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Feast of Favors: Power, Hunger, and Thanksgiving in the Zoo Underworld

By The Keeper’s Ledger

When the Zoo’s streets grow cold and the smell of roasted peanuts drifts through the air, every crew knows what season it is — Feast Season. Not the polite family dinner kind, but the kind where every plate comes with a price and every toast might hide a threat.

In Zoo Mafia, “feast” isn’t just about food — it’s about who eats, who serves, and who gets eaten. Whether you’re running a one-shot set during a high-stakes underworld banquet or weaving a long campaign around the politics of plenty and scarcity, “Feast” can feed your story in more ways than one.

🍗 1. The Feast as a Power Move

Every mob boss throws a feast eventually.
Sometimes it’s to celebrate peace between families, sometimes to bait their rivals into one room. And sometimes… it’s both.

A banquet scene is a perfect way to mix social tension and deadly intent. Maybe Carlo Hambino, the Warthog “Hogfather of Crime,” is carving a turkey with a blade that’s seen more blood than gravy. Maybe Bunny Malone’s dessert cart hides an illicit shipment of peanut rum truffles. Or maybe Machine Gun Otto just can’t handle dinner conversation without putting a few rounds in the ceiling.

Use the feast as a stage — a place where alliances are toasted, betrayals are simmered, and secrets are served under silver domes.

🥧 2. Hunger Is Motivation

Every animal in the zoo has something they’re hungry for — respect, revenge, freedom, or just survival.
The Feast can represent what they’re chasing and how far they’ll go to get it.

A starving crew might risk everything to hijack a supply shipment meant for the penguin families. A gluttonous boss might hoard food while the lower pens riot. And a desperate gang might literally fight for their next meal when the humans cut rations during a lockdown.

When you lean into hunger — metaphorical and physical — you find the primal edge that makes Zoo Mafia tick.

🍷 3. The Feast That Bites Back

What if the feast is the job?
A catering gig for a rival boss turns out to be a setup. The meat is “mystery,” the wine’s been poisoned, and someone’s about to make an example of the cooks.

Or take it darker — what if something unnatural lurks in the food supply?
The zoo’s new feed shipment causes hallucinations, feral rages, or worse. The underworld is always looking for an edge… and the cost of consumption might be higher than they think.

🦴 4. Gratitude, Loyalty, and Debt

Thanksgiving stories are about gratitude — but in the Zoo, every “thank you” is just another link in the chain.
If a boss feeds you, you owe them. If you feed others, you’re buying loyalty one bite at a time.

Let the idea of debt-as-dinner run through your campaign. A favor repaid with a meal. A betrayal over a toast. A family torn apart by who gets a seat at the table and who gets left outside the glass.

In Zoo Mafia, the feast never ends — it just changes who’s sitting at the head of it.

🦃 5. Ideas for “Feast” Adventures

• The Great Peanut Rum Banquet: Rival gangs race to secure rare bottles of contraband for Carlo Hambino’s annual feast.

• Dinner with the Devil: The crew is invited to dine with an infamous zookeeper informant — and it’s clear not everyone will leave full.

• The Last Supper Club: A hidden speakeasy hosts a Thanksgiving night auction… where the prize is one of the crew’s secrets.

• The Hunger Games: A sudden food shortage sparks riots and turf wars. Can the crew restore order — or profit from the chaos?

🕯️ Final Bite

A Zoo Mafia “Feast” isn’t about comfort or tradition — it’s about what we’re willing to consume to stay on top.
So when your table’s set and your players are ready, serve up a game full of indulgence, betrayal, and blood in the gravy. If you are a fan of Zoo Mafia and want to be notified when we go live on Kickstarter make sure you head over to the follow page to get notified. If you want to be on the newsletter to get all the details as we release them you can sign up here.

Just remember:
In Zoo Mafia, the feast always ends with someone on the menu.

Thanks for reading. Until Next Time, Stay Nerdy!!