GM: Sean Nittner
Players: Karen Twelves, Dale Horstman, Sean Nittner, and Matthew Klein
System: Dogs in the Vineyard (rethemed to Kitchen Nightmares)
Curses. I’ve lost my notes for this game, so I’m going from memory. If you played in the game and there’s anything I missed, please add it in the comments.
Emotional Anchors
Karen was out of town for a few days, which meant I was by myself and watched a few terrible movies. The thing about terrible movies is that they tend to be RIGHT on part with really good RPGs. This isn’t throwing shade on the hobby, I love what we do, I just think the best RPGs have simple structures without a lot of nuance (because people get lost in nuance) and often forces action because it will be fun rather than because it makes sense, both characteristics of bad moves.
Anywho, I watched two movies Killer Heat (with Shailene Woodley, Richard Madden, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and the remake of Roadhouse (with Jake Gyllenhaal and Daniela Melchior) that both had something in common: protagonists with unresolved emotional baggage that we learned more about as the movie progressed.
- Nick (played by Gordon-Levitt) is a detective who is haunted by his wife’s infidelity to him. As the movie progresses we see more and more flashbacks of how he responds). For him, everything is about still trying to be a good father to his daughter and a broken heart.
- Dalton (played by Gyllenhaal) was a UFC fighter who lost his temper in the ring. He spends the entire move afraid of getting to angry, lest he do something horrible.
Watching these really got me thinking about characters in RPGs and the baggage they carry around with them. What are their unresolved issues that, even without being mentioned, create the context for interpreting everything they encounter. These are the issues that I think drive people. They are the reason why any situation matters, because in some way it reminds them of their own damage. Wounds that may never heal.
So, when we all gathered, I presented this to the players and asked them if they felt like their characters might have regrets, doubts, or defining moments that anchor them.
- For Mara it was easy. Her failed restaurant still haunts her. It was a family business and she let it fail. She carries incredible guilt for that and doesn’t want to let anyone else experience what she did.
- For Tess, it’s a bit more recent. She’s still not sure about the transition out of being an influencer into being a Dog. She’s still trying to keep the door open to do both, but at some point she’ll have to choose and she doesn’t know which direction she will go.
- Reuben has (just as of this last session) had an epiphany that maybe he’s a joke. Everything has come so easy to him that he’s only now realizing that maybe he’s just been floating through life. All sauce, no substance.
Damn, these were great. I’m so excited to know more about these characters!
Recap
We recapped the last session, talked about some of the lessons we learned (when to start a conflict, how hard to push, etc) and reminded each other of the bonds that the Dogs have formed.
They made plans for three things:
- To train Sherice as a manager
- To have a romantic dinner that makes Micah and Emily fall in love again.
- To introduce a new item to the menu, the Friedman’s “Fried” Burger. Yay, more wordplay!
Has Sherice got what it takes?
The Dogs started the day picking Sherice up in the morning. She gave her mom a hug and a kiss goodbye and then hopped in the DOGS SUV with Mara to drive to work. Mara started inquiring about Sherice’s plans for the future and it didn’t looks great. The host and cashier knew that things weren’t looking good for the restaurant so she started looking at getting a real estate license and figured she’d move to a place with a more thriving market. Mara asked (pointedly) “So you’ just leave your mom behind?” After that, it was on!
We started a conflict between Mara and Sherice to both convince Sherice she should stay around as a manager of Friedman’s (so she didn’t have to move, to stay closer to her mother, and her brother who had some bad debts) and to train her for the job, in the kind of way only a TV show montage can do.
They made their way to the DOGS food truck (a portable test kitchen they bring with them) and Mara first got Sherice thinking about the idea that she could be a manager, and then the training montage began. Sherice was nostalgic for when Micah and Emily ran the place together (1d10 – I remember how it used to be), overconfident (2d8 – I don’t need a calculator), and nervous about what Micah would think of her going for the position (1d10 – Micah thinks with his heart, not his head).
Despite this, Mara an accomplish chef (2d6), who thrives in chaos (1d6), is an easy conversationalist (1d8) and who ran her family restaurant (1d8) showed her the ropes so she was taking beachfront orders all day, keeping Puneet and Mike Chen on task. She had it down enough that when Micah showed up to check in, it was clear she had the whole thing under control. [Success for the DOGS!]
Three in Authority
Mara, Tess, and Rueben were thrilled that Sherice was ready to become the manager, but if they really wanted to save Friedman’s, they’d have to save the Friedmans (Micah and Emily).
At a beautiful beachfront location (Tess is a certified vibe smith 3d8), with a new dish (Reuben’s certified sauce master 2d10), and a friend (Mara is a easy conversationalist 1d8) they eventually got through Micah’s denial that anything was wrong, Emily’s cynicism that a reality TV show could help their marriage, and the collective distance that had grown between them over the last 10 months. It took everything they had (we were all down to a handful of dice) but the DOGS won out and the Friedman’s had a lovely dinner together.
Emily nearly didn’t survive the emotional fallout however. She loved Micah, she was going to help him hand off the restaurant, but past then, it wasn’t clear if she could ever reconcile the choices she made. (Mechanically, she got enough fallout that she was badly injured, albeit emotionally, and may have left completely). Mara came to her side and fought off her doubt and despair (the demonic influence).
With that, we wrapped up. Friedmans (the restaurant and the family) survived and was going to thrive. The DOGS drove off and shared a little bit about how each of them had changed and gotten to know one another a little more.
Final Thoughts
I really loved this game. It felt like we were hitting the right beats. The conflicts all mattered to everyone who was in them. I didn’t pull any punches and I felt good about the dogs winning. They earned it!
We mapped there ceremonies:
- Anointing with Sacred Earth -> Special order ingredients (wagu beef)
- Calling by Name -> Naming a signature dish (the “Fried” burger)
- Calling on the Ancients -> Referencing a famous chef’s recipe
- Laying on Hands -> Making food you are personally connected to
- Reciting the book of life -> Citing the DOGS manual
- Singing Praise -> Good reviews
- Making the Sign of the Tree -> Signature chef catch phrase or move
- Three in authority -> no change
Joel’s baggage. After the game I thought about my character Joel. I’m going to run this by the other players in our next session, but currently this is what I’m thinking about Joe’s emotional anchor.
He was raised and taught to cook by his grandfather, a man he respected but often fought with. When Levi got sick and the whole family gathered, Joel missed it because he was taking his entrance exams. When Levi died, Joel was helping Rueben serve dinner to the Obamas’ at La Bernadin. He loved Levi but never reconciled with him. He misses him so much and he’ll never stop regretting that he wasn’t there with him at the end.
