Mercurial Magic as Campaign Hook

[King of Elfland]

So, as I've mentioned in another thread, I reskinned all our original 1981-82 B/X characters for a high level DCC romp down the road where they get to save the world one last time. To make it more fun & random I used the Purple Sorcerer site to randomly generate the grimoires & mercurial magic effects for the spellcasters. It turned out fantastic, as some of the mercurial magic effects tie into broader campaign arcs/ideas. For example, every time Zircon the Immolator casts Enlarge, he steals energy from a dying world and is haunted by the dream communications from the ancient sorcerer king who wants to save his people. Since the campaign will revolve around planet hopping & time travel, guess where he may end up? The same caster has "call of the Outer Dark" as another mercurial effect. Pretty cool stuff.

The different manifestations are also great. Hard to envision your garden variety magic missile after your elf is literally hurling screaming eagles every time he casts that spell.

[Bobjester]

That grimoire generator is handy!
I used it to generate "The Key of Sezrekan" which is mentioned, but left to the DM to flesh out in "Beneath the Well of Brass" the 2021 DCC RPG Day offering.

The player new to RPGs had a character pick it up and read the first page, and can now advance to 1st level Wizard.
It was a great session. None of the players wanted to touch the book, for fear of a 0 level PC touching anything magic, and goaded the new guy into having one of his four PCs pick it up.

With great risk, comes great reward!
In this case, however, he slides from AL: L to AL: C when he becomes a 1st level Wizard!

All of the random effects from casting spells has the potential to spring all kinds of adventure!
You're guiding the basket down a railless rabbit-hole ride for your players! I envy them, because I want to do the same thing for my players.

[ThatBunyip]

he steals energy from a dying world and is haunted by the dream communications from the ancient sorcerer king who wants to save his people. Since the campaign will revolve around planet hopping & time travel, guess where he may end up?

I used this very hook to transition my group from the 'regular' fantasy world to Purple Planet and it was exceedingly rewarding.