Judging Wishes

Wishes are one of the most potentially unbalancing things in the game. With a carefully worded wish, a player character can make sweeping, dramatic changes in the game world, possibly even rewriting history. Before allowing the player characters in your game access to even one wish, think about how you will deal with it. Wishes are granted by a variety of beings. Even when a wish comes from a device (a ring or a sword, for instance), some extradimensional being, god or devil or whatever, has placed that wish in the device. A wish will tend to further the goals of the granting being; if the granter is an evil efreeti, for instance, it will attempt to twist the meaning or intent of the wish so that it does not really accomplish what the player character wants. On the other hand, if the granter is one of the good powers, it will grant the wish as intended so long as the player character isn't being greedy or spiteful. Game balance is the main issue that must be considered. Using a wish to heal the entire party, teleport everyone without error to a distant location, or to avoid or redo a catastrophic battle, is reasonable. A wish that a character be restored to life and health is reasonable, but a wish that not only restores but also improves the character is not. In general, a wish is granted with at least literal accuracy… the words of the wish must be fulfilled. The exception is wishes that are unreasonable for game balance purposes; they are still at least literally interpreted, but may be only partially granted. In the last example above, for instance, the granting power would likely restore the character to life and health but ignore the "improvements" wished for.