Play Examples in Different Worlds
Today’s Specials works in any world. Here are three examples of how the same game looks when your group chooses different aesthetics. These are inspiration only. Your world is whatever you decide at the table.
Example 1: Fantasy
Your group decides: medieval tavern, dragons, magic, cozy adventure.
Job Card:
- Client: A tavern keeper with high standards
- Event: A wedding celebration
- Location: A kitchen in a castle tower
- Urgency: 7 flips (you get 9 exploration flips)
Exploration: You encounter a grumpy dwarf blacksmith, a merchant’s cart full of mushrooms, a forest clearing with wild game, a wizard’s apprentice. By flip 9, you’ve gathered ingredients from markets, hunts, and magical trades.
Cooking: One player draws a haunch of venison with wine. Another adds a crown of herbs. Someone sketches flames underneath. The dish becomes this ornate, medieval fantasy feast.
Presentation: The tavern keeper holds it up. A beautiful roasted centerpiece. Client reaction: “They’ll be singing about this wedding for a generation.”
Example 2: Cyberpunk
Your group decides: neon cities, androids, hacking, sleek and fast.
Job Card:
- Client: A corpo executive with a deadline
- Event: A product launch party on a space station
- Location: A kitchen in a high-rise restaurant
- Urgency: 3 flips (you get 5 exploration flips)
Exploration: You hit a black market vendor, a lab that synthesizes ingredients, a trading dock. You’ve got 5 flips to gather what you need from this gritty, high-tech world.
Cooking: One player draws a sleek geometric dish. Another adds neon accents. Someone includes holographic garnish. The final dish is impossibly sharp, ultra-modern, all angles and light.
Presentation: The executive sees it. Something that doesn’t exist yet, only here on this table. Client reaction: “This is exactly what nobody knew they wanted.”
Example 3: Cartoon
Your group decides: silly, bright, anything-goes cartoon logic.
Job Card:
- Client: A talking rabbit who collects hats
- Event: A birthday party (the rabbit forgot which birthday)
- Location: Inside a teapot on a cloud
- Urgency: 10 flips (you get 11 exploration flips)
Exploration: You meet a dancing carrot, a cloud made of custard, a bird who only speaks in questions, a rubber duck salesman. 11 flips means you get gloriously sidetracked.
Cooking: One player draws something with 5 eyes. Another adds wings. Someone puts it on roller skates. The dish gets increasingly impossible and ridiculous with each addition.
Presentation: You pitch it to the rabbit: “This is a birthday cake, but also a friend, but also a hat!” Client reaction: “You’ve outdone yourselves. Also it’s edible. Also it’s a hat. I don’t understand. I love it.”
The Point
Same mechanics. Same four job elements. Same exploration, cooking, presentation beats.
Different worlds = different flavor. The game stays the same. Your imagination changes everything.
Whatever world your table wants? That’s the right one.