Menu Generator & Drop Table Sample file Suitable for use with any Fantasy RPG Introduction: While my original intention was just to put out a “quick” drop table for generating decent enough menus that your players might encounter at a local establishment, it occurred to me that what one GM might find useful, the next would find abhorrently complex and the next not nearly complex enough. I like the idea of giving GM useful tools that can flex to meet their needs. To this end the drop table is a bit multi-purpose and if you would rather not print the table, a series of printer-friendly tables are included as part of this product. I’ve also added some blank space at the end of each table so you can feel free to add your own entries. If your players are adventuring in an area with a certain set of specialties, why wouldn’t the local menus reflect this? When possible I tried to use more modern equivalents for certain items, but there is a richness in the old names for some dishes I couldn’t mess with. So things make sense I’ve also included a small list of definitions to help you explain the food to your players. In case you happen to be interested, some of these dishes can be made in the modern era. If you want to try this I can recommend three sites for medieval recipes: The Gode Cookery, Medieval Cookery, and Celtnet. Sample file -Christopher Stogdill AKA the Frugal GM Directions for Use: Drop Table: Either roll a 1d20 to indicate a pre-made menu, or roll five different-sized dice. The location of each die indicates one aspect of the meal. Each meal consists of an aperitif, bread and a small side dish, a vegetable course, a main course, and a digestive/dessert. Standard Tables: Roll the appropriate die listed for an individual dish, or just the full range of “standard” dice (i.e. d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, and d20) for a whole meal, unless you decide to add entries…..sub tables have been added for some variety should you choose to use them. Page 1 FGM022 Menu Generator & Drop Table Definitions: Aquapatys: Boiled & spiced garlic Malmsey: Type of white whine Barley Wine: Strongly alcoholic ale Manchet: Fine white bread Black: Mead made with black currants Mawmenny: Bird stew Blaunderellys: Baked Apples Meslin: Wheat & Rye mixed bread Braggot: Mead made with hops Metheglin: Spiced and/or herbed mead Brewet: Beef Roast Morat: Mead with mulberries Burton Ale: Heavily hopped ale (think IPA) Omphacomel: Mead with verjuice Caudel: Fish version of pottage Pastfeli: Honey & Sesame candy Caudell: Sweet wine thickened with eggs Peson of Almayne: German peas Charlet: Spiced custard omelet Pokerounce: toast with honey & pine nuts Chyches: Cooked chickpeas Poree de cresson: Stewed watercress Cock Ale: Ale brewed with a parboiled & Potjevleesch: Potted meat of 4 different types cleaned aged cock (male chicken) Pottage: Extremely thick soup or stew made Comfit: Sugared dried fruit, nuts, seeds & spices with meat broth Compost: Fruit & vegetable chutney Potted Meat: Meat packed in fat Connynges: Rabbit Pumpes: Pork meatballs Cut: Watered Down Pyment: Mead with grapes Cyser: Cider & honey fermented together Rhodomel: Mead with rose hips Diuers Sallets: Sweetly spiced vegetables Rys: Almond & rice pudding Drawen Benes: Spiced bean soup Salat: Salad Egredouce: Meat in a sweet & sour sauce Saracen Brewet: Meat in thickened red sauce Erbolat: Highly herbed omelet made of almonds Fonnell: Baked dish of lamb & fowl Sample Schwarzbierfile :Dark, almost black, lager Frumenty: Wheat-based porridge Shandy: Beer & juice mixture (50/50) Funges: Mushrooms Short: Quickly brewed/aged Fygey: Fig & almond pudding Small: Quickly brewed/aged Godale: Good Ale Sop: Bread soaked in broth & eaten Gruit: Old fashioned herb mixture replaced by Sprouts: Brussel Sprouts hops Tayloures: Currant & rice pudding Gyngebreed: Ginger based spicy candy Tipple: A Small Measure Hebolace: Herb based broth Trencher: Bread baked to serve as a platter or Hypocras: Spiced Wine bowl for other food. Jelly: Gelatin made from meat stock Verjuice: Unripened sour fruit juice Kvass: Beverage made from rye bread Vyolette: Almond pudding with violets Lambic: Type of dry & sour beer Wheaten: brown/grey soda bread Malardis: Roast duck glazed with egg yolks Wortes: Cooked greens Page 2 FGM022 Menu Generator & Drop Table Table 1: Aperitif (1d8) Table 3A: Hard Cheese Type (1d4) Serving Size: 1 cup/handful 1. Cheshire 1. Tipple of Sherry (not 1 cup!) 2. Cheddar 2. Hypocras 3. Gloucester 3. Drawen Benes 4. Romano 4. Charlet 5. ____________________ 5. Aquapatys 6. ____________________ 6. Erbolat 7. ____________________ 7. Hebolace 8. ____________________ 8. Salat 9. ____________________ Table 3B: Soft Cheese Type (1d4) 10. ____________________ 1. Reblochon 11. ____________________ 2. Maroilles 12. ____________________ 3. Muenster 4. Stilton Table 2: Bread (1d6) 5. ____________________ Serving size: ½ loaf 6. ____________________ 7. ____________________ 1. Trencher 8. ____________________ 2. Light Rye 3. Dark Rye Table 3C: Dried Fruits (1d6) 4. Meslin 5. Manchet 1. Dates 2. Quince 6. Wheaten Sample file 7. ____________________ 3. Prunes 8. ____________________ 4. Pears 9. ____________________ 5. Apples 10. ____________________ 6. Figs 7. ____________________ 8. ____________________ Table 3: Side Dish (1d4) 9. ____________________ Serving Size: 1 cup/handful 10. ____________________ 1. Hard Cheese (Table 3A) 2. Soft Cheese (Table 3B) Table 3D: Roasted Nuts (1d4) 3. Dried Fruit (Table 3C) 1. Almonds 4. Roasted Nuts 2. Walnuts 5. ____________________ 3. Chestnuts 6. ____________________ 4. Hazelnut 7. ____________________ 5. ____________________ 8. ____________________ 6. ____________________ Page 3 FGM022 Menu Generator & Drop Table Table 4: Vegetable Course (1d10) Table 5 Continued (GM Added entries) Serving Size: small plate/bowl (2 cups) 21. ____________________ 1. Diuers Sallets 22. ____________________ 2. Poree de cresson 23. ____________________ 3. Compost 24. ____________________ 4. Chyches 25. ____________________ 5. Peson of Almayne 26. ____________________ 6. Funges 27. ____________________ 7. Sprouts 28. ____________________ 8. Soured Cabbage (Sauerkraut) 29. ____________________ 9. Sweet & Sour Onions 30. ____________________ 10. Wortes 11. ____________________ Table 5A: Meats (1d20) 12. ____________________ 1-2. Beef 13. ____________________ 3-4. Lamb 14. ____________________ 5-6. Mutton 7-9. Pork Table 5: Main Course (1d20) 10-12. Rabbit Serving Size: small plate/bowl (2 cups) 13. Venison 1. Frumenty 14. Quail 2. Vegetable Pottage 15. Partridge 3. Potted Meat 16. Peafowl 4. Potjevleesch (4 Meats) 17. Stork 5. Sop Sample 18-20.file Chicken 6. Mawmenny 21. ____________________ 7. Meat Pie 22. ____________________ 8. Fish Jelly 23. ____________________ 9. Pottage with Meat 24. ____________________ 10. Connynges in Cyrip (Syrup) 11. Connynges in Grauey (Gravy) Table 5B: Fish (1d6) 12. Meat Stew 1. Kippers/Herring 13. Egredouce (Meat) 2. Pike 14. Malardis 3. Carp 15. Fonnell 4. Salmon 16. Saracen Brewet (Meat) 5. Perch 17. Brewet 6. Lampreys 18. Caudel (Fish) 7. ____________________ 19. Pumpes 8. ____________________ 20. Baked Fish Page 4 FGM022 Menu Generator & Drop Table Table 6: Desserts/Digestives (1d12) Table 7: Libations List (random) Serving Size: ¼ to ½ cup Serving Size: 1 glass/stein/mug 1. Candied Ginger 1. Cut Ale 2. Roasted Coriander Seeds 2. Cut Wine 3. Comfit 3. Small Beer 4. Tayloures 4. Short Mead 5. Vyolette 5. Cyser 6. Cuadell 6. Pyment 7. Gyngebreed 7. Metheglin 8. Blaunderellys 8. Rhodomel 9. Fygey 9. Morat 10. Rys 10. Black Mead 11. Pokerounce 11. Braggot 12. Pastfeli 12. Omphacomel 13. ____________________ 13. Godale 14. ____________________ 14. Cider 15. ____________________ 15. Malmsey Wine 16. ____________________ 16. Brown Ale 17. Pale Ale BONUS Table! 18. Golden Ale Since there was some room still on this last 19. Barley Wine 20. Burton Ale page of tables I thought you might like to 21. Stout have a wine & beer list you could use to Sample 22.file Wheat Beer determine what was available. While not 23. Lambic even close to historically accurate, it has 24. Shandy been my experience that the drunkards 25. Cock Ale that sit at my table my players like to have 26. Kvass a choice of libations, and they want their 27. Gruit Beer 28. Dark Lager characters to have the same. To use, 29. Pale Lager break out a handful if dice and roll all at 30. Schwarzbier once. The highest die type (up to a d30) is the “house specialty” and the rest show Sources Used: what is available. Duplicates just mean http://www.godecookery.com/ that one possible selection has run out. http://www.celtnet.org.uk/ http://medievalcookery.com/ You have to choose any fancy names for http://www.wikipedia.org/ your brews, I just gave you types. Cover art: Artist Unknown Page 5 FGM022 Menu Generator & Drop Table Sample file.