Player rubs lamp of genie

>player rubs lamp of genie
>genie comes out of lamp
>genie offers player 3 wishes
>player says "surprise me" and allows the genie to make 3 wishes of its own choosing
How would you as a GM deal with this situation? Would it mess up your plans if you had been planning on making it one of those tricky genies?

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It can still be. I'd do one that's good for the player, one that's weird but harmless, and one that's real bad for the setting. The first one is a gift for the freedom, the second one is something that brings the genie's viewpoint into the world, the third one is a revenge that has far-reaching consequences.

Good move by the players. Now instead of three wishes, they have a magical ally who really likes them. As for the wishes themselves, first would be something nice for the guy, a new fancy hat or something else largely inconsequential. Then, the deed to a modest shop in a nearby town. And lastly, freedom from the lamp.

Make a 1d100 chart featuring wishes that are beneficial with no downside, but not necessarily useful or relevant to the player, and roll 3 times. If the same number comes up more than once, that's too bad.

>player says "surprise me"
You enter combat with the genie. Your character is surprised, roll for initiative. You have two wishes left.

>You enter combat with the genie. Your character is surprised, roll for initiative. You have two wishes left.
The player didn't say "I wish I was surprised" though, he just said "surprise me."

Nice try though.

>Would it mess up your plans if you had been planning on making it one of those tricky genies?
>And lastly, freedom from the lamp.

Is this the kind of genie from myth or the kind from Disney movies? If it's a traditional genie then it grants wishes out of gratitude for being freed, and doesn't have many powers apart from being very strong, fast, wealthy and having contacts in genie society (meaning if you want a house, it can contact some genie craftsmen to build it super-fast). Or if it's been stuck in the lamp too long, it's just insane and kills you.

By that logic, the genie wouldn’t grant the player’s wish in ANY capacity because he didn’t say “I wish”. So “surprise me” would do jack shit.

Pretty much exactly this. It rewards the player for their compassion, adds something funny and weird to the proceedings and gives you a further plot hook to explore.

We're talking about modern fantasy games. They have a long history of caring more about Disney than about original myths.

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>and doesn't have many powers apart
Shapeshifting, flying, and whatever fits the narrative.

>(meaning if you want a house, it can contact some genie craftsmen to build it super-fast).
Like that time Alexander the Great had some jinn build the Great Wall of China for Allah.

Bust out the deck of many things.

Tell the player to draw three cards. His character suffers the effects.

Sounds like a free Bait Quest Hook card to me. I'd probably give them mixed blessings with rather involved tasks to correct the bad parts, and of course this'd be an excuse to develop the character of the genie more.

"Surprise me" implies that the player is allowing the genie to decide the wishes for them, rather than doing the usual thing and using the three wishes that the genie grants them to wish for something selfish like most people who are given the opportunity.

Whether the genie takes advantage of this will depend on the genie, but the intent was to allow the genie to grant a degree of agency, which it probably wouldn't be used to having (beyond the gratitude of being willing to grant someone three wishes in the first place) so that it could now choose what it spends its wishes on, rather than being complacent in whatever wishes the user wants them to grant (assuming it doesn't break any rules).

Subtext motherfucker.

The genie gives them a sandwich, a bag of chips, and a can of coke.

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I'm pretty sure the trick with traditional genies is to use your last wish to re-seal it so it doesn't go after you.

Wish 1: Genies can wish each other free at will as long as they themselves have been freed
Wish 2: Summon an idiot who only wishes for genies to be free
Wish 3: Summon all the magical lamps in the universe within this particular area in such a way that they don't clobber the idiot to death or otherwise hurt him.

This.

Simple and easy, no muss, no fuss.

Traditional genies mostly aren't bound and are just dudes you can meet. The ones that are bound are servants for life.
The only genie that offers 3 wishes in an old story (or would have, if he'd been freed sooner) was trapped for refusing a job offer from Solomon. It's also worth noting that he was scared of the fisherman that released him until he realized Solomon hadn't sent them.
He was tricked back into the bottle, but no wish was involved. The fisherman basically said, "You're huge and I bet you don't fit in this small bottle I just saw you come out of" and the genie said, "I sure do you insolent punk, just watch."

The genie uses the first wish to be free, no longer has to grant the other two wishes, and leaves.

Then why are all genies assholes instead of mostly likeable dudes like the blue guy?

The player who rubbed the lamp gets phenomenal cosmic power and an itty bitty living space. The rest of the party must fight the now freed genie to get back possession of the lamp and their friend.

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Is this the one and only situation where deck of many thing is appropriate?

>player rubs gigantic butt of underdark monk
>genie comes out of gigantic butt
>monk giggles
>genie offers player 3 wishes
>player says "surprise me" and allows the genie to make 3 wishes of its own choosing

Cloudkill
Three times

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Okay, what the fuck am I reading...

Well, first of all, you're probably still working with a Genie that is bound by the laws of Geniedom and thus has to actually get the guy to wish for the thing the Genie wants.

But anyway, you officially are now forced to think of a character for your Genie instead of using it as a way to get out your own dickish urges to fuck with your players. I'd recommend asking yourself why the Genie is so manipulative and what end it's trying to manipulate people to.

For the purposes of example, I shall assume that your Genie is a dick for no other reason than it amuses that Genie (which is to say because it amuses you, the GM), which, let's be honest, is the case for 99.999% of GMs who bother to use a "tricky Genie" in their games. Therefore, any wish that it could make on behalf of itself would be oriented towards allowing itself to have even *more* dickish fun.

Wish #1: I wish I were free of [crazy Genie laws that bind it from using its power save for when a third party makes a wish]

Wish #2: I wish I were free of this [lamp/other imprisonment device], Setting dependent but likely significant enough to require a second Wish

Wish #3: Joke's on you he's a strong independent Genie who don't need no third Wish

Congrats now you have pic related as the new BBEG.

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Is there anything more pretentious and shitty then the "wish twisting" genie/devil thing?

It's honestly just shit writing. I don't know why anyone would think they're clever for doing it.

>Is that your wish?

You've fucking killed me user, my sides have now reached escape velocity and now I'm going to bleed to death because they left so violently

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>wish the player to receive a reasonable amount of gold
>genie then wishes himself free
>cya

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Make some nonesense magic items. Like a bucket of infinite crabs

Wouldn't that just be free money? I mean think of how much you could make selling Crab meat. You could possibly end hunger in your region to some significant degree depending on how the bucket works.

Then again I guess it could also be the Crabpocolypse.

Yeah, but it'd certainly be surprising

A magic spork that can duplicate any food it touches, by only producing inferior versions of it.
I call it the "The Chef's Bane"

A cheesegrater that can turn wood to grated cheese. Each wood being a different cheese

Except the cheese still taste's like wood

Why not smoked cheeze flavour?

Can't remember what it's called, but I pull up that DnD brew/potion that has 1000 different effects and roll for three.

Lobster then. You can't even force prisoners to eat it.

Genies can't make wishes on their own recognizance. That's part of the binding Solomon laid upon them when he bound them into their service.

I would just convince the local Lord to build a watertight arena in which to pit his prisoners against an endless amount of Lobsters. Spectators welcome for a reasonable admission price.

The available concession snacks are all Lobster based. As is the merchandise, which also includes Lobsters to take home as pets.

... This is the best thing to ever come out of one of my shitposts

new genie bbeg

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The blue guy's an asshole.

Depends on the genie. If its a grumpy genie that hates his job, player should be fucked. He brought it on himself, don't hold your hand, smack him as hard as you can.

Genie could, for example, make each wish benefit himself, kill the player or even just switch bodies with him in order to make himself free.

Genie proofs behind him & shouts Boo!

>surprise me
Said no player ever upon being presented by a choice.

Still, I would make it so that the genie was impressed by their goodwill, and he would instead provide them with plot critical information before disappearing.

They've been over it. Most 'natural' genies are chill in that world.

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Based gigantic butt poster
I've missed your antics

Wish 1: genie frees himself of bondage
Wish 2: genie grants himself epic-level power
Wish 3: genie attacks player

Why are so many replies "Genie attacks you"? Is that the best you can come up with?

Complaining about genies for one.

You would obviously just change the state of mind of the player character to be surprised. Then you'd ask for the next two wishes. The thing about genies is always that they grant the wishes literally, if they can.

The genie reaches into the character's brain and tweaks it so that he feels surprised.

Not about anything in particular, just surprised.

Genie wishes that the player character has a really good week
Genie wishes his own permanent freedom
Genie wishes that everyone in the party gets a really good sandwich of their preference.

>I wish for all lamp makers to suffer
>I wish the genie was King of the World
>I wish all genies were free

>it's a bit dry
>oh noooooooo

The blue guy is seflish and manipulative, and definitely a bit of an asshole. You should see what he's done to Jasmine and then Hermione.

I feel bad for remembering and getting that reference

>Good move by the players.
I've often thought that if I was playing a game and encountered the classic genie who offered three wishes, I would wish for the genie to be my friend and for it to be free.

Then I would say that I don't need any more wishes.