It's occurred to me that other than the occassional allowance of "it's been a bit of time, your characters have eaten" the group has largely operated as some kind of insentiently full, non-bathroom using, thirstless supergroup.

While one of our members has (trolled his way into) the role of the ship's cooking droid, we've yet to actually cook anything. I was wondering if other groups out there use cooking in their games and what skills they check for it. Thus far Education and Survival seem the most viable, perhaps with coordination checks for the more complicated food and mixed drinks.

The second aspect I'm wondering about is how to reward players for eating. Not having their difficulty increase as a result of starvation seems obvious, but it takes a certain kind of cool to make nerf sandwhiches while the ship is being fired upon and that merits something. Having the action add a boost die for something in the next encounter, like the first check, seems good to me, as does recovering strain.

The penalty for failing a check to make food could be simply to destroy the intended meal or things like indigestion, allergic reaction, or outright poisoning, but that can be countered with medical checks.

The system I was thinking with food was:

Success / Failure - Making the item

Advantage / Threat - The effects of the item.

Advantage = 1: Recover Strain, 2: Boost Die, 3: Boost Die & Recover Strain, 4-5: 2 Boost Die/Recover 2 Strain

Threat = 1: Take Strain, 2: Setback Die, 3: Setback + Strain, 4: Choking, lose an action, 5: Allergic reaction/violent illness/food poisoning

Nice idea.

I think you're right about the skills; I'd probably go with Education most of the time, Survival only when in the bush.

I largely agree with your effects, too. I would limit what the Boosts could apply to, though. I could see successes granting Boost dice to Charm if you're entertaining a client or potential contact (maybe 1 die, +1 die for every two extra success), advantages recovering strain for everybody on a 2 for 1 basis.

Yeah, I have noticed our group hardly ever breathes. I have decided that they must make an athletics check and if they fail they are out of breath and get a setback. If they get a triumph they can hoover a bit and when they get a despair they get astma.

Just seems more realistic...

Yeah, I have noticed our group hardly ever breathes. I have decided that they must make an athletics check and if they fail they are out of breath and get a setback. If they get a triumph they can hoover a bit and when they get a despair they get astma.

Just seems more realistic...

You're an evil man, DanteRotterdam.

All in good fun!

I feel most games don't really involve the "day to day living" with expenses at all. I as a GM don't like the idea of having a the group eat nothing but ship rations all the time. To me, those are for surviving, not enjoying life. I want my guys to do a little shopping for fresh foodstuffs to eat on the ship, and when planet side spend some cash on going out. No I don't have these encounters really happen during the adventure, just pretty much they tell me when they get planet side, they will restock the fresh items, and I tell them how much. I also make them buy new cloths after some some tough firefights. So your going to walk around with those blaster burns and blood on your cloths? Some people don't really like this, as this takes away from the Heroic feel of the game or it's too much book keeping and micro managing. I found that to these players it is more about me taking their cash from them instead of saving up for the next piece of equipment. Hey, just living is expensive...

So anyway, you have some good ideas here, but come on, do you really want to roll to make hamburger helper? Who the hell is going to try to cook anything when you have a space battle going on? I know if I was a player and my GM told me it was time to make diner, and handed me the dice...I would probably start looking for a new GM if not group. Does making diner really have that much effect on the game to come up with a success/fail advantage/threat chart? Does your table really have the time to devote to such minuscule and inconsequential rolls to see if they get a boost die or a set back die or get poisoned from burnt Mac and cheese?

I'm sorry if I am coming a little harsh, I mean no disrespect, and you are asking sound questions that have been at every table I bet since Gygax. I am just trying to get you to realize that this is not the intent of an RPG. Definitely not the narrative of EotE. First ask your group if this is what they want, if they do, then run with it, if not, toss it out. I know my group would throw me out an airlock if I told them to roll to make diner on the ship.

Now if you were to have an encounter where for whatever reason it was vital for them to prepare an exquisite diner for someone, it may be a little different. Again, I don't think my group would enjoy that kind of encounter, but yours may.

So I recommend that you charge them for decent food, and if they don't want to, start handing out some strain damage to them if you want.

So again, you have valid ideas, but they are more suited to the Iron Chef RPG.

There is an awesome SkillMonkey podcast for this:

http://www.madadventurers.com/skill-monkey-iron-chef/

Our group mainly treats it like our ships has basic bland rations, if you want to stock it with decent food, go and spend a few credits for it. We also have a few sets of clothes, and if you feel the need, you can go buy some more. But there is no cooking skill checks or skill, so my dreams of being the next Cortosis Chef have been crushed.

Food checks

Are you serious?

Your players are actually interested in roleplaying culinary arts?

I think you may have the wrong system for that type of game.

Something about if it's not taking place in a bar, eating and cooking are not really action packed adventures.

Your players are actually interested in roleplaying culinary arts?

I think you may have the wrong system for that type of game.

Are you serious?

To all the WTF'ers, yes I dont think that you should have to roll to cook (unless it serves the plot. "Now, you must slice open the Pell Worm ever so carefully, lest it become alarmed and spray defensive ink all over the wookiee ambassador!"), but as a color skill? I see nothing wrong with it.

One of the house rules I've had for decades now is that all characters get a color skill for free - dancing, singing, knitting, fantasy football stats - something that adds depth to the character, might very occasionally come in handy someday, but otherwise wont unbalance the game. Culinary arts could easily be one of those skills.

So yeah, go have fun with stupid skills, especially with a system as flexable as FFG's engine is.

Something about if it's not taking place in a bar, eating and cooking are not really action packed adventures.

Chairman Kaga disagrees!

Its all flavor text to me.

Unless it's a good fight.

Do you use ranged light or heavy for watermelon chucking?

Its all flavor text to me.

Good pun.

Totally unintentional!

We all just subsist on blue milk and vodka... at some point we should probably give it a proper cocktail name.

The only time I would have food come into play would be if my players were taking off on some overland trek and it was necessary to bring rations, mostly as a factor in encumbrance. I had considered daily costs associated with flight hour maintenance costs, and food and such, and then decided against it. That's not to say I don't think it couldn't be a factor, the one poster who asked about his characters starting a cantina would clearly need a cook and it could play into a game session in some manner I would think.

We all just subsist on blue milk and vodka... at some point we should probably give it a proper cocktail name.

Blue Russian?

We all just subsist on blue milk and vodka... at some point we should probably give it a proper cocktail name.

Blue Russian?

Azure.............sounds spacier............

Ok I'm necro-ing this thread.

I just ran an impromptu one shot, player's choice of topic. 200xp. Had a Drall alchemist/prophet wanderer, gamorrean performer dancer, and anylist flavored as a master chef!

They had to compete in a low key "durrasteel chef" competition in order to poison a moff.

I cobbled together some mechanics but it was clunky.

I need a good threat/adv table

And successive checks to make, plate 3 courses

There was a story "A Recipe for Death," in an alien anthology (Tales from a galaxy far far away, or something like that), a couple years ago. Don't remember much, but it might be relevant/ worth mining for inspiration.

On 2/7/2014 at 7:08 PM, The Human Target said:

Its all flavor text to me.

Unless it's a good fight.

Do you use ranged light or heavy for watermelon chucking?

Ranged Light for the smaller seedless ones and cantaloupes, Heavy for the larger regular watermelons

On 8/2/2018 at 8:17 PM, Edgehawk said:

There was a story "A Recipe for Death," in an alien anthology (Tales from a galaxy far far away, or something like that), a couple years ago. Don't remember much, but it might be relevant/ worth mining for inspiration.

I remember that anthology, it was the bartender (Wuher) in the cantina, with the dead Greedo. Be_Still_My_Heart:_The_Bartender's_Tale from Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina

Advantage and threat for messes, food allergies, or time spent.

Success/Failure for taste/quality. If you've got a recipe, I would say that the difference in quality between success and failure is very small. If there's no recipe or the character is creating a recipe, success may be better and failure would be way worse.

In a culinary-heavy campaign or if you want a culinary focused character, Knowledge-Culinary is a good idea. If you don't want to do that, use Knowledge-Education. Also relevant are Survival for wilderness cooking, Xenology for knowing what foods different species can have, and Coordination for things that require less knowledge but need more physical precision.

I listened to the skill monkey episode.

I'm interested in a competitive encounter with contestants in a Durasteel or Beskar Chef competition. Complete with secret ingredient and plating checks.

On 2/7/2014 at 2:40 PM, Desslok said:

One of the house rules I've had for decades now is that all characters get a color skill for free - dancing, singing, knitting, fantasy football stats - something that adds depth to the character, might very occasionally come in handy someday, but otherwise wont unbalance the game. Culinary arts could easily be one of those skills.

So, my new character's Color Skill this time around? It is indeed Cooking (I did it long after I'd forgotten about this thread). Two yellows and a green should be enough to overcome a two difficulty roll right? I've yet to actually succeed. Everyone else in the group is rapidly becoming suspicious of his claims that he's actually a pretty good chief.

Chief.......chef. Good cook, **** speller.....