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I've included forced lignmentalignment changes in my own campaigns, and I can say that whether an a forced alignment change is disruptive or not depends entirely on your group and how they handle alignment. That's a big, complicated topic, but here's the short version:

Whether one PC having a different alignment causes problems for the campaign depends on the group. It is entirely possible for PCs of opposing alignments to get along and work for a common cause - but it's also entirely possible for characters of opposing alignments to murder each other in classic paladin versus goblin fashion. Personalities are complicated, and interpersonal dynamics are moreso. In the worst-case scenario, this could lead to multiple PCs dying or retiring and/or the party breaking up.

I've included forced lignment changes in my own campaigns, and I can say that whether an a forced alignment change is disruptive or not depends entirely on your group and how they handle alignment. That's a big, complicated topic, but here's the short version:

Whether one PC having a different alignment causes problems for the campaign depends on the group. It is entirely possible for PCs of opposing alignments to get along and work for a common cause - but it's also entirely possible for characters of opposing alignments to murder each other in classic paladin versus goblin fashion. Personalities are complicated, and interpersonal dynamics are moreso. In the worst-case scenario, this could lead to multiple PCs dying or retiring and/or the party breaking up.

I've included forced alignment changes in my own campaigns, and I can say that whether a forced alignment change is disruptive or not depends entirely on your group and how they handle alignment. That's a big, complicated topic, but here's the short version:

Whether one PC having a different alignment causes problems for the campaign depends on the group. It is entirely possible for PCs of opposing alignments to get along and work for a common cause - but it's also entirely possible for characters of opposing alignments to murder each other in classic paladin versus goblin fashion. Personalities are complicated, and interpersonal dynamics moreso. In the worst-case scenario, this could lead to multiple PCs dying or retiring and/or the party breaking up.

Added references to the fact that I have relevant experience.
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GMJoe
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InI've included forced lignment changes in my experienceown campaigns, and I can say that whether an a forced alignment change is disruptive or not depends entirely on your group and how they handle alignment. That's a big, complicated topic, but here's the short version:

Hopefully your players are probably mature and sensible enough not to make these mistakes - but in the worst-case scenario, such mistakes could easily lead to one or more PC deaths. I don't know your players, so I don't know if this would be an issue for you - but it wouldn't be one with mine, since they're mostly risk-averse and don't mind admitting it when they need help.

The PC who draws the card is stripped naked and trapped in a pokeball. This is embarassingembarrassing and inconvenient.

If the party already has access to a wish spell, or you're willing to fiat them some means of finding their imprisoned comrade, this is just a spin on the classic "go on a quest to resurrect/rescue the dead/captured party member" adventure;adventure, and the standard methods of handling that scenario will work; otherwise, the lost PC has essentially been forcibly retired.

SlightlyHaving been hit by similar curses as a player, I can confidently say that slightly worsened saving throws is a minor inconvenience at worst. Yes, they make a character worse at surviving, but in practice they're no more sobad for the PC's survival than a run of bad rolls, which could have happened anyway.

I must admit, I've never actually had this particular effect come up in a game that I was running or playing. Still, it could only be a good thing for the PCs and the campaign;campaign, as you as GM will get to adjudicate exactly what consequences the PCs' one-use undo button will have. The only way it could go wrong is if you decide to go all malevolent genie on them, and give their well-meaning actions horrible consequences - but if you're the kind of GM to do that, the PCs are probably doomed anyway; drawing this card will just make them be doomed faster.

If the party already has access to a wish spell, or you're willing to fiat them some means of finding their comrade's imprisoned soul, this is just a spin on the classic "go on a quest to resurrect/rescue the dead/captured party member" adventure;adventure, and the traditional ways of handling that scenario will work; otherwise, the lost PC has essentially been forcibly retired.

In my experience whether an a forced alignment change is disruptive or not depends entirely on your group and how they handle alignment. That's a big, complicated topic, but here's the short version:

Hopefully your players are probably mature and sensible enough not to make these mistakes - but in the worst-case scenario, such mistakes could easily lead to one or more PC deaths. I don't know your players, so I don't know if this would be an issue for you - but it wouldn't be one with mine.

The PC who draws the card is stripped naked and trapped in a pokeball. This is embarassing and inconvenient.

If the party already has access to a wish spell, or you're willing to fiat them some means of finding their imprisoned comrade, this is just a spin on the classic "go on a quest to resurrect/rescue the dead/captured party member" adventure; otherwise, the lost PC has essentially been forcibly retired.

Slightly worsened saving throws is a minor inconvenience at worst. Yes, they make a character worse at surviving, but no more so than a run of bad rolls.

I must admit, I've never actually had this particular effect come up in a game that I was running. Still, it could only be a good thing for the PCs and the campaign; you as GM will get to adjudicate exactly what consequences the PCs' one-use undo button will have. The only way it could go wrong is if you decide to go all malevolent genie on them, and give their well-meaning actions horrible consequences - but if you're the kind of GM to do that, the PCs are probably doomed anyway; drawing this card will just make them be doomed faster.

If the party already has access to a wish spell, or you're willing to fiat them some means of finding their comrade's imprisoned soul, this is just a spin on the classic "go on a quest to resurrect/rescue the dead/captured party member" adventure; otherwise, the lost PC has essentially been forcibly retired.

I've included forced lignment changes in my own campaigns, and I can say that whether an a forced alignment change is disruptive or not depends entirely on your group and how they handle alignment. That's a big, complicated topic, but here's the short version:

Hopefully your players are probably mature and sensible enough not to make these mistakes - but in the worst-case scenario, such mistakes could easily lead to one or more PC deaths. I don't know your players, so I don't know if this would be an issue for you - but it wouldn't be one with mine, since they're mostly risk-averse and don't mind admitting it when they need help.

The PC who draws the card is stripped naked and trapped in a pokeball. This is embarrassing and inconvenient.

If the party already has access to a wish spell, or you're willing to fiat them some means of finding their imprisoned comrade, this is just a spin on the classic "go on a quest to resurrect/rescue the dead/captured party member" adventure, and the standard methods of handling that scenario will work; otherwise, the lost PC has essentially been forcibly retired.

Having been hit by similar curses as a player, I can confidently say that slightly worsened saving throws is a minor inconvenience at worst. Yes, they make a character worse at surviving, but in practice they're no more bad for the PC's survival than a run of bad rolls, which could have happened anyway.

I must admit, I've never actually had this particular effect come up in a game that I was running or playing. Still, it could only be a good thing for the PCs and the campaign, as you as GM get to adjudicate exactly what consequences the PCs' one-use undo button will have. The only way it could go wrong is if you decide to go all malevolent genie on them, and give their well-meaning actions horrible consequences - but if you're the kind of GM to do that, the PCs are probably doomed anyway; drawing this card will just make them be doomed faster.

If the party already has access to a wish spell, or you're willing to fiat them some means of finding their comrade's imprisoned soul, this is just a spin on the classic "go on a quest to resurrect/rescue the dead/captured party member" adventure, and the traditional ways of handling that scenario will work; otherwise, the lost PC has essentially been forcibly retired.

Added references to the fact that I have relevant experience.
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GMJoe
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Whether this cardIn my experience whether an a forced alignment change is disruptive or not depends entirely on how your group handles alignment and forcedhow they handle alignment changes. That's a big, complicated topic, but here's the short version:

Hopefully your players are probably mature and sensible enough not to make these mistakes - but in the worst-case scenario, such mistakes could easily lead to one or more PC deaths. I don't know your players, so I don't know if this would be an issue for you - but it wouldn't be one with mine.

Slightly worsened saving throws is a minor inconvenience at worst. Yes, they make a character worse at surviving, but no more so than a run of bad rolls.

For the PCs: AnnoyingUnpleasant.
For the campaign: Benign.

This isI must admit, I've never actually had this particular effect come up in a game that I was running. Still, it could only be a good thing for the PCs, unless and the campaign; you as GM will get to adjudicate exactly what consequences the PCs' one-use undo button will have. The only way it could go wrong is if you decide to go all malevolent genie on them, and give their well-meaning actions horrible consequences - but if you're the kind of GM to do that, the PCs are probably doomed anyway; drawingdrawing this card will just make their inevitable doom happenthem be doomed faster.

The PC gets a new NPC enemy who wants to kill them. Given that nearly every D&D adventure already involves NPC enemies trying to kill the PCs, one more won't make much difference.

Losing experience points is annoying, but it's ultimately just a temporary setback, especially as it can't reduce the PC's level. (That being said, I usually run sandbox hexcrawl campaigns in which the players have a great deal of power to decide what level of challenge they face, so PCs having different levels in the same party isn't much of an issue for me. Your milage may vary.)

For the PCs: AnnoyingUnpleasant.
For the campaign: Benign.

There's not much that can go wrong with free money. Fifth edition doesn't require the PCs to have specific levels of wealth in order to be effective as adventurers, so a sudden windfall or loss doesn't make much difference.

For the PCs: AnnoyingUnpleasant or awful.
For the campaign: Benign.

Bonus experience is unlikely to cause problems, except maybe envy. (That being said, I usually run sandbox hexcrawl campaigns in which the players can influence what level of challenge they face, so PCs having different levels in the same party isn't much of an issue for me. Your mileage may vary if your campaign gives players less power to decide their challenges.)

For the playersIn my experience, this isplayers love getting a free and perfectly loyal minion, and thereforethink it's awesome. For you, it's a warrioran NPC with a mysterious past who was created by the card or transported to the players by magic, and those're anboth interesting possibilities to explore.

Speaking as a GM, wishes are tremendous fun to hand out to players. Since you're the one who getsdecides how to grant wishesthem, you're in total control of whether this causesthey cause problems for the PCs and campaign. I imagine you don't want to wreck the campaign; whether you want to ruin the lives of your PCs is a very personal question I won't ask you to answer.

For the PCs: AnnoyingUnpleasant.
For the campaign: Benign.

PCs hate going losing money, but it's not actually that big a deal. PCs can't buy magic items in 5efifth edition, so this really just means they'll need some other party member to cover their food and lodging costs until the party next finds some loot.

For the PCs: AnnoyingUnpleasant.
For the campaign: Benign.

In my campaigns, I generally don't consider a permanent PC death or retirement to be a big deal, and so rarely have problems throwing such threats at my PCs - but I understand your group values PC wellbeing more highly. You might want to skip or nerf this one.

For the PCs: Either benign or devastating, nothing inbetweenin-between.
For the campaign: Probably benign, but potentially devastating if the other PCs decide to help the one who drew the card.

Free stats. Everyone cheers. In my experience, this won't be disruptive; as nice as a +2 stat increase is, it's small and non-impactful enough that I and my players could both completely forget it ever happened within a few sessions.

The PC loses all their magic items. This sucksMany classes and builds need gear to be useful, but isthey don't specifically need magic gear to be useful - so, while this does suck for the affected PC, it's unlikely to be fatal unless it results in the PC being unarmed and unarmoured in the middle of a dungeon or something.

For the PCs: AnnoyingUnpleasant or awful.
For the campaign: Benign.

The PCs get a free skill proficiency which applies in social encounters, which is nice. They also get a sidequest, for which the reward is a cleared-out dungeon... Which is technically the same reward they get for a lot of quests, if you think about it. Neither of these rewards is likely to cause problems.

The PC gets a just-tell-us-the-puzzle-solution-or-knowledge-check-result-already voucher, valid for one in-game year. Since you're running a sandbox campaign, this won't cause any problems that last longer than an adventure - and you can definitely trust me on this. I like to give my players access to an oracle that can answer nearly any question about half-way through each of my campaigns; it's never caused a problem yet.

Whether this card is disruptive or not depends entirely on how your group handles alignment and forced alignment changes. That's a big, complicated topic, but here's the short version:

Hopefully your players are probably mature and sensible enough not to make these mistakes - but in the worst-case scenario, such mistakes could easily lead to one or more PC deaths.

Slightly worsened saving throws is a minor inconvenience at worst.

For the PCs: Annoying.
For the campaign: Benign.

This is a good thing for the PCs, unless you decide to go all malevolent genie on them and give their well-meaning actions horrible consequences - but if you're the kind of GM to do that, the PCs are probably doomed anyway; drawing this card will just make their inevitable doom happen faster.

The PC gets a new NPC enemy who wants to kill them. Given that nearly every adventure already involves NPC enemies trying to kill the PCs, one more won't make much difference.

Losing experience points is annoying, but it's ultimately just a temporary setback.

For the PCs: Annoying.
For the campaign: Benign.

There's not much that can go wrong with free money.

For the PCs: Annoying or awful.
For the campaign: Benign.

Bonus experience is unlikely to cause problems, except maybe envy.

For the players, this is a free and perfectly loyal minion, and therefore awesome. For you, it's a warrior with a mysterious past who was created by the card or transported to the players by magic, and those're an interesting possibilities to explore.

Since you're the one who gets to grant wishes, you're in total control of whether this causes problems for the PCs and campaign. I imagine you don't want to wreck the campaign; whether you want to ruin the lives of your PCs is a very personal question I won't ask you to answer.

For the PCs: Annoying.
For the campaign: Benign.

PCs hate going losing money, but it's not actually that big a deal. PCs can't buy magic items in 5e, so this really just means they'll need some other party member to cover their food and lodging costs until the party next finds some loot.

For the PCs: Annoying.
For the campaign: Benign.

For the PCs: Either benign or devastating, nothing inbetween.
For the campaign: Probably benign, but potentially devastating if the other PCs decide to help the one who drew the card.

Free stats. Everyone cheers.

The PC loses all their magic items. This sucks, but is unlikely to be fatal unless it results in the PC being unarmed and unarmoured in the middle of a dungeon or something.

For the PCs: Annoying or awful.
For the campaign: Benign.

The PCs get a free skill proficiency which applies in social encounters, which is nice. They also get a sidequest, for which the reward is a cleared-out dungeon... Which is technically the same reward they get for a lot of quests, if you think about it.

The PC gets a just-tell-us-the-puzzle-solution-or-knowledge-check-result-already voucher, valid for one in-game year. Since you're running a sandbox campaign, this won't cause any problems that last longer than an adventure.

In my experience whether an a forced alignment change is disruptive or not depends entirely on your group and how they handle alignment. That's a big, complicated topic, but here's the short version:

Hopefully your players are probably mature and sensible enough not to make these mistakes - but in the worst-case scenario, such mistakes could easily lead to one or more PC deaths. I don't know your players, so I don't know if this would be an issue for you - but it wouldn't be one with mine.

Slightly worsened saving throws is a minor inconvenience at worst. Yes, they make a character worse at surviving, but no more so than a run of bad rolls.

For the PCs: Unpleasant.
For the campaign: Benign.

I must admit, I've never actually had this particular effect come up in a game that I was running. Still, it could only be a good thing for the PCs and the campaign; you as GM will get to adjudicate exactly what consequences the PCs' one-use undo button will have. The only way it could go wrong is if you decide to go all malevolent genie on them, and give their well-meaning actions horrible consequences - but if you're the kind of GM to do that, the PCs are probably doomed anyway; drawing this card will just make them be doomed faster.

The PC gets a new NPC enemy who wants to kill them. Given that nearly every D&D adventure already involves NPC enemies trying to kill the PCs, one more won't make much difference.

Losing experience points is annoying, but it's ultimately just a temporary setback, especially as it can't reduce the PC's level. (That being said, I usually run sandbox hexcrawl campaigns in which the players have a great deal of power to decide what level of challenge they face, so PCs having different levels in the same party isn't much of an issue for me. Your milage may vary.)

For the PCs: Unpleasant.
For the campaign: Benign.

There's not much that can go wrong with free money. Fifth edition doesn't require the PCs to have specific levels of wealth in order to be effective as adventurers, so a sudden windfall or loss doesn't make much difference.

For the PCs: Unpleasant or awful.
For the campaign: Benign.

Bonus experience is unlikely to cause problems, except maybe envy. (That being said, I usually run sandbox hexcrawl campaigns in which the players can influence what level of challenge they face, so PCs having different levels in the same party isn't much of an issue for me. Your mileage may vary if your campaign gives players less power to decide their challenges.)

In my experience, players love getting a free and perfectly loyal minion, and think it's awesome. For you, it's an NPC with a mysterious past who was created by the card or transported to the players by magic, and those're both interesting possibilities to explore.

Speaking as a GM, wishes are tremendous fun to hand out to players. Since you're the one who decides how to grant them, you're in total control of whether they cause problems for the PCs and campaign. I imagine you don't want to wreck the campaign; whether you want to ruin the lives of your PCs is a very personal question I won't ask you to answer.

For the PCs: Unpleasant.
For the campaign: Benign.

PCs hate losing money, but it's not actually that big a deal. PCs can't buy magic items in fifth edition, so this really just means they'll need some other party member to cover their food and lodging costs until the party next finds some loot.

For the PCs: Unpleasant.
For the campaign: Benign.

In my campaigns, I generally don't consider a permanent PC death or retirement to be a big deal, and so rarely have problems throwing such threats at my PCs - but I understand your group values PC wellbeing more highly. You might want to skip or nerf this one.

For the PCs: Either benign or devastating, nothing in-between.
For the campaign: Probably benign, but potentially devastating if the other PCs decide to help the one who drew the card.

Free stats. Everyone cheers. In my experience, this won't be disruptive; as nice as a +2 stat increase is, it's small and non-impactful enough that I and my players could both completely forget it ever happened within a few sessions.

The PC loses all their magic items. Many classes and builds need gear to be useful, but they don't specifically need magic gear to be useful - so, while this does suck for the affected PC, it's unlikely to be fatal unless it results in the PC being unarmed and unarmoured in the middle of a dungeon or something.

For the PCs: Unpleasant or awful.
For the campaign: Benign.

The PCs get a free skill proficiency which applies in social encounters, which is nice. They also get a sidequest, for which the reward is a cleared-out dungeon... Which is technically the same reward they get for a lot of quests, if you think about it. Neither of these rewards is likely to cause problems.

The PC gets a just-tell-us-the-puzzle-solution-or-knowledge-check-result-already voucher, valid for one in-game year. Since you're running a sandbox campaign, this won't cause any problems that last longer than an adventure - and you can definitely trust me on this. I like to give my players access to an oracle that can answer nearly any question about half-way through each of my campaigns; it's never caused a problem yet.

Improved clarity of some sections, and corrected a typo.
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GMJoe
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Source Link
GMJoe
  • 22.8k
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