Session 28 — March 8, 2026
Summary
Resolved the open issue from Session 27: the exploration → cooking connection in introduction.md. Playtesting revealed no ingredient-gathering moments in the exploration tables. Designed and locked the gathering mechanic, then reworked 7 encounter prompts across both exploration tables to imply gathering.
✅ Locked: Ingredients Gathered During Exploration = Cooking Flips
The number of cooking flips is not fixed. It equals the number of ingredients gathered during exploration.
- Short Countdown → fewer ingredients → simpler dish
- Long Countdown → more ingredients → more complex dish
- Variability is the feature — simple and delicious is as valid as complex and strange
This resolves the open item from Session 27. The sentence in introduction.md (“The ingredients gathered during exploration become cooking card flips”) is now mechanically accurate.
✅ Locked: Ingredient Gathering Is Implied, Not Stated
Gathering is not a separate mechanic or roll. It is implied by the encounter situation. A pantry, a vendor, an edible creature, a loaded cart — the group reads the prompt and understands that something was gathered. No explicit “you find an ingredient” language in the prompts.
✅ Locked: Gathering Is Case-by-Case, Not Color-Based
Red and black cards can both yield ingredients. Organic encounters (red) can be edible creatures or creatures guarding food sources. Constructed encounters (black) can be pantries, markets, food-processing machines, or loaded transport. Color does not determine ingredient yield — the specific encounter does.
✅ Locked: ~45% of Exploration Encounters Yield Ingredients
12 of 26 encounter entries (6 red, 6 black) are ingredient-bearing:
Red: R3 (vendor), R4 (edible creature), R7 (kitchen crew), R8 (guide to a source), RQ (elder hands you something), RK (massive creature’s feeding site)
Black: BA (settlement with stores), B2 (market), B4 (smokehouse/larder), B7 (food-processing machine), B9 (storage), B10 (loaded transport)
Files Updated
exploration-red.md— R4, R8, RK rewrittenexploration-black.md— BA, B4, B7, B10 rewrittencooking.md— Updated to reflect variable flip count from gathered ingredients. Removed “three flips” solo fallback (now unnecessary).vault-knowledge.md— Cooking and Exploration sections updated with locked mechanic.
Captured Session 28 — March 8, 2026. Exploration → cooking connection resolved. Ready for playtesting.