How do we subvert the "lamp full of wishes" trope?

>>53239550
Play it straight.

>>53239550

The lamp needs to be filled with wishes first, by consuming them.

>>53239550
Put a demon in the lamp.
Make the lamp reveal some bullshit when you burn it.
Make the lamp cursed: when you get it your luck goes to shit, and even when you try to get rid of it you'll keep running into it.

Alternatively, dont play a setting where "wish" tier spells are canon.

>>53239550
>A camp full of dishes
>A stamp full of dishes
>A tramp full of bitches
>A camp full of stiches

>>53239550
I would say just be yourself, but it's in direct contradiction with the first suggestion, so maybe don't.

>>53239550
http://archive.4plebs.org/tg/thread/51544700/#51544700
http://archive.4plebs.org/tg/thread/49303382/#49303382
http://archive.4plebs.org/tg/thread/47063708/#47063708
http://archive.4plebs.org/tg/thread/41509310/#41509310
http://archive.4plebs.org/tg/thread/39821838/#39821838

>>53239627
A snitch full of stitches.

>>53239550

When you rub the lamp, a dude comes out in a cloud of smoke.

He is really happy to see you. He doesn't grant wishes. Some dickhole wizard just cursed him to be trapped inside a lamp for all time.

Rubbing it brings him back out, but only for a little while.

He spends a lot of time alone int he lamp, and is desperate for company. He begs you to free him.

He doesn't know what will happen if you break the lamp. It will either free him, kill him, or trap him forever with no way out ever again.

>>53239668
A gramp full of riches.

>>53239550
There's a genie trapped in the lamp. When you release it, it chooses to reward your kindness by granting three of your wishes. However, it doesn't have far-reaching reality manipulating powers, it just has some pretty strong but limited magical powers and superhuman attributes that it will use to the best of its ability to provide you your desires as it understands them.

>>53239550

Make it a ring full of wishes instead. Like the damned original.

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Go read the arabian nights, efrits are fucking assholes

>>53239550
Instead of a Genie, the lamp is filled with Succubi in skimpy harem outfits, because crazy desert wizards are crazy.

They can make your wishes come true, but only if your wish is "level drain me until I die" unless you're the crazy wizard who bound them through his magic.

>>53239550
The genie in the lamp demands you grant three of his wishes, or he will destroy you.

They're more sentimental than anything - i.e. take him to somewhere important to him, make him his favorite meal (just conjuring it doesn't taste right), critique the book he's been writing.

Perhaps after helping him with these he's grateful and offers the party something in return. Perhaps he was rather cranky after centuries of being awoken by ungrateful bastards expecting him to solve all their problems. Perhaps he's just a dick.

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Make it so each wish is a suppository pill that's inside the lamp.

Put bees in the lamp.

Put ur dik in the lamp.

>>53239550
The genie doesn't actually have immense cosmic power.

Instead, the Lamp just records the wish given by its last owner and geasses the new one to fulfill the wish to the best of their ability.

So when the party tries to wish using the lamp, it instead forces them to follow some insane goosechase regarding a wish by the last guy who had it several hundred years ago.

On the plus side though, once they finish, they can force the next guy they give the lamp to carry out their wish.

>>53239550
the djinn is not really obligated to make wishes he just likes to

he's not a dick, his wishes have no downside, but he can decide not to grant you wishes.

>>53239550
Go back to the source material. The genie doesn't just snap its fingers and grant wishes, it's a supernatural entity enslaved to do your bidding for three requests. Maybe it has applicable magic, maybe it has to perform a task manually. Maybe instead of a djinni you got an efreeti, or worse yet, some evil jackass has the efreeti and they're having fun teaming up to screw you over.

>>53239550
Lambo full of bitches

>>53239690
A clamp full of fishes.

>>53239754
The original story had both a ring and a lamp, though...

>>53240829
The ring had a shitty genie that could barely do anything though.

>>53239550
Whoever finds the lamp must fulfill ITS wishes, or be trapped forever.

And it's a /d/eranged little fucker too.

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>>53239631
Fucking savage.

>>53239605

Awwww yea

The lamp informs the holder that they may have a perfect life. Money, spouse, power.. but all they need to do is ruin the life of someone else. Your happiness will be equal to the happiness you steal. Or prevent someone from obtaining their goal.

You gotta keep the balance.

desire vampire

Have your players incidentally find an adorned lamp on a golden pedestal with a cryptic message inscribed on the bottom of the lamp.

The trick will be it's actually just a lamp.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#eversmokingBottle

It's more of a wish roulette thing, where the setup goes thusly

>First dude finds the lamp
>Summons the Genie/Djinn/Demon/Whatever
>Makes his wish
>Nothing happens to the first guy

>This happens two more times with two more people, til a total of three different wishes have been made
>All three are recorded by the genie in the lamp

>A fourth guy finds the lamp
>Summons the genie or whatever
>It says it can grant him one of three wishes, and then vaguely describes the three people who made the wishes but not the wishes themselves

See? Now you have to choose if you want the wish of the King Guy, the Humble Beggar Dude, or the Death Cultist Person! I mean, you never know what exactly they wished for or how they worded it, but something amazing could happen!

Why is this guy so obsessed with subverting tropes? Does he really think we need between one and three of these threads on /tg/ at any given time?

>>53239550
There are limitations but the genie is a total bro and actually wants to help you.

>>53240489
>>53240498
Do both of these

Wish for the answer... Duh, c'mon people

>>53239550

Lamp full of ideas best left untouched and unworked on.

Had an idea for a one page comic where a man frees the djinn, but has a history of indecision and denial and just wishes that he knew what it was he really wanted.
The djinn apologizes, and grants the wish as the man asks "for what?"
As the realization dawns on him, he face goes from optimistically curious to downcast and crestfallen. He walks away without using the other 2 wishes.

>>53239550
It is the summer home of a marid.

For finding it, you get a good amount of money and the option to rent during other seasons.

>>53241193
I was reading a thing about how from 1st grade on boys are hardwired to enjoy preventing others from obtaining their goals simply for the pleasure of fucking with them, regardless of whether it helps them achieve their own

>>53241193
t. President Funny Valentine

>>53240582
>three requests

Stop sucking Disney dick, Burgerclap.

>>53239550
The lamp is full of one of each type of object that can grant a wish. When you rub it, they're all unleashed and scattered across the world for anyone to find. An Djinn, and Efreet, a shooting star, a well, etc. just all pop out, fully capable of granting wishes, and go all over the place.

Such lamps are quite difficult to make, since they require one to gather mundane versions of all the different wish-granting objects and have it suck them inside. This is relatively easy for things that are easy to find like wells, but very challenging for the living magical creatures or trying to find fallen meteorites.

Many of them were made by powerful mages long ago, who could use their magic to gather the materials more easily, as well as locate and transport themselves to where the materials went after they became wish-granting. This was seen as a way to unlock the true highest levels of spellcasting, though competitions between those using them led to the end of the world.

Nowadays, making such a lamp is a grand undertaking, and the rumors of someone finding one, let alone rubbing it, is enough to send many people into a panic trying to find a true wishing well or what have you.

>>53239550
The "lamp full of wishes" story was intentionally spread by the lamp's creator. It actually only grants HIS wish, which is powered by the life force of those foolish enough to rub it. They become withered husks, the lamp continues to change hands, and eventually the creator will have his wish.

>>53240370
And Arabs are constantly getting cucked by black men.

It's worth the read just to chuckle at the arabs impotence, if nothing else.

>>53239550
>you must grant me 3 wishes or I'll kill you all

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When you rub it, it grants everyone's wish, all at once. EVERYONE.

Contradictory wishes simply cancel each other out if made in equal amounts.

>>53240489
That was one guffaw and a string of madman giggles worth of humor sir. I lol'd heartily.

>>53239550
Did you ever see that cursed lamp genie horror movie? The one where the genie fulfilled the user's wish in a twisted way.
That's a good way to subvert it, I think.

>>53244280

Wishmaster. And I'm pretty sure he didn't come from a magic lamp, but some kind of gem or something.

The lamp is red hot and you have to rub it for 1 minute straight with bare hands, there's no way for you to get rid of the heat or the damage caused by this magical lamp, not even using a genie wish.

>>53239550

Monkey's paw, makes wishes into curses if it doesn't follow a criteria, the genie is a trap, you make three wishes and nothing happens cause making wishes doesn't make them come true and the genie never said anything about granting them.

>>53239550
When you rub the magic lamp, a stream of oil shoots out.

Medieval flamethrower is better than a genie

Players rub the lamp, a genie comes out.

"I will grant your wishes," he says, "as many as you please, and whatever your heart desires, no matter how big or small the wish is."

Allow the players to test the genie however they wish - he is good to his word.

A thousand perfect copies of the rarest artifiact in the world? not a problem.

A palace the size of a city, with unbelievable treasures and a workforce of tireless golem (or whatever) servants to maintain it, and a harem of the most beautiful women imaginable? why not two - it is easy for the genie

An unstoppable army to destroy the player's enemies? sure thing, but why bother when the genie can direct storms of fire over the enemy camps and roast them alive in a single night.

And so the players are given whatever they wish. But perhaps they are sitting on a balcony or a rooftop garden in their palace, talking the night away now that there are no challenges left in the world to be had, when one of them notices that the stars are turning red, and now that they think about it it's been unusually cold lately...

Turns out, those unlimited wishes weren't free after all...

see the Infovore from charles stross' Atrocity Archives for the sort of effect I'm going for here. The players have drained so much energy from the universe through wishing that they're seeing the stars light redshift as the univers rushes in towards them as it collapses.

You could either make this a total party kill / setting kill sort of thing, but I'd be inclined to do something like play for a couple of sessions in this setting, then the wishing incident happens and they're forced to destroy the universe by using it's last dregs of energy to open a gate and escape, but they could only get to a lower-energy (read darker and edgier) with the energy they had.

It's a good excuse to turn the difficulty up a couple of notches once they're used to the basic mechanics of the game.

>>53244468
That also sounds like a massive "fuck you" to the player sunless it's been very clearly signposted that shit like that could happen.

Also, you got your red and blue shifts the wrong way around, if that matters.

>>53244468
"Genie, I wish to know what consequences future wishes will have and what you gain or consume when granting them"

>>53244507
not that guy but if players think they can get free unlimited power from a genie they kind of deserve to get fucked over

>>53243232
i dont get it

>>53243320
congrats on reading propaganda

>>53244612
the man realised that liking traps means you're gay

>>53239683
That's pretty clever

lamp full of angry bees

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>>53245829

Put Jafar in it.

>>53244023
Who let you out of reddit?

Shoo.

>>53239550
Genies are not obligated to grant wishes.

In fact, most of them ardently wish to be left alone in their lamps for all of eternity, it's pretty cool in there. They finally got Netflix.
So occasionally they will grant a wish, in the hope that the person who let them out will have everything he ever wanted, and sequester their lamp far away from prying eyes.

Getting a Wish out of a genie can be taxing for even the most suave individuals.
They are notoriously stubborn.

>>53243368
was about to post this.

>>53244280
>Sadistic Genie fulfilling wishes in a twisted way is a good way to subvert the trope
Yeah we've never seen that before. A Genie who tricks people, what a novel idea! They've never been known to do mean things through their wishes, you've turned the old trope on its head! Breathed new life into it! What if the Genies granted wishes in a bad way, what a unique thought. Excellent subversion.

>>53240582
Mayhap you should go back to the source material?
>upernatural entity enslaved to do your bidding
The efreeti the fisherman found in a bottle wasn't supernaturally enslaved to do jack.
The only thing "compelling" it was its desire to keep its promise.

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>>53239550
>How do we subvert
>wishes

A wish full of lamps

It's full of oil.

Can be lit to produce light.

Rubbing it makes it shinier.

>>53243841
Cherry on top: there are black efrits

It's an electric lamp and needs to be plugged in first.

>>53245829
joke's on you, I'm a motherfucking bear

>>53239550
>Subvert
Ugh

Genie is a lazy fuck and grants wishes by tweaking the odds in your favour the absolute bare minimum possible.
You can make wishes and they do eventually come true but you can never be sure if it's the genie's magic or your hard work and skill or pure dumb luck

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>>53241138
I don't get it

>>53239550
The genie feeds by making your wish backfire.

>>53239550
Lamp is full of spiders

>>53241949
Stealing this

The lamp grants a single wish per person in good spirit, but when a person makes a wish, the previous person's wish becomes subverted and backfires. Would you make yourself happy at the expense of others and risk your own hubris becoming your undoing?

>>53252306
>Button button.

It's a lamp full of witches. They just kind of clowncar out of it when you rub it and then there's a bunch of witches all around you. It's functionally similar in that you don't know whether it's a good thing or not and it has a high chance of going badly but hey some of them might be cute wiccan girls that like dancing around naked.

>>53251930
OP is a faggot.

By first suggestion he means first reply.

>>53239550
You rub the lamp, you grant the genie inside 3 wishes.

>>53254206
Ohhhhhhhhhhh.

Nice

>>53239550
Make it a lamp full of bitches.

>>53244468
I was gonna point out that you got the Doppler effect wrong but >>53244507 already did. Reds are longer wavelengths, and redshift occurs from things moving away from each other (so the frequency of wave peaks are farther apart, as they are being emitted at increasingly distant intervals but at the same temporal frequency); blues are shorter wavelengths, so vice versa. You can think of it as the wave getting stretched out or compressed by the movement of the body producing it, if that helps, though that isn't really physically accurate. A neat fact is that stars can't be green because their colour comes from blackbody radiation but they could appear green if they were yellow and blueshifted enough or blue and redshifted enough.

>>53239550
Lamp that grants you the ability to curse 3 different people with any misfortune.

All three curses are then inflicted on you.