Best of the Web - What If's, Playing Cards, and Tavern Brawls

noise sans signal had a post called A few what ifs that got me thinking. He postulated if spell fumbles didn't hurt the caster but only people previously broken or insane could actually use magic. I really like the idea of casters being partially insane but I'm not sure how to work that mechanically, but that's not really what got my mind spinning on this one. Casters channel powerful magic, and sort of rip and tear the multiverse to do so. So what if a fumble didn't hurt the caster but really hurt the multiverse. Chasms ripping holes in the ground, Earthquakes and avalanches, plagues, swarms of locust, dead farm animals. A caster be semi-responsible for a lot of tragedy which could be interesting, especially during a special event such as planets aligning or something.

Tarsos Theorem had a post long ago called Mapping with Playing Cards Part 1: Cities. As far as I can tell they produced a spaceship for Part 2 but have not yet completed a dungeon. The idea has a lot of merit and its jumbling around in my head but I'm not sure what to do with it. Looking forward to the dungeon version whenever they get to it.

A Distant Chime has an post called How to Start (and Finish) a Tavern Brawl. I'm surprised there hasn't been more of this kind of thing because Tavern Brawls should be common with all those adventurers looking for hooks. Joining an informal fighting circuit like Robert E. Howards Sailor Steve Costigan to earn cash between adventures. Brawling and grappling are under-used in general and this is a nice way to bring fisticuffs front and center from time to time. I think I'd combine with the Pendragon combat ideas (list of combatants with a system of picking whos the next person in your face) to add some craziness to it all (you don't get to simply select the next person like Champ Kind in the Anchorman street fight).