EST. 2026
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VOL. 1 — NO. 36
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ARTICLE

Session 28 — Ingredient Gathering Mechanic

Resolved exploration → cooking connection. Reworked 7 exploration encounter prompts to imply ingredient gathering.

Session 28 — March 8, 2026

What Happened

Resolved the last open issue from Session 27. Playtesting confirmed no ingredient-gathering moments existed in the exploration tables. Designed and locked the gathering mechanic, then rewrote 7 encounter prompts.

What Was Accomplished

  • Locked: Ingredients gathered = cooking flips — variable dish complexity is a feature, not a problem
  • Locked: Gathering is implied — no explicit “you find an ingredient” language; the situation communicates it
  • Locked: ~45% of encounters yield ingredients — 12 of 26 entries across both tables
  • Rewrote exploration-red.md — R4 (creature → edible creature), R8 (guide → takes you to a source), RK (massive creature → you notice what it’s been feeding on)
  • Rewrote exploration-black.md — BA (settlement → has stores), B4 (building → smokehouse/larder), B7 (machine → food processor), B10 (transport → still loaded)
  • Updated cooking.md — flip count now comes from gathered ingredients; removed solo “three flips” fallback
  • Updated vault-knowledge.md — Cooking and Exploration sections updated

What We Didn’t Do

  • Did not playtest the new prompts yet

Next Session

  • Playtest with the new gathering mechanic
  • Verify that implied gathering reads clearly at the table without instruction
  • Cooking table edit pass still flagged: Red 4, Black 2, Black Q