Eating Lampposts

In old Changeling, Redcaps could bite into, chew and digest ANYTHING as long as they could close their teeth on it. In new Changeling, it's implied in places that a Gristlegrinder can do the same thing, but it isn't explicitly stated as a power they possess.

So, I'm trying to come up with a way to give it to them, be it a merit or a Contract or some other thing, and thought I'd fish on the forum for ideas. So, thanks in advance for any replies.

I 'd say a goblin contract would work the best. If you go with a merit, I'd say at least 4 dot, and a prerequisite of 5 wyrd. There could be a goblin fruit that lets you process your next meal with no ill efects. You could have a token that provides a similar effect. Maybe a set of dentures, they let you chew through anything, the bitten item doesn't go into your stomach, but to some pocket dimension perhaps. Thinking about this, the problem I have is that what you describe could be 2 different effects. The ability to bite through anything, and the ability to digest anything. I may be over thinking it though.

Simple fix for this one, and all you need is the two main cores! You take Iron Stomach from the Core WoD book and throw that into Gristlegrinder and walla! You got Redcap! Now just make them horrible bullies and grouchy all the time and your done!
Hope it helps and doesn't just sound like me being a smartass.
Good Luck.

Well, as written, there's no reason to assume that a Gristlegrinder's teeth are actually stronger than a human's, just sharper and maybe larger, so even Iron Stomach wouldn't necessarily let you chew up steel.

I know Swords at Dawn has a merit for Leechfingers that improves their kith blessing. That could be taken as a precedent for creating such merits for other kiths.

I'm pretty sure the second dot in the Contracts of Stone would let you chew up steel with a Gristlegrinder's teeth, and the Iron Stomach would let you pass it through.

It'd be more of a sideshow/intimidation technique, however; you wouldn't gain any nutritional value from it.

The Ogre-Render ability lets you damage objets easier. For flavor you could say he just bites the objests. You could also try dual kith.

An increace to the dot rating of Iron Stomach might also work. I think it is 2 dot, maybe the 4 dot lets you eat any bite-sized non-toxic item with out harm.

Also I think there's a merit for being, for lack of any better phrasing, really good at breaking stuff, in some Werewolf book or other. I'd have to look for it.

Would Iron Stomach really let someone swallow and, ahem, 'pass' metal and stone debris like that? I never really looked at it that way, but I guess, maybe.

I did look into maybe making a Goblin Contract. I thought maybe a fun drawback would be that afterward you couldn't refuse anything someone offered you to eat, kind of like Cuchulainn. It's still a work in progress.

Thanks for the replies so far.

I would like to point you to the direction of Promethean the Created books, mainly the core and the Strange Alchemies one. Prometheans have the ability to digest anything organic( thanks to their divine fire ) but that could easily be implemented to any campaign, if it fits. Strange Alchemies introduces a merit( i think ) that powers the normal digestion-systen to eat ANYTHING from broken glass to .. uh... PLANES! ...
Hope that helps as well!

If you give an Ogre Gristlegrinder/Render the Iron Stomach and Toxin Resistance merits maxed out (Perhaps as their Entitlement bonus for joining the Redcaps) they can eat almost anything, and get it through with no harm.  Including people, which they tend to do more often in the new game than the old.  Of course, with iron stomach and toxin resistances, you can eat pretty much anything.  Rancid, metal, nuclear, whatever.  Nomnomonom.  Please keep all limbs away from the Redcaps.