I have a player who was a little too 'trigger happy' and killed a couple of innocent NPCs. I had a curse put on him that if he attacks someone who hasn't attacked him or any of the people he is defending, he will become disoriented for the rest of the conflict. (All attack and save rolls at disadvantage). It's time for the curse to be lifted.
He was told that to lift the curse, he needs to bring a certain person to justice. He hasn't done that yet and the way things have unfolded he won't be able to for a while. But, as the NPC that put the curse on him is a very manipulative character, I'm thinking a more interesting solution is that there never was a curse and that it is all 'headology' - the character has no idea how curses work and he was just told that there was now a curse on him. The only time he has ever attacked first since the curse was put on him, his character sincerely believed the NPC had attacked first (Other party member told him he had been attacked, and the cursed player failed his insight check - ie player knows it was a lie but character didn't) so I told the player his character felt no ill effects after the attack (first hint that there isn't a curse on him).
Basically, if the character believes the curse will take effect, it does. If he doesn't it won't.
So... if all goes to plan... the player will start to realise there may not be a real curse on his character. He next session he will meet an NPC who will tell him that as far as they know curses don't work the way he is describing it, although, they will explain, they aren't an expert and they might be wrong.
In-game that means that the character will not know for sure whether he is cursed or not. I'm struggling to work out how to represent that doubt and realisation in terms of dice rolls/checks. If he attacks first there needs to be a roll to represent whether he thinks the curse will take affect. Each time he succeeds the target for next time is reduced (until it reaches a ridiculously low value that we can say he knows for sure that there is no curse and never was). If he fails the check, it goes up again. I'm thinking this roll should be an insight check, but I'm not sure. Any thoughts?
If the player knows there is no curse and he is roleplaying it like the PC does not know, then you probably need to work together on this. Let the roleplaying work out the answers for you. Let the player tell you when the PC is starting to have doubts.
If the player does not know the curse is fake, then you need to have smarter people then me answer your questions.
The player knew from the battle map that in that one instance that the creature hadn't actually attacked anyone, but the other player's character was saying he had. The question came up "Does the curse still apply if my character believesthe creature has attacked?" I didn't have an answer, so I called for an insight check to see if he knew the other player was lying. If he know he was lying then it would have been simple - of course, the curse applies. BUT He failed the check. (ie his character believed the lie) and so having to make a quick decision I let him attack without consequences.
That was what set me thinking about the reveal being that there never was a curse and the person "cursing" him was just manipulating him.
At this moment in time, the player still believes a full curse is in effect. He hasn't questioned how he was able to attack without consequences... on that one occasion and he hasn't tried to attack first since. (I kind of hoped he would have picked up on that and start questioning the curse but he never has). At our next session, I aim to plant some more doubts over the curse and hope he picks up on it. He is visiting someone he hopes can lift the curse - and will learn that there is something odd about the curse as it doesn't follow any pattern that this NPC has ever seen.
Not sure how you run the game, but generically speaking. Ask what he is doing for combat (like normal) ask him what he rolled and and if a disadvantage, let you know what the both dice read. Let the player tell you how he is rolling, that is how he will show you if he decided to ignore.
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I have a player who was a little too 'trigger happy' and killed a couple of innocent NPCs. I had a curse put on him that if he attacks someone who hasn't attacked him or any of the people he is defending, he will become disoriented for the rest of the conflict. (All attack and save rolls at disadvantage). It's time for the curse to be lifted.
He was told that to lift the curse, he needs to bring a certain person to justice. He hasn't done that yet and the way things have unfolded he won't be able to for a while. But, as the NPC that put the curse on him is a very manipulative character, I'm thinking a more interesting solution is that there never was a curse and that it is all 'headology' - the character has no idea how curses work and he was just told that there was now a curse on him. The only time he has ever attacked first since the curse was put on him, his character sincerely believed the NPC had attacked first (Other party member told him he had been attacked, and the cursed player failed his insight check - ie player knows it was a lie but character didn't) so I told the player his character felt no ill effects after the attack (first hint that there isn't a curse on him).
Basically, if the character believes the curse will take effect, it does. If he doesn't it won't.
So... if all goes to plan... the player will start to realise there may not be a real curse on his character. He next session he will meet an NPC who will tell him that as far as they know curses don't work the way he is describing it, although, they will explain, they aren't an expert and they might be wrong.
In-game that means that the character will not know for sure whether he is cursed or not. I'm struggling to work out how to represent that doubt and realisation in terms of dice rolls/checks. If he attacks first there needs to be a roll to represent whether he thinks the curse will take affect. Each time he succeeds the target for next time is reduced (until it reaches a ridiculously low value that we can say he knows for sure that there is no curse and never was). If he fails the check, it goes up again. I'm thinking this roll should be an insight check, but I'm not sure. Any thoughts?
If the player knows there is no curse and he is roleplaying it like the PC does not know, then you probably need to work together on this. Let the roleplaying work out the answers for you. Let the player tell you when the PC is starting to have doubts.
If the player does not know the curse is fake, then you need to have smarter people then me answer your questions.
Thanks for the reply. To clarify...
The player knew from the battle map that in that one instance that the creature hadn't actually attacked anyone, but the other player's character was saying he had. The question came up "Does the curse still apply if my character believes the creature has attacked?" I didn't have an answer, so I called for an insight check to see if he knew the other player was lying. If he know he was lying then it would have been simple - of course, the curse applies. BUT He failed the check. (ie his character believed the lie) and so having to make a quick decision I let him attack without consequences.
That was what set me thinking about the reveal being that there never was a curse and the person "cursing" him was just manipulating him.
At this moment in time, the player still believes a full curse is in effect. He hasn't questioned how he was able to attack without consequences... on that one occasion and he hasn't tried to attack first since. (I kind of hoped he would have picked up on that and start questioning the curse but he never has). At our next session, I aim to plant some more doubts over the curse and hope he picks up on it. He is visiting someone he hopes can lift the curse - and will learn that there is something odd about the curse as it doesn't follow any pattern that this NPC has ever seen.
Not sure how you run the game, but generically speaking. Ask what he is doing for combat (like normal) ask him what he rolled and and if a disadvantage, let you know what the both dice read. Let the player tell you how he is rolling, that is how he will show you if he decided to ignore.