Monday, June 20, 2016

Food for Savage Flower Kingdoms (Part 2/2)

Had a bit of pressure sickness yesterday, which gave me time to think of how to incentivize recipes better. They should be something you seek out a chef to learn from, something you travel from town to town to learn about (thus giving you a desire to travel and to also fight monsters in between). Learning a recipe makes enough food for everyone in the group (additional ingredients for each person give a +1 per person to the cooking roll with a max of +3), and recipes allow you to cook interesting things. A fumble is still a fumble, and we'll get to that below.

So.
Importantly!
Recipes all grant a +1d6 to any recovery attached to them.

These are proper and lovely meals, and when made correctly they are mighty fine.

If you fail a recipe you waste the materials but can still eat a "Misbegotten Meal" which gives you back 1 HP per ingredient added to it, but also a 1 in 6 chance per ingredient to make you sick.

Misbegotten Meal - Don't Eat It Unless Desperate
In terms of recipes, eating more than one serving of a recipe food does not stack any benefits beyond the healing! Eating a serving of this food counts as just that; a single serving, so you still need to eat a lot to become Bloated, but you gain a lot more back so it is less of a risk.

As for specific recipes, I've provided some below but really you should come up with your own stuff that fits the world you're working with. For me, I view SFK as being like if Toriyama worked on Dofus/Wakfu; a bright and colorful place with beautiful food, weird monsters, and where the two should meet: strange but magical gourmet creations.

Blue Buttered Noodles - TN 7
(Slime + Milk + Any Common or Uncommon Meat/Vegetation | 2HP/2MP, +1 Reduction from Poison for 1 Scene)

Stretched out slime cut into noodles. Slight bit of dairy buttering. Meat or Vegetables make for a heartier meal. True chefs make the meal look like a jellyfish wrapping up bits of meat. Popular in the criminal underworld due to how easy it is to make once you know what you're doing, and because it instills a bit of poison resistance; which is always a good thing to have when you spend time with criminals.

Brain Devourer Bar - TN 9
(Brains + Bean Powder + Slime + Sugary Spices| 3HP/3MP +1 Mental for 1 Scene)

A nutritious bar of dried brains, injected with slime and coated in bean powder to harden it. An easy to consume treat that is good for ones studies, but perhaps not to be eaten in the company of squeamish. True brain food. Those who dwell in the Darklands often make use of this project due to the habits of certain alien races there have in removing brains and just leaving them laying about.

Now in Candy Form.

Fried Firedrake - TN 11 (9 if you've made it successfully before)
(Dragon's Flesh + Grease + Oil + Breading | 6 HP, +1 Damage with Fire Spells, Can smell out Treasure and know its exact value for One Day)

Fried to a crispy golden brown, a favorite treat for successful dwarves who have recently slain a dragon and need to account for every last piece of gold in the reclaimed hoard. If you consume this too often your face will take on a shiny sheen and break out in red pimples. Dwarves have beards for a lotta reasons.

Bouillabaisse d'Banshee - TN 13
(Mandrake Screams + Nightmare Fuel + Dried Songbell + Big Fish | 6 MP, Next Spell Cast costs no XP and also adds your Social Score to the Damage)

A truly horrific dish, Bouillabaisse d'Banshee combines the hoarse screaming heads of decapitated Mandrake specimens, raw nightmare in liquid form, ground up songbell, and a big meaty fish to make a goopy bit of fish stew. Those who consume Bouillabaisse d'Banshee turn pale and their voice sounds horrific to anyone who hears them speak (-1 Social until a spell is cast or 1d6 days, whichever happens first). When a spell is cast by one who has consumed this vile stew, the words that conjure the spell into being spew out of the casters mouth and turn the spell into a dark and corrupt looking blast of energy.

The Red Sultan's Curry - TN 13
(Emperor's Rice + Dragon's Flesh + Demon's Heart + Hot Spices + Djiinimotes | Full MP, Fire Spells deal +2 MP and cost -2 MP to cast for a day. You grow horns and can speak to fire itself to know who started it and for what purpose. May reroll 1 roll this session.)

A decadent plate of golden and mystic race, topped with seared flesh from a dragon, diced up heart from a demon, and coated in spices both mystical and too hot for mortal consumption. Not for the weak of heart and generally only consumed in the Realm of Fire by the Efreeti Sultan and his royal harem.

But with more fantasy and amazement.

Closing Notes
I might make more of these from time to time just because they're cute. But right now I gotta make some maps for a game this Thursday. Just finished writing a 33 page manuscript for a client, so I've had a pretty busy day. Doesn't help that it is so damn hot out. Happy Summer Solstice though.

Sunday, June 19, 2016

Food for Savage Flower Kingdom (Free RPG Day post, 1/2)

Talkin' bout the good delicious stuff.
I like the LARA System used in Savage Flower Kingdom and I like Dungeon Meshi. I also like most games where you can cook, even World of Warcraft had the good sense to make cooking sound interesting even if you’re just making the same basic regen items. There is a difference between eating Spider-Leg Fritters and Beer-Basted Boar Ribs, and as an adventurer one should certainly seem more appealing than the other.

Given SFK’s sort of Toriyama-inspired monsters, I feel playing into the anime trope of how often the party seems to be starving is also important. By making cooking (which in SFK has some presence anyway) a more fulfilling option, it helps give the world some more immersion as well as play into the pitch which directly states that the enemies of this world want to make you dessert.

First things first!
Everyone can cook, but not everyone can cook well. Cooking is a TN 7 to just sear or stew some things together. If you are out in the field, things are still going to require a roll because burning the salamander-kabobs you desperately need is part and parcel with any other resource risk in adventuring. But in town, when you have a kitchen, you can sear or stew stuff without issue (still roll to see if you Fumble up some purple gunk or Critically make a gourmet soup).

Recipes have TNs, like spells. Failing a roll to cook wastes the resources. Cooking a recipe in town, in a kitchen proper, grants a +1 bonus to the roll. You can always screw up a recipe.

Next!
There are two skills that need to be amended.
Chef – As a skill, Chefs reduce the TN of any Cooking rolls by 2 (effectively lowering cooking by one degree of difficulty). A chef is a trained cook, they’re used to whipping things up even in the field. You want a chef in your party because they’re far less likely to burn that food you so desperately need. Chefs can also make a TN 9 Mental test to know the benefit of an ingredient (TN 11 for anyone else).
Make a Sandwich! – The maid class reserved skill is interesting and part of the reason why this is being written up at all. But, rather than removing an important skill from them let’s give them a new one to replace this.
New: Made With Love – When a Maid cooks they may spend 1 HP to add their Social Attribute to the HP/MP recovery to the food they’ve cooked. Only the Master of the Maid gains this bonus, or anyone the master specifically appoints the Maid to cook for. 

So now that everyone can cook, the Maid can make cooking –great- but really only for another character in the party or someone that other character says deserves such great food. Getting a nice meal cooked by the cute maid rather than by the greasy dwarf certainly makes a social impression. Helps keep some of the flavor of the class. 

What Happens When You Eat?
Well, both good and bad things. Most notably you recover HP and MP. If you eat something that is barely cooked or just raw you get a flat HP/MP amount back. Combined with a good night’s rest under the stars and you’ll be a bit less worse for wear come tomorrow.

But, if you eat well; then some good things happen. If you eat a cooked meal and it recovers your HP in full you are Well Fed, which gives you a +1 bonus you can add to any single roll in the following scene. You’re feeling great, you’ve eaten well, and nothing bad is happening.

Now let’s say it is a cold and nasty day and you’ve spent most of it out fighting goblins. Luckily the cute maid and the greasy dwarf have enough ingredients to make a fine soup. This soup gives you a Warm Belly, which lowers the TN level to resist the cold/chills/sickness for the scene. A nice hot meal does wonders for morale and for shaking off the nasties.

Of course this could also apply to a blistering day in the wastelands or the deep deep jungle where the humidity is thick enough to drown you in the face. So your party prepares something satiating and cool, which leaves you feeling Refreshed, which lowers the TN level to resist heat/exhaustion for the scene. Sure it might be awkward to suck down a coconut shake with a little umbrella in it while you walk the dunes, but it sure makes you feel better.

But there are downsides. You can only eat a number of food items equal to your Physical rating before things take a turn. Sure you might need to gorge yourself to heal up your HP to full, but the consequence of this is being Bloated. Your guts hurt, you feel all loagy and tired. You also can’t add your Physical score to your Initiative roll because you’re over-stuffed, and if you roll a fumble in a social situation you’ll probably have to pay for someone’s drycleaning.

Eating a hot meal in a hot place is going to increase the TN to resist heat exhaustion, and having a cold meal in a cold place is going to increase the TN to avoid cold, the chills, or sickness. So don’t eat ice cream when you’re scaling a frozen mountain peak and don’t try “throat-thrashin’ chili” when you’re in the middle of a barren wasteland. Common sense.

How does this effect recovery?
Characters recover 1 HP/MP per night, assuming they rest. If you go more than three days without eating, you lose 1 HP/MP per day; so assuming you still rest things remain the same. Sleeping in an inn grants +1d6 HP/MP back per Gold spent.

Eating food that is barely cooked or uncooked gives you back a flat amount (usually 1 or 2 HP/MP) and you don’t get to enjoy any benefit the food might otherwise give. Given that you’re eating it raw and it doesn’t give a lot back you might have to eat a lot and risk being bloated.

But if you cook; you add the HP amounts of the flat ingredients together. If you combine at least three ingredients together or make something off a recipe, eating it makes you Well Fed. Cooked food (without a recipe) grants you one bonus from the ingredients; whichever is strongest. Cooked recipe food grants you two bonuses. You can eat cooked food made up of multiple ingredients and have it count only as 1 item when counted for the purposes of being bloated. There’s a difference between having hearty soup and eating three pounds of acorns.

Ingredients
Common ingredients can be picked up in almost any town or foraged for. They should be cheap but useful in making better recipes or more fulfilling foods.
Uncommon ingredients can be found in large cities, weird wizard places, remote and tiny towns far away from the main roads, or in a dungeon. They cost a few gold and might be awkward to cart around and keep fresh.
Rare ingredients are -rare-, hard to come by, or very expensive. They are treated sort of like loot, in that they are an additional bonus item the players should be happy to receive. Slaying the Dragon doesn't just mean looting his hoard, it means you have a lot of fresh meat that can help you sense any treasure he might've hidden elsewhere in the lair. 

Meats
Common Meats (All Heal 1 HP, 1 in 6 chance of making you sick if eaten raw)
Small Fish, Mussels, Oysters, Ham, Hare, Chicken, Beef, Eggs.
Uncommon Meats (All Heal 2 HP if cooked, 1 HP if raw).
Big Fish, Shellfish, Tentacle, Boar Meat, Bat, Snake, Scorpions, Snails, Tongue, Salamanders, Lizards.
Rare Meats (Heal 2 HP but must be cooked for benefits):
Dragon’s Flesh - Fire Spells do +1 Damage, Can Smell Treasure.
Demon Hearts - +1d6 MP for one scene but you grow horns.
Beast Meat - +1d6 HP Recovery and +1 to Track by Smell.
Brains - +1 Mental Attribute for one scene.
Ambrosia - +1d6 MP for one scene, but you shine with heavenly lights.
Kraken’s Tongue - +1 Damage when fighting unarmed, and can talk to fish for one scene.

Vegetation
Common Vegetation (All Heal 1 MP)
Peas, Carrots, Cabbage, Onion, Beans, Potatoes, Field Mushroom, Apple, Melon, Orange, Cherries, Berries, Turnip, Radish.
Uncommon Vegetation (All Heal 2 MP if cooked, 1 MP if raw.)
Cave Mushroom, Cave Tuber, Lemon, Lime, Banana, Mango, Sunfruit, Moonberry, Angelfruit, Pomegranite, Trollswort Mushroom, Puffball.
Rare Vegetation (All Heal 3 MP but must be cooked for benefits):
Myconid Slice – +1d6 HP/MP Recovery, 1d6 field mushrooms grow on your body over the next week.
Mandrake Screams – May cast your next spell without MP cost, but lose your voice for one scene.
Audrian Meatplant – +2d6 HP recovery but you reek of raw meat. Flies are attracted to you.
Harvest Fruit - +1 HP recovery from rest for one week.
Snowplum – Halve fire damage for one scene, but anything you touch gets slick with ice and your clothing/weapons stick to you with frost.

Liquids
Common Liquids (All Heal 1 HP or 1 MP, imbiber’s choice.)
Water, Milk, Juice, Tea, Grease, Beer, Wine.
Uncommon Liquids (All Heal 2 HP or 2 MP, or 1 HP/MP; imbiber’s choice.)
Slime, Oil, Honey, Mineral Water, Rum, Ale, Syrup.
Rare Liquids (All Heal 3HP or 3 MP, or 2HP/MP and 1HP/MP.)
Liquid Courage – Inebriates completely, makes you immune to Fear until you sober up.
Gold Slime – Makes the user appear to be gold (along with anything the liquid touches).
Royal Jelly – TN 9 Social roll to control insects when imbibed.
Valkyrie’s Mead – Can see ghosts and tell if a weapon or person has killed within the past week.
Goblin Punch - +1 Damage when fighting Goblins, +1 Social when treating with goblins, makes you sound like a goblin, makes you smell like a goblin.

Grains
Common Grains (All Heal 1 HP)
Wheat, Whey, Acorns, Breading, Barley, Oats, Wood, Bean Powder, Millet.
Uncommon Grains (All Heal 2 HP)
Mixed Nuts, Roasted Grain, Black Rice, White Rice, Fancy Grain.
Uncommon Grains (All Heal 2 HP)
Grains - Wheat, Nuts, Breading, Barley, Oats, Wood, Bean Powder.
Rare Grains (All Heal 2 HP, must be cooked for benefits).
Emperor’s Rice – Grants one free reroll for the session it was consumed in.
Elemental Seed – You gain Damage Reduction 2 against elemental (Fire/Water/Ice/Wind/Earth) damage for one day.
Pureseed – Purifies the consumer of any influences, poisons, or diseases.
Enigma Grain – Consumer may make TN 9 Mental/Social rolls to confuse enemies for one day.
Dried Songbell – Consumer gains a beautiful singing voice and +2 on Social rolls made to romance, sing, or perform for one day.

Additional Materials
These items are needed to cook certain things but are not otherwise things you can eat. Just spitballing some examples:

Sugary Spices – A blend of cane sugar, cinnamon, and ground up mint. It makes anything taste amazing.
Autumnal Herbs – A blend of mint, pumpkin spices, cinnamon, and syrup. It makes you feel like spending time with family.
Soothing Spices – Calming spices, aloe and acai roots, some mint spring and dandelion. Calms the savage and beastly.
Bitter Spices – Horseradish, radish-horse hooves, a bittering soil, and some powder that makes your face curl inwards.
Hot Spices –
Every kind of pepper known to man and six known only to dwarves, ground up and made to burn.
Northern Spices –
Spices from the deep north, made from everfrost sugar yams and Viking herbs ground to a powder.
Aged Spices –
A combination of spices used to make aged ingredients taste of a vintage pedigree.
Lovely Memories – Memories of romance gone by, nostalgic childhood dreams, and safer times.
Dreamfluff – Fluffy cloud-like puffs that makes you feel like anything is possible.
Nightmare Fuel – A horrific green and black bile that will keep you awake for days on end.
Cosmic Stardust – From a place beyond the world, it makes anything it touches glitter.
Djinnmotes – The leftover puffs of a genie that lingers where their magic has touched.

Tomorrow
Recipes, likely. Have a few down, but the day got away from me. Relatives visited and dogs needed walking. 

Fluff out some things for this, help better denote what rare ingredients look like and where they come from.

Does it all look a bit complicated? Eh, maybe a little. Ultimately it comes down to basic addition and with recipes, maybe a set static bonus. More of an issue of lists, but I like lists. Will eventually put this and the next part in a proper pdf with formatting for use; this right here is just thought processing and putting it to paper. 

Here's hoping I can devote more time to RPG stuff. I run two games, write two comics, and do manual labor most days.  Free time is hard to come by properly.
Aww yeah, vegetables.