Cursed Items

[Old Man]

In relation to the How do you reveal magic stuff thread..

 

How do you go about constructing cursed items?

[Blue Jogger]

Re: Cursed Items

 

Usually, I write it as the bait and then the catch or fine print).

 

The Bait:

Boots of Stupendous Traveling - Wearer who wears these boots never feels tired while walking, jumping, jogging, swimming, or heavy lifting.

 

The Catch or Fine Print:

Wearer never feels tired. In actuality, he still burns END (and eventually STUN when he runs out of END) until he's close to passing out (at 1/3 of his STUN or loss). He then can make an INT roll to figure out that his fatigued. If he fails the roll, he can keep going as long as he's conscious.

 

1D6 Minor Mental Transform, Fully Invisible, 0 END, Persistent - Gives the wearer the physical disadvantage, Unable to feel tired. It should reach double BODY in about a minute or two after putting on the shoes.

 

He still needs to make an EGO roll to push, but he doesn't feel better afterwards.

[Outsider]

Re: Cursed Items

 

You can also hide the curse in an "always affects the recipient" Side Effect on an otherwise beneficial item.

[Cpt.Storm]

Re: Cursed Items

 

You can also hide the curse in an "always affects the recipient" Side Effect on an otherwise beneficial item.

Taking this one step further, how would you write out the ability to dispel or break the curse?

 

Thanks,

 

Cpt. Storm

[Outsider]

Re: Cursed Items

 

That depends on what you mean.

 

If you mean "How would I dispell the curse, once it has hit the user of the item", then you would do it however you normally dispell curses, I would think.

 

If you mean, though, "How would I remove the curse from the Item, and leave the beneficial power intact, and (re)usable?" then things are different.

 

Options :

 

1) Treat the Side Effect as a second power on the same item, and use the usual dispell rules concerning it. (ie 16x active points of the power to get rid of it, if it is on an 'unbreakable foci' meaning a 60 point SE would require 960 points of dispell effect to remove)

 

2) Calculate the cost of the item with the side effect, and then without it, and make the player pay the difference in character points, in addition to having an appropriately powerful dispell.

 

3) Declare (or have it turn out) that the magic powering the beneficial effect, and that powering the curse are so closely intertwined that they cannot be seperated. So, the destruction of one would require the destruction of the other.

 

I would tend towards 2) or 3), depending on if I were willing to have the beneficial power in my game without the balancing effect of the curse. The backstory on the item (cursed items generally have one in my game, even if it is (ahem) cursory...) would also determine if the curse were removable without destroying the item entirely.

[Nyrath]

Re: Cursed Items

 

Usually' date=' I write it as the bait and then the catch or fine print).[/quote']

Sinister! I love it.

 

Reminds me of "Rhea's Helm". In Diane Duane's ST novel My Enemy, My Ally the Romulan commander recounts the old Romulan myth of the wizard Rhea. Once, a warlord captured Rhea and demanded that Rhea create a magic helm ensuring that the wearer could not be killed by weapons.

 

Rhea constructed said helm and presented it to the warlord. The warlord put it on, whereupon the demon bound in the helm bit the warlord's head off. The helm worked: somebody who is already dead is immune to being killed by weapons.

[Blue Jogger]

Re: Cursed Items

 

I like cursed items that appear to work as normal. A well designed cursed item should make the owner wonder if the benefits outweigh the risks.

 

Following Outsider's suggestion, I rewrote it the boots to be more useful and less obviously flawed.

 

Boots of Stupendous Exertion

Up to +5 Recovery (10 Active Points); -1/4 IIF: Boots, -2 Independent, -1 Lim: Recovery only to prevent long-term END loss (i.e. the wearer never feels tired), -1/2 Minor Side Effects. (2 Real Points)

 

GM Note: If an Magical Analysis is done, the side effect should be glossed over as being overly energetic when wearing the boots.

[Old Man]

Re: Cursed Items

 

I see now...

 

I was stuck thinking of Cursed Items as Disads so was wondering how to cost them out. Completely forgot about the Side Effects limitation.

[Snarf]

Re: Cursed Items

 

I never thought to do cursed items as side effects. I was going to do cursed items as triggered drains and transforms and stuff like that. Maybe with a physical manifestation limitation. But the side effect method is way more devious.

[AlHazred]

Re: Cursed Items

 

http://hiddenway.tripod.com/hero/curse.html

 

An excellent article. It's for 4th edition, but the original article was about ideas, not mechanics, so it's still very worthwhile.

[Foxx!]

Re: Cursed Items

 

Usually, I write it as the bait and then the catch or fine print).

 

The Bait:

Boots of Stupendous Traveling - Wearer who wears these boots never feels tired while walking, jumping, jogging, swimming, or heavy lifting.

 

The Catch or Fine Print:

Wearer never feels tired. In actuality, he still burns END (and eventually STUN when he runs out of END) until he's close to passing out (at 1/3 of his STUN or loss). He then can make an INT roll to figure out that his fatigued. If he fails the roll, he can keep going as long as he's conscious.

 

1D6 Minor Mental Transform, Fully Invisible, 0 END, Persistent - Gives the wearer the physical disadvantage, Unable to feel tired. It should reach double BODY in about a minute or two after putting on the shoes.

 

He still needs to make an EGO roll to push, but he doesn't feel better afterwards.

That's a nice idea.