Curious Changes Wrought by Wizardry: A Random Blogwagon Post

Alright, gonna try one of these blogwagon thingies. Participants are meant to determine various aspects of their blogpost by using random tables (a cute, thematic element, to be sure!) and I rolled a 1 – I need to post as soon as possible without proofing; a 7 – the post can be any length I want; and I drew a 2 of Spades meaning I must reference and link a post from Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonesque.

Why randomness?

First, some throat-clearing. I like randomness in my games, or at least the potential for randomness. It keeps me on my toes as a referee and makes it harder to steer a game session in a way I want it to go. It can make the stakes of a situation more interesting. For example, if eating a dragon heart always gave a player +1 to an attribute of their choice instead of having a random table with good, bad, and neutral consequences, then it would always be correct for players to eat dragon hearts. And that's boring.

Magic should be more random.

I'm a pretty simple guy. I like my B/X (via OSE) and a lot of the D&D-isms, including the traditional Vancian magic system. Knowing that a first level magic-user's magic missile will strike unerringly for 2-7 points of damage makes things easy. However, having magic work in this predictable, mechanicist way can take the magic out of magic. As Steven Erikson has said, "Without mystery there is no magic; it becomes technology."

Looking through Tales of the Grotesque's and Dungeonesque's blogposts for this blogwagon, I latched onto Singular Curiosities which is a list of unique traits for differentiating characters of same class in simple games.

So, inspired by that blogpost, I thought I'd make a few random tables for magical effects that can bolt onto the B/X magic system. The goal here is to change characters in a way that no two first level thieves would be the same (after some magic encounters, at least!) and hopefully add a little bit of mystery back into magic.

Curious changes wrought by wizardry a/k/a the game stuff

When a character rolls a 1 on a save vs spells, roll 2d6 and consult the table:

2	soul weakened! your ability to withstand magic is permanently lessened. -2 on all saves vs spells
3-4	allergic to spells! whenever a spell is cast within 30' of you, save vs spells. on a fail, you suffer -2 to attack rolls and armor class as you erupt into a hacking, wheezing fit for 1 turn
5-6	curious growth! you grow a strange tumor on a body part (determine randomly) this tumor is visibly gross (-2 to reaction rolls if left uncovered) and provides a tingly sensation when near magic items
7-9	invisible aegis! a thin residue of magic coats your soul. +3 on your next save vs spells.
10	heightened senses! roll a d3: 1-ears, 2-eyes, 3-nose. on an ears result, your listen skill increases by +1. on an eyes result, you gain infravision out to 10'. if you already have infravision, the range increases by '10. on a nose result, you can smell chaos if lawful, law if chaotic, and law and chaos if neutral to a range of 30'
11	power absorbed! increase a random attribute by +1
12	brain growth! if a spellcaster, gain a first level spell slot. if not a spellcaster, you gain a first level spell slot and know a first level magic-user spell (determine randomly).

Changes wrought by wizardry are dangerous and each roll on the table after the first has a cumulative -1 to the roll (e.g., -0 on the first roll, -1 on the second, -2 on the third, and so on).

Enough for now

Did I even write something when the parameters of the blogwagon? Has all of this been done before? Is it even good? Answer to all three: I dunno.

Listen, I rolled a 1 on the damn posting window. So this is what ya get.