Why is Cursed so expensive?

[hackbarth]

-75 points for a disadvantage that is "Like Unluckiness, but worse"?

Unluckyness is only -10 points, why Curse isn't something like -20 or -30 points? The only mechanical difference seems that it can't be bought back normally.

[Last Pawn]

Because unlike Unluckiness there's no once per game session? Anything the GM feels appropriate to inflict on you that doesn't result in immediate death is fair game?
"Hey Bob, you've got food poisoning, no everyone else is fine."
"Guess what Bob, that bill at the tavern you racked up, the one where you got the food poisoning, well it seems it's due and hey presto, you've lost your purse."
"Bob's horse dies. No reason, it just dies."
"Hey Bob, that bar wench you picked up the other night? Yeah, well now it burns every time you pee."
And that's the first session...

[Bruno]

No upward limit on scale, scope, frequency, and general horror. I've yet to see a player even consider it, despite the -75 point bumper they'd get from it, which suggests it might actually be worth MORE than that.

Death is off limits, but there's nothing in there about major injury. . .

It basically very rapidly becomes something like Terminally Ill, only you get a lot of horrible penalties along the way before your character eventually gets killed by something scheduled for everyone to deal with - your character doesn't make it because you were already down 15 HP and suffering -6 on every roll due to your horrible long list of accidents, diseases, and etc you accumulated before the big dramatic event happened.

Going with the inn example - an ember from the fire bursts and sets your bed on fire. The pet ogre the inn-keeper keeps to turn the spit on the ox-roast (and to haul around the ox roast!) takes a personal disliking to you. Another adventurers horse takes a romantic liking to yours - while you're in the saddle fleeing from the ogre, and even if both horses are geldings. And THEN your horse dies, while you're in the saddle, leaving one leg trapped under the horse after it collapses. And then that ogre catches up to your party while you're still struggling to free yourself.

[arnej]

Originally Posted by hackbarth

-75 points for a disadvantage that is "Like Unluckiness, but worse"?

Unluckyness is only -10 points, why Curse isn't something like -20 or -30 points? The only mechanical difference seems that it can't be bought back normally.

I think it all comes back to the phrase "and you can't complain, because you're cursed."

When the GM gets to hose you, and you just have to suck it up and take it, I'd say that's worth every point.

arnej

[hal]

I have to wonder...

If SJGames were to remove from its books, all disadvantages listed in any of its products that NEVER get used by players, just how many disadvantages would be gone?

Cursed is definitely NOT one of those disadvantages any of my players have EVER taken in my campaigns. TERMINALLY ILL is another one of those disadvantages that never gets taken. I could probably name a few more, but those two come to mind.

[martinl]

IMHO: There isn't a fair price for "the GM gets to hose you over grossly unfairly whenever he wants, as long as it isn't fatal." That's more or less DOOM, and as other posters have noted, even for -75 points, most players will not take it. That is because they are not morons.

However, it is a viable character concept for both PCs and major NPCs. Maybe you are cursed in the literal (****** off a SN entity) sense. Maybe you want to play a humor game and your PC's schtick is "everything always goes wrong for me." Maybe the GM wants to pact a specific power in such a way that it is an absolute last resort for anyone, because it annoys the very universe.

Since it is a not uncommon dramatic trope, it might be needed in an RPG, so GURPS has it it the toolkit.

But don't take it for the points. Never take it for the points.

[zorg]

Originally Posted by hal

If SJGames were to remove from its books, all disadvantages listed in any of its products that NEVER get used by players, just how many disadvantages would be gone?

Not taken by players =/= useless

Consider Affliction.

[Kromm]

Unluckiness means that once per game session, the GM gets to decree that you had the equivalent of a failure when you would've, or at least could've, succeeded. This comes with an express warning that the GM shouldn't try to kill you. That's it.

Cursed mean that the GM gets infinite uses of Unluckiness to pile on you per game session. Moreover, there's nothing to forbid the GM from trying to kill you.

The difference in point value comes from "one nonlethal instance/session" vs. "infinite potentially lethal instances/session."

[Riggler]

Cursed is probably rarely taken because there's not a lot of gaming groups out there with a lot of player/GM truse PLUS a GM who is not sometimes taken to sadistic tendencies.

I would like to think that it is certainly not a doomed disadvantage should a player take it in my game (although Bad Temper + Berserk + high HP in a no healing magic game turns out to be a doomed concept). And I would like to think that if any of my players were to run GURPS then Cursed would be a legitimate disadvantage to take.

It has it's merits in storytelling, IMO. But it's not going to happen if a player and GM don't trust each other enough. A GM has to make it worth it's disadvantage points, but shouldn't go beyond that --- otherwise the whole game session is going to be about torturing the cursed PC and ignoring the others.

[Anders]

Cursed + Weirdness Magnet is an especially pernicious combination.