A Ring of Wishes

[Tom Kalbfus]

Just thinking after reading the ships locker thread. What if the GM decided to include something that would otherwise be found in a D&D game within the Traveller Universe, such as a ring of wishes that actually works, with the usual rules and limitations of wishes in the D&D game.

The ring is actual a device which establishes mental contact with the wearer's brain, if you were to actually analyze it under a powerful microscope, you would notice the gold appearing ring is actually made up of molecular machines with a technology way in advance of whats usually available at tech level 15. Through this contact up to three wishes may be granted, and then the ring disintegrates into dust. How might this affect a Traveller campaign?

 

[-Daniel-]

Just thinking after reading the ships locker thread. What if the GM decided to include something that would otherwise be found in a D&D game within the Traveller Universe, such as a ring of wishes that actually works, with the usual rules and limitations of wishes in the D&D game.

The ring is actual a device which establishes mental contact with the wearer's brain, if you were to actually analyze it under a powerful microscope, you would notice the gold appearing ring is actually made up of molecular machines with a technology way in advance of whats usually available at tech level 15. Through this contact up to three wishes may be granted, and then the ring disintegrates into dust. How might this affect a Traveller campaign?

Well wishes almost always screw up the D&D game when handed out, so I would assume it would also screw up the Traveller game. :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

I am unfamiliar with Dungeons and Dragons game, however, in the modern incarnation of it (Pathfinder) there are rules that clearly define the power of wishes. I would suggest looking at that (a link is provided to the rules). The wish spell isn't "do anything you want".

Probably the most useful ability it has in Pathfinder, for Traveller, would be instantaneous transportation. Transportation is very slow in Traveller.

http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/spells/wish.html

The spell doesn't have to wreck a campaign if played according to the guidelines given. it's not foolproof but it does provide some kind of framework that tells the players what they can expect, and allows the GM some latitude. I am happy to participate in games within these parameters, and nothing's broken (yet) that wasn't already broken.

 

[Hopeless]

A Ring of Wishes can be both unbelievably valuable and also unbelievably dangerous!

Its like that story where the protagonist discovers a device that allows him to build a functional disintregrator and then uses it completely up before handing it over to the authorities who realise the full implications of what he originally possessed and can't believe he reduced it to slag for something so meaningless.

I don't recall that story fully or most likely properly but it did seem to highlight his artefact was much more valuable than he realised had he not wasted it!

As for Traveller I was more thinking about a practical 3d printer so given time and supplies it can build any replacement part or gear they need within reason as long as nobody else realises they have it since obviously if it was commercially available why would they not take care to make it cost literally the earth and need constant maintenance since it would otherwise be like an improved version of that material used in the old Alec Guinness movie "The Man with the White Suit"? :twisted:

 

[wbnc]

3d printers and nano machine assemblers are close to the ring of wishes. without stepping over to the much abused matter replicator.

I dimly recal an artifact from a Gamma World game..a large object with a chute to toss thing into, and a dispensing chute...depending on luck, if you tossed certain things in you got useful stuff out...

including the most holy of grails recharged power cells.

 

[Condottiere]

Eternal youth without any mental or physical deterioration, or in fact Kryptonian biological template, should be easy since the recipient is not only in proximity, but in fact in contact.

A trillion credit bank balance, or a fully functional, crewed and paid off squadron might be trickier, since you're altering reality.

 

[alex_greene]

Wishes are a copout in the original game as well as in fiction. Wishes come into play when there is nothing left, and even the magic rules are inadequate to the situation.

They're kind of the equivalent of "And with one mighty bound, he was free!" or Asimov's dreaded Pocket Franistan (I hear that was in an auction in Sotheby's a couple of years back. Who's got it now?) - they're a way of getting yourselves out of a corner you, or the ref, have painted yourselves into.

Wishes are, in effect, a call for Divine Intervention - an invocation of a Higher Power to come in. A bit like a kid calling out for its Mummy or Daddy under duress. "Author, O Author, please please please rewrite this hideous storyline I've placed myself into!"

(Ten years ago, I'd have said "Please, Jim, can you fix it for me ..." *shudders*)

The mechanism can be worked out easily in science fiction terms.

The Artefact is a device which permits retroactive quantum manipulation of timelines. It detects high levels of stress - anger, fear, pain, desire, imminent death - and it goes back a few save levels, as it were, back to a previous time where the character was faced with a decision. The Artefact then alters the timeline so that an alternate decision was made, leading to a more favourable outcome in the present day.

Example: Captain Rosphert McAbrin of Free Trader McGinty is running short on laser pistol charges, and there seem to be no end to the aliens storming his barricade seeking his head on a plate. He invokes the Artefact's help, and as he steps back his foot bumps against a bag that he could have sworn that he'd left behind back in the Ship's Locker. Then he remembers differently, and realises that he had, indeed, taken the bag despite the risk of encumbrance. A bag loaded with spare laser pistols and several fully charged clips.

There is one small problem with the device. With wishes, there are always problems. Either the wish device is limited in its number of uses before it moves on to the next person, or each activation sends the wearer into a parallel universe in a different timestream to his original timeline. One where, despite the Artefact keeping the spacetime distortion as localised as possible, there is still leakage, alteration of history and consequences.

Example: Captain Rosphert McAbrin returns to the spaceport, only to find that his First Officer is dead. Agnes ran short of charges in her laser pistol. Aliens got her and killed her. In the previous iteration of time, she had been the one to take the holdall containing the extra charges and she survived. Now the Captain has to mourn the loss of not only a fine First Officer, but also his girlfriend.

Like time travel stories, there is always a consequence to rewriting history or rewriting the local laws of physics. And if you look closely, you'll see that the consequence is almost always some form of tragedy.

In Charmed, there was a huge restriction in the way magic could be used; the Halliwell Sisters were forbidden to use their powers for what was termed "personal gain." They couldn't conjure up a man for their lives, or magic away the dirt so they didn't have to put in the elbow grease and do the laundry. Not without hideous consequences, usually in the form of some squirmworthy humiliation, such as the man conjured up turning out to be gay, or the dirt turning into some sort of an Evil Dirt Monster and mucking up the town or something.

So to put things right, there always has to be some form of sacrifice. Kirk loses Edith Keeler, and later Spock loses his sehlat, on passing through the Guardian of Forever; and when the poorly-named Captain Annorax of the Krenim tries to work the timelines, the first temporal alteration he makes causes his wife to cease to exist in his timeline and in all the timelines. It is only when he is destroyed that time returns to normal, and he gets to be with his wife again.

The ref can work that into the functioning of the device.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Wishes are a copout in the original game as well as in fiction. Wishes come into play when there is nothing left, and even the magic rules are inadequate to the situation.

They're kind of the equivalent of "And with one mighty bound, he was free!" or Asimov's dreaded Pocket Franistan (I hear that was in an auction in Sotheby's a couple of years back. Who's got it now?) - they're a way of getting yourselves out of a corner you, or the ref, have painted yourselves into.

Wishes are, in effect, a call for Divine Intervention - an invocation of a Higher Power to come in. A bit like a kid calling out for its Mummy or Daddy under duress. "Author, O Author, please please please rewrite this hideous storyline I've placed myself into!"

(Ten years ago, I'd have said "Please, Jim, can you fix it for me ..." *shudders*)

The mechanism can be worked out easily in science fiction terms.

The Artefact is a device which permits retroactive quantum manipulation of timelines. It detects high levels of stress - anger, fear, pain, desire, imminent death - and it goes back a few save levels, as it were, back to a previous time where the character was faced with a decision. The Artefact then alters the timeline so that an alternate decision was made, leading to a more favourable outcome in the present day.

Example: Captain Rosphert McAbrin of Free Trader McGinty is running short on laser pistol charges, and there seem to be no end to the aliens storming his barricade seeking his head on a plate. He invokes the Artefact's help, and as he steps back his foot bumps against a bag that he could have sworn that he'd left behind back in the Ship's Locker. Then he remembers differently, and realises that he had, indeed, taken the bag despite the risk of encumbrance. A bag loaded with spare laser pistols and several fully charged clips.

There is one small problem with the device. With wishes, there are always problems. Either the wish device is limited in its number of uses before it moves on to the next person, or each activation sends the wearer into a parallel universe in a different timestream to his original timeline. One where, despite the Artefact keeping the spacetime distortion as localised as possible, there is still leakage, alteration of history and consequences.

Example: Captain Rosphert McAbrin returns to the spaceport, only to find that his First Officer is dead. Agnes ran short of charges in her laser pistol. Aliens got her and killed her. In the previous iteration of time, she had been the one to take the holdall containing the extra charges and she survived. Now the Captain has to mourn the loss of not only a fine First Officer, but also his girlfriend.

Like time travel stories, there is always a consequence to rewriting history or rewriting the local laws of physics. And if you look closely, you'll see that the consequence is almost always some form of tragedy.

In Charmed, there was a huge restriction in the way magic could be used; the Halliwell Sisters were forbidden to use their powers for what was termed "personal gain." They couldn't conjure up a man for their lives, or magic away the dirt so they didn't have to put in the elbow grease and do the laundry. Not without hideous consequences, usually in the form of some squirmworthy humiliation, such as the man conjured up turning out to be gay, or the dirt turning into some sort of an Evil Dirt Monster and mucking up the town or something.

So to put things right, there always has to be some form of sacrifice. Kirk loses Edith Keeler, and later Spock loses his sehlat, on passing through the Guardian of Forever; and when the poorly-named Captain Annorax of the Krenim tries to work the timelines, the first temporal alteration he makes causes his wife to cease to exist in his timeline and in all the timelines. It is only when he is destroyed that time returns to normal, and he gets to be with his wife again.

The ref can work that into the functioning of the device.

In other words, all magic has a price, the greedier the wish, the higher the price. And also you can literally grant a wish in a way that is not always beneficial to the person making the wish. Wishing for a starship is pretty straight forward, a bunch of nano-assemblers exit the ring and build the starship out of atoms after replicating themselves a number of times necessary to get the job done.
Nanotechnology is sort of like wishes, if you are going to introduce it in your campaign, you have to carefully limit it so it doesn't get our of hand.

So if you wish for a starship, the GM can introduce a number of complications.
For one the authorities might not necessarily recognise that you own the starship, the starship might not be registered, it might not be easy to repair, as it was not manufactured in any known shipyard. A ship comes with crew requirements, and if you wish for too big a starship, you might not have the crew needed to operate it. Probably wishing for any ship up to the size of a Mercenary cruiser shouldn't be much of a problem. Of course some others might try to steal it, also one might not want to advertise to the public that one has an artifact of such power. And of course one should carefully word the wish.

 

[alex_greene]

It might be easier to effect a retroactive quantum alteration than to have a swarm of nanotech the size of a finger ring fabricate a starship from dust.

One temporal alteration, and the character will always have had a Starship - he just inherited it from his beloved old Captain, who died of a horrible wasting disease and bequeathed it to the character in his will. A beloved old Captain who was alive and healthy in the original timeline.

 

[Condottiere]

Dungeon Masters have to assess how much impact wishes have on their campaign and setting, on a personal, local and global level, and if they are willing to accept that.

The mystical practice of alchemy to create objects out of raw matter or turn one object into another is widely believed to be capable of anything - indeed alchemy is often viewed as magical or miraculous by those unfamiliar with the craft - but it is a science and as such is subject to certain laws and limitations, all of which fall under the concept of Equivalent Exchange (等価交換 Tōka Kōkan): "In order to obtain or create something, something of equal value must be lost or destroyed."

In standard practice, Equivalent Exchange is separated into two parts:

The Law of Conservation of Mass, which states that energy and matter can neither be created from nothing nor destroyed to the point of elemental nonexistence. In other words, to create an object weighing one kilogram, at least one kilogram of material is necessary and destroying an object weighing one kilogram would reduce it to a set of parts, the sum of which would weigh one kilogram.

The Law of Natural Providence, which states that an object or material made of a particular substance or element can only be transmuted into another object with the same basic makeup and properties of that initial material. In other words, an object or material made mostly of water can only be transmuted into another object with the attributes of water.

Rebound

Since the alchemical forces being manipulated are not human in origin, but of the world as a whole, the consequences for attempting to bypass the Law of Equivalent Exchange in transmutation are not merely failure and cessation. When too much is attempted out of too little, what occurs is called a Rebound, in which the alchemical forces that are thrown out of balance on either side of the equation fluctuate wildly of their own accord in order to stabilize themselves - taking or giving more than was intended in often unpredictable and catastrophic ways such as accidental mutation, serious injury, or death.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

It might be easier to effect a retroactive quantum alteration than to have a swarm of nanotech the size of a finger ring fabricate a starship from dust.

One temporal alteration, and the character will always have had a Starship - he just inherited it from his beloved old Captain, who died of a horrible wasting disease and bequeathed it to the character in his will. A beloved old Captain who was alive and healthy in the original timeline.

Building things out of atoms is easier than going back in time, besides, you probably need nano to build the time machine, usually this involves huge masses to bend space, building a starship is a piece of cake compared to this.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Dungeon Masters have to assess how much impact wishes have on their campaign and setting, on a personal, local and global level, and if they are willing to accept that.

The mystical practice of alchemy to create objects out of raw matter or turn one object into another is widely believed to be capable of anything - indeed alchemy is often viewed as magical or miraculous by those unfamiliar with the craft - but it is a science and as such is subject to certain laws and limitations, all of which fall under the concept of Equivalent Exchange (等価交換 Tōka Kōkan): "In order to obtain or create something, something of equal value must be lost or destroyed."

In standard practice, Equivalent Exchange is separated into two parts:

The Law of Conservation of Mass, which states that energy and matter can neither be created from nothing nor destroyed to the point of elemental nonexistence. In other words, to create an object weighing one kilogram, at least one kilogram of material is necessary and destroying an object weighing one kilogram would reduce it to a set of parts, the sum of which would weigh one kilogram.

The Law of Natural Providence, which states that an object or material made of a particular substance or element can only be transmuted into another object with the same basic makeup and properties of that initial material. In other words, an object or material made mostly of water can only be transmuted into another object with the attributes of water.

Rebound

Since the alchemical forces being manipulated are not human in origin, but of the world as a whole, the consequences for attempting to bypass the Law of Equivalent Exchange in transmutation are not merely failure and cessation. When too much is attempted out of too little, what occurs is called a Rebound, in which the alchemical forces that are thrown out of balance on either side of the equation fluctuate wildly of their own accord in order to stabilize themselves - taking or giving more than was intended in often unpredictable and catastrophic ways such as accidental mutation, serious injury, or death.

It takes a lot of energy to transmute lead into gold Anyone who wishes for a ton of gold, may not want to get it in this way.

 

[alex_greene]

Building things out of atoms is easier than going back in time.

Not time travel. Retroactive rewriting of history by altering a probability of an event which has already happened, such that the outcome of such past event was altered.

The wielder does not travel anywhere. The timeline changes around him.

 

[Hopeless]

There's a very important bit of detail overlooked so far... just how much will your dm or gm is willing to let you get away with! :twisted:

I know one gm who upon someone wishing their character was smarter revealed that they now had a transparent dome on top of their head to accommodate their enlarged brain there were other examples but this was the least icky of them! :wink:

Me on the other hand love the idea that wishes will cut corners even if the wish is precisely stated (ala Knights of the Dinner Table where Brian got a lawyer to draw up the details on the wish he casted only to discover that wishing to become a god left him vulnerable to attacks from a god that wouldn't have touched him whilst he was mortal... he promptly used a listed loophole in his legal document to revert back to mortal with a cash reward...) the one time I handled this is when one player had a Luck Blade and used one wish to reverse time to avoid a TPK and the other was when they discovered what it was but it was so minor I don't even remember what happened!

Anyway one other example is whatever they wished for is already present somewhere on their world its just that if they're not careful they may have also summoned its current owner for example if they wanted an even more powerful weapon that just happened to be owned by a demon lord shame no one pointed out if it was holding the weapon when the PC wished for it, it would obviously appear along with the weapon... :twisted:

There's so many ways this can go wrong makes you wish the gm sorry dm might not be so inclined to take advantage of the situation doesn't it?

Not that I'm saying they should but.... :wink: