FEASTS #

You can use the following mechanics for campaigns in which the PCs harvest ingredients throughout play and use them to cook meals during downtime.

INGREDIENTS & FLAVORS #

Every ingredient is denoted by a name and a flavor profile comprising 1–3 flavors with their relative strengths. For example, “Mushroom caps: Bitter (1), Savory (2).”

There are six flavors, each of which is represented by an associated die size: Sweet (d4), Salty (d6), Bitter (d8), Sour (d10), Savory (d12), and Weird (d20). A flavor’s strength is represented by a value between 1 and 3. The following list provides examples of ingredients and their flavor profiles:

• Mushroom caps: Bitter (1), Savory (2)
• Wyvern tongue: Sour (1), Savory (1), Weird (1)
• Ooze marrow: Sweet (1), Bitter (2)
• Direbear meat: Savory (3)
• Acid dragon saliva: Sour (2)
• Cave boar milk: Salty (1), Savory (1)
• Rileroot: Bitter (1)
• Ogre kidney stone: Sweet (1), Weird (1)

When a PC acquires an ingredient, they add it to their inventory. The maximum number of ingredients a PC can hold in their inventory is equal to their highest trait.

When the PCs cook with an ingredient, they roll a number of dice (of the flavor’s associated die size) equal to the strength of the flavor.

HARVESTING INGREDIENTS #

Ingredients can be acquired from defeated adversaries or the party’s surroundings.

When an edible animal is defeated, the PCs can harvest ingredients from it. The number of ingredients that can be harvested is determined by the defeated animal’s maximum Hit Points, according to the following table:

Hit Points to Ingredients Guide #

The GM determines the ingredients gained based on the details of the narrative. Usually, less powerful adversaries have predominantly Sweet, Salty, and Bitter flavor profiles, whereas more powerful adversaries tend to be more Sour, Savory, and Weird.

The PCs can also obtain ingredients by harvesting edible plants and fungi. Once per rest, each PC can spend a Hope to gather ingredients from their environment. The GM determines what ingredients they acquire based on the fiction or by having them roll their Hope Die, then, based on the result, gain an ingredient with the following flavor profile:

Environmental Ingredients Guide #

MAKE A FEAST #

In a feast-based campaign, players can’t choose downtime moves to clear Stress, clear Hit Points, or gain Hope. Instead, they have a new downtime move: Make a Feast. Each PC who chooses this move can remove ingredients from their inventory and contribute them to the party’s collective meal to gain the benefits of the resulting feast.

PREPARING THE DISH #

To begin cooking, the party designates one PC to be the chef. The chef combines each contributed ingredient’s flavor dice into a flavor pool. For example, a party might decide to make a steak dinner with the following recipe: 1 serving of direbear meat (3d12), 1 serving of mushroom caps (2d12 and 1d8), and 1 serving of ooze marrow (2d8 and 1d4). This gives the party 5d12, 3d8, and 1d4 altogether.

The chef makes a Prep Roll by rolling all the dice in the flavor pool and setting aside any matching values. If there are no matching values, the chef instead discards a die of their choice. The chef continues making Cooking Rolls until only one die remains in the flavor pool or all dice have been discarded or set aside.

DETERMINING A MEAL’S RATING #

Once preparation is complete, the chef calculates the resulting Meal Rating. Each matching set of dice is worth a number of points equal to its matched value. For example, a d6 and a d8 that rolled matching 3s would be worth 3 points, a d10 and a d12 that rolled matching 4s would be worth 4 points, and a d8 and a d20 that rolled matching 4s on a different roll would also be worth 4 points. The chef adds the point totals together to determine the meal’s Rating. In this example, the party’s meal would have a Rating of 11 (3 + 4 + 4 = 11).

EATING THE MEAL #

Each PC who partakes in the meal can clear a number of Hit Points, clear a number of Stress, and gain a number of Hope such that the total of all three numbers is equal to or less than the Meal Rating. For example, if the dish has a Meal Rating of 11, a PC could choose to clear 6 Hit Points, clear 3 Stress, and gain 2 Hope, and a different PC could choose to clear 5 Hit Points, clear 2 Stress, and gain 4 Hope.

RECORDING THE RECIPE #

For a feast-based campaign, the players should choose a small shared notebook, decorated however they like, to be their cookbook and record the recipe for each dish they make in it. A recipe includes the following details:

• The dish’s name, description, and preparation method as invented by the players
• The ingredients used to make it
• The resulting Meal Rating

When the party cooks a dish with the same flavor profile as a recipe in their cookbook, add a number of tokens equal to the party’s tier to the dish’s flavor pool. When the chef would be forced to discard a die from the Flavor Pool, they can choose to remove a token instead.

As a result, the more practice the characters get making meals with the same flavor profile, the easier that combination is to prepare.

QUICK INGREDIENT GENERATOR #

When the PCs harvest an ingredient, roll a d20 for each of the following tables and use the combination to inspire what they gather. If one of the options doesn’t fit the scenario, choose another that does.

What kind of ingredient is it? #

What’s interesting about it? #

ADVANCED FEASTING #

Once your table is comfortable with basic feasting mechanics, you can give the PCs opportunities to locate and acquire specific ingredients based on what they’ve learned about the world. You might also create special ingredients that have features. These are rarer than typical ingredients, and can only be harvested from Leader or Solo adversaries.

Example Special Ingredients #

RESTAURANTS #

A PC can spend up to 2 handfuls of gold during downtime to order food from a nearby restaurant and choose one of the following downtime moves for each handful of gold spent: clear Stress, clear Hit Points, or gain Hope.