cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/9721677
I have a player in my newly starting Abomination Vaults campaign that wanted the Cursed background. As part of that, I asked them what kind of curse they would have, and they came up with/saw an idea for their curse that they liked and suggested.
Their initial suggestion would be that their PC would forever be unable to open doors, which I liked the flavor of, but based on the wording of the Cursed background, was worried that it would be too much of an ever-present mechanical obstacle. Note: This player is new to TTRPGs and PF2e, so may not understand the ramifications of mechanical limitations.
To try and match what they suggested, but expand on the curse a little bit, I suggested that they perhaps are occasionally compelled to close doors on themselves instead, which the player liked.
To make it more defined and consistent, I whipped together this curse, and would like feedback on it's implementation and overall feel.
Curse: Caspian once insulted a fey creature by enclosing it within a room, in an attempt to trap it. The fey then cursed Caspian to close doors on themselves under stressful circumstances.
When Caspian approaches or crosses a doorway under a stressful environment (this may be during exploration of a dungeon or during combat), a will save may be requested to be rolled, with a DC for Caspian's level. (Level 1 = DC 15) This may occur up to 3 times per day. [Should this be more limited?]
[Daily prep: does it reset difficulty? Maybe a refocus type activity to reset difficulty or prevent the will saves for a period?]
Outcomes:
Critical Success: Caspian overcomes the desire to close the door, and no new will saves must be made for the remainder of the day
Success: Caspian overcomes the desire to close the door, but the DC for the next will save is increased by one difficulty level. [maybe should be a +2 each time?]
Failure: Caspian is unable to resist, and must spend an action [should this be a free action only for curse? opening doors takes actions too] to close the door in front of, or behind them, [figure out in what scenarios they close it before/after crossing] The DC difficulty modifier is then reset.
Critical Failure: As failure, but Caspian is unable to open the door without attempting a new will save. The DC of this will save is the basic DC difficulty, and a failure does not increase the DC difficulty.
My current thoughts for targeted input are denoted in [square brackets], but I'd like some general feedback as well. My intention is that this is an obstacle that may end up in a more dangerous circumstance, but isn't guaranteed to get them in trouble all the time.
The question about the refocus activity would be a way to prepare for the possibility of the curse, like when the players know they are about to enter a dangerous area, similar to pre-buffing.