The Dog Needs Curry. Now.
A TiGGR Scenario
Components: 2d6, pencil and paper, LLM optional but encouraged. Players: 2–5 (1 GM, 1–4 players). Playtime: 30–45 minutes.
TOUCHSTONE
The Incredible Journey meets Trainspotting, filtered through a near-future where dogs have achieved limited economic agency via retroviral therapy and sheer force of will. Cultural seasoning from Mayflower Motherwell's wok reels, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and the eternal question of whether the curry is worth the trip.
It always is.
SCENE
2056. The Pacific Northwest. A scruffy terrier mix with a cred chip and an attitude has seen things on the archive feeds. Specifically, a fifty-year-old reel of a wok and a ladle and a curry recipe that calls to her across an ocean. The Hoomans are skeptical. The Dog is not interested in their skepticism.
GOAL
Reach the Mayflower takeaway in Motherwell, Scotland. Acquire curry. Return home without diplomatic incident.
FACTIONS
Transport Security Agency K-9 Division Body 2, Mind 1, Charm 0 | 4 HP Procedural Loyalty: +1 Mind when enforcing rules they don't fully understand. They don't care about your retroviral clearance. Dogs on hovercars get flagged.
The Purist Pack Body 1, Mind 0, Charm 2 | 3 HP Natural Diet Doctrine: Once per scene, they may invalidate a food item by loudly declaring it "ancestral heresy." The target must pass a Mind 6 test to continue eating it. A loose coalition of canine traditionalists who believe retroviral dietary expansion is an abomination. They will attempt to shame the party out of ordering curry. They are not above stealing cred chips.
Motherwell Local Council Automated Systems Body 0, Mind 2, Charm 1 | 3 HP Legacy Compliance Mode: If presented with three contradictory regulations, the AI pauses for one round attempting to reconcile them. The town's admin AI has opinions about unregistered interspecies dining parties. Permits may be required. The permit office is closed. The permit office is always closed.
PLAYER CHARACTERS
Delia — Doggo
Body 0, Mind 1, Charm 2 Role: Face. The Dog who started this whole thing. Special Ability: Irresistible Eyes — +1 Charm when requesting food from any species, once per scene. Signature Gear: The Ancestral Leash — a battered leather lead passed down, retrofitted with a cred chip reader and a GPS locked to Motherwell. +3 to any roll, once per scenario. HP: 5
The Hooman
Body 1, Mind 1, Charm 1 Role: Fixer. The balanced one. Makes things happen while the others are arguing about diaspora food history and canine dietary ethics. Special Ability: Quiet Authority — +1 Charm when de-escalating a confrontation that the other party members started, once per scene. Signature Gear: The Amex — accepted everywhere, even in 2056. Especially in 2056. +3 to any roll, once per scenario. HP: 5
The Spare Hooman
Body 1, Mind 2, Charm 0 Role: Navigator. Has been to Glasgow before. Knows about trains. Overthinks everything. Special Ability: Contextual Tangent — +1 Mind when recalling obscure historical or culinary facts that turn out to be relevant, once per scene. Signature Gear: The Butane Stove — portable, battered, still charged. Can be deployed for emergency cooking, distraction, or improvised smoke screen. +3 to any roll, once per scenario. HP: 5
Delia's Packmate — Doggo
Body 3, Mind 0, Charm 0 Role: Muscle. Doesn't care about the curry. Is here because Delia told them to be here. Will eat anything. Special Ability: Intimidating Bark — +1 Body when physically confronting anyone blocking the path to food, once per scene. Signature Gear: Retroviral Booster Shot — temporarily expands digestive tolerance to include literally anything. +3 to any Body roll involving consumption, once per scenario. HP: 5
VEHICLE
The Hovervan
A repurposed Amazon Prime delivery drone carrier, vintage 2040s, with a dog door welded into the side and a faded bumper sticker that reads "MEAT FOR THE MEAT DOG, BONES FOR THE DOG THRONE."
Body 2, Mind 1, Charm 0 | 10 HP Special Ability: Emergency Boost — +1 Body when escaping pursuit, once per scene.
SCENE 1: DEPARTURE
PDX Hoverport, Portland, Oregon
The party has assembled at Portland's hoverport. Delia XXI has the cred chip. The Hooman has the Amex. The Spare Hooman has a vague plan involving a transatlantic suborbital and then a train from Glasgow Central. The hovervan is parked in short-term, already accumulating fees.
The problem: TSA K-9 Division has flagged Delia's cred chip activity — bulk searches for "Motherwell curry," "dog-friendly Scottish restaurants," and "can dogs eat MSG 2056." They want to inspect the hovervan and question the party about the purpose of their trip.
Hooks
- TSA agent demands travel justification for an interspecies party (Charm 8 to explain that a dog going to Scotland for curry is perfectly normal).
- K-9 sniffer unit detects the butane stove in the cargo hold — flagged as potential incendiary device (Mind 8 to explain its culinary provenance and demonstrate it's just a camping stove, honestly).
- The Purist Pack has a representative at the terminal handing out pamphlets titled "Real Dogs Eat Raw" (Charm 6 to ignore them, Body 8 to physically get past their picket line without incident).
- Departure window closing — suborbital leaves in twenty minutes (Body 8 to sprint through the terminal if diplomatic solutions have consumed too much time).
Success: Party boards the suborbital. Next stop, Glasgow. Failure: Delayed to the next flight. The Purist Pack posts about the party on social media. The Motherwell Council AI has now been alerted.
SCENE 2: COMPLICATION
Glasgow Central Station. Rain. Obviously.
The party lands at Glasgow Aeroport and makes it to the train station. Motherwell is twenty minutes south. Victory is close. Delia can practically smell the curry, which — given retroviral olfactory enhancement — she literally can from thirty miles away.
The station echoes with garbled platform announcements and the ghost of a busker playing a distorted Siouxsie riff on a battered guitar. The smell of rain and diesel buses seeps through the concourse.
The problem: Motherwell Local Council Automated Systems has flagged the party. Apparently interspecies dining in a registered food premises requires a Companion Animal Dietary Exemption Permit, Form 7G-Canine, which can only be obtained from the permit office, which closed in 2049 and was never reopened. Also the train drivers are on strike. Also it's raining. It's Glasgow. Of course it's raining.
Hooks
- Navigate the council AI's bureaucratic loop (Mind 8 to find a procedural workaround, or Charm 8 to convince the AI that the permit requirement was deprecated in a 2052 policy update that may or may not exist). Note: the Spare Hooman's Contextual Tangent ability pairs well with the AI's Legacy Compliance Mode — three contradictory regulations will pause it for a round.
- Find alternative transport to Motherwell — the hovervan is back in Portland, the trains aren't running, and taxis have a four-hour wait (Mind 6 to locate a bus, Body 8 to acquire bicycles and ride twenty miles in Scottish rain, or Charm 8 to convince a local to give you a lift).
- The Purist Pack has followed the party from Portland. They've set up outside Glasgow Central with signs reading "CURRY IS NOT A DOG'S BIRTHRIGHT" (Charm 6 to walk past, Body 8 if it gets physical, Mind 8 to engage them in a philosophical debate about retroviral dietary autonomy that buys the rest of the party time to slip away).
- A friendly local dog recognizes Delia from the archived feeds and offers to help — but wants something in return (Charm 6 to negotiate; GM determines what the local dog needs).
Success: Party reaches Motherwell. The Mayflower is in sight. Failure: Stuck in Glasgow. The curry remains twenty miles away. The rain intensifies. Delia's patience is finite.
SCENE 3: CLIMAX
The Mayflower, Motherwell
The party arrives. The Mayflower is still there. The sign is the same. The wok is hot. A great-great-grandchild of the original family is behind the counter, working from the recipe, the same muscle memory passed down through five generations.
The problem: There's a queue. And Motherwell Council's automated system has sent an enforcement drone to verify the party's nonexistent permit. And the Purist Pack's leader has made it to Motherwell ahead of them and is staging a one-dog protest outside the door. And the kitchen closes in fifteen minutes.
Hooks
- Talk past or disable the enforcement drone (Mind 10 to hack it, Charm 8 to argue jurisdictional overreach, Body 8 to just knock it out of the air, consequences be damned).
- Handle the Purist Pack leader's final stand — they're blocking the entrance and livestreaming (Charm 8 to win the argument on camera in a way that goes viral, Body 6 to simply go around them through the side entrance, Mind 8 to use the livestream to the party's advantage).
- Get to the front of the queue before the kitchen closes (Charm 6 to ask politely if anyone will let a dog who traveled from Portland go first). There's no cutting the queue in Scotland. Charm is the only option here.
- Order the curry. No roll required. The Mayflower doesn't ask for permits, doesn't care about your species, doesn't need your backstory. You're here, the wok is hot, what are you having?
Resolution
The curry arrives. Steam rises from the container, carrying garlic and soy and fifty years of muscle memory. The smell hits Delia first — that retroviral nose, finally justified. She takes her first bite of the dish her ancestor could only dream about. The spice hits. The retrovirals hold. Five generations of family recipe meet five generations of canine determination.
No roll needed. Some things you just experience.
Success: Curry acquired. Curry consumed. The party has a story. Delia is already planning the next trip.
Failure: If somehow everything has gone wrong — drone, queue, kitchen closing — the great-great-grandchild behind the counter sees the party through the window. A scruffy dog, two tired hoomans, soaked from Glasgow rain. They unlock the door. "We're technically closed, but come in."
Because that's what the Mayflower does. They feed people. They've been doing it since 1975. The format may change. The wok is not.
POST-SCENARIO
Alternate Destinations
This scenario can be replayed with different touchstones and destinations. Swap Motherwell for Memphis (BBQ), Osaka (takoyaki), or Helsinki (karjalanpiirakka — good luck explaining that to Finnish passport control). The structure holds: a beloved food, an absurd journey, the gap between wanting and getting, and the moment where someone behind a counter just hands you what you came for.
Progression
After completing this scenario, Delia XXI may shift 1 point from Charm to Mind, having learned that bureaucratic systems require hacking as much as persuasion. Her Special Ability might evolve from "Irresistible Eyes" to "Veteran Traveler: +1 Mind when navigating interspecies regulations."
Or she keeps the eyes. The eyes always work.
GM NOTES
The tone is comedy, but let the final moment at the counter breathe. The curry matters. Don't rush it.
Created for use with TiGGR: Tiny Game for Generalized Roleplaying. The Grey Ledger Society | greyledger.org | hotelkilo.itch.io Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0.