Leaving your culinary fate up to the whims of a couple of dice every other day for lunch is risky. It is not without reward, but the lows can get quite low…

Fortunately, our brave adventurer has a few tricks up his sleeve, in the form of castable spells, that can sometimes lessen the blow when the proverbial hammer falls… but not always! There must always be balance— as our hero grows stronger, new curses emerge to wage the sandwich war anew.

written in the stars, sealed between the bread

THE Core RULES

1. Minimize Food Waste.

This rule guides most decisions made on the show. I use up leftovers. I eat bread out of the freezer. Some food options may recur a bit before they are phased out, allowing me to go through my stock and use up what I have. Food is a valuable resource that not everyone has access to, and so, even though I have fun with food and with the concept of a sandwich, I always respect food, as well as the cultures and people that produced it.

2. Eat the Entire Sandwich.

No good story is free from conflict, and the same goes for Roll for Sandwich. Part of what makes the show compelling is the possibility of failure and the reality of consequences. There needs to be an element of risk to give victories and failures weight. Knowing that the entire sandwich must be consumed in the end adds gravitas to each successive roll.

3. Construct the Sandwich in Order.

At its core, Roll for Sandwich is modeled after D&D. During a battle in D&D, turns last for 6 seconds of in-game time, in which you can take one action (and sometimes slightly more.) I consider each stage of building the sandwich (rolling for meat, cheese, etc.) it’s own turn, happening in chronological order. I cannot rearrange the sandwich because I cannot see the future— Yes, maybe sauce would have been good on the bottom piece of bread, or a different order of build would lead to a more cohesive or structurally sound sandwich. Still, alas, the power of time-travel is not a skill that I have access to, so I must proceed in the order the dice dictate.

Spells & Curses

THE SECRETS OF THE SPELLBOOK REVEALED

Spells give our hero a way to fight back against the tide of chaos by giving them the ability to invoke special effects that alter the results of fate’s choosing. This means that spells can supersede the core rules of RFS at times, allowing for some flexibility and outside-of-the-box thinking, and hopefully, a better overall sandwich experience for our hero. Because of the power they grant, spells are also limited by resources.

Roll For Sandwich is inspired by Dungeons and Dragons, and spells in RFS function very similarly to how they function in D&D. Spells are divided into 4 levels: Cantrips (Level 0), and Leveled Spells (Levels 1-3 respectively.) To cast a spell, a limited resource called a “Spell Slot” must be used. Just like spells themselves, spell slots have levels and can only be used to cast spells of the same or a lower level. For example, a Level 3 Spell Slot can be used to cast either a level 3, 2, or 1 spell, but a Level One spell slot can only be used to cast a level 1 spell.

Cantrips are weak spells with negligible effects, and thus, they do not require the resource of a spell slot to be cast. Because of this, Cantrips can be cast “at will,” meaning as many times a season as the player wishes, as long as it doesn’t break any other basic rules.

The amount of spell slots the player has available each season is determined by the player’s level (which also corresponds to the number of the current season). As seasons progress, the player gains a few more spell slots. Once all spell slots of a certain level are exhausted for a season, then it is no longer possible to cast spells of that level until the spell slots are refreshed, which happens at the beginning of each new season.

the spellbook

cantrips (Level 0)

LEVEL ONE

LEVEL TWO

LEVEL THREE

curses