Author Topic: Where's the fun playing in a Wish-based economy?  (Read 10380 times)

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Thistledown Thurbertaut

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Re: Where's the fun playing in a Wish-based economy?
« Reply #40 on: May 06, 2010, 05:55:40 PM »
Me, cocky? I've not the slightest idear what you're talking about.... :whistle

Reis

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Re: Where's the fun playing in a Wish-based economy?
« Reply #41 on: May 14, 2010, 08:23:14 AM »
I always took the view as DM that while you might be able to bind a common efreeti or noble Djinn to force it to fufill wishes for you, there should be consequences for this kind of behavior. The Efreeti and Djinni are powerful forces in the planes, with their own god-like entities such as the Sultan of the City of Brass, etc. These forces probably keep tabs on anyone seeking to abuse the power to grant free wishes and take a very dim view of such activity.

The way I put it to my players is that you can feel free to abuse free wishes from an efreeti if you wish, but there will be consequences appropriate to the level of abuse. For just doing it a couple times these might be relatively minor, such as having a warrant for your arrest issued in the city of brass. Major abuses such as trying to create a wish based economy might result in more drastic measures, like epic level efreeti hit squads showing up to kill or capture you.

Bauglir

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Re: Where's the fun playing in a Wish-based economy?
« Reply #42 on: May 14, 2010, 01:37:53 PM »
I did try a Wish economy once, but the trouble is that Scrolls are cheap. Basically everyone and their familiars with UMD gets full casting, only with unlimited slots and every list. Unless I missed a houserule about dealing with those. Also, there are tons of minor items that grant an effect that's useful at all levels (move 10 feet as a swift action, etc), and they can be made slotless with little difficulty, which also tends to cause some problems because everyone in the party gets a few dozen of each. Again, unless there's a rule on maximum items used simultaneously.
So you end up stuck in an endless loop, unable to act, forever.

In retrospect, much like Keanu Reeves.

PhaedrusXY

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Re: Where's the fun playing in a Wish-based economy?
« Reply #43 on: May 14, 2010, 01:44:56 PM »
I did try a Wish economy once, but the trouble is that Scrolls are cheap. Basically everyone and their familiars with UMD gets full casting, only with unlimited slots and every list. Unless I missed a houserule about dealing with those. Also, there are tons of minor items that grant an effect that's useful at all levels (move 10 feet as a swift action, etc), and they can be made slotless with little difficulty, which also tends to cause some problems because everyone in the party gets a few dozen of each. Again, unless there's a rule on maximum items used simultaneously.
Yeah, the Wish Economy stuff by Frank and K is incomplete, and lots of suggestions for how to deal with the problems in it (many of which surround consumable magic items) have been made on their forums. In the game I'm running with it, I just said that you can't cast spells from scrolls. They're only used to convey magic knowledge, not reproduce spells. I don't really care much about potions, and I require wands and staves to take up an item slot. I also don't let people create items more cheaply than normal by using obscure spell lists like Trapsmith. That takes care of most of it. Other solutions have been suggested as well.

They also intend for people to basically only use the core rules + their house rules, but I allow basically everything in my game and it hasn't been a big problem so far. Slotless means nothing when you can only use 8 magic items at once, regardless of where you wear them, and that's one of their biggest house rules.
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RobbyPants

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Re: Where's the fun playing in a Wish-based economy?
« Reply #44 on: May 14, 2010, 03:55:15 PM »
I always took the view as DM that while you might be able to bind a common efreeti or noble Djinn to force it to fufill wishes for you, there should be consequences for this kind of behavior. The Efreeti and Djinni are powerful forces in the planes, with their own god-like entities such as the Sultan of the City of Brass, etc. These forces probably keep tabs on anyone seeking to abuse the power to grant free wishes and take a very dim view of such activity.

The way I put it to my players is that you can feel free to abuse free wishes from an efreeti if you wish, but there will be consequences appropriate to the level of abuse. For just doing it a couple times these might be relatively minor, such as having a warrant for your arrest issued in the city of brass. Major abuses such as trying to create a wish based economy might result in more drastic measures, like epic level efreeti hit squads showing up to kill or capture you.
The only thing I hate about that approach is that the DM is basically saying "Sure.  Go ahead.  Just don't cross some arbitrary threshold.".

Personally, I'd say if it's a problem for your games, don't allow it.  If it's not a problem, then don't worry about it.  Epic level efreet death squads vs level 11 PCs is basically a DM-sanctioned Death-No-Save.  That's not fun for the game.
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Banaticus

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Re: Where's the fun playing in a Wish-based economy?
« Reply #45 on: May 15, 2010, 06:53:17 PM »
Here is the rules thread for that game, with a link to the full rules list, if you're interested.
You mean http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=6373.0 -- you apparently created multiple threads for some reason and haven't copied most stuff to the new thread.