How might a player tastefully engage with cannibalism?

Easy, you create classy food about it.

Cannibalism isn't just an activity, it's an event. You need to stalk your prey, lure them to a state of comfort, and finally kill them before transforming them into art. Any heathen can smash someone in the head with a rock and take a half-assed bite, but you really need people who take care in preparation. They need to understand the ingredients, the proper way to prepare a body, and have a philosophical purpose for their "hobby". A real cannibal is a refined person of taste and distinction who engages in a dreadful hobby for both kitsch value, and for the fetishized action of the forbidden fruit; the ultimate faux-pas for civility.

Ask yourself this question, if you were at a buffet and something delicious smelling was clearly labeled "human", would you try it? There needs to be a primal allure, an irrational flesh-lust that goes beyond rudimentary sustenance, and a dramatic reveal. You don't simply kill and eat the person, you juxtapose the act of violence with the art of food preparation, and bask in the wrongness of the rightness, so to speak. It's tasteful in so far as there's civility about it.

Now, what I would do is introduce some human food to a group of people who don't know what it is, and have the party enjoy it, while only one person knows that everyone is eating a human. Maybe later on I'd introduce a "Leatherface" style cannibal and juxtapose survival through any means necessary with the refinement I was just talking about. The act of cannibalism is really consuming one's self, so keep that in mind.

Always nice. Better if it's a monster so you gain some of its strength.

I was wondering about that myself...

By actually cooking the meat and not gaining CJD/Kuru

By making some good marinade.

That's not really cannibalism unless the monsters were former humans who ate too many monster hearts.

You could play a sin eater. Some of the crazier ones literally eat slain enemies.

Be completely unashamed of it, and roll with the stigmas, it's a part of a persons culture or life choices, it's who they are. Just fucking do it, edge or not.

youtu.be/eOjhrGmRoUQ

As with all things. Simply make it a part of your character, instead of getting up on the table with your dick in hand and ready to recite a gurochan greentext from memory just casually drop a few bites, a ritual consuming of the slains heart.

If it's a big part of the character then you can give it more attention. It all comes down to excess and restraint

I'm fine if a character needs to do that -- it can lead to some fucked up storytelling moments without being as cringe-inducing as rape -- but the PLAYER better not bring that shit to my table. There's just some things you don't want eaten in your house, you know? So hard to get the smell out.

Play a Kroot in Dark Heresy

Easy, throw some spices or sauces on it.

Sriracha

Canabilism doesnt mean "eats people", user. Open a dictionary.

Can't go wrong with BBQ sauce

Cibopathy.

Play a witch. Offer to dispose of any children your party picks up along the way that they don't want to deal with.

A pinch of salt and a pat of butter. I have experience in this field.

dunno ask monte "penis cannibal" cook

>tastefully engage with cannibalism?

Use some seasoning and cook it properly for god's sake. Don't just be another zombie-wannabe going around eating plain raw bodies.

youtube.com/watch?v=lOIZmoOhJik

gay

A player can engage with cannibalism through acting it out in a roleplaying game. We're all good.

My melanin enhanced brutha!

While I totally acknowledge that the denotation of "cannibal" is "consumes other members of its own species", it is inatguable that "cannibal" is often used as shorthand for "man-eater" in fiction. Especially with the Kroot, who even name their squads cannibals.

Guys, can a skeleton be a cannibal?

Memes aside, this, if able to do it correctly.
Although I would go for the Barbarian that eats
the hearts because he thinks it makes him stronger, personally.

Herbs and spices, and proper table etiquette.

Easy.

First you must go to well and listen to voices. Mr. Eaten will do the rest for you.

>cannibalism

>tastefully

It'd be a good source of calcium for them.

There's another skeleton in that kid so yeah

>What is the difference between a gourmand and gourmet mr. BBEG? And which of the two should you fear more?

The show Hannibal had classy cannibalism. All that food looked delicious.

Read the scenes with Anubis ("Mr. Jacquel") from American Gods. It's about respect for the departed. Cannibalism is often associated with debasement or domination. For the sake of your game, it doesn't have to be.

if they eat another member of their species

Between this and the other cannibalism thread I'm starting to think this board needs to have a frank and honest conversation about repressed desires to eat people.

Just treat it like any other meat. You treat it perfectly normally, you cook it perfectly normally, and if anybody asks or reacts to it as anything other than totally normal just smile politely and tell them to try it first.

Like Gaichu off Shadowrun Hong Kong. Out of necessity and with good preparation.

What's wrong with desire and good preparation, user? Surely necessity is more tasteless than a well-refined pallete bought about by choice?

Have there be a reason beyond 'just cuz' for the eating.
There's a gameplay benefit or a reason the story calls for it.

Diablerie in WoD, cannibalizing a stronger vampire to gain a serious boost.
Elves in Divinity, who eat corpses to gain their memories.
Characters stuck without food, and they have to draw straws while also trying to not be obvious that they're rigging it against the NPCs.
Becoming a member of a tribe of savages to gain passage through a mountain pass. Have to make Fort rolls or whatever to keep it down to pass initiation.

If a player wants to make a cannibal or partake of it, and he has no reason beyond 'Because I wanted my character to be a cannibal,' then it shows there wasn't a lot of thought put into it, and he'll be bored of it within a session, or will stop to derail it after every fight and never shut up about it.
Just what I've noticed.

There doesn't need to be an outside reason; I'd argue you can have a character who's a cannibal for roleplaying reasons.
Like you say, "Just cuz" is a bad reason, but "just cuz" is a bad reason for anything, not just cannibalism.

Maybe the character had to partake once, and now they've got an insatiable craving. They're not proud of it, they're not overt about it - but when the opportunity arises, they take it.
How does the player treat their desire? Does it haunt them, that they recognise what they're doing is by most accounts something wrong? Do they secretly enjoy it but hide it from people? Are they trying to kick the habit?

I think you can definitely play an interesting cannibal by choice without mechanical effects to it.

No, it's extremely crass. It's the sort of thing nouveaux riches would do for attention whoring purposes.