My mind turned back to bigger pictures during the last couple of days, while I tinkered with a few ideas. Then yesterday, mid-shower, something struck me. I like trying odd ideas out. One of the earliest ideas I had for Sanction was a Genre Setup for morning television, called Channel 3, pulling inspiration from The Morning Show but dosed up with a little Drop the Dead Donkey. In the words of William Shatner, it hasn’t happened yet.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the drama of The Bear. But, I’m also inclined for the mildly staged drama of something involving Gordon Ramsey or the distant recollections of the experiment that was Jamie’s Kitchen. Might we indulge in some kitchen sink drama?

The pass is the boundary between kitchen and dining room: the place where finished plates wait to be checked, collected and carried to the customer. Food left there too long deteriorates. Sauces split. Meat tips over beyond done. Garnishes wilt. The work, expense and concentration of half a dozen people over many hours can be ruined by a few neglected minutes. Seconds, even.

A meal, a reputation, a potential. It can all die in the pass. And, so with it dies a restaurant.

Pressure Cooker Drama

Dying on the Pass makes the restaurant the centre of play. Within a precarious enterprise that consumes money, time, sleep and relationships, inspiration somehow fuels people to fight to keep the business alive. It’s sufficient premise to have carried me through five seasons of The Bear, so why can’t it work as a setting for a game?

The model is a small independent restaurant. It’s a good idea with a growing reputatio, but nowhere near enough money. There is no comfortable financial cushion. Heck, if it’s like The Bear then money is begged, borrowed, maybe even stolen. One broken refrigerator matters. Three empty tables matter. A supplier changing payment terms matters. A bad review really matters. Everything matters and it could so easily tip the place and everyone in it over the edge.

Regard

With that in mind, reputation matters, and for the player characters Regard represents the restaurant’s accumulated goodwill: customers who return, suppliers who answer the phone, neighbours who recommend the place, former staff who still care, complimentary reviews and that vague collective sense that this place deserves to succeed.

Regard is a shared gauge running from 0 to 6, beginning at 3.

Create great food, be generous to the community, offer memorable service and watch Regard increase. Or watch it drop with broken promises, unpaid debts, bad reviews, mistreated staff, and customer confrontations.

Honestly, if you haven’t at least watched a series of The Bear, I can wait until you get back from box-setting it.

But, Regard isn’t a sliding scale tied to events alone. Players can spend Regard.

Reduce Regard by 1 after a character Falters to reroll the Challenge when the restaurant’s reputation or relationships could reasonably make a difference. A supplier finds one last crate of turbot. A party of six accept an apology for an hour long delay on their starters. An electrician comes out after hours. A former employee covers a shift. When you need it most, someone knows someone who can come to the rescue and fix not only that burst pipe, but also the hole in the roof.

This makes Regard a communal alternative to Fortune: you can survive today’s disaster by consuming some of the goodwill that might have helped you survive tomorrow’s.

At 0 Regard, nobody gives the restaurant the benefit of the doubt. The next significant public Falter should create a lasting problem: a damaging review, withdrawn credit, cancelled event, formal complaint or similar consequence.

At 6 Regard, people are talking. That is good. And yet, attention cultivates its own array of potential dangers and pitfalls. Critics visit. Influential customers expect tables. Investors have “suggestions.” Other restaurants poach your staff. A celebrity posts a photograph and suddenly three hundred people want a reservation. Success increases the height from which you can fall.

Regard is a Fortune pool that has the potential to create fresh drama as it floats up and down. And most, if not all, of that movement falls to the players and their characters, which we will discuss tomorrow. Service!

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Regard is a weird old prompt, so how does it matter to you and your character? I look forward to reading about it in your RPGaDay post.

#RPGaDAY2026