Cursed Scrolls

[Necropraxis]

From Monsters & Treasure, page 25:

The referee must take extreme care in handling all Scrolls with an eye towards duping the players when a Curse Scroll is found. The curse takes effect immediately upon reading the Scroll; therefore having non-Curse Scrolls disappear on occasion if not identified will help to force reading of Curse Scrolls.

How do other people handle cursed scrolls?

Here is my tentative approach. Read magic allows you to use a scroll that you find in a dungeon during the same expedition. This is one reason the choose read magic as a "during adventure" spell as opposed to one that is only used during downtime back in town. However, casting read magic in dungeon conditions is still somewhat dangerous and exposes you to potential curses.

If you wait until you get back to town, you can take proper ritual precautions, and detect potential curses without triggering them.

Or would you still have curses activate during downtime as well? It seems like there should be some way to identify cursed scrolls, but also some trade-off that makes it potentially worthwhile to risk a curse. Otherwise, what is the point of having cursed scrolls in the game at all?

[makofan]

This happened 4 days ago in the online game I am running

Flandil is mainly interested in the old parchment. He carefully opens the scroll the peruse its contents.

He reads

"CURSED IS HE WHO THIS SCROLL SEES
FOR HE WILL GET WASTING DISEASE"

He starts to feel ill - he needs to make a saving throw! He rolls an 11, fails and breaks out into virulent purple spots and feels very weak. The disease will likely be fatal!

[Necropraxis]

Makofan, would it have been possible to discover the curse without triggering it? Perhaps paying a sage?

[coffee]

Not sure if this is relevant, but here goes:

In the AD&D game I'm in, we've gotten into the habit of casting "Remove Curse" on every scroll we find before opening it.

Better safe than sorry.

[makofan]

Jul 31, 2012 22:17:58 GMT -6 Necropraxis said:

Makofan, would it have been possible to discover the curse without triggering it? Perhaps paying a sage?

My reading of what Gygax was doing was creating a "gotcha" item (he had quite a few of those things). Now, I'm not sure if I agree with his philosophy, but as this is my first ever OD&D campaign, I am trying it his way without my own biases involved too much. I am lucky to be blessed with great players who are not getting bent out of shape on things.

In my campaign, there is no way to tell there is a curse on the item without reading it and triggering the curse.

[Necropraxis]

makofan

I see, that makes sense.

coffee

That seems like a good approach.

I think I might also occasionally make cursed scrolls also have a real spell, and make the fact that the scroll is cursed obvious (but not what the particular curse is). So the player would need to trigger the curse to cast the spell (might be worth it, especially for using a potent spell at low levels).

[doctorx]

Aug 1, 2012 12:33:23 GMT -6 Necropraxis said:

I think I might also occasionally make cursed scrolls also have a real spell, and make the fact that the scroll is cursed obvious (but not what the particular curse is). So the player would need to trigger the curse to cast the spell (might be worth it, especially for using a potent spell at low levels).

I really like this idea. Particularly if the spell enclosed is one of the higher level ones. You want to zap that oncoming horror with a Disintegrate spell? Fine, but there's a price to pay. Shades of the Curse of Tutenkhamen - open it by all means, but don't say you weren't warned!

At the same time, I agree that as written Cursed scrolls can be pretty final in their effects, so one of the things I'm tinkering with is to vary the Curse effects on the upper levels of a dungeon (and on lower levels of PCs). For example: rather than being killed outright/transformed into an insect/teleported to Mars or similar, the unfortunate who activates the curse takes a -1 to all die rolls made until lifted, a -6 on reactions rolls and so on - not immediately terminal, but could add up to serious trouble in the long-term if that curse isn't lifted asap!

[bat]

Fiend that I am, I make curses sneaky on items. Say the Scroll of Smuggling is found and is used. There is no reason for this scroll to not quietly radiate magic, drawing attention to itself, perhaps other spellcasters, hobgoblins, etc. The trick is to make the curse subtle and give the players an apparent boon. Take any scroll and add a twist. Any of these may draw the ire of a particular or potential enemy (like fire creatures attacking those bearing a scroll to summon water elemental lords or undead wizards hunting down those of a scroll that repels the undead.

[talysman]

I run cursed scrolls pretty much as a gotcha, but they can be spotted with Detect Evil (which detects hostile intent in an item as a well as a person.) Research triggers the curse on Day 1. I think the rules as written imply no save, but that may be too harsh; I think I'd have a nuisance effect on a successful save, so that players at least know what they escaped. EXAMPLE: cursed scroll of Polymorph turns you into a toad on a failed save, but otherwise just gives you warts and a desire to eat flies. Remove Curse undoes either.