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

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