Every group that sits down around a table to play Dungeons & Dragons can find its own style, its own groove. You may play epic sessions that start in the afternoon and run until the wee hours of the night. Or you may do lots of short, intensive episodes. Your adventures may be all about intrigue, or white-knuckle combat, or just light silly fun—or they may explore the deep lore of the multiverse, searching for an ever-deeper understanding of the fantastic worlds that D&D opens up to us all.
The adventures of the Bureau of Dark Tables are mostly wacky hijinks, but they also revolve around food. That doesn't mean anyone else's stories have to do the same, but every group's adventure in D&D should follow their bliss. One of the great joys of traveling in real life is to experience the cuisines of different cultures first-hand—we live in a world where many things from distant lands can be shipped conveniently to our doorstep, but freshly prepared food, done in the style of its place of origin, is something you must travel to experience. The Bureau of Dark Tables are the sort of adventurers who know that, wherever your triumphs and perils take you, you haven't really been there unless you've taken in the local fare. Whatever your ostensible main quest may be, your side quest is always to level up your palate.
In this book, there are recipes that can help you as a player to deepen your bond with both your characters and your gaming group. If you and your friends want to take your connection to the D&D multiverse into the culinary space, these recipes can become part of your game experience as well as your mealtimes. A refreshing Ray of Frost or a slice of Laumberry Pie can be as much of a reward as the experience points you get after an epic adventure.
But as with any undertaking, getting the best results requires planning ahead. Inserting the whole process of making and eating a meal into a game session can be a challenge unto itself. So bear in mind you will need:
Rule #1:
Support. Every great band of adventurers plays to everyone's strengths. If you are the Dungeon Master (DM), it might be best to leave the cooking to someone else. You are already doing all of the preparatory work for the adventure. Many DMs offer up their homes for play, and if you are hosting, you may feel responsible for keeping everyone else fed. So players, show your thanks to the DM by volunteering to bring the food!
If your group plays at your local friendly game store, or some other public space that likely does not have a full kitchen, you should plan ahead. You might find a fridge and a microwave there that can hold a few Tupperware containers, if you are lucky. Some dishes you can prepare ahead of time that will transport well to a game include the Halfling Iron Rations or Fig Cakes. If you know you have an oven for heating up food when you get there, then you might consider bringing Ornabra or Sensate Palate Cleanser.
Don't forget that cooking, and eating, can make a mess, but not all dishes are equally messy. Some recipes, such as Tamarind Balls, Goldenstars, and Cloaks, don't require players to have their own plates and utensils. But wherever you are bringing the food, have a plan for how to deal with any leftovers, and how not to leave a dish disaster in your wake.
One fun way to use this cookbook is to try to match the food your group eats with the adventure you are playing. Whatever city of the D&D multiverse your party is visiting, or whichever wilderness you camp in, there are dishes that can put you in your character's shoes. You may not have the appetite to sample everything that the Bureau of Dark Tables eats as they make their way around Realmspace, but you can still make meals the centerpiece of your adventure.
Rule #2:
Plan. Don't have a Total Planning Katastrophe. Schedule serious meals for the beginning or end of a play session. If you are doing a real marathon and you need to have a full meal in the middle, take a break from the game. Some of the dishes in this cookbook, like Tavern Crickets and Black Lotus Root, make for good snacks around the table, but if you're laying out a multi-course cornucopia, you're going to need the table space. As a rule of thumb, if you need to have utensils and plates out to eat, then set the dice and character sheets away until you're done. You don't want to have to fish a d4 out of your Two Hares Inn Rabbit Stew.
There's nothing better than taking an hour after a D&D session to decompress with your friends over a refreshing dinner, chatting about the ups and downs of the day. These post-game sessions can actually make a big difference in your campaigns—it helps everyone to get on the same page about game events, and it may even lead to some inspirations for the next session. And if your session runs all night, there are some great breakfast options in this book, like the Green Onion Pancakes.
There are a few ways to integrate eating into the play of D&D. If you know in advance that the party is going to attend a banquet in Ravenloft, you can always arrange to have the meal ready for the players to enjoy in real-time as they role play their characters. This requires some coordination, but it can really bring the game world to life, with a little mood lighting, music, and maybe even costumes.
But if you're going to build a meal into your D&D session, you probably aren't going to be able to make it from scratch during a quick break. Choose dishes where most of the preparatory work can be done before the session starts, where it will only take a few minutes to heat things up and get them on the table. Duergar Smoked Herring and Boar Hock Soup are examples of good choices where you can do a lot of the work beforehand and then heat them up at the last minute. You definitely want to avoid trying to make something like Fire-Wrapped Golden Fish while you are in the middle of a play session, because if you get distracted and leave it cooking for too long, it could easily burn and the smell of this rare aquatic treat will no doubt linger until next week's session.
Rule #3:
Improvise. Every DM knows that sometimes you just have to wing it—rules are guidelines, and to keep up the flow of play you may have to do what seems right rather than leafing through rulebooks. Every chef knows the same rule: You have to work with what you've got, and sometimes that means taking a different path than the printed recipe.
Most importantly, these recipes are intended to inspire your creativity. It would be impossible to cram the flavors of the multiverse into this cookbook, or a whole series of them—so take the recipes here as examples. Once you have a sense for the palates of the planes, you can use those as building blocks for developing your own recipes in the spirit of these guidelines.
Once you get the hang of it, you can develop your own recipes. And if you are having trouble deciding between ingredients, remember that you are a D&D player: you can always roll for it! For example, you could assign tofu, chicken, pork, and beef each to a number on a d4. Give it a roll, and whatever number lands becomes the accompanying protein for that tasty Chopforest. But like any good DM, if the result of the die roll doesn't feel right, don't be afraid to exercise a little "divine intervention" and reroll. Sometimes it takes a die roll to tell you what your real preference would be.
Dine on!