Roleplaying the Discovery of Cursed Items

[jp1971]

I recently had a player-hero roll an eye for the first time upon finding a hoard. While I think this thread, does a great job discussing the mechanics of cursed items, I'm wondering how folks here approach the discovery of cursed items in play.

Upon rolling an eye, an experienced or savvy player will know, at the least, that some adverse effect is possible. After the player makes his or her corruption test, how do you entice them to put experience points on the line and roll to find out more?

From my perspective, it’s a classic example of player knowledge versus character knowledge. This gets compounded a bit by the corruption test. Is a character who passes a corruption test aware that he or she was at risk of being corrupted? Conversely, is a character who fails a corruption test immediately aware that he or she has been corrupted? If not, then it would stand to reason that the character (as opposed tot he player) only knows that he or she has found something of interest. If so, then I think that a character’s background and calling would be a factor in determining whether or not he or she wants to know more. For example, it’s difficult to imagine that a Treasure Hunter would not want to know more.

[Elmoth]

This is why such cases (information acquisition) should always be done in secret.

As an alternative I would not necessarily this treature of his the cursed one. It might be the oten acquire by ANOTHER party member, or an item that the party acquires at a later date. In any case the key is to make him unsure oif this is the cursed item or there are other options. Things of power need to be considered and taken with caution.

[Earendil]

Well, first of all, it's up to the LM to decide if the item is cursed, or roll dice to decide that. The player knows there's a chance it's cursed, but not taking that chance seems a pretty boring choice to me. I think the idea is that cursed items are still worth having -- the curses are usually not that bad.

And there's always the possibility to lift the curse. Doing so is suggested to be the focus of an adventure, but having another adventure to go on is hardly a downside in most campaigns! Of course, the players need to trust that the LM will play fair by them in this respect.

In my game two of the heroes have so far found magic items, and as it happens both are cursed! But I advised the players that it was still worth taking them, as the benefits are much greater than the penalties. Besides, who knows when they might get another chance to get a magic item? And quests to lift those curses should just lead to more fun!

[Earendil]

Since my last post didn't really address the question you were asking about roleplaying (sorry!) ...

I think this is kind of a "game mechanics" thing. The characters know nothing of experience points, and they aren't choosing whether or not the item they've discovered will be magical. It really is a player thing, so it can't really be addressed by roleplaying. Instead, the players should want these things (which is where I was going in my post above).

It's worth pointing out that the One Cursed Item To Rule Them All certainly had its uses! Frodo might have wished it had never come to him, but I'm sure Bilbo was pretty glad he had it, as the Quest of Erebor would never have been a success without it. And it's unlikely any player character will have an item as dangerous as that...

[Glorelendil]

I've been pondering this same question ever since Rivendell came out.

[Blubbo Baggins]

As has been suggested, the LM should secretly make the Treasure roll, and tell the player that it is a magical item, and that they can spend XP to roll dice to determine what kind.

Alternatively, when a Horde is discovered, the LM should ask the players to say how much XP they will spend BEFORE they roll the Fate die.

As a player, personally I'd have no hesitation in taking a Cursed item. It makes the game all the more fun to have some powerful item that also causes you a lot of problems. If there were no problems to deal with, there wouldn't be a game.

[Angelalex242]

Well...

I think the trick is to make the cursed item much more powerful then a normal magic item. Trick that cursed item out with all the best goodies that suit that particular PC. The Cursed item might have 3 greater blessings on it to the PC's favorite skills. And the Cursed Weapon might do some REALLY nifty things, being as it's a weapon of the Dark Side, so to speak. And gets to use all those awesome abilities meant for adversaries.

For example, just cause Frodo never even used 1/100th of the power of the One didn't mean that thing wasn't tricked out with enough phenomenal cosmic power to make the mightiest of beings quail before him.

[cuthalion]

For example, just cause Frodo never even used 1/100th of the power of the One didn't mean that thing wasn't tricked out with enough phenomenal cosmic power to make the mightiest of beings quail before him.

You just lifted that word for word out of one of Tolkien's letters. Cheeky!

[Andrew]

I'm all for playing this as written, completely in the open, and relying on my players to separate IC and OOC knowledge. I think you can play with things like dramatic irony and encourage players to roleplay the temptation that way if it's all out in the open.

[Elmoth]

You clearly have more mature players than I do