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How cursed are cursed items?
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<blockquote data-quote="TheCosmicKid" data-source="post: 6938822" data-attributes="member: 6683613"><p>Today, for no real reason, I was thinking about the <em>girdle of masculinity/femininity</em> and how it's often been said that transgendered characters would kill for this supposedly "cursed" item. What would happen if such a character actually put it on, though? Is the item's effect simply to change the wearer's biological sex, meaning this character has cleverly found a beneficial use for something most characters wouldn't want? Or is it a true curse, pernicious and cruel, with the purpose of causing suffering in the form of gender dysphoria for whoever puts it on -- meaning a trans character would find themselves unchanged or even masculinized/feminized in the wrong direction?</p><p></p><p>There are some cursed items for which this sort of question doesn't really make sense. I doubt there are many potentially beneficial uses for the <em>-2 sword</em> (other than the basic "get the enemy to use it" that's valid for all cursed items). But many others seem open to this double interpretation. Can the <em>bag of devouring</em> be used to dispose of inconvenient items and bodies, or does it perversely only devour that which you want to keep? If you put the <em>headband of ogre intellect</em> on something less intelligent than an ogre, like your animal companion, does its Int go up or does it get even dumber?</p><p></p><p>I'm of two minds here. On the one hand, it seems appropriate from a gameplay standpoint to reward players for thinking outside the box about how to use the magic they find. But on the other hand, it also seems appropriate from a narrative standpoint for it to be bad idea trying to get the better of a curse. You rarely hear stories about how the king is cursed with ass' ears, but figures out how they can be helpful to him and lives happily ever after. So what would you do?</p><p></p><p>(Side note: I wouldn't put the <em>girdle of masculinity/femininity</em> in a campaign with a trans player at all unless I knew them really well and were confident they'd be okay with it. In fact, I probably wouldn't put the thing in any campaign, period. There are plenty of other cursed items that aren't simultaneously so petty and so potentially explosive. I'm musing about the design philosophy behind these items here, not plotting a cruel trick.)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="TheCosmicKid, post: 6938822, member: 6683613"] Today, for no real reason, I was thinking about the [I]girdle of masculinity/femininity[/I] and how it's often been said that transgendered characters would kill for this supposedly "cursed" item. What would happen if such a character actually put it on, though? Is the item's effect simply to change the wearer's biological sex, meaning this character has cleverly found a beneficial use for something most characters wouldn't want? Or is it a true curse, pernicious and cruel, with the purpose of causing suffering in the form of gender dysphoria for whoever puts it on -- meaning a trans character would find themselves unchanged or even masculinized/feminized in the wrong direction? There are some cursed items for which this sort of question doesn't really make sense. I doubt there are many potentially beneficial uses for the [I]-2 sword[/I] (other than the basic "get the enemy to use it" that's valid for all cursed items). But many others seem open to this double interpretation. Can the [I]bag of devouring[/I] be used to dispose of inconvenient items and bodies, or does it perversely only devour that which you want to keep? If you put the [I]headband of ogre intellect[/I] on something less intelligent than an ogre, like your animal companion, does its Int go up or does it get even dumber? I'm of two minds here. On the one hand, it seems appropriate from a gameplay standpoint to reward players for thinking outside the box about how to use the magic they find. But on the other hand, it also seems appropriate from a narrative standpoint for it to be bad idea trying to get the better of a curse. You rarely hear stories about how the king is cursed with ass' ears, but figures out how they can be helpful to him and lives happily ever after. So what would you do? (Side note: I wouldn't put the [I]girdle of masculinity/femininity[/I] in a campaign with a trans player at all unless I knew them really well and were confident they'd be okay with it. In fact, I probably wouldn't put the thing in any campaign, period. There are plenty of other cursed items that aren't simultaneously so petty and so potentially explosive. I'm musing about the design philosophy behind these items here, not plotting a cruel trick.) [/QUOTE]
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