Scott Free wrote:
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Spartan2260 wrote:
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Scenario: A D&D 3.5 adventure in Baldur's Gate.
GM: Okay, you draw a card from The Deck of Too Many Things. Roll.
Player 1: What do I get?
GM: You are cursed. The next time you fall asleep, a major earthquake will happen.
Player 1: Okay, I can handle that.
Player 2: Yeah, we will camp somewhere in the forest tonight.
3 hours later (session time)...
GM: You are jumping from rooftop to rooftop. You will make it outside city walls at the end of the roof you are currently on.
Player 1: I bolt and jump over the city wall.
GM: Suddenly, you are cut off by three people who appear with a blinding flash.
Player 1: I run.
GM: They take their attacks of opportunity.
[Several rolls later]
GM: You take enough damage that you fall unconscious.
Player 1: That sucks.
GM: You're not dead. Just unconscious. What do you guys do?
Player 2: Wait, he's unconscious?
Player 3: Uh oh!
GM: What?
Player 3: He is technically asleep.
GM: No...
Player 2: Yes. What else are you when asleep?
GM: (flipping through book for a couple of minutes) Well...um...a major earthquake happens. And it destroys half of Baldur's Gate.
Player 1: Do I survive?
Player 2: Dude, that's the least of our problems.
Player 3: Crap.
You actually told them what the curse was before it happened? I would have let them stew on it, not even knowing they had been cursed; thinking the card had done nothing (somehow) they would ahve drawn another one. And therein lies the problem with the Deck of Many Things (an item that has never and will never exist in any setting I've ever designed). Would have made that earthquake a lot more epic. Of course, it wouldn't have happened then because they wouldn't have told you to add it when he fell unconscious.
To clarify the situation.
I was not the GM for this particular adventure. In fact, the GM introduced the Deck of Too Many Things (an online fan version) and allowed the player to keep drawing cards. The player was getting random bonuses, turning colors, casting random spells, and finally becoming cursed with the earthquake when he fell asleep. It was only to be triggered at his next sleep, so we decided to camp far from civilization one night.
The GM set up the situation in which the party was being chased. The cursed character was trying to leave the city when cut off by three NPC's teleporting in to capture him. The player refused to give up, so the NPC's attacked. Unfortunately, the damage was enough to kill the character, but the GM pulled it back to unconscious.
The GM was going to let the earthquake slide, but we pushed the issue. His argument was that sleep is voluntary or to be triggered by a sleep spell. Therefore, the curse would not trigger. We pushed the literal definition. Anything less than death would lead to sleep.
The GM had two choices. Kill the cursed character or GM fiat the curse. Negating the curse would, by extension, negate all the bonuses the character received earlier because we would have forced a retcon of the Deck of Too Many Things. That may sound like playing dirty, but the Deck was being abused by the player and the GM because he allowed it.
Bottom line: the whole earthquake situation was poetic and we haven't seen the Deck introduced since.
