D&D General A Mate put A Deck of Many Things in A Dragons Horde figuring his Pcs wouldn't risk it, 1 did and now his 5 players are all playing future kings

[Vaalingrade]

Seriously. You couldn't run fast enough to give me that crown.

Wishes have a bad reputation with my gaming group. The players always wish for something so grandiose and overpowered that the DM has no choice but to Monkey's Paw it all to hell. There's never been an exception.

The key is to wish for turkey sandwich.

And--AND--I don't want any zombie turkeys. I don't want to turn into a turkey myself--or any of that other weird crap, got it?

 

[CleverNickName]

When my character gets a wish, I usually wish for something mundane yet useful, like "a good night's sleep" (no random encounters over our next long rest) or something like that. I don't want to hack the game or trick the DM. One time I wished for "a hot meal for myself and my companions" and everyone at the table complained about how I was wasting a wish, until the DM gave us a free Hero's Feast.

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

I'd wish for a Winnebago.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

Why are the numbers in these threads always weirdly specific?

You are a self-styled champion of inclusivity on these boards but yet here you are making fun of people. Nice.

 

[JMISBEST]

First off: the DM here is bad at math: as @jdrakeh points out, a result of 1 on d4+1 is theoretically impossible: the minimum should have been two Wishes.

Second off: the DM has very impressively, if completely unintentionally, set things up marvellously to (now or later) transition the game into a combination of Diplomacy and some sort of mass-battle or full-on wargame; in that there will soon be 5 players each ruling an empire of roughly equal strength, and nothing says those empires have to get along.

Third off: if instead the DM wants to corrupt this Wish even just a tiny bit, then those PCs' lives are about to become living hell due to all the responsibilities and duties they've just each picked up. Bye-bye field adventuring, hello dispute-settling, bean-counting, uncomfortable chairs, and meetings, meeting, meetings.

I love Decks!

Sorry about that it was my mistake not The GM's, I meant to put he got 2 Wish's but decided to only use 1 of them but by mistake I put 1 Wish

 

[JMISBEST]

That is well beyond the bounds of a wish IMO and IME, but it is always up to the DM.

Sadly The GM in question believes its only just within the bounds of a wish

 

[Lanefan]

Sorry about that it was my mistake not The GM's, I meant to put he got 2 Wish's but decided to only use 1 of them but by mistake I put 1 Wish

If you get two wishes but only use one, what happens to the other one?

(were it me, I'd quietly leave it hanging; then the next time that player says "I wish..." in character, that's what's gonna happen...somehow or other)

 

[Umbran]

Why? They still belong to their players. Only thing is, each is now (trying to) run an empire....

Well, the simple reason might be that empire-running is not in line with the campaign the GM intended to run. It isn't like Deck doesn't have other character-ending cards in it.

 

[Umbran]

If you get two wishes but only use one, what happens to the other one?

(were it me, I'd quietly leave it hanging; then the next time that player says "I wish..." in character, that's what's gonna happen...somehow or other)

I'm not sure that's a mature way of dealing with the situation. The Deck of Many Things already has a ton of risk to it. The GM being a bit of a jerk in interpreting results they put in themselves is not a great look.

 

[FrozenNorth]

It's the counter example to the way more times the deck killed everyone or left them unplayable.

In campaigns with high character turnover/low character investment, it’s almost always worth it to draw and take the risk.

It’s kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Many low character turnover/high character investment campaigns don’t introduce the Deck because even good results can make the character unplayable.