Culinary Combat

Culinary Combat

The world of Equus recently took a rather odd development in their conflict settlement in these last few decades. As peace grew and the ponies and other creatures found a harmonious balance between themselves that precipitated a brand new way of solving their problems. Cooking Battles, challenges issued by chefs and cooks of various skill levels in a way of finding a non violent creative method to solve their differences and establish superiority. The rise of this rather peculiar form of combat, has also lead to the rise of a new subset of adventuring. No longer was simply gold or glory the reasons for questing, but now hunting down the rarest ingredients to create the most succulent dishes in the world also rose to prominence. These ingredients run the mill from some particularly hard to find berries, to great beasts that need to be brought down to for bits of their very flesh. There is no realm of the world that doesn't hold something that can be exploited for the sake of a good meal. These changes have similarly lead to major changes in how most ponies view the simple act of cooking, the work becoming something more of an art form as chefs aim to create dishes capable of not only titillating the taste buds, but also affecting the mind and body in ways no one could foresee, through use of natural magics and rare ingredients paired with their own skills.

The rise of these chefs has had a rather curious effect on the field of alchemy, as the rise of chefs who can whip up delicious dishes that have the same beneficial effects as potions at a fraction of the price has lead to something of a general decline in the schools of alchemy as chefs take over the general fields of artisanally prepared medicinal creations due to the enhanced prestige and pay that many high ranking chefs receive for their work. This is not to say that the school of Alchemy has gone totally to the wayside, but there is a major shortage of true masters of the skills these days.

Another profession that has risen to prominence, is an odd hybrid of Biologist and Hunter known as the Taxonimaster, whose job is to go out into the world, looking for new flora and fauna that can used for the purpose of making these legendary dishes. The career is a dangerous one yet many eager folks go for it, in an attempt to leave their mark on the changing world by finding brand new species, and determining if they are the things needed to bring brand new flavors and experiences into the world. The field is something of a competitive one but the turnover rate is extremely high, as many have to make dangerous journeys into the wild unknown trying to find these new or rare plants and animals, which brings with it a whole host of problems beyond the potential of these new life forms being dangerous.

Cooking Mechanics:
The cooking system mechanics are quite simple. Ingredients come on a tier system that for the moment will be at a 0-5 level basis. 0 being the most common ingredients and 5 being the rarest in the world. The ingredients tiers are added to a score that is thrown onto a dice roll for the base score of your cooking. This is then multiplied by the current level of chef score that the one performing the cooking has, and said score is used to determine dish quality and if it possesses any beneficial, or if the chef so desires, negative effects to be placed on it.

Example: 0+1+1+2+2 equals a 6 on the ingredient score, paired with a 5 from the d10, results in a total score of 11. As the chef is a level 1 chef, the score remains 11 and the dish is considered to be above average and can possess one effect beyond a basic heal.

Chefs gain experience through three methods. Sampling others dishes, cooking dishes, and through acquiring and tasting new ingredients to determine their quality, though this last one runs the risk of the ingredient itself being harmful when consumed raw.

Meal quality score table:
0-1 This dish is borderline poisonous to those who consume it. It inflicts one negative effect for the duration of the day.
2-10 Average quality, nothing special, merely heals those who consume it.
11-19 Above average, This dish is surprisingly good, and allows one bonus effect of the chefs choosing to be given to those who consume it.
20-34 Professional Quality: This dish is something people would pay good money to get their hands on. 2 effects may be applied
35-49 The dish is almost magically good, along with 3 effects, it adds a bonus hit and wound for the duration of the day.
50+ Ambrosia: This rarest of qualities is only made by the best chefs in the world and may add a boon far above a simple bonus effect to those who consume it.

Improving ingredients
When the team is preparing to start a meal, they must designate a head chef for the process that will be used as the chef multiplier and the primary roller when the dish is prepared. The team may use their skills on the assembled ingredients to help increase quality with successful rolls or decrease it with critfails. Each member is limited to one use per dish, with the head chef being capable of using two skills to improve things. Each successful skill uses helps boost the chef experience of the roller.