Cook-off! How do I run this?

[Quickleaf]

I have a player running a bard who is a cook in a pirate-themed game. (Players for Spell & Crossbones: you may be ruining your surprise if you keep reading!)

I'd like to include a cook-off for him to flex his culinary muscles. The scenario I've come up with is the PCs need the help of a group of French buccaneers who consider themselves culinary geniuses (for a purpose unrelated to cooking!), and the buccaneers agree only if the PCs can beat them in a slow-roast BBQ pig cook-off. Or something along those lines...

The question is: How in the world do I run this? Has anyone tried running a cook-off in their game? How'd you do pull it off?

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My current thinking is a kind of mini-quest in 3 parts:

1. Catch the pig! The whole party can participate thru different means. Thinking of spicing this up with either a crafty wild pig leading them thru a gauntlet of traps OR a run-in with a zombie dire boar...
2. Perfect spices/marinade. An ingredient hunt, maybe? Using the five tastes (bitter, salty, sour, sweet, "umami" which roughly means aged/fermented/odiferous) somehow? Discovering judges preferences?
3. Roast it all together. An opposed skill check by the cook PC and the lead buccaneer, with a bonus depending on their success (however that's measured) in part 2.

Thanks for any sage wisdom you can offer!

 

[was]

I don't know how committed you are to the pig, but when I hear French buccaneers and exotic cuisine I think some sort of fancy fish type of dish. Fishing challenges could be interesting for part 1. Maybe throw in some surprise ingredient that must be used, like snails. You could race to exotic islands to get certain spices. Maybe the islands are populated with headhunting cannibals with their own ideas of "French Cuisine".

 

[Jan van Leyden]

How large do you want the preparations to be?

The hunt/search for the ingredients is pretty much obvious, and was' idea of going for fish (or mussels/oysters) should spice up the search.

You could also add a search for some fabled recipe the old crone on yonder island may know.

I guess even more important is the cooking event itself, which might feel like a let down if you only roll some dice. What about attempts at sabotage? One could possibly spoil the ingredients of the other cook or spirit it away. A healthy dose of salt at the right moment may tip the scales.

Thinking along this lines the scenario might degrade into some slapstick like performance with the contestant's friends skulking around and trying to put a spoke in the other side's wheel.

 

[Celebrim]

The actual contest shouldn't be a single roll, because D&D does that sort of skill contest badly. Instead, you should do something like, "First cook to get three more successes than the other cook", or in this case probably "Best result out of 7." That way, a cook with a +12 bonus has a real advantage over one with a +10.

Make it a group thing by allowing the party to come up with ways to assist the cook (granting a +2 circumstance bonus at each step). That can include collecting rare ingredients (spices, wood, etc.), actually working as an assistant cook, tending the fire, sabotaging the other chef, etc.

 

[Quickleaf]

How large do you want the preparations to be?

Well, I see the final act of cooking as not taking up very much role playing time at all because the actually act of cooking isn't that interesting mechanically or narratively. I mean, rolling for who tends a better fire or who turns the pig the best seems trivial (why bother rolling?). Unless someone has an example or idea to prove otherwise?

Thus, I see the meat of the action around the preparations.

And, more generally, this is meant to be a side quest. The PCs are recruiting crew for their ship, and to secure the buccaneers they need to win this cook-off. There are also several other side quests happening concurrently, involving the ship, supplies, and recruiting other crew members.

I guess even more important is the cooking event itself, which might feel like a let down if you only roll some dice. What about attempts at sabotage? One could possibly spoil the ingredients of the other cook or spirit it away. A healthy dose of salt at the right moment may tip the scales.

You zeroed in on what is giving me trouble. A lot of the act of cooking details seem trivial and not really adventure material, worth a single die roll before moving on. Putting a spin on it with sabotaging the other team's cuisine is just the sort of idea that can make it engaging.

Part of what I'd like to do is have some measure of success as far as ingredient-combining goes. And while dice may play part of it, I'd prefer if they played a lesser part than actually challenging the players & role playing. So, that leaves me with the dilemma of how do I set up these parameters of success? What makes one cuisine *better* than another? And how do I translate that to the game?

The actual contest shouldn't be a single roll, because D&D does that sort of skill contest badly. Instead, you should do something like, "First cook to get three more successes than the other cook", or in this case probably "Best result out of 7." That way, a cook with a +12 bonus has a real advantage over one with a +10.

Make it a group thing by allowing the party to come up with ways to assist the cook (granting a +2 circumstance bonus at each step). That can include collecting rare ingredients (spices, wood, etc.), actually working as an assistant cook, tending the fire, sabotaging the other chef, etc.

Rolling with some of the ideas we've tossed out there...

Rare Ingredients - I might come up with a list of rare ingredients divided into categories according to the 5 tastes (salty, sweet, bitter, sour, and the 5th taste umami). Maybe the recipe could have a bunch of common ingredients determined by the chef, but what significantly boosts their chances of winning are the rare ingredients they find. I think 3 rare ingredients sounds right: two from two taste categories the chef decides, and one from the elusive 5th taste. For each rare ingredient they get, there'd be a significant boost to the cook's actual cooking check.

Know The Judges - The PCs can meet the judges at some social function on the island, and in a comical scene try to figure out what sorts of flavors the judges like...without giving away that they're trying to get an inside scoop.

Tending the Fire - Since this is a slow roast BBQ, one or more PCs are going to be tending the fire for several hours. During this time the buccaneers might try to send distractions so they can sabotage the PCs' cooking, or hungry predators might get attracted by the aroma.

 

[Celebrim]

You zeroed in on what is giving me trouble. A lot of the act of cooking details seem trivial and not really adventure material, worth a single die roll before moving on.

I think you should stick with your instincts here. I would not plan for this to take up a lot of game time. I wouldn't do it in a single roll because a single roll has too much luck in it, but I wouldn't plan on dragging the session out because of this. Pacing on this is probably 10 or 15 minutes at most. This is just a little challenge on the way to doing something bigger.

What makes one cuisine *better* than another? And how do I translate that to the game?

I don't think you have to worry about that. This isn't a puzzle scenario where you have to figure out the best combination of ingredients. Something like that is suited to a single player video game perhaps, where trial and error solutions are fine and you can extend this scene out to like 5 hours of gameplay, but this is a one and done sort of thing. The cooking and preparations are better because the dice say that they are better.

Finding a rare ingredient is like - "Make a DC 20 survival check... ok, you find some rare dragon peppers. If you prepare them right, these will add lots of pleasing aroma to your dish and give your sauce a fiery kick." You don't want to bog down the whole party on a side quest that spotlights one character.

 

[billd91]

I think you should stick with your instincts here. I would not plan for this to take up a lot of game time. I wouldn't do it in a single roll because a single roll has too much luck in it, but I wouldn't plan on dragging the session out because of this. Pacing on this is probably 10 or 15 minutes at most. This is just a little challenge on the way to doing something bigger.

Heck no. If the players are having fun, let it take as long as necessary. Let that player hold the limelight for a non-adventuring skill as long as everyone is enjoying the ride. That's one of the major ways D&D and other RPGs shine compared to board games. They'll remember the cookoff long after they forget 99% of the fights in the campaign.

 

[billd91]

The question is: How in the world do I run this? Has anyone tried running a cook-off in their game? How'd you do pull it off?

----------

My current thinking is a kind of mini-quest in 3 parts:

1. Catch the pig! The whole party can participate thru different means. Thinking of spicing this up with either a crafty wild pig leading them thru a gauntlet of traps OR a run-in with a zombie dire boar...
2. Perfect spices/marinade. An ingredient hunt, maybe? Using the five tastes (bitter, salty, sour, sweet, "umami" which roughly means aged/fermented/odiferous) somehow? Discovering judges preferences?
3. Roast it all together. An opposed skill check by the cook PC and the lead buccaneer, with a bonus depending on their success (however that's measured) in part 2.

Thanks for any sage wisdom you can offer!

Sabotage! Whether while chasing a boar or finding spices and other ingredients, the other side needs to win so they may sabotage the PCs. Have them hire some thugs or rogues to undermine PC efforts.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

And now for something completely different:

Make the cooking contest a live event! Have your player cook the main dish while you prepare a dessert. After having dinner the participating people vote for the best component.

Not exactly RAW, but with the right players it should be lots of fun.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

If the players are trying to win over the French buccaneers, I would have the buccaneers be the "judges" instead of the competitors. The PCs would make a meal that the buccaneers love so much they'll enlist with them. If you want competitors, you could have a rival ship trying to lure the buccaneers with their own delicious meal or with non-culinary promises (gold, pardons, etc.).

I completely agree with billd91. If the players are enjoying the challenge, don't minimize it.

How independent are your players? Can you rely on them to come up with ways to win the challenge or do they need hints? If they're a proactive group, you might not need to prepare too many encounters or challenges for them.