I loved this story, even though I thoroughly botched the dinner (although my character had the decency to take responsability and save the Chef’s reputation). In my opinion, the problem with the story wasn’t the reliance on RNG, but rather its, let’s say, lack of clarity. I had the luck of succeeding at the challenges on all four courses, I went with some moderately difficult dishes, yet at the end I am told that nobody touched their plates. And so I am sitting here and asking myself "What did I do wrong?". Was it the fact that I bought that secret meat from the Poissonnier? Or that I let the Sous-Chef show me the Sorbet Maker?
I kind of understand what this story was going for: at various times, you were asked to make certain decisions, and you’d get to see the consequences of those choices at the end. This is a very fine idea, but it was poorly executed, because
a) you are not always given all the information you need. One example is when you go to the Bandaged Boucher and have to decide whether to believe him about the Tiger’s allergies.
b) all the decisions seem to have a decidedly "good" and "bad" option, and the one you’ll pick counts towards a positive or negative outcome overall.
Now, both of these things can be fun by themselves (or made to be fun…), but it’s their combination that leaves me with this sour taste in my mouth. And with that jarring sensation you get when you are constantly told that things are going well, your meals are a success, only to discover in the end that it was all, in fact, a culinary disaster. (No, seriously, was it the Sorbet Maker? How could that possibly affect the Tiger’s review?)
It all felt, well, like a recipe - these are all the steps that you need to follow in order to make a good dish. Mess something up, and the quality of the food will suffer, only that, instead of food, it was the outcome of the story. If this was the writer’s intention, then I congratulate them for making the story reflect that, but I think they forgot that tastes do vary.
Despite all that, I still love the story: it had great writing, fun and memorable characters, it was accesible to players of all levels, and, at the end of the day, it was fun to see my high-stats character get dragged into this importunate adventure, without any sort of high-stakes or mysterious implications. (Not to mention that it was an accurate portrayal of what would happen if I was ever left alone in a kitchen, especially the kitchen of a prestigious restaurant)
edited by Jean Gulberg on 1/6/2020