Presumably you have a limited number of wishes.

My guess would be that they are referring to “Mage: The Ascension”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mage:_The_Ascension

I agree with you, but find it absolutely hilarious that the two examples you gave are the ones I almost never hear people around me using.

Turnabout and all that; now the enemies all start carrying wooden whistles they use right before casting fireball at you. At the very least, it would be silly and should hopefully get the players being extra careful as they craft their spells!

Thanks, sounds interesting!

Ah, but they don’t know about the anti-wooden whistle wax I dipped my ribbon in!

The system was certainly before its time and, like many of its kin (heh [WoD]), still holds value as a fantastic structure to weave collaborative stories with strangers & friends alike.

IMHO, if it weren’t for those rulesets blazing trails outside of D&D’s sandbox (too often resembling a litter box, NGL), we wouldn’t have so many OGs today willing to run and/or teach a different way of gaming.

I’m quietly ecstatic to see the adversarial DM trope, toxic AF that it is, getting left in the dust as GMing becomes far less off-putting as people grasp how different it can be: with very little prep & stress, one can focus more on facilitating and inspiring fun for the whole table — which is more rewarding for everyone, really.

p.s. “short round”, Docta Jones? 🤌

But then they’re too awesome to use, so you never use them and never find out the enemies can use them against you.

this is just mage the ascension

Literally, this is just mage the ascension.