Skip to main content

Devouring "Roll for Sandwich"

Good timezone to Never Say Dice fans, adventures in Aardia, TikTok and beyond. No, I’m not the Roll for Sandwich guy (neither of us is), but if you haven’t heard of him already (or especially if you have), this week I wanted to talk about the TikTok/YouTube show Roll for Sandwich hosted by Jacob Pauwels. The premise is exactly what it sounds like: every episode, the host rolls dice to determine the various items that comprise a sandwich (except when the episode is about s’mores). He assembles the sandwich, then actually eats and critiques his random creation. If it sounds pretty niche to you... it is. You should  probably be both a bit of a foodie and a TTRPG fan in order to truly appreciate both the strange layered creations and the roleplaying references. My eldest son has been so interested in the web series that he decided he wanted to try doing it for himself. So, for the last week of summer this year, we took stock of our cupboards, made our own charts, and proceeded to consume some unusual things. Now, let's take a few moments to go over those creations and see what inspirations we might just be able to back to our tables... along with our sandwiches.

To start off, we should probably quickly discuss what Roll for Sandwich "build" typically covers. The standard show typically has a D6 roll for Bread, a D12 for Main, a D6 for Cheese, a D12 for Roughage (which is rolled twice), a D20 for “Wild Magic” (various additional potential toppings), and a D20 for Sauce. Besides the pantry items, the various charts also have things like “butter the bread,”, “roll twice,” and “dealer’s choice” pop up here and there. Often, the items are things I haven't even heard of, and will occasionally include ingredients someone has gifted to the show. For our very own week of exploration, we were limited to our own pantry. While we kept the same general categories, our dice types varied. I won’t go into detail on the lists here, but feel free to reach out and, if there's interest, maybe we’ll go into more detail on social media. Here's what we ended up eating:

Day One: An absolutely strange start, worthy of an episode of the show that inspired the project. A pumpkin English muffin with split hotdog, shredded cheese mix, lettuce, broccoli, and pumpkin spice seemed like it might not be the worst thing in the world... if a bit odd. Unfortunately, for our Sauce we rolled up a creation called "BuffaRanch," a combination of buffalo sauce and ranch dressing. While this would be a delicious sauce with, say, a steak and cheese or a hot chicken sandwich, putting it on this already strange combination completely killed the meal. My son, though he gagged on a bite or two, managed to keep down his half and so did I.

Day Two: Back to the English muffins again, but this time they were whole wheat. We rolled “Double Main” and ended up using both turkey lunch meat and chicken breast. From our Cheese rolls, we ended up buttering the bread and rolling again to get "No Cheese." The Roughage rolls gave us shredded carrot and lettuce, which were fine additions. Our Wild Magic was cereal, in this case, cinnamon cheerios. That left us with our Sauce roll. We ended up with BBQ, which might have gone okay with this sandwich, but before putting it on, we discovered we were out. Rolling once again, we ended up with Nutella. Somehow, all of that still ended up working alright together - absolutely not the worst sandwich of the week and since dubbed the "DoubleBack," due to all those additional rolls... and having just watched Back the Future Part III.

Day Three: Started out with buttered toasted pizza crust and grilled “pork” chop (actually turkey, as I don’t eat pork). Roughage was once again lettuce, but now with pickles. Wild Magic was some Italian seasoning. Sauce, which seems to make or break these, ended up being ranch (no buffalo mix this time). Likely the best sandwich of the week and something I would absolutely make again.

Day Four: Is a wrap a sandwich? Certainly many sandwich shops also sell them. We counted it for this adventure at least, where we ended up with chicken wrap filled with mixed shredded cheese, celery, carrots, broccoli and a mustard/BBQ sauce mix. Sounds pretty delicious, right? Well, the Wild Magic ruined this one for me, if not for my son. Against my better judgment, I let him include fruit snacks on the list... those little bursts of sugary sweet fruit flavor that get stuck in your teeth. I hated it, but still managed to consume it. My son, on the other hand, wants to make it again.

Day Five: For our final adventure, we were back to the wheat English muffin again. This time, it was topped with turkey pepperoni and Colby Jack cheese. Roughage included both celery and pickles. Wild Magic gave us crushed red pepper and the Sauce roll once again delivered us Nutella . Certainly not the worst sandwich, but I’m not sure I’d ever eat it again.

Surprisingly, my son who's normally hesitant to try new things, was brave and obeyed the dice gods, consuming each of the daily concoctions alongside me. That's inspiring in and of itself, but what other inspiration can all this bring to our lives and our games? In life, an idea like this is something that might help with decision fatigue - I know at the end of the day I can be too tired to decide what's for dinner. You could use it for almost anything, though, if you have the time in advance to write up your own lists. As for tabletop games, it's always helpful to remind ourselves that we can always mix up more concrete options with things like “roll twice,” “none,”  or “dealer’s choice.” Or even knowing to ignore the result when it plain doesn't make sense (like not being able to use BBQ sauce when we didn't have any).... all okay things to do as a GM. You’re using your best judgment to make all those random stories go down a little easier while still maintaining the excitement of adventure. So until next week, enjoy your sandwiches, your tables, and even, should you try this for yourself... your sandwich tables.

- A

Send questions, comments, and sandwich alignment charts to neversaydice20@gmail.com or "X-cite" us with them @neversaydice2.



Popular posts from this blog

The Weather Stone

If the rock is wet, it's raining. If the rock is swinging, the wind is blowing. If the rock casts a shadow, the sun is shining. If the rock does not cast a shadow and is not wet, the sky is cloudy. If the rock is difficult to see, it is foggy. If the rock is white, it is snowing. If the rock is coated with ice, there is a frost. If the ice is thick, it's a heavy frost. If the rock is bouncing, there is an earthquake. If the rock is under water, there is a flood. If the rock is warm, it is sunny. If the rock is missing, there was a tornado (or the Rogue stole it). If the rock is wet and swinging violently, there is a hurricane. If the rock can be felt but not seen, it is night time. If the rock has white splats on it, watch out for birds. If there are two rocks, stop drinking, you are drunk. If the rock is glowing, get to a fallout shelter. Weather Stones have been "prognosticating" the current conditions for as long as…well, probably as long as there have been rocks.

An Introduction to Risus

While roaming the internet in the late nineties/early noughties, I came across a TTRPG that was rules-lite and called itself “the anything RPG.” Want to play a high school cheerleader/samurai-in-training part-time goth enthusiast fast food cashier? The hot pink stick figure art glared back at me. Nah, not interested. But I was wrong. The stick figures were actually purple, and Risus is a surprisingly versatile, handy and down right fun TTRPG. I wouldn’t figure that out though till I discovered it again several years later. Even though it was written as a comedy system (and somewhat lighthearted response to GURPS) you really can use it for just about anything: space opera, high fantasy, pulp, vampires,western, any movie setting you could think of...seriously anything. You can read a far more detailed and interesting history in a number of other places should it strike your fancy. It is time for your Risus indoctrination introduction. Risus really is versatile and fairly easy to learn

Boggled by Boglins

Last Octoberween, we took a campy nostalgic stroll and created some creatures for 5e Dungeons and Dragons (and a hidden Risus one) out of Blurp Balls . There was a significant amount of “family friendly” macabre-influenced media in the '80s and early '90s, as we mentioned previously. I do tend to revisit some of that media around this time o'year, and that might be a discussion for a later post. Like last year, I want to focus again on the "gross" toys that came out in the time period . Other than the Blurp balls, there were a few other horror-lite themed toys in my collection as a kid. Most, if not all, have likely been donated and hopefully found their way into the hands of some lucky kid instead of a landfill. I don’t think I ever owned any Madballs , but another toy that's held out in my mind are Boglins. So let's work again to see how we might transform an '80s toy into some tabletop RPG inspiration! If you don’t remember them, Boglins were esse