscorpion, yao gaui, deathclaw eggs, mole rat,.. and best of all, you've got a dog as a companion.. You can eat the dog!

Very true, but I'm talking about sirloin steak vs tripe or paws.

Sounds like a Todd-ism! Lol

Yes it has been, might even be a few tribes who does ritual cannibalism in an way who would not be seen as evil.

This is an minority however probably an majority today as the others tried to eat others with far better weapons. Combine extreme cruelty with raider like aggressiveness and an enemy who outgun and outnumber them by magnitudes has one end.

Yeah, Kuru - there's your karma in action. This is definitely baaaad...

You have just never been hungry enough and staring at a nice delicious human leg, with onions and garlic, dash of salt and pepper, a little oregano and olive oil for some Italian flare....... lol.

Cannibalism is disgusting. I would rather die.

The wasteland is only a world for survivors.

I'd want both ~redone. Where Karma and Reputation are the public and private depiction of the same stat. Where PCs can have a high public image, but their karma shows that they make pretty low down choices when they are not in the public eye. The reverse could be true also; or the PC could be seen as a menace, but does the world a good turn now and again; or perhaps whenever they get the chance.

RPGs with this kind of system can include quests that build up, or break down one or other of these two... A PC can be falsely accused in town, and their reputation in town takes a severe hit with those they don't know, and a less hit with those that do know them (and rely a bit on their Karma stat instead, to make their decisions.)

A shrewd developer can script encounters that check the karma stat alongside the reputation stat, to temper the outcome, or even add a bit of irony to it. It'd be cool if Karma and reputation adjustments were tagged with the event that caused them. Scripts could effect a bit of 'what goes around, comes around' into themselves.

**A PC that secretly ate their victims, could themselves get a death ~where they are unknowingly eaten by the townsfolk they stalked.
Like... a battle in a meat packing plant where if they die, it's ~coerced in to a way that they end up in the shredding machine for sausage... but that that weighted outcome would only be likely to happen to cannibals; (though of course, possible for anyone).

I think its okay, as long as you cook them and add some salt. LOL

srsly tho is really depends on the situation and a place.

This is succinct and 100% accurate.

I kill cannibals, burn them up and ditch/bury all of the "meat" they have.

The Tribal Wisdom(?) thing in New Vegas where you can eat insects is fine and acceptable.

Eating Abominations like Super Mutants, Deathclaws and Centaurs is incredibly messed up, especially given how Super Mutants are sentient beings. Deathclaws are a bit more acceptable, Centaurs are like svcking human DNA out of test tube or petri dish. Just gross and all kinds of wrong.

Everything [animal] is sentient.

It's considered perfectly acceptable to kill other life for food. Humans help breed life just for mass slaughter for food and it's perfectly normal. We just assume human life as infinitely more sacred than other life. We don't need to breed and slaughter what people just assume to be "lesser beings" to survive, but we do. I'll enjoy eating my steak for dinner too without a second thought, but am I considered evil for doing so?

Don't even get me started on how humans kill one another for far less and we simply justify it as the right thing. It's strange how just writing another group of humans off as "bad" and killing them is considered okay for some (hell we revere them as heroes even), but killing for the sake of survival when there is no other choice is somehow evil.

It's just people dressing up murder and saying it's okay, justified or even heroic and for the greater good.

[To me] the karma system is a fallacy in and of itself and I hope they just get rid of it. Reputation makes sense, because it's what's perceived as good or bad to that specific group of people, but karma is just assigning good or bad to the entire universe.

See, I gotta think Karma doesn't need witnesses.
Karma is a cosmic construct, omniscient, for a lack of a better word.
This is why I think it should only be a luck modifier.

Reputation should be a witnessed sort of thing. How your noticed deeds sit with others.

I don't think it should be bad karma. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and if the only thing standing between you and the grim reaper is a plate of human body parts, then by all means chow down.

It really depends on the context, and I just don't think a karma system can accurately reflect the context under which the decision was made.

It should give Prions. (30% chance, 4-5 intelligence penalty and 2-3 agility penalty.)

Regardless of whether or not eating human flesh as an absolute last resort would result in bad karma, you've moved well into black karma territory upon reaching the point where you think of people as 'long pig'.

No bad karma for eating long pig! No Karma at all!

Fallout doesn't need Karma. Of course NPCs should still condemn the action if they saw your character eating human flesh and you should suffer repercussions through this (killing witnesses is also a repercussion imo).

Yes! Unless the NPCs themselves were cannibals in which case you're cool.

Absolilly.

[censored] Fallout 3 sure did a great job of justifying cannibalism as a logical trait for any character.

Were there mods for F3 for a more in depth cannibalism? Like that it would come with some benefits but also come with drawbacks too?