Re: Re: Cookery fumbles

From: Mikko Rintasaari <mikrin_at_...>
Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2000 01:27:36 +0300 (EET DST)

Me:
> > at least in Finland, if you bought it from a store, it's very hard
> to > poison yourself with it.

Jane replied:
> This suggests to me that you *do* have that mastery in cooking:
> because you obviously can't imagine the daft things some people
> manage
> to do with meat. I hope. (Cook until done on the outside but only
> warm
> on the inside. Leave standing around for 1/2 hour. Serve. Wonder why
> 40 people have a really bad night, and refuse to eat your cooking
> thereafter.)
 

That's scary! I mean, people do joke about english cooking, but... And no, I think I have a decent upbringing educating me on germs and food preservation (home and school).
  My food may not always taste too good, but you won't die of it. Id think I have a skill of 12, parhaps even 14, but no more.  

> > That too. But I think (by the combat examples and suchlikes) that a
> > mastery is just that, you are really good at what you do when you
> > have the mastery. Every orlanthi carl knows how to fight, but they
> > don't seem to have a mastery in it.
>
> It's not their main occupation, is it? That would be, say, herding
> sheep.

Parhaps for a cottar. And even so, I'd say the main ability is farming, or some kind of craft. I still think speeh herding is simple (at least considering that learning it costs as much HP as difficult crafts or fighting skills (especially if CC is just 1HP to advance)).  

> > > > When somebody says fumble, people tend to think of RQ, and
> cutting
> > > one's
> > > > own head off with a poleaxe.
> > >
> > > One of the sillier examples, it has to be said.
> >
> > But your examples of cooking fumbles were just as extreme. Food
> > poisoning and charred ruins, instead of just getting food with way
> too much salt or a funny taste.
>
> No, my examples were possible. Cutting one's own head off is not.
> Cutting one's own throat, maybe, but even that's a bit OTT.

Ok, it is possible. Parhaps if I start cooking with self picked mushrooms, I'll actually do some damage (the course started today). I was just pointing out that treating every "fumble" as a disaster is rather silly. Of course the fumble is a blooper, but the seriousness of it depends on the situation.  

> Cooking fumbles I have witnessed (in some cases committed):
> 1) Food poisoning, as described above
> 2) Food left to burn dry, pan ruined
 

Done that (2). Was doing several things at once.

> 3) Uncontrolled boiling honey splashing cook in the face (this hurts!)

Boiling honey!? That propably does hurt... way over 100 C Difficult and potentially dangerous undertaking. Well worth throwing the die to see what happens.

> 4) Slicing fingers instead of onions

Done that, once. Cut an artery on my thumb. Nothing really serious still.

> 5) Sealed containers proving to have pressurised (fermented) contents.
> 6) Lift hot pot with insufficient protection, burn hand.
> 7) Take item from oven with insufficient care, burn arm.
>
> Only when an unusual difficulty has been previously declared,
> perhaps,
> but...

Or rather. There was a bit more risk attached. Infact, getting a wound is a pretty good fumble for cooking.  

> 8) Guest acutely allergic to ingredient: cannot eat any food

This is crummy luck and a sadistic GM... uh narrator.

> 9) As above, but they eat the food without realising the problem.
> Call
> ambulance.

See above.  

> Things I've heard of but not witnessed:
> 10) Ingredient that's poisonous if undercooked, is undercooked.
> (Rhubarb, kidney beans, probably others).

Several rather delicious mushrooms we finns eat, and Central Europeans think are deadly poisonous.

> 11) Set kitchen on fire, call fire brigade

This would not happen in my game unless the person threw another 5% chanse fumble.  

> None of these are definitely lethal, but they're all quite possible.
> Yes, people really are that daft. And that's leaving out the fumbles
> caused by not understanding modern cooking equipment.

I'd say not knowing the equipment is worth at least a -5 penalty.  

> I think they'd all class as fumbles, not mere failures? Despite not
> killing anyone?

True, but fumbles also include things like pouring too much salt on the food, spilling some food/ingredients on your clothes, dropping a cettle on your foot, etc. Minor irritants, that should not have happened, but did. I still back my "another roll to see how serious it was" line.  

> Of course, once you're back in pre-modern cookery, I lack direct
> experience of the extra possibilities. But Alfred burnt the cakes.
> Any
> recipe that starts "first catch your hare" has an obvious option. (So
> is "first catch your lamb" a potential fumble in Cooking or Herding?)

 :) I think cooking starts when you have the hare.  

> Craft in RQ:
> > Hmm... the rules didn't work all too well like that, did they?
>
> No, they didn't. But they were the only rules we had. I'm hoping HW
> will be better: it looks like it will be.

I just took analogy from the riding and language rules.

Riding: at 30% proficiensy you don't need to roll under normal

        conditions.

Speak language: 30% proficiensy is equal to an uneducated native.

Pretty easy to go from there.

        -Adept

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