[Basic] Skill of the week: Housekeeping

[Otaku]

Heh, as it has come up...

Anymore I just hard-boil eggs a half a dozen to two at a time in the oven. I place them in a muffin tin (prevents them rolling around and I find it oddly aesthetically pleasing >.>), preheat the oven to 325° F to 350° F (depends on the oven) and then bake for 30 minutes. Plunge them into a bowl of ice water afterwards, leaving them there for about 10 minutes. Seems a bit easier to remove the shell when I fix them this way as well.

If you don't feel like fine tuning it, odds are you'll just have one or two (out of a dozen) eggs underdone. As I am odd, I tend to associate this with certain crafting processes in the game; I can get an adequate amount done with minimal effort and a solid success rate or I can drive myself crazy trying to be precise with each. Might seem silly, but it really helps when I'm trying to get into character for an alchemist, enchanter or more mundane crafting purposes when I need to think "So what Trait do I need (or need to buy off) so that I could approach this optimally in game terms?" ;)

Just checking... so has anyone in game used their Housekeeping skill to intentionally mess something up? Finally put two and two together and realized when you need to embarrass someone in a more social oriented setting, when you need a "mundane" distraction, etc. a Housekeeping roll can give you options with what is at hand without getting into MacGuyver level shenanigans.

[Phil Masters]

I'm sorry, but "Critically Failed Housekeeping roll; result is permanent blindness" sounds like somebody's description of Rolepmaster. And not a favourable one.

That's the kind of thing that gives detail-heavy RPGs a bad name. Even if it is potentially "realistic".

[SRoach]

I can never remember how long I'm SUPPOSED to boil eggs. 17 minutes works, though.
I use two saucepans, or a saucepan and a tea kettle. One with the eggs and mostly full of water. The other mostly full of water. This allows me to top off the egg one with water that is the same temp after the water is mostly boiled away.

Then I irrigate the eggs under the cold tap, and sometimes add ice.

Also, I use the stove timer.

[Otaku]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

I'm sorry, but "Critically Failed Housekeeping roll; result is permanent blindness" sounds like somebody's description of Rolepmaster. And not a favourable one.

That's the kind of thing that gives detail-heavy RPGs a bad name. Even if it is potentially "realistic".

I generally think "People that don't know how to apply the rules" gives any game a worse much worse name. ;)

Please disregard if this is me once again not getting that someone is making a joke and not seriously debating the topic. >_<

One would have to maliciously apply (more like misapply) the rules to arbitrarily blind someone in this manner. I know the thread is long, but as has been mentioned multiple times, rolling against Housekeeping for regular domestic activities will rarely happen in the typical campaign because it isn't needed for "adventure". My little anecdote was supposed to give you an example of something "dramatic" but with a hint of danger... and if you're rolling for such things regularly, this is probably a more socializing or slice of life kind of game where yeah, such things are the main risk. Though this one is still pretty remote.

I wear my glasses virtually at all times while awake; without them I would have just needed to avert my eyes from the exploding egg. XP Putting this in game terms, if I had been a PC or NPC, Plus I only ended up where I did because I insisted on trying Repeated Attempts to neutralize the consequences of a failed roll and avoid waste. In short as a PC I was "asking for it". Losing an eye or both eyes would also have required Disadvantages or more bad choices because the character's "Not sleeping or in the shower or pool" equipment offers protection from this hazard.

If this was about intentionally failing a Housekeeping roll (or rather using it successfully to do something that would normally be a risk of failure), I only meant as a distraction with plausible deniability. Need to distract people in an office setting? Microwave something you shouldn't but that isn't likely to start a fire or cause serious damage, like an egg that would explode in there.

[Anders]

Originally Posted by Bruno

I plunge boiled eggs into ice water as a matter of course regardless of how you cooked 'em - it helps the shell separate.

Real men shell their eggs with hydrochloric acid.

[SRoach]

Originally Posted by Anders

Real men shell their eggs with hydrochloric acid.

You swallow them whole?

[Anders]

Nah, you drop them in hydrochloric acid and then, when they're de-shelled you rinse thoroughly. The shell is calcium carbonate, carbonate plus acid = carbon dioxide and water.

[Not]

Can I use this skill to wield a mop offensively? If not against a man, then against a carnivorous motile slime-mold or the like?

[Rocket Man]

Originally Posted by Not

Can I use this skill to wield a mop offensively? If not against a man, then against a carnivorous motile slime-mold or the like?

I sense the beginnings of a Martial Arts style here. Staff, Housekeeping ... (as opposed to housekeeping staff!)

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by SRoach

I can never remember how long I'm SUPPOSED to boil eggs.

Depends on whether your eggs are at room temperature or straight out of the fridge, as well as whether you bring the water to a boil with the eggs already in it, or put the eggs in only after it boils. Also whether you continue to heat the water or let it rest as the egg cooks.

More than you wanted to know about boiling eggs