How is a curse that occasionally makes you fight with a decrotive sap untill combat is over, powerful? It's an annoyance, something to roleplay around and through, almost comedic, but if the roleplayer is getting into the atrifact possesion part where they ~want~ to use it, then it can lead to some great roleplay.
Too orignal? TOO ORIGINAL?!?! Well hell, why don't I just start posting up "Sword +3 - It's a sword, plus 3" ?!?! If you like stupid huge swords and bags of holding, stick to your GM manual and don't look for new ideas! Strolens as all ABOUT new ideas. If they're not orignal, they're not worth posting. Even old idead can be made new, with the right twist:
Really big sword:
http://www.strolen.com/items/viewitem.php?item_id=173
Bag of holding:
http://www.strolen.com/items/viewitem.php?item_id=123
"Somewhere along the line we need to ask ourselves, "Is this an item I would include in my campaign?""
No, actually, that's exactly what we DON'T need to be doing. If you're judging these on whether or not you can use them, then you're just shopping, not critiqueing.
And what's wrong with being comedic? Comedic can be quite fun, even enduring, if you have the right group. See, this isn't about making YOU happy, it's about ideas that are interesting. Go to Comment
Ok, I give you points for originality, points for making it a non-stadard item, and points for a reasonably acceptable history for this item. However, I take off points for listing it as a cursed item without explaining the curse, and I take away points for not really clarifying the combat value of this makeshift flail.
Mostly though, I am docing you for not explaining this curse. Does it stay in your hand until you can have it removed? Does it cause rashes on your body? Does it make you like dressing like a girl?
This needs to be explained. Also, if you make it cursed, it is always a handy idea to also make it somehow enchanted. I am not taking this into account when I vote on this, but it is a good idea.
On the whole I like it, but I really insist that you explain this cursed property.
If you do, PM me, and I'll up your grade. Go to Comment
Quite ironicly, I've seen this weapon before. In the Final Fantasy Tactics game, once you get into the third or forth act, you can equip female characters with 'handbags' as weapons. More ironic is that fact that these decorative satchels give them a higher attack power than any of the non-unique swords, (Save the Queen, and Excalibre) I think it is a well done post, and certainly interesting. Maybe not so far off the mark in a day and age when an unattended brief case or duffel bag can clear an airport.
Is that a Gucci?
Nope, its a Damascus Purse, folded hammered and clasped. Go to Comment
I find it hilarious. And personally, I enjoy spicing up my campaigns with a bit of humour. Sure, it's not exactly the fearsome godslaying weapon that'll lay the universe to smithereens, but you need a bit of comic relief in a quest. This could be a simple side-hook - get your munchkinesque high elf huntress to be stuck wielding a purse for a while... *chucklings*
I don't even know if having an origin for the curse even applies. I mean, no self-respecting woman ever lets go of her purse! After a while being grasped protectively by such a charismatic princess, even the most mundane thing might get used to being clutched protectively and used as a bludgeon, to the point of expecting to be treated likewise by every owner it falls into the hands of.
Terry Pratchett would be proud, Agar. Four outta five. Go to Comment
How did this item come to be cursed? Why is the curse so powerful? Normally I'd just turn a blindeye to this, but since you include a backstory, it seems sort of odd that it omits this rather important detail.
I'm not a big fan of the "stuck in your hand curse" (as I've said in other posts) because I don't think they really encourage roleplaying very much. On the other hand, they are nasty, and encourage caution in the PC's which is usually a prelude to roleplaying. I like the bit about how it always come to hand, but I'd rather see that as something within the player (e.g. he's developed some strange compulsion that he gets to roleplay) rather than the item having the preternatural ability to entangle him.
I think that your item is quite original, but perhaps too much so. There seem to be acceptable guidelines for an adventuring world to maintain versimilatude, and it stretches that when we include items that tend to fall outside the traditional limit (such as pursues). What's to stop me from making a magical shoehorn that also doubles as a weapon, or makes you wear it in your shoes? These things are original, but original for a reason: They aren't very heroic or interesting, and thus are traditionally relegated to the category of comic relief or joke fiction.
i give it a two for now, and I'll up that if some of my objections are dealt with. I think it has potential. Go to Comment
Had you read my post more carefully rather than assuming it was an attack on you, you would have noticed that I was asking as to the origins of this curse, noting that it seems like it must have magical origins given this is no mundane curse. I never claimed it was inordinately powerful.
Sorry I thought that it was too original. Fear my ethernet chord of strangulation, created by the evil wizard Fangbar for a mighty king, who it strangled. Somewhere along the line we need to ask ourselves, "Is this an item I would include in my campaign?" It seems like this item is comic relief. You said yourself it is almost comedic. I don't think that's the mark of a great item (it's a gimmick whose worth fades within an adventure or two, not an enduring presence that shapes a campaign). Go to Comment
@ Moon, they're not always the bad guys. I think Dragonstorm, the collectible card roleplaying game, is still in print. ALL the good guys (except the orc) are shapeshifters. The bad guys are necromancers. And there's the werewolf game.
This plot is a hard one to "get right". It introduces the PC's to a concept that stands what they know on it's head: Sympathetic Lycanthropy. They have the best chance of figuring out the truth by talking to the castle workers and freinds of Rikka, as she became a werewolf with no wounds or even ever going on a hunt.
The queen doesn't HAVE to be doomed. You could say that the king is only contagious on or around the full moon. Volker got exposed redressing the wounds a last time, Jarvis sparred with him that afternoon, and Rikka ... inturrupted a moment. (I think there's a scene like that in one of the "American werewolf in ..." movies)
The king would just have to manage and limit his exposure to other people at certain times of the month then, and it would become a kingdoms dirty little secret. Now, wether or not this trait is dominate or even passable to his children ... well, it almost leads into another plot. Go to Comment
For the timeline to be belivable, you'll basically have a different party returning to the same lands. Or a party of long lived humanoids.
This was never intended as a first part of an adventure, then the second, more like Episode one and Episode two kinda thing. More accuratly, Episode 3 and 4, but that's splitting hairs. Go to Comment
The only problem I have with this set of scenarios... the decade or two between the two scenarios. How much "play time" will occur between the two events? I mean, I believe in foreshadowing events and building upon the past to add versimilitude to the game, but how are we going to be in both scenarios? Go to Comment
Now this is a great twist: while the PCs maysuspect the king is the werewolf, there is no proof as he simply does not transform... for a less unhappy ending, perhaps while the queen will become a shapeshifter, perhaps she can either learn to control the curse, or be locked away every full moon.
Howcan the PCs solve this mystery though? There is little in the way of hints and information - it may be possible that the PCs just run around a bit, learn nothing, and the full moon is upon them... Go to Comment
Well Agar, I said I couldn't wait for Part 2 and you haven't disappointed me.
This is every bit is good as Part 1, if not better - pretty much same moral questions as the first instalment plus a complex mystery to be solved - definitely one for the role-players rather than the hack-n-slashers.
5/5
Suggestion for MoonHunter:
How about running this as a stand-along (or as Episode 1 if there is going to be more) with the events of the first module as part of the history the PCs must learn to solve the mystery? Go to Comment
Items (Wand/Staff/ Arcane) (Magical)
Sounds like a good seed for a mystery. How do you track down the source of a curse like this?
Go to Comment