How to be an Innkeeper

How to be an Innkeeper

Starting Your Shift

• Whenever possible you should try to be at the inn a few minutes early, and expect to leave a few minutes late.
• At the start of your shift you should check the shift before you to make sure they leave you the inn in a clean state, you'll be the one responsible for what they leave undone.
  • Make sure there is enough water in the cooler to make it through the shift
  • Make sure there are not extra pots and pans lying around.

End of Shift

• When you finish your shift, check with the next shift to make sure they are ok with what you are leaving them before you go.
  • Don't leave until the next shift tells you that they're taking responsibility for anything that remains.
• If you are the last shift of the night, bring anything that contained food and needs washing back to logistics.
  • It's perfectly reasonable to do this 20 or 30 minutes before the end of shift when it is at night and things are winding down.
• At the end of the shift tips should be divided among the innkeepers for that shift.
  • Hannah Vary will check in at the end of the shift to make sure things have been done. They will then handle paying you 20 coin once they are satisfied that you are done with your shift.

Menacing Overlords

• When Hannah Vary comes to the inn behind the curtain in that moment they are never there as PCs/NPCs, they're there to see if you need anything/ checking on how things are going/ looking for things they can fix for future events. They are actively taking a break from having fun so that they can make sure things are going smoothly. Please don't role-play with them, just let them know what they need to know so they can get back to not being in work mode and get back to having fun.
• Conversely if Hannah Vary is there asking for food, they ARE there as PC's/ NPC's and you should treat them exactly the same as any other player, including charging them coin for what they are buying.

Collecting Coin

• Coin from food sold should go into the collection dish.
• There is also a tip box for players who want to tip you for your work.
  • Coin used to pay for food or drink does not go in the tip box.
• At the end of the event (4th shift) the remaining coin in the collection dish should be brought back to logistics.
• If you want to sell your own food as an innkeeper you can do so but only for bonus XP (talk to Hannah Vary or if you want to do this).
  • In the past innkeepers have done this for additional coin that is no longer how it is being done.
  • Remember you can still bring in food to sell for coin, just do it as your PC not as an innkeeper.
  • Be sure to save your receipts if you want bonus XP. Hannah Vary will need those.

The Food

• Currently first and fourth shift will serve single serving items like hot dogs. 2nd shift will have eggs. 3rd shift will have a special item brought out around 6pm (give or take).

Steam Tables

• Sometimes to keep the food warm we are using a portable steam table. It's the wire rack that holds a single "hotel pan", the large pans the food is generally served in.
  • In the wire rack you should first put an empty medium depth hotel pan to hold water. Be sure to put a layer of water in it.
  • Inside of that pan you'll place a second shallow hotel pan with food in it.
  • Be sure to keep a lid on hot food too.
  • A can of sterno (the cylindrical short can full of chemicals) beneath at the bottom (which needs to be lit with fire) will keep the water warm which will keep the food warm without cooking it.
    • One can is enough for our needs most of the time. You can use two if it is extra important the food stays hot (for example when serving a soup).
  • The wire racks only have enough space for a medium depth hotel pan and the sterno. If you use a deep hotel pan the sterno gets smothered and the flame goes out.
    • The camp only seems to have one single medium depth hotel pan that I have found.
      • There are what look like medium depth hotel pans in a stack, but they all seem to be perforated which would make them really bad at holding water for hopefully obvious reasons.
    • If you need to heat multiple things at once you can use half hotel pans instead of full ones. 2 half hotel pans take up the same amount of space as one full hotel pan. There are plenty of medium depth half hotel pans. In a proper restaurant there would also be 1/3rd, 1/6th pants and 1/9th pans but the camp doesn't have any of these.

Hot Dogs

• Hot dogs get made to order in the flat press grill.

Drinks

• Sodas should be portioned per shift. There should be 2 bottles of mountain dew per shift, and 1 bottle of root beer, cola, and ginger ale per shift. Make sure that shifts after your shift will have those left. Left overs from previous shifts are fair game to use.
  • So for example on first shift make sure that 6 bottles of mountain dew and 3 bottles each of the other three are unopened at the end of your shift.
  • Second shift should have 4 bottles of mountain dew and 2 bottles of the other 3 at the end of their shift.
  • Third shift should have 2 bottles of mountain dew and 1 bottle of the others at the end of shift
  • Fourth shift can pour anything that is present.
  • It's ok to tell someone you are out of a particular drink for the shift and that more will be available later.
• When making powdered drinks don't make them full strength but they don't have to be super weak either. Use your judgement.
• Drinks should contain roughly the same amount of liquid each time someone buys them.
  • A character with an average cup and a character with a huge tankard should get the same sized pour.
  • If the player wants the tankard filled, charge them more to fill it.

Snack Items

• Be sure to refill the pretzels and popcorn trays periodically. If you're running out of popcorn let the kitchen know before you need more.
  • Avoid overfilling especially if it is humid out or the pretzels turn gross.
  • We have one barrel to go the entire weekend, and we've never once run out early. Use your discretion on how much to put out.
• If you need to make popcorn Ryan has been keeping the popcorn pot on the far left side of the stove. It's the one with the lid on or next to it.
  • Add some oil to coat the bottom of the pot, pour in kernels. The oil should be just about the same height as the kernels before you turn the heat on (oil expands when heated).
  • Adding salt before you pop the kernels is the fancy way to do it (there are reasons not worth going into), but if you don't feel comfortable doing that it's ok to salt the finished popcorn. There will likely be some salt left over from previous batches in the pot, remember that when you add salt.
  • When lots of popping has happened start shaking the pot a bit so the unpopped kernels fall to the bottom and the cooked popcorn doesn't burn to the bottom.
  • Take it off the heat when the sound of kernels popping slows down or stops.
  • Don't worry if you burn some of it your first time out, just pick out what you can and throw it out.
  • Popcorn is really cheap, mistakes are fine, seriously don't worry about it. If you have to throw out the batch and try again you SHOULD, think of it as practice.
• If there is no one cooking in the kitchen for the shift please check in on the NPC food periodically.
  • Just like in the inn the back-up is pasta and sauce if everything is eaten.
  • Putting out popcorn for the NPC's is worthwhile. Starches are your friend.

Related Rules

Innkeeping at Logistics

One innkeeper each shift will be assigned to the inn and one will be assigned to the Logistics building. This will be part of the list of who is working each shift and you should check for it when you check to see if you are working a shift.

When working at the logistics building you should still wear garb (everyone working the logistics building should still wear garb whenever possible to ensure a consistent example). Aprons will be provided to help ensure your garb does not get food stained.

Your primary job in logistics is to maintain the food area for the NPC's.

This includes:

• Making sure that more pasta is being made before the previous dish runs out.
• Keeping drink coolers filled (or getting others to fill them if you can't lift one, which is ok)
  • The key point here is watch for when they are getting low.
• Keep the hot water percolator full.
• Run dishes and utensils through the dishwasher.
  • Put away dishes and utensils from the dishwasher.
• When you have time help with pot and pan dishwashing.
• Make popcorn as needed for the inn and logistics.
• On occasion you may also be asked to assist with finishing food for the inn.
  • This will be something you are specifically asked to do, and instructions will vary based on what the dish is.
  • You'll have advanced warning if this is going to happen.

Expect the shift to be a lot of hurry up and wait. Very busy for brief moments, then very dull in between.

See Also

• Working in the Kitchen

Categories: Real World Rules