Opinion

D&D.Sci Thanksgiving: the Festival Feast

​Published on November 22, 2025 2:26 AM GMTThis is an entry in the ‘Dungeons & Data Science’ series, a set of puzzles where players are given a dataset to analyze and an objective to pursue using information from that dataset.Estimated Complexity Rating: 2.5/5STORYAs you wander this strange fantasy world you have been summoned to, gathering allies to your banner to save this world from the Demon King, you have been struck by the many strange practices of the people here.Today, you are trying to win the favor of the mighty warriors of the far land of Isamanda.  Luckily, you happen to have arrived here shortly before one of their holy days, the Festival Feast of Father Frederick[1].Image generated using OpenArtBy the strange traditions of this bizarre and otherwordly land, political disputes are held at the Festival Feast.  (You suspect it’s a plan to keep the debates from escalating to violence by placating the participants with food[2].)This is excellent news for you, since it means that you have a wonderful opportunity to raise the issue of the Demon King and push them to join with you against him.However, you first need to make sure that you hold an excellent Festival Feast!  Hungry Isamandans are famously grumpy, and you’re sure they’ll be much more receptive when happy and well-fed!  With your Companions to help you hunt and cook various dangerous creatures, and your own Data Science skills to help you choose what dishes have led to the most successful Feasts in the past, you’re sure you can draw many guests to your Feast and keep them all very happy!DATA & OBJECTIVESYou need to hold a Festival Feast.You can choose any number of the available dishes to serve at your feast:Ambrosial ApplesauceBBQ Basilisk BrisketChili Con ChimeraDisplacer DumplingsEttin Eye EclairsFiery Formian FrittersGeometric Gelatinous GateauHoneyed Hydra HeartsKiller Kraken KebabsMighty Minotaur MeatballsOpulent Owlbear OmelettePegasus Pinion PuddingRoc Roasted RareScorching Salamander StewTroll Tenderloin TartareVicious Vampire VindalooWyvern Wing WrapsFor example, a solution could be serving just Ambrosial Applesauce.  Or you could serve BBQ Basilisk Brisket and Chili Con Chimera.  Or you could serve every dish except Displacer Dumplings.Your job is to get the highest Feast Quality possible.To help you with this, you have a dataset.  Each row in the dataset contains which dishes were served at a past feast, and the resulting overall Quality of that feast.SCHEDULING & COMMENTSI’ll aim to post the ruleset and results on Dec 1st, but if you find yourself on Thanksgiving weekend being stuffed full of Tiny Truculent Tyrannosaur turkey and want an extension, let me know and I’ll be happy to grant one!As usual, working together is allowed, but for the sake of anyone who wants to work alone, please spoiler parts of your answers  that contain information or questions about the dataset.  To spoiler answers on a PC, type a ‘>’ followed by a ‘!’ at the start of a line to open a spoiler block – to spoiler answers on mobile, type a ‘:::spoiler’ at the start of a line and then a ‘:::’ at the end to spoiler the line.^None of the residents are quite sure who Father Frederick is, or what they are celebrating, but all of them are quite sure that the celebration is an important part of their culture.^Or, failing that, to stuff all the participants so full of food that they cannot get up to do anything violent.Discuss ​Read More

​Published on November 22, 2025 2:26 AM GMTThis is an entry in the ‘Dungeons & Data Science’ series, a set of puzzles where players are given a dataset to analyze and an objective to pursue using information from that dataset.Estimated Complexity Rating: 2.5/5STORYAs you wander this strange fantasy world you have been summoned to, gathering allies to your banner to save this world from the Demon King, you have been struck by the many strange practices of the people here.Today, you are trying to win the favor of the mighty warriors of the far land of Isamanda.  Luckily, you happen to have arrived here shortly before one of their holy days, the Festival Feast of Father Frederick[1].Image generated using OpenArtBy the strange traditions of this bizarre and otherwordly land, political disputes are held at the Festival Feast.  (You suspect it’s a plan to keep the debates from escalating to violence by placating the participants with food[2].)This is excellent news for you, since it means that you have a wonderful opportunity to raise the issue of the Demon King and push them to join with you against him.However, you first need to make sure that you hold an excellent Festival Feast!  Hungry Isamandans are famously grumpy, and you’re sure they’ll be much more receptive when happy and well-fed!  With your Companions to help you hunt and cook various dangerous creatures, and your own Data Science skills to help you choose what dishes have led to the most successful Feasts in the past, you’re sure you can draw many guests to your Feast and keep them all very happy!DATA & OBJECTIVESYou need to hold a Festival Feast.You can choose any number of the available dishes to serve at your feast:Ambrosial ApplesauceBBQ Basilisk BrisketChili Con ChimeraDisplacer DumplingsEttin Eye EclairsFiery Formian FrittersGeometric Gelatinous GateauHoneyed Hydra HeartsKiller Kraken KebabsMighty Minotaur MeatballsOpulent Owlbear OmelettePegasus Pinion PuddingRoc Roasted RareScorching Salamander StewTroll Tenderloin TartareVicious Vampire VindalooWyvern Wing WrapsFor example, a solution could be serving just Ambrosial Applesauce.  Or you could serve BBQ Basilisk Brisket and Chili Con Chimera.  Or you could serve every dish except Displacer Dumplings.Your job is to get the highest Feast Quality possible.To help you with this, you have a dataset.  Each row in the dataset contains which dishes were served at a past feast, and the resulting overall Quality of that feast.SCHEDULING & COMMENTSI’ll aim to post the ruleset and results on Dec 1st, but if you find yourself on Thanksgiving weekend being stuffed full of Tiny Truculent Tyrannosaur turkey and want an extension, let me know and I’ll be happy to grant one!As usual, working together is allowed, but for the sake of anyone who wants to work alone, please spoiler parts of your answers  that contain information or questions about the dataset.  To spoiler answers on a PC, type a ‘>’ followed by a ‘!’ at the start of a line to open a spoiler block – to spoiler answers on mobile, type a ‘:::spoiler’ at the start of a line and then a ‘:::’ at the end to spoiler the line.^None of the residents are quite sure who Father Frederick is, or what they are celebrating, but all of them are quite sure that the celebration is an important part of their culture.^Or, failing that, to stuff all the participants so full of food that they cannot get up to do anything violent.Discuss ​Read More

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