Camp Cook

"I had a job in the Great North Woods,
Working as a cook for a spell
But I never did like it all that much,
and one day the axe just fell…"
Bob Dylan
Tangled up in blue

Basic Information

This Western Character drives the Chuckwagon, tends the fire, and fixes food for a camp of cowboys, miners, lumberjacks, or soldiers.

Often this is an older worker, who's no longer in good enough shape to do the hard stuff any more. He'll frequently carry a bell or triangle to ring to let everybody know dinner's ready.

Also found in the military - where the cook is traditionally fat and bad tempered, although if you take it back to the Nelsonian navy the cook was often a sinecure for a partially disabled man.

Sources

Bibliography

1. TV Tropes Wiki

Game and Story Use

• Fun way to make one Cowboy stand out from the crowd, especially in a light-hearted game.
  • Particularly if he's a very bad cook and won't accept it - or doesn't care.
  • Equally a very good cook can be a positive asset - and possible the wilderness equivalent of the bartender.
• As Steven Seagal has proven, this archetype has some serious Player Character potential, too. Villains assume you're a wuss, or have some old injury, and underestimate you. Won't they be surprised when they learn otherwise? It's actually just that you're the best chef in camp and thus inherited the role.
  • Could also be a Knife Nut or Improvised Weapons Master.
  • Could also just be a good way to add colour to a badass - maxed out combat skills … and a passion for cooking.
• The Cook could be an innocuous cover for the NPC villain too. Just so long as your players don't remember Long John Silver.