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1->''"What do you mean, 'it breaks reality?'"''\
2''"I mean you turn it on, and'' ''reality breaks."''
3-->-- The Skeletor Show
4
5The notion of unpredictable results has long been an easy source of intrigue on television. Its most common form is the [[ImportedAlienPhlebotinum exotic technology]] or mysterious mythical artifact. Often the in-character source of a DeusExMachina.
6
7Sometimes a source for drama, where the sudden, unexpected result can either give the heroes something to fight and/or resolve, or save their hides. Othertimes, used for comedy; "either it will cause peace and happiness throughout the land, or plunge us all into complete pain and fear. We're not sure."
8
9Essentially, the opposite of FunctionalMagic. In gaming, unpredictable results are often (but not always) achieved through GameplayRandomization, e.g. RandomEffectSpell and RandomizedDamageAttack.
10----
11!!Examples:
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13[[foldercontrol]]
14
15[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
16* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'':
17** ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStoneOcean Stone Ocean]]'': Enrico Pucci enlists Sports Maxx to use his Limp Bizkit to [[{{Necromancer}} revitalize]] the bone of DIO. Upon touching it, the bone inexplicably vanishes from sight and makes it way towards the maximum security ward, having gain insight on what it needs to accomplish.
18** ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureTheJoJoLands The JoJoLands]]'': To see the potentiality of the [[GreenRocks lava rock]] the team acquired, Usagi throws a twenty dollar bill that had been touched by the rock. In a few seconds, the team is surprised when the exact same bill makes it way back to them after Paco is given a refund for a bad drink.
19[[/folder]]
20
21[[folder:Comic Books]]
22* Red kryptonite has unpredictable effects on ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'' which last for forty-eight hours and are never repeated. As the essay ''[[http://news.ansible.co.uk/plotdev.html The Well Tempered Plot Device]]'' puts it, this means the writer can try on any daft idea they like with no effect to the comic's continuity.
23[[/folder]]
24
25[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
26* ''Film/GalaxyQuest'' has the Omega-13, a device created in a CliffHanger two-part episode of the eponymous ShowWithinAShow which was never resolved, meaning its function was never revealed until a bunch of aliens re-created it (ItMakesSenseInContext... sort of). Its results ''are'' successfully predicted near the end, but only as one theory among many; nobody knows for sure what it will do until it's activated.
27[[/folder]]
28
29[[folder:Literature]]
30* In ''John and Dave and the Temple of X'al'naa'thuthuthu'', the sequel to ''Literature/JohnDiesAtTheEnd'', the Furgun embodies this trope. Technically it does whatever the user wants it to do, but getting the result right is finicky. It's as likely to enlarge things as it is to turn them into mashed potatoes, blow them up or give them beards. When the narrator tries to defend himself with it, the mental image of an old painting of Jesus flips into his mind, so the painting pops out of nowhere and starts shooting lasers out of its eyes. When he has an urgent, urgent case of KillItWithFire, he does all he can to imagine flames as he pulls the trigger. Nothing happens. Then there's a streak of light in the sky...
31%%* The [[Literature/WildCards Wild Card]] virus.
32* Collapsing a hypergate in ''Literature/TheLostFleet'' can cause an explosion anywhere between "tactical nuke" and "supernova".
33* Both the [[AwesomeButImpractical Awesome and the Impractical]] side of Penny's superpower in ''Literature/PleaseDontTellMyParentsImASupervillain''. On the awesome side, Penny can work in ''any'' theme or tech type, where most mad scientists are restricted to one general field (lasers, biotech, clockwork, candy, etc). She's even duplicated the tech of both the Conquerors and the Puppeteers, two of the most feared alien races in this setting (and mortal enemies). But on the Impractical side, Penny has only limited control over what her power builds, and can't repair or duplicate her work. In short, if Penny asks her power for a weapon, she might get a pneumatic cannon, a nuclear-powered laser, a mind-control cat, a soda knife, or almost anything else, and she has no good way to tell what.
34* PlayedWith in the ''Literature/{{Spellsinger}}'' series: Jon-Tom Meriweather's spellsinging is predictably unpredictable. Sometimes he gets exactly what he wants. Sometimes he gets approximately what he wants, but the specific details are off in one way or another. And every now and then, he gets something that isn't at all what he wants, but still does what he needs. He gets better at spellsinging as the series goes on, but even in the final book he still has trouble with this.
35[[/folder]]
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37[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
38* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', episode "Earshot", where Buffy is stung by a demon and learns only that she will gain an "aspect of the demon", which could be anything (it turns out to be telepathy).
39* ''Series/{{Alias}}'' was particularly ambitious with this trope, basing an entire arc around exotic "[[BlackBox we don't know what it's for]]" technology.
40* The neurotransmitter Promicin, in ''Series/TheFortyFourHundred'' is described as unpredictable -- somebody injected with it will either gain a superpower or drop dead, and there is no way of predicting what that will be. When Shawn and Burkhoff start researching a way to predict whether someone will survive or not, Jordan Collier asks them to stop, as it will end up turning the world into those who have powers and those who know they will never get them. He prefers the more unpredictable way, as it just requires "one generation of sacrifice" and then the world can move on.
41* In ''Series/{{Lost}}'''s season 4 finale, [[spoiler:moving the island]] is said to be "both dangerous and unpredictable" (partly to explain why it wasn't done before.) We know it resulted in [[spoiler:transporting Ben to Tunisia ten months into the future, but we have no idea where or when the island is.]] Eventually we find out it [[spoiler: was sent skipping through time randomly across thousands of years. Kind of. Because we definitely saw it disappear to the Oceanic Six, but only the Losties (and not the Others) were moving in time on the Island]]. It's complicated basically.
42* A disclaimer on ''Series/NedsDeclassifiedSchoolSurvivalGuide'' is "Your Results May Vary".
43[[/folder]]
44
45[[folder:Pinball]]
46* Theoretically, the "Player's Choice" reward in ''Pinball/NoGoodGofers'' allows the player to choose a reward from a spinning wheel. In reality, the choices are shuffled so quickly that it's nearly impossible to consistently get the same award.
47[[/folder]]
48
49[[folder:Radio]]
50* The Heart of Gold's improbability drive in ''Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy1978'' works by producing a near-infinite number of unpredictable results and then "picking" the desired one (usually going from Point A to Point B) and sticking with it. Of course, the temporary side effects of engaging it (such as turning into a penguin or generating sperm whales) aren't exactly pleasant. At one point this is {{invoked}} by activating the Improbability Drive without specifying any desired result at all, on the theory that since Our Heroes are about to be killed by oncoming missiles, any outcome at all is preferable. It works, as the missiles are transformed into a bowl of petunias and a very confused whale, which is very bad for the petunias and whale, but very good for Our Heroes.
51[[/folder]]
52
53[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
54* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'':
55** The ''Wand of Wonder'' (the ''Rod of Wonder'' in later editions)-- a magic item whose effect is randomly determined from a table of 50 or so possibilities each time it's activated. Possible effects range from shooting fireballs to turning a random combatant into a rhinoceros, and a popular pasttime on the game's official forums is coming up with new and even more bizarre effects for the item.
56** Wild magic in 2E could have similarly unpredictable effects.
57** An even more powerful but similar item is the [[http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/artifacts.htm#deckofManyThings Deck Of Many Things]], where any card you draw can have really good (you gain a powerful magic item, a fine warhorse, or a small castle) or REALLY BAD effects (you lose all your money, your good reputation, YOUR SOUL...). It's been nicknamed "TotalPartyKill in a can" for good reasons.
58** Previous versions of ''D&D'' had a LOT of utterly random effects, usually as dungeon features. The module "In Search Of The Unknown" had a set of magic pools whose effects when drunk changed with every sip.
59** Unpredictable results are a core part of D&D, as well as many other roleplaying systems. Wandering monsters, random encounters, loot, many spell effects and curses, and much more are all often determined by dice rolls and tables. Many supplements are little more than a bit of flavour text followed by pages and pages of encounter and effects tables.
60* Enter the Mists of ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' without a Vistani guide, and you could find yourself wandering for any amount of time, from minutes to months or (rarely) even ''decades''. Likewise, you could end up in some other dread domain, come right back to where you started from, be dropped off on your world of origin (if you're an outlander and your DM is merciful), or even get deposited on a completely ''different'' D&D campaign world from your own.
61** And while you're wandering around in there, you could encounter literally ''anything'' along the way.
62* Exposure to Chaos in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' yields unpredictable mutations, which in extreme cases can turn the character into a mindless gibbering Chaos Spawn.
63* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'': Anything connected to the Warp or Ork technology. Represented ingame by psykers suffering "perils of the warp" attacks and more esoteric Orky wargear having its own tables of random effects. Ork psykers are beyond random, rolling just to see what completely-unpredictable power they get... every turn. Each new version of the Ork book adds new ones - from the return of the Shokk Attack Gun (which has a Strength you roll for and occasionally does things like explode or teleport the Big Mek into its target), to the Lootas getting random numbers of shots, to the invention of the Bubble Chukka (produces a spray of bubbles which range from S1 AP1 to S6 AP6 based on a die roll).
64** Also, plasma weaponry with the "Gets Hot!" special rule. In the 41st Millennium, plasma weapons are LostTechnology - poorly understood, rare, very hard to replicate and more often than not hundreds of years old and maintained by people who don't have a damn clue how it works. On a bad roll, the unreliable electromagnetic field generators safely housing the plasma may fail causing several-thousand degrees kelvin fluid to leak out all over the forearms of the unfortunate sap holding the gun, or a capacitor might break and send gas of the same temperature into his throat and lungs. In older editions, the weapon would even rupture with lethal results for the user and everyone standing near him. Plasma weapons however are capable of giving even Terminator Space Marines a bad day when they do work properly, and it's not like you'll roll a 1 ''every'' turn, right?
65** 40k roleplay games (''TabletopGame/DarkHeresy'' and consorts) have a table of varied psychic phenomena, one of which may or may not happen when a psychic power is cast. The worst of the lot are the "perils of the warp", which are just as varied.
66*** In fact, this deserves explanation. The player rolls from 1-100, and can get results for up to 75. (Though, each result can get a few choices, so let's be generous and say 25 choices). Why up to 75? Because go beyond that, you move to the Perils table...which has ANOTHER 1-100 roll, of more like 35 choices. Total of about sixty choices. The worst? Instant death. Second worst? Instant Daemonhost.
67* Beware if you play as a Necromancer in ''TabletopGame/{{Ironclaw}}''; if you try to cast a spell, and you roll at least three 6's, you'll get hit with a magical backlash that does totally random (but always negative) things. In fact, the official rulebook encourages [=DMs=] to get as creative as they could with what happens.
68* Magic is like this in ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}''. When it fails it does so in extremely random ways. There are at least six different official tables of backlash effects ranging from "Black Magic" (which results in BodyHorror) all the way to Cosmic Humor (which causes reality to mock you in the most painful way it can).
69* ''Any'' casting in ''TabletopGame/{{FATAL}}'', with possible miscast effects including "caster thinks he's a cat" (funny), "caster becomes a serial rapist" (not funny, but [[EvilHasABadSenseOfHumor apparently intended to be]]), "caster gets raped by gay ogres" (not at all funny) and "accidentally casts F.A.T.A.L." (a wonderful chance to play a different game).
70* The various shipboard items used to fight ''TabletopGame/TheAwfulGreenThingsFromOuterSpace'' might injure them, cause them to grow, or do nothing at all, completely at random. However, any specific item continues to have consistent results once it's been used.
71* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'':
72** Red mana is the color of randomness, chaos and unpredictability. Most of the time that appears in the form of cards that happen to interact like that; for example, creatures attacking the turn they come into play and changing the targets of other effects are both red abilities, and both result in unpredictable game states, especially for your opponents. Some effects, though, genuinely require players to randomize things, such as by flipping a coin or rolling a dice. In its most extreme form, the card [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=220300 Scrambleverse]] will assign every card in play to a new controller chosen at random.
73** Other colors can have unpredictable effects too. For example, a blue/green card literally named [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=366248 Unexpected Results]] which can cast the top card of your deck for free, but forces you to shuffle it first, making it nearly impossible to manipulate the randomness.
74* Downplayed in ''[[TabletopGame/SevenWonders 7 Wonders Duel]]''. Building The Great Library makes you draw three random Progress Tokens from the five that were discarded at the beginning of the game, but you get to decide which one you actually want. While all of them have a positive effect, their impact depends on the Token and the game state.
75[[/folder]]
76
77[[folder:Toys]]
78* ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'''s {{Unobtainium}}, Energized Protodermis either transforms all that comes into contact with it into [[BecauseDestinySaysSo whatever its destiny calls for]], or simply destroys it. This goes for everything, from objects to living beings. Then, there are the Reconstitute at Random Kanoka Disks, which transform their target into who-knows-what, Teleportation disks, which [[RandomTransportation teleport the targets to random locations]], and the Mask of Summoning, which summons random creatures whom the mask's user unfortunately has no control over (including whether or not they'll attack ''them'' along with the enemy).
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80
81[[folder:Video Games]]
82* ''VideoGame/ANNOMutationem'': The Consortium had once created "The Gatekeeper Project" in which they gave [[DesignerBabies seven artificially created subjects]] their own unique abilities to experiment with to find a way of destroying [[EldritchLocation Limen]]. Several of the [[StoryBreadcrumbs research notes]] found in the facility indicated the staff did not take into account how the subjects wouldn't be able to properly control their strong powers due to being too young, and the result led to an interdimensional rift opening within their facility, leading to the project's shutdown.
83* The Lab Ray in ''Website/{{Neopets}}'', which can add stats, take them away, change species, or even change gender.
84* The ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' attack Metronome, which allows a 'Mon that knows it to perform almost ANY attack at random. There's also the slightly-more-controlled Assist/Cat's Paw, which randomly uses a move from one of your teammates' movesets.
85* In ''VideoGame/DungeonCrawl'', one can worship the god Xom, who can do essentially anything to you on a whim, good or bad. The probability of getting a good effect is raised by how amusing Xom finds you at the moment- and the easiest way of amusing him is by doing things that have random and potentially disastrous outcomes, like drinking unidentified potions.
86* The Wand of Wonder from ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'' strikes whoever its pointed at with a random effect.
87* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'':
88** The Wabbajack is a magical staff that can turn a creature into another, different creature at random.
89** Any interaction with Sheogorath, Daedric Prince of Madness[[note]]and, incidentally, the Wabbajack's patron Daedra[[/note]], has just as high a chance of going incredibly well as it does of going catastrophically poorly; scholars indicate this is true on a ''mathematical'' level.
90* ''[[VideoGame/AncientDomainsOfMystery ADOM]]'' has magical pools which can be drunk from for random effects, from being cursed, to being turned invisible, to gaining a wish.
91* There are a ''lot'' of cards in ''VideoGame/{{Hearthstone}}'' with extremely unpredictable random effects. Many of them generally benefit the user, such as gaining a cheaper copy of almost ''any'' minion [[http://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Unstable_Portal (Unstable Portal)]] or any spell [[http://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Nexus-Champion_Saraad (Nexus-Champion Saraad)]] in the entire game[[note]]These ARE limited to collectable cards i.e not ones that are in turn created by other cards such a Ysera[[/note]]. More extreme examples can end up backfiring on the user, such as [[http://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Gelbin_Mekkatorque Gelbin Mekkatorque]], who summons a random invention that either do positive or negative things to ''any'' character, or [[https://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Yogg-Saron,_Hope%27s_End Yogg-Saron]], who casts a '''completely random spell on a completely random target''' for each spell the player had used previously. There's a sizeable BrokenBase over whether this is fun or utterly infuriating.
92* The Funky Bomb in ''VideoGame/ScorchedEarth'' is a very randomised weapon. When it hits, it fires out shots of its own in random directions. It might take out five opponents, it might only take out the one it landed near, it might do nothing, or if you're exceptionally unlucky, it might even end up taking you out.
93* In ''VideoGame/PathOfExile'', corrupting a piece of equipment via a Vaal Orb can do a variety of things to an item. It can add a powerful implicit modifier or change a [[SocketedEquipment gem socket]] to white. It might also do nothing, or worse, transform the item into something else entirely. While powerful, the downside is that once an item is Corrupted, it can't be modified further, except for very certain aspects which are prohibitively expensive. The Altar of Corruption can add two implicit modifiers, change every socket color to white, or outright destroy the item. The ''Scourge'' league added tainted currency items that can only be used on corrupted items, but have even more wildly varied results. For example, a Blacksmith's Whetstone adds a set amount of Quality to an item, up to 20%. The tainted version sets it to anywhere between 0 to 29%.
94* ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters'': The finishing move of Chang's [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown Tekkyuu Dai Bousou]] is consistently inconsistent across its numerous appearances. Results include (but are not limited to) a gut check, a RollingAttack, a slide and a front kick.
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97[[folder:Web Comics]]
98* A major arc of the webcomic ''Webcomic/ItsWalky'' centers around this. The Head Alien uses a machine to stop time in Canada (Citing his reason as, "I figured, who the heck would notice? Damn if I wasn't right...") in order to trap a demigodly alien known as 'The Cheese'. However, overuse of the time-stopping device creates unpredictable results, such as [[GenderBender reversing the gender]] of everybody in the vicinity, giving somebody an afro, or turning him into a {{Pirate}}...
99* In the webcomic ''Webcomic/TalesOfTheQuestor'', Quentyn's magic sword, Wildcard, could go from unstoppable to useless with every attack due to the unique way it was first charged (A night of drunken spellcasting by Quentyn and his friends).
100* Roughly 50% of Riff's inventions in ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' work like this. The Dimensional Flux Agitator has a particularly spotty record.
101* The [[DeusExMachina shield of wonder]] from ''Webcomic/{{Goblins}}'', which has a massively varied number of random effects when struck.
102[[/folder]]
103
104[[folder:Web Original]]
105* Website/{{SCP|Foundation}}-[[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-914 914]], AKA "The Clockworks" is entirely based on this, as is [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-261 SCP-261]], a profoundly unpredictable vending machine.
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108[[folder:Western Animation]]
109* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain'', The Brain warns Pinky never to use more than one drop of his shrinking serum, because "it would cause a reaction on the molecular level that is completely unpredictable"; the reaction turns out to be turning people into huge yodeling clog dancers.
110* The Allspark and the key it empowered in ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'', which apparently has a mind of its own.
111[[/folder]]
112
113[[folder:Real Life]]
114* TruthInTelevision: Change just ''one line'' of a sufficiently complex piece of code without fully understanding what it does, e.g.: "Segmentation Fault. Core Dumped."
115* In C/C++ the language standard allows for "undefined behavior" for some operations (e.g. accessing an array beyond its bounds), leading to the "[[http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/N/nasal-demons.html nasal demons]]" joke.
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