"Folks, I'm afraid our menu cannot continue as planned until we deal with an unresolved matter. You." - Chef Slowik | The Menu
Chefs serve tasty dishes to friends and enemies alike. They gather ingredients wherever they can. In a kitchen, the ingredients come together to be enjoyed and savored; on the battlefield, those ingredients become the components for powerful, deadly enchantments.
Chefs require ingredients to prepare food and create spells for combat. Action cards (drawn from the Action Deck) and a defeated enemy's last hand provide ingredients for enchanted food: Appetizers, Entrees, and Full-Course Meals. Appetizers are two-card combos, Entrees are three-card combos, and Full-Course Meals require a combination of four cards.
When playing a Chef, the player creates their recipes by assigning specific suit combinations for each ‘ingredient’ of their recipe. For example, to create two Appetizers and one Entrée (see Recipes), the player decides one Appetizer’s ingredients are a Club and a Heart, while the second Appetizer is prepared with a Heart and a Diamond (meaning card totals to make both would have to include two Hearts, a Club, and a Diamond). The Entrée, they decide, will be a Club + Diamond + Heart. Anytime these ingredients present themselves - during movement, combat, or after taking a defeated character’s hand - you can keep any useful ingredient cards, allowing the Chef to prepare food and acquire the bonuses associated.
Anytime a Chef draws a card matching their ingredients, the player may choose to keep the card and take no action.
Choose a favorite kitchen utensil for the Chef and enchant it with a special ability. For example, a cutting board that refills an empty glass set on it, a wok that doesn’t need fire to cook, or a cleaver that doubles vegetable portions.
Every Chef starts play knowing where any noteworthy Chefs, Chef schools, Houses, or Vendor offices might be in a given region or area. The Chef can use this network for information and possible resources or even to have a haven for the night while the storms rage outside.
Each Chef starts with a Set of Knives, including a Bread Knife (3D6 Damage; serrated edge), a Boning Knife (6 Damage; razor sharp), a Chef's Knife (4D6 Damage), and a Cleaver (5D6 Damage). The Knives are packed in a compact travel case, with space for small collections of spices, salt, whetstone, and a bit of cooking oil.
APPETIZERS
Ingredients: two-card combo (i.e., Spade + Club)
All Appetizers add +5 to a single character’s Grit.
Anyone may benefit from Appetizers.
Players should name their dish something reflective of the ‘mood,’ like “Grannie’s Sour Dumpling Soup” for a powerful blast of green lightning.
Appetizers can be consumed at any time, including (and on the rush!) during battle - counts as your character’s action for the round (as do all the rest below).
ENTRÉES
Ingredients: three-card combo (i.e. Heart + Diamond + Spade)
Players create their combo and name the dish.
Entrees deal 50pts of damage. Requires successful hit.
FULL-COURSE MEAL (FCM)
Ingredients: four card combo (i.e. Club + Spade + Diamond + Heart)
Players create their combo and name the dish.
FCM deals 75pts of damage and adds +20 to the character’s Grit or distributes it to others as they see fit.
If the Chef exceeds 21 during a battle - they may not keep any cards from that round. However, if the Chef has not exceeded 21 but still loses the round, they may keep any cards that match a recipe from their hand.
Appetizers and Entrees can not share ingredients: if an Appetizer is a Club + Diamond and an Entrée is Club + Diamond + Spade, five cards would be required to make an Appetizer and an Entrée.
This skill provides bonuses to travel and navigating, cutting the duration of time to a destination. Navigate by the night sky - use any black-suited card to avoid getting lost in unfamiliar lands during a single night's travel.
Navigate by the sun - use any red-suited card to avoid getting lost in unfamiliar lands during a single day.
Use any card to shave that number of hours off travel time. Two cards maximum.
A final perk of this skill is that once a Chef has been to a location, they can almost always find their way back unerringly. The path may not be straight, but eventually, they return precisely where they intended.
The Chef is proficient with nearly any blade, but this skill makes them especially adept with a particular style of kitchen knife - which the player should identify. +1D20 damage and +2 to Sting with this particular blade. Additionally, it adds a +1 bonus to Sting, with most bladed weapons typical of the chef’s kitchen.
Finding ingredients for recipes. Roll 1D6 when traveling through a landscape - and randomly draw that number of cards from your Action Deck. Keep any cards that match the ingredients for your recipes.
Steal a Bone - steal a Bone from any player who has a Bone from the BoneYard, and multiply your dish's power by the Bone's value (number of pips/dots on the domino).
Track and Hunt - Provides the Chef with +3 for Tracking and any related Difficulty. This skill also adds a +1 for the Chef's preferred weapon for hunting - bow, rifle, small-game laser traps, etc.
Use any Diamond card to start a fire or ignite a weapon—either lasting the card's value in hours or adding the card value to the total damage inflicted by the flaming weapon. Weapon flames extinguish after combat, though non-combative fires started in this fashion will continue to burn as long as they are fed.
Use any Club card to add flavor to a Recipe and increase Grit or damage by the card value.
Use any Spade suit to increase fire duration when no ‘normal’ materials are available.
Use this skill to create two more Entrees and one additional Full Course Meal.
Use this skill to create an additional Appetizer and Entree.
Create an additional signature Entree and two additional Full Course Meals.
Grab this skill and create an additional Full Course Meal, an additional Entree, and one more Appetizer.
Create three additional Appetizers.
CATEGORY X Only
Prepare BattleSauce: Ace + any ten-valued card
Another tradition among Chefs is the Chef Duel, a modern-day portrayal reminiscent of ancient samurai battles. Whenever two or more Chefs cross paths, a duel is almost inevitable. However, these Duels are not driven by aggression or hostility, but serve as a means for Chefs to determine their rank in the culinary world. Not to mention ranking up in the culinary world, and acquiring recipes from all over.
Chef Duels can manifest in two distinct ways. On one end of the spectrum, they can be extravagant events held before a captivated audience of expectant diners, eagerly anticipating the opportunity to sample and applaud the gastronomical creations that must follow. Alternatively, these Duels can take a more intimate form, where two Chefs engage in a private affair by sampling each other’s dishes and sharing their verdicts behind closed doors.
These Duels serve as a mechanism for Chefs to showcase their skills, pushing the boundaries of their creativity and culinary expertise. However, beyond the element of competition, Chef Duels foster a sense of camaraderie and mutual respect among the participants. It is through these battles that Chefs strive to reach the pinnacle of their craft, constantly challenging and inspiring one another to elevate their respective kitchen game.
Another benefit of the Duel is that it expands their knowledge. A Chef learns the Recipe of the defeated Chef, showing mastery in their victory. This means the winner gets to add this new recipe to their own personal collection, which will be used accordingly.
These Chef Duels are regarded as sacred events, and any Chef who spreads false stories of fabricated victories is frequently exposed and faces immense personal shame within the Chef community. The Duels are conducted using cards and dice, creating spectacular dishes that have astonished even the most discerning gourmands with their diverse flavors and subtle nuances.
It is strongly advised that every Chef who emerges victorious in a Duel should proudly display the name of the defeated Chef on their esteemed Protein Pack for future reference. It is not uncommon for Chefs to gather periodically, exchanging recipes, showcasing their skills, and regaling each other with tales of their epic Duels, all while indulging in delicious food and flowing drinks. As the night progresses, the topic of Duels becomes a favorite among these passionate chefs, and the names on the Protein Pack become invaluable when seeking to impress one’s peers.
In these Chef Duels, cards resemble a culinary recipe, combining various elements to create exceptional results. Proper etiquette dictates that Dueling Chefs should generally be of equal expertise or have a small, one-rank difference in their respective Trade Skills. While a seasoned professional like Gordon Ramsay would easily overpower a fresh-faced newcomer, even he would think twice before challenging the formidable Giada De Laurentiis.