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Letters from the Flaming Crab: Culinary Magic (PFRPG) PDF

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Letters from the Flaming Crab: Culinary Magic (PFRPG) PDF

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Letters from the Flaming Crab is a monthly series of Pathfinder-compatible supplements. Each Letter focuses on exploring a different topic to give gamemasters and players new, exciting options that can be dropped into any campaign.

Within Culinary Magic you’ll find rules for culinary magic, a variety of recipes, new items, feats, and traits for magical bakers and chefs, and two new archetypes: the kitchen witch and the performing chef.

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An Endzeitgeist.com review

5/5 —

This installment of the Letters from the Flaming Crab series clocks in at 12 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 3/4 pages of SRD, leaving us with 8 1/4 pages of content, so let's take a look!

As in the first installment, we begin with a missive from captain Kelly Shell, captain of the planes- and worlds-jumping eponymous Flaming Crab, conveniently translated and compiled for us by J Gray. This page also consolidates Craft (cooking) and Craft (baking) into Craft (culinary), which is a sensible step.

So, how does culinary magic work? Well, each dish has a name, a difficulty for Craft (culinary) to make the dish, a description, list of ingredients, how many servings the dish yields, how long it takes to make the dish, actual directions for making the dish...and, obviously, magical benefits for consuming the dish. It should be noted that the cost for the dishes has been left open - since e.g. availability of owlbear eggs etc. fluctuates widely. While this does leave quite a bit of control in the hands of the GM, it ultimately does feel like a bit of a cop-out: At least a guideline for pricing (perhaps akin to how 5e classifies its items by scarcity?) would imho have been appreciated.

Now here is a cool benefit for all of us who are inclined to actually try recipes from books like this - one can actually create these dishes - sure, IRL I don't have manticore meat for the respective chilli - but I can substitute other meat for it! The relatively detailed step-by-step cooking directions make this component rather interesting, particularly if you're like me and enjoy making food. Benefits-wise, we can find coin-like cookies that enhance one's Appraise-checks, tacos that provide temporary hit points or fire resistance providing curry - though that requires a Fort-save to consume. Also irl. Why? It includes a naga jolokia - a ghost pepper, one of the hottest ingredients known to man. As a dedicated chilli head, I urge caution in this one regard - ghost peppers are ONLY for the dedicated chilli head, so if habaneros already pose an insurmountable obstacle for you, I'd suggest confining this recipe to the realm f fantasy alone...however, if you are like me and LOVE the really brutal heat...well, then this one can be pretty awesome!

Polymorph-duration enhancing sandwiches, black-eyed peas that grant you low-light vision and darkvision, Diplomacy-enhancing herb twists - I really, really enjoyed these recipes - not only for their benefits, but also due to their quality of breaking down the line between in- and out-game.

This is not where the pdf ends, though -a total of 9 traits provide connoisseur-options for the core races, longer duration from magical food or better Craft (culinary) - and yes, they get bonus type/trait-class right. 4 feats provide means to get more magical recipes, more servings and even ingredient substitution.

The pdf also sports mundane items - from the armored apron that nets you DR 2/slashing and fire resistance 2 (and may be a bit too inexpensive) to batter mixes, frying pans or hand juicers, these are generally cool. 4 magic items further complement this book, including declouding whisks, vessels that grant resistances to the consumer based on the food's temperature, breadboards that can generate food...pretty cool. The pdf also sports the culinary weapon property that enhances cooking and reduces prep time.

Finally, the pdf offers two archetypes - the kitchen witch gets a special athame that provides spells (but unlike a familiar can't learn new ones apart from leveling). To make up for his shortcoming, the athame increases autonomously in power and the kitchen witch receives 4 more hexes chosen from a list. Finally, at 4th level, the kitchen witch gets a unique and cool ability - they can bake hexes into their food, which allows them to either affect targets or share the hex's effects with allies. This can be used 3+ athame's enhancement bonus+ Int-mod times per day and allows you to grant some otherwise less useful hexes to allies...or royally screw over any adversaries you tricked into eating your food. And guess what? I really like this archetype. It does something unique. Kudos!

The second one would be the Performing Chef bard, who gets Culinary Magic as a bonus feat, diminished spellcasting and an appropriately modified proficiency list. Instead of some of the classic performances, the archetype gains a nauseating performance, TWF-ing and an attack that adds Intimidate to his assault...and they use Perform (culinary) instead of Craft (culinary) while also being capable of quickly storing and drawing items. Once again, a fun archetype.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top-notch this time around - I noticed no hiccups or issues. Layout adheres to Flaming Crab Games' 2-column full-color standard and the pdf has some nice interior artworks in B/w. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience.

J Gray, David S McCrae, Angel "ARMR" Miranda -congratulations! Why? Because this humble little pdf is imho all killer, no filler. Get it? Filler? Culinary...All right, I'll hit myself for that one later. But for now: This is a surprisingly well-crafted, humble and inspiring pdf - the recipes are neat and work IRL and are appropriate for just about every table - from the gritty to the fantastic, one could make a point that these could even make sense in a no-magic setting. Yeah, that *is* pretty awesome. The supplemental material provides similarly is rather tight - from the neat traits to the items and archetypes, there is not much to complain about. Scratch that - I actually have no viable gripes, only criticism on the level of "okay, I would have done this slightly different, but it works this way and conforms to the requirements of concise rules-language."

In short - after the already very promising first letter, this one knocks the ball right out of the park - culinary magic herein is balanced fun, and can actually provide some different snacks for you and your group, irl. What more to ask? Well...I, for one...want seconds! The concise presentation and balanced archetypes provide a great addition and make sure that this pdf will leave you wanting more. Fun, unique and flavorful, this is a great example for a 5 star + seal of approval pdf.

Endzeitgeist out.

5/5 —

Its exactly what it says on the tin. There are recipes that are very well formatted and easy to understand. Each dish is special in that it creates some sort of magical effect. But this product makes me angry. Why?

We spend four and a half of the 12 pages of the book on traits, feats, items, and even two archetypes, which is all well and good, most of them aren't that noteworthy but they're cute and flavorful and some of them have some real mechanical value, definitely things I'd pick up on a character that likes to cook, but what I really wanted was more food.

Yes its petty but the fact that this product is not it's own series but part of the Letters from the Flaming Crab series makes it worse. I need more food! There are 16 recipies which add well to the wondrous food from Red Dragon Inn: Guide to Inns and Taverns, and can add some flavor (Ha!) to Dire Rugrat's Tavern guides, but the book is only 12 pages long and nobody ever has enough food. Why can't books like this be 100 pages long? I feel like a fat guy at one of those expensive trendy places that have sliders that take one bite to eat. Sure it's delicious. The format and wording is good, the addition of instructions is flavorful, its crunchy enough to be interesting, but its over before I'm ready so now I'm just hungry.

I need more food. And for that matter, I need more exotic ingredients too. Some of the recipes require things like a Prestidigitation spell or an owlbear egg and things like the owlbear egg is the kind of thing that turns breakfast into an epic quest. That needs to happen more.

So despite it's shortcomings is it worth a bite? Well as I said above, its a nice product. If your players are like me or my players cooking is something a lot of people want to do but there's no mechanical incentive to invest in the skill so you're just throwing skills in the garbage can just for kicks. I also hear about all kinds of questions about cooking and cooking magically. I've seen only one other product that actually tackled the subject adequately and even then I was still starving so this product is a huge step in the right direction. Someone over in Flaming Crab Games knows how to make some fluffy crunch that's cute and relevant. I will say that in terms of actual flaws, some of the effects could easily be first level spells so a rare ingredient or steeper monetary cost could be more desirable, but overall its pretty good. Just not as good as the food, of which there needs to be more of. I'll give it 5 out of 5 stars but it comes with my expression of disappointment that it's not longer.

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Now available!

Here's how it works:

1. Buy the Culinary Magic feat.
2. Make sure you have the ingredients for the recipe.
3. Make a Craft (culinary) check. Or Craft (cooking) or (baking) if you prefer.
4. Serve your party a delicious dish that will give them magical boosts! Maybe it will be heat resistance from a spicy dish,my extra temp hit points from a hearty dish, or the ability to burp a healing mist after drinking a fizzy juice!

Also included are new feats, traits, and items to take advantage of the culinary magic subsystem. Plus two new archetypes: the Kitchen Witch (witch) and the Performing Chef (bard).

A great book for any player who wants to play a culinary adventurer!

Also, this book is open to Flaming Crab's standard 10 give away rules.
Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I guess the most disappointing aspect seems to be that there are only 16 recipes, which means you'll know all the recipes by 16th level, or 8th level if you take the Extra Recipes feat. Thus, you'll get all possible options eventually, rather than having to pick and choose. It would also be nice if there were some more powerful options for those higher levels, but ah, well. It just feels a bit incomplete.

That said, it is a fairly fun concept, even if it seems like it will taper off in usefulness at higher levels. And I did only spend three dollars on it...though it seems like I could have gotten it for free. Ah, well. I don't regret the purchase even if I wish the system were a bit more robust.
Luthorne wrote:

I guess the most disappointing aspect seems to be that there are only 16 recipes, which means you'll know all the recipes by 16th level, or 8th level if you take the Extra Recipes feat. Thus, you'll get all possible options eventually, rather than having to pick and choose. It would also be nice if there were some more powerful options for those higher levels, but ah, well. It just feels a bit incomplete.

That said, it is a fairly fun concept, even if it seems like it will taper off in usefulness at higher levels. And I did only spend three dollars on it...though it seems like I could have gotten it for free. Ah, well. I don't regret the purchase even if I wish the system were a bit more robust.

We're hoping that Letter from the Flaming Crab: Culinary Magic sells well enough to justify expanding it into a larger book with many more recipes, including some legendary recipes only available at higher levels.

Thank you for buying the book. We really appreciate it.

This seems interesting. I think I've only seen one book actually tackle the subject with crunch, coming up with the idea of wondrous cooking. Its another one of those things that players just wind up wanting to do a lot even though there's no real mechanical benefit to being a good cook. You'd think that in such magical words, some ingredients would be more magical or cooking would take on some kind of weird magical niche. If Music can do it, why not cooking?
Malwing wrote:
This seems interesting. I think I've only seen one book actually tackle the subject with crunch, coming up with the idea of wondrous cooking. Its another one of those things that players just wind up wanting to do a lot even though there's no real mechanical benefit to being a good cook. You'd think that in such magical words, some ingredients would be more magical or cooking would take on some kind of weird magical niche. If Music can do it, why not cooking?

It always seemed strange to me that we had systems for making magic rings, magic potions, and even alchemical goods but nothing for cooking a magic meal. So, we invented one. :)

Well, this looks like fun. I'd love a copy, but I think I owe a lot of reviews already >.>
Scarab Sages Contributor

Requesting a free copy!
Grand Lodge

If this gets approved for PFS play, my next character will be a performing chef.

I would really love a copy of this.
GM Aram Zey wrote:
If this gets approved for PFS play, my next character will be a performing chef.

Sadly, I don't think that will happen. I do like performing chefs. They were initially inspired by time spent at a Japanese steak house.

Oh man, I've definitely got a Sorc who could use this. If I could get one of those freebies, that'd be great.

Lots of fun! The whole book definitely leans towards "a bit of power for much lower than normal cost", but there were three things that stood out as being too much power for next-to-free.

-Morph Grinder doesn't take initial duration into account. Blessing of the Salamander will now get you 500 hitpoints back during your break, Dust Form is a lot better, and if you can trick somebody into eating it, Excruciating Deformation becomes a death sentence. It would probably work better as +50%, doesn't stack with Extend.

-The Elven Connoisseur trait at +3 to spell penetration is too strong for a trait, conditional or not, since that's more than the bonus of a "wizards must take this" feat.

-Armored Apron should probably be magical or a more expensive special material before it grants DR or fire resistance.

If you do an expanded book, a small section on Prestidigitation in cooking would be neat, since it's one of the few culinary spells Pathfinder already has.

@QuidEST: That's good feedback, thank you. We'll add it to our notes and, hopefully, we'll make changes when we do an expanded book.
RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 32

I'm intrigued (and will review) sign me up for a freebie.

Also, we have an archetype in out upcoming rogue book that also has a chef so I'm intensely curious if this will be similar or even compatible.
GM_Solspiral wrote:

I'm intrigued (and will review) sign me up for a freebie.

Also, we have an archetype in out upcoming rogue book that also has a chef so I'm intensely curious if this will be similar or even compatible.

If you like, you can show me the archetype and I could let you know? In whatever fashion you'd prefer. I'll happily sign a NDA if you want.

And I think there are still a few free copies left to give out. Usually they all go out after all 10 are claimed but this go-round has been a bit odd in that way. Not as many people jumped for it as usual.
JGray wrote:
And I think there are still a few free copies left to give out. Usually they all go out after all 10 are claimed but this go-round has been a bit odd in that way. Not as many people jumped for it as usual.

I'll take one, then, if more deserving folks haven't jumped in.

Already bought it.
Hey, I will apply as a writer for the March book if you have nothing against it ^_^
JGray wrote:
@QuidEST: That's good feedback, thank you. We'll add it to our notes and, hopefully, we'll make changes when we do an expanded book.

Happy to help!

Bardess wrote:

Already bought it.

Hey, I will apply as a writer for the March book if you have nothing against it ^_^

I recommend applying for the January or February book. The March book might be invitation specific if we already have enough female writers in the bullpen, as it were.

JGray wrote:


And I think there are still a few free copies left to give out. Usually they all go out after all 10 are claimed but this go-round has been a bit odd in that way. Not as many people jumped for it as usual.

If there are still copies , I would like to have one.

If there are still copies, I'd be interested.

I'd also like a free copy.

This book is perfect to add some "flavor" to your game!

Hah! Start your review off that way.
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Review is up. You can see it and more over on my blog.

Sorry I forgot to ask for a review copy. I needed my order on d20pfsrd's shop to come up to $20 for a free pdf. Which I forgot to ask for as well.
Malwing wrote:

Review is up. You can see it and more over on my blog.

Sorry I forgot to ask for a review copy. I needed my order on d20pfsrd's shop to come up to $20 for a free pdf. Which I forgot to ask for as well.

Thanks for the review, Malwing! Sorry to disappoint you with the lack of recipes. But don't worry, we've gotten enough requests for a good sized book that we're going to look into releasing one!

Sorry about that, the review copies were a little shaky the last couple books.

Excellent review! On behalf of the writing and editing teams, thank you!
Sovereign Court

Yay! I'm glad to see that people are enjoying Culinary Magic! Thanks to everyone for thier commentary!

And you're quite welcome J. You know you can call on me any time. ^.^
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I'm happy to announce that the Big Crab has given us the go-ahead to create a follow-up to this book entitled "The Culinary Magic Cookbook". We are planning for a March release date, currently.
Sovereign Court
JGray wrote:
I'm happy to announce that the Big Crab has given us the go-ahead to create a follow-up to this book entitled "The Culinary Magic Cookbook". We are planning for a March release date, currently.

*Happy Dance*

Awwww yissss!
Liberty's Edge
1 person marked this as a favorite.

I would be delighted to get a free copy if any is still available.

Both the review and the posts here gave me a ravenous appetite for it. And if Brigg had something to do with this, it plain doubles the critical range :-)
JGray wrote:
I'm happy to announce that the Big Crab has given us the go-ahead to create a follow-up to this book entitled "The Culinary Magic Cookbook". We are planning for a March release date, currently.

Fantastic considering the popularity of cooking at my table.

I didn't end up getting the copy I asked for, but I may not have been obvious enough in my asking; my bad! This sounds amazing though, and I'll have to grab it come payday... especially if there'll be a follow-up!
The Raven Black wrote:

I would be delighted to get a free copy if any is still available.

Both the review and the posts here gave me a ravenous appetite for it. And if Brigg had something to do with this, it plain doubles the critical range :-)

I'm afraid that we are past the point of free copies. We do hope you will still buy it, though. The book is quite tasty.

Sovereign Court
The Raven Black wrote:

I would be delighted to get a free copy if any is still available.

Both the review and the posts here gave me a ravenous appetite for it. And if Brigg had something to do with this, it plain doubles the critical range :-)

Consider your critical range "plain doubled". ^.^

Hi, all! If you like what we're doing with the Letters from the Flaming Crab series, we've got a Kickstarter going to fund it for 2016!

Just a reminder, folks! Sorry for sounding pushy. But 10 people got free copies of this book and there's only 1 review up. Please consider giving us an honest review with your thoughts on Culinary Magic.
2 people marked this as a favorite.

Reviewed first on endzeitgeist.com, then submitted to Nerdtrek and GMS magazine and posted here, on OBS and d20pfsrd.com's shop.
3 people marked this as a favorite.

I can't stop smiling about this review. Thank you!

As we've already told Endzeitgeist, Flaming Crab Games is currently working on an expansion/follow-up to this book called the Culinary Magic Cookbook with more recipes, new archetypes, and more options.
2 people marked this as a favorite.

More to come! It took a while for the Letters to get in my queue due to Alex sending me them only relatively recently, but expect a steady trickle of reviews from now on.
Sovereign Court
1 person marked this as a favorite.
JGray wrote:

I can't stop smiling about this review. Thank you!

As we've already told Endzeitgeist, Flaming Crab Games is currently working on an expansion/follow-up to this book called the Culinary Magic Cookbook with more recipes, new archetypes, and more options.

Yes, thank you for the great review, good sir!

And I'm looking forward to help in presenting more of the quality content you've seen here in the upcoming Culinary Magic Cookbook!
2 people marked this as a favorite.

Just picked this book up and gave it a flip through. the idea of a zany baker danced on through my head, but... i hope that Culinary magic cookbook comes soon! just.. I need moar recipes, I really do. tons more. this idea is so flavorful and fun. I really want more of this!

Fans of the Letters:

You all know by this point that we love polls and surveys. Now that 2016 is wrapped up, we'd love for you to fill out a quick survey to let us know how we're doing and which Letters were your favorite. Each question is optional, so you only have to fill out what you want to let us know. It should only take a couple minutes and it would mean a lot to us!

Thanks!

LINK!
Silver Crusade
1 person marked this as a favorite.

And survey completed!
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Rysky wrote:
And survey completed!

Thank you!

Silver Crusade
Flaming Crab Games wrote:
Rysky wrote:
And survey completed!
Thank you!

Anytime ^w^

For you fans of Culinary Magic, we just launched the Culinary Magic Cookbook Kickstarter, featuring 75+ recipes and updated rules on the Culinary Magic subsystem!
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