On 2009-07-23, Steven Jones wrote:
> Has anyone seen this late 80's horror series? I recently bought some videos
> of it and it seems to provide a treasure trove of gameable artifacts. Known
> as Friday the 13th in the U.S. (no connection to the film franchise
> however), it revolves around a pair of cousins and their older friend who
> own an antique store. Their late uncle, from whom they inherited the store,
> had made a deal with the devil to sell cursed antiques in the shop. The
> trio's mission is to recover the cursed antiques. Some artifacts featured
> have included a mulcher that spits out money, provided a human body is fed
> into it, a pool cue that helps you win, provided you kill someone first, a
> scalpel with magical healing properties, provided it's 'charged up' by being
> used as a murder weapon.
I would consider having these effects as quirks rather than as curses
per se. If for no other reason than that curses are reasonably easy to
get rid of by RAW (unless these are special curses). While not quite
as grisly, I like to add tricky quirks to more powerful magic items
just to have the PCs struggling a bit to use them properly or
frequently, such as:
--
The item will only function if used while the caster is in the process
of breaking some non-trivial law. In a modern setting this is a crime
that would result in a one year imprisonment or worse, and in a
medieval setting it is a crime that would at least result in a severe
beating at the hands of the law. If the item is directly used in an
illegal activity (e.g. a Wand of Fireballs launches a Fireball in an
attempt to murder someone) there is a +1 to the caster's skill check
to activate it.
If the authorities were to learn of the item's nature they may decide
to declare it an illegal item in which case simply possessing it /may/
be enough of a crime to be permitted to use it.
--
--
After using the item the caster will show the symptoms of having taken
some random very hard medication for a number of hours equal to the
amount of energy spent. If used multiple times, or if the spell is
maintained, the hours stack. The caster will not be directly hampered
by this effect but will be observed to have dilated or contracted
pupils, drug tests will mysteriously show him to be affected by the
medicine, etc. The medicine indicated is potent enough to preclude a
person from being allowed to operate dangerous machinery (cars, etc.)
in a modern setting.
--
--
The item can only be used while it is immersed in the still-warm blood
of a recently dead sentient creature.
--
--
The item will only function if the caster stole it in the first place.
If he acquired it lawfully or with the consent of the previous owner
it will simply not function for him. Likewise, simply finding it lying
around won't do - it must be an intentional and unlawful theft from
someone who cares, at least in principle, that they are losing it.
As one might expect, this is devastating to the item's market value.
Variants may only work if the owner murdered for it, committed treason
for it, etc.
--
Cheers,
Bent D
--
Bent Dalager - bcd.DeleteThis@pvv.org -
http://www.pvv.org/~bcd
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