Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
My biggest gripe with 5e design
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 7853475" data-attributes="member: 20323"><p>Absolutely 100% agree that curses aren't that interesting in D&D. Either you break them with <em>remove curse </em>(or similar magic) or you suffer the effect. It's very binary and doesn't require any thinking – of course they're going to break the curse if that becomes an option. That's nothing unique to 5e. Pretty much curses have always been like that in D&D.</p><p></p><p>It's possible for a DM to make an interesting curse from scratch with clever wording, but it does require some bending over backwards.</p><p></p><p>I often house rule that a curse must have an "out" clause, often phrased as <em>"You shall be cursed with ----- , until<em> -----</em>"</em> or <em>"Every ----- , you shall be cursed with -----, until -----" </em>or<em> "By the light of -----, you shall be cursed with -----, until -----".</em> Fulfilling the condition (which is rarely easy or 100% obvious) lifts the curse, causing it to stop actively affecting the character. However, curses often include clauses that cause the curse to recur or be re-cast. The sun sets. You kill another creature. You meet a one-eyed man. Whatever. To permanently end a curse requires fulfilling the condition, followed by a casting of <em>remove curse. </em>Another way to think about this is that I house rule a special component for <em>remove curse </em>– whatever clause is in the curse.</p><p></p><p>What this does is shift the binary (i.e. supremely easy to break / save or die) nature of being cursed to a <em>save... and then die </em>paradigm. This allows all players to applying their creative thinking to figure out how to lift a curse temporarily. Maybe you can't figure it out, and then you suffer its effects, but at least there was the feeling that you had a chance to puzzle your way out of danger. <em>Remove curse </em>becomes the cherry on the cake to break the curse so that you don't have to worry about repeating the condition that lifts it every day (or whatever time period the curse was cast to recur on).</p><p></p><p>This requires a bit more thinking about curses, and finding ways to tie them to the narrative so the presence of lift conditions is foreshadowed to the players, but so far we've found it more satisfying than the default treatment of curses.</p><p></p><p>Would have been great if there was a half page to a page devoted to curses in the DMG – similar to how there is for poisons & for madness – with some tables for creating playable curses.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Quickleaf, post: 7853475, member: 20323"] Absolutely 100% agree that curses aren't that interesting in D&D. Either you break them with [I]remove curse [/I](or similar magic) or you suffer the effect. It's very binary and doesn't require any thinking – of course they're going to break the curse if that becomes an option. That's nothing unique to 5e. Pretty much curses have always been like that in D&D. It's possible for a DM to make an interesting curse from scratch with clever wording, but it does require some bending over backwards. I often house rule that a curse must have an "out" clause, often phrased as [I]"You shall be cursed with ----- , until[I] -----[/I]"[/I] or [I]"Every ----- , you shall be cursed with -----, until -----" [/I]or[I] "By the light of -----, you shall be cursed with -----, until -----".[/I] Fulfilling the condition (which is rarely easy or 100% obvious) lifts the curse, causing it to stop actively affecting the character. However, curses often include clauses that cause the curse to recur or be re-cast. The sun sets. You kill another creature. You meet a one-eyed man. Whatever. To permanently end a curse requires fulfilling the condition, followed by a casting of [I]remove curse. [/I]Another way to think about this is that I house rule a special component for [I]remove curse [/I]– whatever clause is in the curse. What this does is shift the binary (i.e. supremely easy to break / save or die) nature of being cursed to a [I]save... and then die [/I]paradigm. This allows all players to applying their creative thinking to figure out how to lift a curse temporarily. Maybe you can't figure it out, and then you suffer its effects, but at least there was the feeling that you had a chance to puzzle your way out of danger. [I]Remove curse [/I]becomes the cherry on the cake to break the curse so that you don't have to worry about repeating the condition that lifts it every day (or whatever time period the curse was cast to recur on). This requires a bit more thinking about curses, and finding ways to tie them to the narrative so the presence of lift conditions is foreshadowed to the players, but so far we've found it more satisfying than the default treatment of curses. Would have been great if there was a half page to a page devoted to curses in the DMG – similar to how there is for poisons & for madness – with some tables for creating playable curses. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
My biggest gripe with 5e design
Top