COOKING UP TROUBLE
Calling all chefs!
The eccentric (but super-wealthy) Lord Schmultzfeather has decided to open an exquisite new restaurant on the top floor of his tower overlooking the scenic Reichendach Falls mountainside vista! He's tired of boring food, and he's looking to hire seven new chefs (each specializing in a different type of consumable), who will no doubt be paid extremely well. He is inviting applicants to arrange for interviews and then visit his Villa to prepare three different samples of their cooking for him and his wife to taste test. This may be the big break you've been looking for!
This game will focus primarily on character interaction and story, and will probably be fairly lighthearted. Combat might happen ... or it might not. We'll use the Pathfinder rules as a basis, but the game will be fairly rules-light, and if level-up occurs, it will occur at the speed of plot. I'm asking for a commitment of at least two short posts per week from each player who joins the game. The setting will be Golarion-ish, but with a few slightly more modern elements, and a bit of a zanier tone. (Although, if divinity matters for your character, feel free to assume Golarion deities.) I'm hoping for quirky (but not entirely disagreeable) characters who will mix together nicely to cook up a fun story!
If you're interested in this game, please create:
-a first-level PC-class Pathfinder character
-using a 20-point-buy
-Paizo material only, unless specifically GM approved
-No evil alignments
-Average starting gold (Hired characters will be given basic lodging, so your character doesn't need wilderness equipment, unless he/she is the outdoorsy type and wants to be extra prepared for anything.)
-Three traits and a drawback (Other Campaign traits are fine, if they make sense here.)
-Humans (and possibly half-humans) are more likely to be chosen. (Lord Schmultzfeather is known to be biased. However, amazing cooking might overcome that bias.)
-You get two extra free skill points that must be used on Profession (Chef) and on Craft (Insert one of the seven Consumable Specialties listed below here).
-You must use up your first-level feat on Skill Focus: Craft (Insert Consumable Specialty here). However, if you're human, you still get to choose your bonus human feat.
-Your character wants to be a chef and his or her other abilities, skills, and/or spells should mostly somehow connect to that (hunting food, flavoring food, creating food, roasting food, preserving food, finding ingredients, entertaining guests during dinner, getting a feel for their tastes, etc.)
The seven possible Consumable Specialties are as follows:
Craft (Soup)
Craft (Meat)
Craft (Vegetables)
Craft (Cheese)
Craft (Bread)
Craft (Drink)
Craft (Sweets)
So, if you choose, say, Craft (Cheese), then you put one of your free extra skill points into Craft (Cheese), your first level feat must be Skill Focus: Craft (Cheese), and you should come up with detailed descriptions of three different types of cheese or cheese-focused dishes that you will be preparing and bringing Lord Schmultzfeather to sample at your chef interview.
Know that, whichever specialty you choose, you will be competing against any other applicants with the same specialty for that position. Also, don't assume that you've automatically got the job if you seem to be the only applicant with a certain specialty. Some of the seven positions will likely be filled by NPCs.
Feel free to post here in Recruitment to ask clarification questions or to mention what type of character you're working on. When you have your character alias all ready to go, with crunch and some background in the profile, then please make a single in-character post here in Recruitment using that character alias, and addressing the points listed below. At the top of your post, please write in all capital letters: CHEF INTERVIEW.
On your appointed day, after you have spent time in Lord Schmultzfeather's sizable and well-appointed kitchen preparing, you are ushered out past two armed guards, and into a fine hall. An elegant elderly couple sit behind a table, holding silver utensils and facing you. A servant gestures for you to place the three dishes you've brought onto the table in front of the gentleman and lady. As you do so, another servant casts a spell (detect poison), squints at what you've brought, then nods in approval. The elderly gentleman speaks up in a raspy-yet-friendly voice, eagerly asking you the following questions, and nodding while listening to your answers.
"Greetings! I am Lord Schmultzfeather, and this is Lady Schmultzfeather. Who are you, and why do you want to be a chef at my fine new restaurant?"
"I see; I see. Which is your Consumable Specialty?"
"Please describe the three Consumable Specialty samples you have brought as we taste them now..."
"Interesting flavors! Now, explain exactly why I should hire you (and not someone else) for this elite position."
"If you had to describe yourself in three words, what would they be?"
"Finally, please indulge me a strange question: What makes you laugh the most?"
"Thank you; thank you. You'll be called for if you are chosen. Next!"
Please also make a Profession (Chef) check, three Craft (Specialty) checks, and a Diplomacy (or Charisma) check to accompany your interview in this post. You may include other comments you would speak, skill checks you would make, spells you would cast, or actions you would take as part of your interview. Please refrain from having your character ask any questions at this time. (Yes, part of the interview process is to see how well you can follow these complex directions!)
All aliases should be completed and chef interviews should be posted by Monday, April 20 at 3pm EST USA, although I reserve the right to conclude recruitment sooner if plenty suitable character interviews are posted before then. Thank you!
Let's get cooking! :)
