Food and Friendship

 Some quick ideas for a couple of systems.

Food

Have a "food" bar that starts empty. Having an empty food bar is fine, nothing bad happens. Eating food fills up your food bar and provides buffs based on the food. The food bar empties out over time, maybe at a rate that depends on the food, too.

There are two basic types of food in the game: meals and snacks. Meals don't go in your inventory and have to be eaten right away, where they are produced. Meals fill up your entire food bar, and generally provide strong buffs. Snacks only fill a portion, and the buff isn't as strong per portion filled. So, eating 3 snacks is not as good as eating 1 meal of the same tier, but snacks can go in your inventory and you can eat them any time.

The point is to create a ritual of grabbing a big meal before heading out into the world; this should be a cozy moment.

Friendship

Have a "friendship" bar that starts empty. That's fine. Talk to people to fill it up. When you're good friends with a person, one good chat fills it up all the way. Gain a buff depending on who you talk to. If you know you're going to be out in the woods, maybe talk to the woodcutter for +10 forestry. If you're going to be having a difficult conversation with the troll, maybe talk to Grandma first to get some wisdom. The buffs deplete slowly and are gone the next day. 

Maybe you unlock this ability by reaching a certain level of friendship with folks. (Hey, this is actually pretty similar to how keepsakes work in Hades.) We put the emphasis on actually seeking the person out and talking to them, making it a way that they help you, which should endear them to you and make it easier to care about them and want to help them.