Tests (Cronos)
Those who meddle with Time will have it eventually catch up with them. Use this table whenever a Cronos wizard rolls a 1 or 13 on a casting roll (if using that optional rule), rolls the same magical side-effect number twice in a row, or otherwise pushes the limits of paradox too far. Roll 1d8 the first time he experiences a test in a day, 1d10 the second time, and 1d12 for the third time or more. The die resets to 1d8 the following day- if the wizard still exists!
Those who meddle with Time will have it eventually catch up with them. Use this table whenever a Cronos wizard rolls a 1 or 13 on a casting roll (if using that optional rule), rolls the same magical side-effect number twice in a row, or otherwise pushes the limits of paradox too far. Roll 1d8 the first time he experiences a test in a day, 1d10 the second time, and 1d12 for the third time or more. The die resets to 1d8 the following day- if the wizard still exists!
1. All of the wizard’s spells now take 1d4-1 additional rounds before their effects occur, waiting for the time to be right. This situation lasts until the Cronos wizard is tested once more and rolls this same result again. Further instances of this result will also toggle the effect on and off.
2. Are you living in a Golden Age? If so (per Hesiod), then the wizard experiences no adverse effect this time. If not, then any possessions on his person age to dust, helping him to better experience such a timeless, bucolic state.
3. The last spell that the wizard casts (or tried to cast) now has a special requirement. In order for him to cast it again, he must be (roll 1d8): [1] in a tavern lavatory, [2] on a cart or wagon traveling at least 11 miles per hour, [3] in a sauna or other hot tub of water (preferably drunk), [4] in a tall, blue box marked for watchmen use, [5] in a tall, clear box while acting foolish and saying ‘excellent!’, [6] on a very ornate metal chair, [7] in a room, pushing on the walls (dwarves may help with this), [8] on the last ride home tonight. This situation lasts for the next 1d3 days.
4. The wizard gains an accurate glimpse of some future event, but will then immediately lose a random ally or loved one to (roll 1d4): [1] indifference, [2] death, [3] hatred alone, [4] hatred and wanting to kill him. Whether his prescience became a self-fulfilling prophecy, one need not be an oracle to divine that such knowledge might not be worth its price.
5. The sickle of Cronos reaps the wizard, causing him 2d4 damage for all the temporal paradox he has caused, along with having a 20% chance of chopping off something small and hanging of his. If he dies from this damage, then the wizard will actually cease to exist and likely cannot be brought back in any manner, nor may his scrotum!
6-7. Cronos’s son Kairos would like to know if this is an opportune moment or not. Roll any die. If the result is even, then the answer is yes and the wizard isn’t tested this time. If the result is odd, then the answer is no: reroll 1d12 on this table, but all effects are doubled, even multiplying x4, x8, etc. if this result is rerolled multiple times, likely making the moment very inopportune.
8. The wizard immediately ages 3d6 years (no save). Unless he is young and such a change would mature him faster, then he has a base 5% chance per year gained that he permanently loses some vitality, reflecting an increase in decrepitude (roll 1d6): [1] 1 Strength, [2] 1 Intelligence, [3] 1 Dexterity or Agility,
[4] 1 Constitution or Stamina, [5] 1 Charisma or Personality, [6] 5’ speed.
9. All these distortions in Time can drive one mad just thinking about it! The wizard must save vs. death or go insane. If not, then whenever this test result occurs again, the save becomes 2 harder.
10. Swept forward, the wizard and anyone within 10’ of him travels into the future 1d12 (then roll 1d20):
[1-5] rounds, [6-10] minutes, [11-14] hours, [15-17] days, [18-19] months, [20] years. He and any others are thereby taken out of play during that time- unless they find a way to return beforehand, though for them no time will seemed to have passed at all.
11. Thrown backward, the wizard and anyone within 10’ of him travels into the past 1d12 (then roll 1d20): [1-5] rounds, [6-10] minutes, [11-14] hours, [15-17] days, [18-19] months, [20] years. They may then decide to wait for the party, arriving soonafter, that much older, but unlike future travel, they may have caused some significant paradox by their presence there (a base 5% chance per result on the d20 roll). If such paradox does occur, it will require 1d4 additional rolls on this table when (and if) they return, along with creating an alternate reality (see Manannan in Volume II).
12. It appears that the wizard’s time has run out. He is devoured by Cronos and forced to relive the same day repeatedly as if stuck in some sort of temporal loop in the Strands of Time. Unless the Referee wishes to roleplay it, the wizard will eventually break the cycle, ending up being there for roughly 1d10,000 days from his perspective. Such an experience will allow him to bring some new mastery from that environment onward with him (since he had so much time to practice), gaining a +1d6 bonus to certain rolls, along with becoming considerably neurotic (from the strain of it), suffering the same amount as a penalty to an equal number of other rolls. And even though it will seem like no time has passed for everyone else, for the wizard, it will feel like he was trapped for eternity in a day that might never end.
DCC RPG Conversion notes:
Wizards who follow Cronos can use this table in lieu of rolling for corruption or misfire when they get a 1 on their spell check.
Save vs. death= make a Will save DC 10
Referee= Judge
Next week: wizards of Cronos, Part III!
