The Big Thread of Conceptual Curses

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

Recently we've discussed giving mages curses. There have been a number of persons who think this is a clever idea, in theory, at least. So here's this thread, where we can spitball ideas concerning this idea, whether that's in how it's cast, or about features or ideas about curses themselves.

How they're cast: I think the caster should usually have to be in the room with the victim. I think it should be a silent cast, invisible to all but the most observant. I also think that the victim, unless they notice the cast itself, shouldn't be aware that they've been cursed for some time - like the messages one receives from poisons and spice, allow the damning information to trickle in.

I think the length of time the victim is under the curse should be correspondent to the power at which it's cast.

# of Curses: For playability reasons, I think people shouldn't be able to be affected by more than 1-3 curses at a time. I also question letting a mage maintain more than 3 curses at a time.

Curse Ideas:

• Unquenchable thirst in various degrees.
• Unending hunger to various degrees.
• Decreased strength or endurance or agility.
• Aversion to sunlight.
• The shakes, making hiding or sneaking harder or impossible, probably harder.

[Jihelu]

TBH I like it.

Not sure how it would work codedly. Someone might come in this thread screaming "BUT X Y AND Z ALREADY KINDA DO THIS" But you can't do something like this to someone in the Gaj without getting tackled by 47 different sdesc'd half giants so, nah you can't really do something like this.

[gotdamnmiracle]

Nausea/ vomiting (possibly of things not normal to be vomiting)

Strange hallucinations (echoes, not skelle code)

Sweating profusely

Craving only dead or rotten foods (corpses and rotting foods, aversion to normal ones)

General confusion or daze (mild drunkenness effect plus echoes)

Animal disharmony (normally docile animals have a chance to become hostile, possibly including mounts at higher levels)

Tdesc mutations (benign, often appearing as illness symptoms)

Corona (you tend to stand out in crowds for no particular reason)

Hmm... let me think...

[Brytta Léofa]

Decreased perception: scan and listen skill reduced for the duration.

[lostinspace]

I'm against a cap on curses, and instead think they should function like barrier or scan. When a curse is up, your max mana is reduced. I'm sure there's a reasonable range that would result in 2-3 curses for the average mage, and 1 or 4 for the more extreme mana ranges.

Some ideas I have, split out by magick type
Rukkian:
Uphill both ways: Increased stamina drain when moving.
Weight: Just a flat 10 stones of dirt and dust someone has to carry around.
Lowered Strength: Strength drops a level
Things breaks easier: The armor and tools they use are more prone to breaking or degrading.

Vivaduan:
Thirst: Need more water to not be thirsty
Minimum intoxication: Should they drink, their intox won't drop below semi-intoxicated until the curse is removed.
Potent Poisons: Takes 2 cures to fix a poison, or maybe poisons are much more likely to take.
Animal Distrust: Reduced ride skill and animals you fight all flee at 1/3 hp.

Whiran:
Harsher storms: You direction sense is significantly reduced.
Ringing ears: Listen is much harder to make use of.
Bad Luck: -1 on all skills
Whistling winds: The wind blowing across your body makes a light whistle. Occasionally echos the room and breaks sneak/hide.

Krathi:
Sun's curse: Sun sickness sets in much faster.
Cold Forge: Increases rate of failure when crafting.
Light in the eyes: Ranged attacks less likely to land.
Cauterize: Wounds heal slower.

Those are just some ideas I have for the current mage types, I figured I'd throw in 4 for each, and they can either be assigned randomly when cursing or tied to the sub-guild. In general I think this is a great idea and would add some much needed fear to mages.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

Sweating profusely

This is good - I'd tie this to thirst, personally.

Animal disharmony (normally docile animals have a chance to become hostile, possibly including mounts at higher levels)

Mounts are terrifying to fight. I'd change this to fear. Normally docile animals turning fearful of you, and mounts having a chance to move away when you try to mount them, and possibly also fleeing. I only say this because fighting mounts is really bad, generally speaking. I don't think curses should kill people, so much as make their lives harder, which could lead to death, admittedly.

Corona (you tend to stand out in crowds for no particular reason)

I don't understand this one - maybe tie this to the idea of making sneaking or hiding harder?

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

Those are clever, Lost in space. I think there should also be some cross-over curses, so that in some cases, you have no idea which sort of mage cursed you. Like Krathi and Vivs could both have a version of thirst curse. The Krathi causes you to feel hotter than normal which causes you to sweat profusely, while the Viv causes you to sweat profusely, making you think it hotter than normal. Both of those curses could have the exact same echos, because they both would result in the same sort of affliction.

[Brytta Léofa]

Whira's Schmuck: Every card dealt to you is blank (or shows the Impaled Highlord, or is covered in tatlum scribbles). Dice you roll land on sides that don't exist.

[gotdamnmiracle]

I like the above. The dice are particularly interesting.

Sure! Tie it to the thirst curse, I just want some to also look like an illness so people won't immediately say "yer cursed, dude".

The corona effect, yeah, would essentially be that. -hide skill. But the eye is drawn to you.

The disharmony effect could have a slew, right? So it's most likely you're going to get ride fails, bucks, and throws from backs, and in extremely rare cases they'll attack you, but won't follow you so if you flee you're good (if you can code that). Maybe they attack and then immediately flee, as if they're acting out of desperation and fear. But I agree, we shouldn't kill people outright, so I'm okay giving up the hostility.

I think a krathi curse that debilitates a PCs ability to learn (get skill gains) would be terrifying to a LOT of players. Myself included.

What about the placing of false auras that would be visible given the correct circumstances?

[azuriolinist]

I love this idea and the curses that have been thought up so far. Besides reinforcing the superstition surrounding magick, I think this could add a ton of potential for conflict and richness in magick roleplay.

Personally, I think the skill level of the magicker in the relevant skill should also determine how 'silent' the curse is -- whether it's more likely to be observed or not. Because true (not touched, per se) casting has always been, to me, in-your-face and unnaturally blatant. So I'd think silent curses would require some fluency in magick.

[gotdamnmiracle]

I love this idea and the curses that have been thought up so far. Besides reinforcing the superstition surrounding magick, I think this could add a ton of potential for conflict and richness in magick roleplay.

Personally, I think the skill level of the magicker in the relevant skill should also determine how 'silent' the curse is -- whether it's more likely to be observed or not. Because true (not touched, per se) casting has always been, to me, in-your-face and unnaturally blatant. So I'd think silent curses would require some fluency in magick.

It occurs to me that maybe it should be the other way around. As a truly terrifying and powerful magick user it may become impossible to do the fine effort required of a quiet and mild malediction. Perhaps you lose the ability to be subtle when you gain the ability to immolate whole carru or tremor the very earth? Just food for thought. I could see it going both ways. 

[azuriolinist]

It occurs to me that maybe it should be the other way around. As a truly terrifying and powerful magick user it may become impossible to do the fine effort required of a quiet and mild malediction. Perhaps you lose the ability to be subtle when you gain the ability to immolate whole carru or tremor the very earth? Just food for thought. I could see it going both ways.

I could get behind this, too! That'd be an interesting way of going about things.

[Heade]

I don't think many of these curses are "mild". Particularly when you consider how long they might last, and the idea of being able to do them anywhere without triggering the crim code.

Also, while I'm not entirely against the idea of curses, it should be noted that such curses being added to the game would be unlikely to cause the "feared" reaction to mages that the originating thread was focused on. Instead, expect more players to want to kill more mages. Much like sneaky characters get hassled for sneaking, even when they aren't doing anything wrong, mages should look forward to being hassled/targetted simply for the fact that they COULD do something like this. People are afraid of code that doesn't give them echos to let them know what's going on, such as the case with the "steal" command. But their reaction is generally one of elimination. They seek to eliminate the source of the code, to the point of hassling people who did nothing wrong except "blend into a crowd".

If it has become socially acceptable IG to hassle someone who has used the hide command in the city, which is flavored as blending in to a crowd, then I'd expect something like this to produce similar hatred of magickers, beyond what we already have. Secret spellcasting with secret targets who can't identify the source will generate intolerance.

[Cind]

A lot of these sound good, but a few are so debilitating that they should probably take a lot of strength from the average mage to persist. Perhaps as a mage gets stronger in their element, they are able to have more than one minor curse, up to a max of one or two major curses.

If the mage dies, the curse would then suddenly disappear, rather than taper off slowly as it would if the mage decided to remove it. Its hard enough to find out if someone has died or just taken a break, and I like little details like this.

[gotdamnmiracle]

I recognize a good few of these are fairly debilitating. That said, I think we're trying to flesh out the entire thing. We're brainstorming. Perhaps you have some more flavorful and less deadly curses?

[Vex]

I do enjoy, that this almost instantly went to repeated variations of, "sneaks can't sneak".

Instead, expect more players to want to kill more mages.

They do all want, "fear of magick"... but I bet, they'll be firing off complaints to staff, when most of that fear manifests as targeted violence.

[flurry]

Target will get the hiccups.

Flavor of food or drink will change for target.

Target's say/tell/talk commands will be replaced with sing.

Target's set language and/or accent will change to other known language/accent unexpectedly.

[X-D]

Loosetongue, just as the poison.

Hoarse, can only whisper.

Arthritis , movement speed 25% less, same for combat and lowered agi by a couple points.

amnesia (high end curse here) Sets chosen skill to novice for duration. (I'd so target ride...but then I have played many bynners) Or sneak on elves.

High energy, can only run, hunger works 25% faster. Increase combat swing speed slightly.

cataracts Another high end curse, Look range reduced to 1 room, unless something already reduces it by any amount then same room only and pcs, mobs and objects often will just appear as a blur. (should be dependant on power level of course)

Clumsy Randomly drops items in hands or inventory, frequency depends on power level. I would not have it be very high no matter what, like roll to drop once every 15 min at highest, and once every 30 at lowest.

Foul odor, I am sure people would have fun writing up the echos for that one, allow it to attract rats, vultures etc while repelling non-agro prey animals.

Vertigo randomly falls down, like drunk but way less often and not just when you move, includes while mounted or on chair, bed, etc.

[azuriolinist]

Also, while I'm not entirely against the idea of curses, it should be noted that such curses being added to the game would be unlikely to cause the "feared" reaction to mages that the originating thread was focused on. Instead, expect more players to want to kill more mages. Much like sneaky characters get hassled for sneaking, even when they aren't doing anything wrong, mages should look forward to being hassled/targetted simply for the fact that they COULD do something like this. People are afraid of code that doesn't give them echos to let them know what's going on, such as the case with the "steal" command. But their reaction is generally one of elimination. They seek to eliminate the source of the code, to the point of hassling people who did nothing wrong except "blend into a crowd".

If it has become socially acceptable IG to hassle someone who has used the hide command in the city, which is flavored as blending in to a crowd, then I'd expect something like this to produce similar hatred of magickers, beyond what we already have. Secret spellcasting with secret targets who can't identify the source will generate intolerance.

That's fair, but I wouldn't completely discard the idea of coded curses being able to cause the sort of fear being discussed in the original thread. Why would any sensible person hassle a magicker in the first place, when they could possibly draw their ire and be cursed with a single look? I'd be more worried about the other end of this kind of extreme, where we have PCs leaving the room when a magicker enters. Not a lot of room for RP (negative or positive) in that kind of scenario.

I'd be down for a time limit on curses.

[AdamBlue]

A variety of curses would be cool, but give them effects that can be seen both positively and negatively. You could even use these kind of like gamestart curses on new characters.

Sure, you sweat profusely, and get thirsty more, but you also sweat poisons out of your system super fast.
You're constantly nervous. The shaking hands make it hard to craft anything, but your walk speed is a little bit faster since you want to get out of any potential danger quickly.
You're always paranoid, getting random echoes that make it seem like someone is following you. However, this paranoia lets you find hidden and sneaking people far easier.
You have a stutter, and your words fall over themselves. However, you learn languages quicker due to you focusing on how things are pronounced.
You're short sighted, and things too far away start to lose shape. However, anything within the same room is extremely easy to see.
You're far sighted, and it's really hard to see stuff that gets too close to you. However, anything far away is clear as can be.
You're brave. It's hard for you to run from a fight, but you're much harder to be knocked out of one.
You're a coward. You can run away from fights with ease, but you nearly faint when it comes to being struck.
---
Then there are more generic curses that affect personality.
You're sadistic. You enjoy hurting other people.
You're masochistic. You enjoy being hurt.
You're apathetic. You don't feel anything, usually.
You're hyperemotional. You feel everything to it's extreme.
----
Fixations on objects, people, places, would also be included. Little quirks to make each person a bit more persony.

[number13]

If it was done, here's how I'd do it:

A curse command, available to elementalist. You type 'curse Amos' and if you can pay the mana cost, it happens. Utterly invisible to the mundane eye. If a character can somehow detect magic, they can see the curse. Templars and maybe certain others (vividians?) should be able to remove curses.

It's not a skill to grind. If it's a skill to grind, people will run around cursing everyone, all the time, to grind it up. It'll be super annoying.

There's a random period of time in which the curse is festering, and not yet affecting the character, that can range from an hour to five of playtime. This is so the curse isn't used as a combat/PvP tool, and so that it's not immediately obvious where you picked the curse up from.

The effect of the curse is random, selected from effects available to your element. Sometimes a curse has multiple effects. Rarely, a curse will pick an effect from another element.

The duration of the curse is random. The stronger the curse, the less the duration. For example, a curse that makes stuff seem heavier might last for a day of playtime. A curse that makes you see strange shadows everywhere might last for an hour or two.

The effects are noticeable, but not flashy, and not lethal, and not going to give anyone a huge advantage in combat. A dehydration effect, for example, might make the character always feel Very Thirsty, and be capable of drinking unlimited liquids, but it's just an illusion. The character's actual thirst levels are hidden.


Subtle curse ideas:

water -- dehydration illusion, drunk illusion (you get the drunk messages, but aren't actually drunk), poison illusion (feels like bloodburn, shows up as poison on the score screen, but no actual effect.)

earth -- weight illusion (encumbrance value is set to display as a lot heavier, even if naked), Movement penalty (+1 MV to move from room to room, even on city tiles),  Max HP illusion (your max and current HP appear as 15% less than what they should be)

wind -- direction sense illusion (sometimes you get the message that you've been blown off course. In fact, you've entered the room normally), Max MV illusion (your max and current MV appear as 15% less), scan illusion (shadows appear in the room, as if you're scanning. They aren't really there)

fire -- pain illusion (your current stun appears as 25% less than what it actually is), heatstroke illusion (get the heatstroke messages, but you're not suffering actual heatstroke), magic is everywhere illusion (you see fake magic auras on people, randomly)

[Krath]

If it was done, here's how I'd do it:

A curse command, available to elementalist. You type 'curse Amos' and if you can pay the mana cost, it happens. Utterly invisible to the mundane eye. If a character can somehow detect magic, they can see the curse. Templars and maybe certain others (vividians?) should be able to remove curses.

It's not a skill to grind. If it's a skill to grind, people will run around cursing everyone, all the time, to grind it up. It'll be super annoying.

There's a random period of time in which the curse is festering, and not yet affecting the character, that can range from an hour to five of playtime. This is so the curse isn't used as a combat/PvP tool, and so that it's not immediately obvious where you picked the curse up from.

The effect of the curse is random, selected from effects available to your element. Sometimes a curse has multiple effects. Rarely, a curse will pick an effect from another element.

The duration of the curse is random. The stronger the curse, the less the duration. For example, a curse that makes stuff seem heavier might last for a day of playtime. A curse that makes you see strange shadows everywhere might last for an hour or two.

The effects are noticeable, but not flashy, and not lethal, and not going to give anyone a huge advantage in combat. A dehydration effect, for example, might make the character always feel Very Thirsty, and be capable of drinking unlimited liquids, but it's just an illusion. The character's actual thirst levels are hidden.


Subtle curse ideas:

water -- dehydration illusion, drunk illusion (you get the drunk messages, but aren't actually drunk), poison illusion (feels like bloodburn, shows up as poison on the score screen, but no actual effect.)

earth -- weight illusion (encumbrance value is set to display as a lot heavier, even if naked), Movement penalty (+1 MV to move from room to room, even on city tiles),  Max HP illusion (your max and current HP appear as 15% less than what they should be)

wind -- direction sense illusion (sometimes you get the message that you've been blown off course. In fact, you've entered the room normally), Max MV illusion (your max and current MV appear as 15% less), scan illusion (shadows appear in the room, as if you're scanning. They aren't really there)

fire -- pain illusion (your current stun appears as 25% less than what it actually is), heatstroke illusion (get the heatstroke messages, but you're not suffering actual heatstroke), magic is everywhere illusion (you see fake magic auras on people, randomly)

I like this idea of the mechanics of how it works a lot.

[only_plays_tribals]

lol, magic is everywhere.

Code Select Expand

Bursting into the room, accusatory finger swinging wild, Amos exclaims, in sirihish:
    "Magick is /everywhere/!"

The spiteful-eyed templar sighs deeply.

You notice: the gemmed krathi trying to slip into the shadows.

[Eyeball]

Curse someone so that they can only get sustenance (eat) dead bodies or raw meats of any sort. They gag and spit out cooked foods, fruit and such.

[CodeMaster]

Is there value in curses you can't tell whether you have or not?

"I don't know what it is, but it feels like I need to drink more water than usual.  Magickers..."