RPG Campaign Tour Challenge 2026 - DAY 13

Day 13-Where can we get a drink and a bite to eat?

"Food is another thing I have come to appreciate in a very different way today compared to how I felt about it before joining Starfleet. 

I don't recall much about food on Cheron. My family, specifically my mother, made due with what meager provisions and ingredients we could afford and get ahold of. She regularly made a kind of watering stew made out of...whatever was available. It never tasted exactly the same, never looked identical to the last time she made it, and yet it was always 'Sustaining Soup'. I didn't hate it and I didn't like it. I simply ate it, because that's what my mother had made and that's what would keep us alive.

When I was out on my own, foraging and hunting in a manner I would never have imagined I'd be doing in a million millennia, I discovered...well...flavors. Some fruits and vegetables were dangerous, some full of nutrients, but even more incredibly, some tasted really bad and other really good. The same with meats! Herbs allowed me to change the taste of the food. It sounds silly to me know but it was a startling revelation at the time.

In Starfleet...pardon me, I need a moment. *Plays off rubbing her eye as she wipes away a tear while smiling all the while* My apologies, something in my eye. During my time here in Starfleet I've experienced such a wide variety of flavors and textures in food that I often can't wrap my mind around how such a thing is possible. I once eat to live and its not that I live to eat per se but I actually enjoy meals now and its a pretty wonderful experience. What makes it even better is having others to share food with. Be it in the Mess Hall or in a restaurant, sitting down with friends to have a meal together is one of the highlights of my off hours these days. 

I'd like think to my parents would be happy for me but it makes me sad that they never had the chance to enjoy this life with me. My apologizes again. Lt. Commander Gravph always says 'food brings up memories' and it seems he's right. Even 'Sustaining Soup'. 

The Restaurants of Starbase 25

I've spoken of the restaurants on Deep Space Station K-12 previously and while they are quite good, even very good, they don't have notoriety or diversity of those on Starbase 25. When I first defected to the United Federation of Planets and made the decision to join Starfleet, I went to Starbase 25 and my goodness, I had never seen so many different places to eat in my life. I would later learn that some of these are truly top rated restaurants. I'll describe only a few that I or one of my close crewmates have been to.

Tavern Keep! Another!

The Andorian restaurant Clan of Comfort Brew House is more bar than eatery but also a very interesting window into Andorian culture and history. Based on the ancient Brew Houses popular during the time of Krotus the Conqueror, the single, very large room contains two long tables with three [simulated] hearth fires. Lighting overall is low, allowing the hearths to generate a warm light akin to a crackling fireplace no matter where you are in the restaurant. The entire place has a rustic atmosphere. A Human friend said it reminded her of Earth's Medieval Europe.

Mostly the restaurant serves Andorian Ale, a bright blue, carbonated beverate not unlike and yet very different from Earth beer. It has a mildly sweet, berry-like taste. The Clan of Comfort Brew House carries over 50 different brands and types of Andorian Ale, ranging from the dark blue 'Stout of Andoria' to my personal favorite, 'Blue Moon Sour', which is very hard to find anywhere outside of Andor and its close colonies. It tastes a bit like sour blueberries, vanilla, and lightly sweet honey. 

Only very basic food choices are available but most of them are quite good. Tuber Root sticks deep fried in animal fat from a native Andorian creature (ethically sourced) and seasoned 'Nut Shells', which are actually the baked, cast off shells of a Andorian land dwelling crustacean, are both very popular (at least with Andorians). 

The restaurant is run by two joined families in the Clan of Comfort, a Keth governing bars, restaurants, and hospitalities such as lodging, tourism, and other related industries. 

Good Morning Starbase 25!

Good Morning/Good Evening is a bakery and cafe with signage saying 'Good Morning' early in station's day, open from 0600 hours until 1200 hours. It than closes until 1800 hours when it reopens with the sign now displaying 'Good Evening'. It remains open until 2400, when it closes until 0600 rolls around again. 

As I understand it, while it is a well liked restaurant, the Good Morning phase has about twice the popularity and patronage as the Good Evening phase. I will say for myself, this place has some of the most delicious baked goods I've ever encountered. True, my exposure to such food is small but many of my fellow crewmates have said the same thing. They make all sorts of muffins, rolls, cakes, and similar bread items but there is this one...a salty, buttery roll or biscuit that is probably one of my favorite things to eat in the universe. I'm full after one but always considering getting a second one immediately after I finish the first.

Good Morning also serves excellent Coffee which, if you are not familiar with this beverage, is essentially the life blood of Human society and certainly Starfleet. The Captain always has a cup of coffee to start her day. Commander Carr likes his black or dark (very little milk) and very sweet. The first time I had it I had to spit it out. It was awful. Doctor Hanover realized the acidity of the drink was too low for my body. After adjusting the pH level of the water in it I tried it again and I was stunned. I loved it and it's near-magical awakening effect was like nothing I'd ever had before or since outside of a Medical Stimulant from a hypospray. Of course coffee is a lot more pleasant than the later. 

The owner of the establishment informed me that the restaurant is in the retro-style of Earth's 1950s 'Americana' period, with specialized lighting to give Morning mode and Evening mode very different moods.

Spicy and Comfy!

Oasis in a Desert Haze is a Zaranite restaurant that, for reasons I will go into, usually isn't especially busy and that is a shame. Both the food and the overall atmosphere there is wonderful. One sits on the ground, which is covered in wooly rugs and small square pillows, positioned around a table carved by hand out of some sort of smooth sandstone. The food usually consists of one or two large plates with main dishes, two bowls of soup - one hot, one cold - and a dozen small plates of everything from vegetables and nuts to flat breads and deeply fried meats. Everyone takes a little of everything and puts it on their own plate so you can try it all. Variations on this set-up are available but I am told this is the traditional and preferred way of serving a Zaranite meal.

While most of the food is what would generally qualify as spicy, some is savory, and some is sweet, all in the same sitting. The Zaranites do not appear to have 'courses' or the concept of 'dessert' as a separate meal, except on special occasions. Drink usually consists of one of several types of spiced [though not spicy] tea or a sort of sweet beer.

The Zaranites, a desert dwelling species from the planet Zaran (Mu Capricorni II), have an antagonistic history with the Andorians and friction with the Efrosians, resulting in many people giving them and their establishments a wide berth that I do not personally feel is warranted. Additionally, a Zaranite Phaser Engineer on the Prosperity, who has proven to be an honorable and heroic individual, invited me and a number of others to this restaurant and I can attest it was definitely something you should experience yourself. 

All this talk has made me hungry *laughter*.

Who's up for a bite? Let's try some local cuisine...

AD

Barking Alien

Cameo #3 - GROGNARDIA Presents...High Culture

“Hi there, Sam, you're just the eagle I was looking for, because today I wanted to salute two beloved cultural institutions born in the 1970s.”

“Finally! A kindred spirit! Someone who understands that what we need more of around here is culture and an appreciation for history.”

“I couldn't agree more, Sam, as anyone who's read my blog, Grognardia, would know.”

“A blog, eh? Isn't that one of those new fangled Internet thingies where self-important blowhards with too much time on their hands talk down to everyone who disagrees with them?”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

“That's what I thought! How do I get a blog of my own?”

“I'll tell you later, but, as I said, right now we're going to honor two beloved cultural institutions that first appeared in the 1970s.”

“The Republican Study Committee and the Trilateral Commission, both of which were established in 1974?”

“No, not those.”

“The Moral Majority and the Covert Action Information Bulletin?”

“No, not those either.”

“The Office of Net Assessment and the Executive Intelligence Review?”

“Uh, no.”

“Surely, you're not talking about National Public Radio?”

“No, no, of course not. What do you take me for, some kind of hippie?”

“Well, you can never be so sure about people nowadays. Why, the things I could tell you from my time on The Muppet Show ...”

“What a coincidence! The Muppet Show is one of the two beloved 1970s cultural institutions I wanted to discuss.”

“The Muppet Show? A beloved cultural institution? Pop cultural maybe, but I'm interested in high culture -- programming that elevates the mind and ennobles the soul, not the low brow ephemera that distracts Johnny Know-Nothing from the drudgery of his daily existence.”

“I ... see.”

“So what's the other 'beloved cultural institution' you intend to discuss? Let me guess: Pong? Duck Hunt perhaps?”

“No, Sam. I'm as devoted to uplifting and edifying activities as you are. That's why I want to talk about another 1970s cultural institution that is, in my opinion, both uplifting and edifying -- Dungeons & Dragons!”

“...”

---

At first glance, it might not seem as if The Muppet Show and Dungeons & Dragons have a lot in common other than the decade in which they were both born. That's what I thought too when this blog's furry green proprietor approached me about doing a guest post on this very topic. What could I possibly say about these two staples of my youth that somehow connected them in a way that might provide even a small bit of insight to others? I spent a long time trying to unearth some hitherto unknown connection between Jim Henson and Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, something -- anything -- that might let me talk about these world-changing creations as part of a larger movement in entertainment in the 1970s.

And that's when it struck me. When I think back on the decade of my childhood what I remember was a riotous mess of strangeness. This was, after all, the decade of Star Wars, Jaws, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It was a decade obsessed with the weird, the Fortean, and the Satanic, from King Tut to Bigfoot to The Amityville Horror and more. It was, for a kid like me, a great time to grow up, serving up a heady stew of half-digested oddities, claptrap, and, above all, fantasy with which to feed my imagination. I still largely subsist on a diet of such nonsense, the taste for which I first acquired more than three decades ago.

Both The Muppet Show and Dungeons & Dragons -- heck, roleplaying in general -- are fruits of that riotous mess of strangeness I remember so well. They grabbed hold of everything that was going on at the time, from the ridiculous to the sublime, and ran with it in amazing, imaginative directions. They treated us to the spectacle of Ethel Merman singing a duet with a vain, anthropomorphic pig and to a game where Conan and Gandalf can team up to fight Dracula. They were vehicles of wild imagination that taught us that value of reckless borrowing from anything we could get our hands on to create something that was somehow more than the sum of its parts, whether it was throwing an alien spacecraft or a cowboy into a D&D adventure or spoofing medical soap operas with a cast made up entirely of animals.

It's worth noting too another important lesson imparted by both The Muppet Show and Dungeons & Dragons: fantasy isn't just for kids. Whereas Henson's earlier Sesame Street was clearly aimed at children, The Muppet Show wasn't. It was broadcast in prime time and contained plenty of sly humor and allusions that would go right over a child's head, even as he laughed at the sight of Gonzo eating a rubber tire to the music of “Flight of the Bumblebee.” Likewise, D&D was a game whose audience included adults; my Holmes-edited Basic Set proclaimed itself “the original adult fantasy role-playing game.” That may seem like a small thing, but, to a child like me, it suggested that growing up didn't mean an end to fantasy, a lesson I've carried with me all these years and imparted to my own children, thanks to these beloved cultural institutions of the 1970s.

- James Maliszewski

Barkley
Barking Alien