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From: pugh@cornell.UUCP (William Pugh)
Newsgroups: net.games.frp
Subject: Re: Wishes
Message-ID: <5465@cornell.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 11-Oct-83 11:38:16 EDT
Article-I.D.: cornell.5465
Posted: Tue Oct 11 11:38:16 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 13-Oct-83 03:11:27 EDT
References: <1017@pur-ee.UUCP>, <3547@decwrl.UUCP>
Organization: Cornell Computer Science
Lines: 40

A few thoughts on wishes. Often, wishes are considered incredibly powerful
and are balenced by being incredibly crocked.  The definition of wishes is
very vague and (as can be seen by comments on the net) open to contraversy
as to what will or will not be granted.
   There are several different definitions of wishes I can think of which
eliminate some of this vagueness:
    1 - A wish is granted by a specific entity. The extent of what can be
        granted is limited by the powers of that entity.  Whether or not
        a wish is crocked depends on the attitude of the entity.  For 
        example, a person might aquire a ring of three Djinn wishes.  There
        would likely be some sort of limitation on the amount of time/mana/
        effort an entity would spend fullfilling a wish.  This is nice 
        in that it allows low-powered wishes to be created, which are
        wishes granted by a low to medium powered entity.  Super-powerful
        wishes still exist; this are wishes granted by major gods.    
    2 - A wish is a very flexible spell, which is similar in power to
        other spells of the same rank, but the effects of which can
        be specified when the spell in cast.  For example, you might
        decide that a 9th level MU wish spell could accomplish anything
        that could be performed by a combination of up to three lower
        level spells, including spells not known by the mage or not   
        researched.  This sort of wish would not likely be crocked unless
        the mage mis-cast the spell.  Lesser powered wishes could exist; 
        for example, a 3rd level MU wish spell that could do anything that
        could be performed by up to two first or second level spells.
    3 - A wish is granted by the fates.  In this case, the wish is likely
        to be accomplished by the slow and subtle manipulation of destiny.
       For example, if you wished to become rich, you may find two weeks
       later that a relative has died and left you money.  These wishes
       are subject to crocks, and powerful wishes may take a long time
       to fulfill, or may never by granted. 

  On a side note, an interesting wish to ask is: "I wish that something
wonderful and well worth a wish should happen to me today."
     
   Bill Pugh
Newsgroups: net.games.frp
Subject: Re: Wishes
References: <1017@pur-ee.UUCP>, <3547@decwrl.UUCP>