
I’ve been thinking about coming up with guidelines for some of the fluffier disadvantages for a while now. And this article was the culmination on the one I felt needed it the most: Divine Curse. Divine Curse is one of those traits that is the equivalent of a multi-tool in the GM’s toolbox. It can be used for damn near any and everything. It does need some guidelines given how comprehensive it can be and how much word count the Basic Set gave it. “Cursed Thou Art” will hopefully remedy that. It is, essentially, a entire article on how to construct (or deconstruct) Divine Curse for any genre or game you can imagine. Overall I wrote it in under 3 days (31 hours total), revised it in 3 days (14.5 hours total), and polished it up in a single day (2 hours total). I ended up having to remove a lot of content because I just didn’t have the space for it – which sucked, but it happens. The editing was surprisingly easier than the writing because I tried to cover everything that I could think of. I went through every 4th edition GURPS book I own (which is to say all of them) and tried to make sure that my article jived with what was already in print – which I think it does. Here are some outtakes (including new Divine Curses). Page references without a listed book point to a page from Pyramid #3/78: Unleash Your Soul.
Outtake: Quirks
Alcohol Intolerance and Horrible Hangovers (p. B165) can represent a curse by a vengeful deity of wine or alcohol. See Dionysus’ Torment (p. 28) for an example.
Cannot Float (p. B165) is often included in curses foretelling death by drowning or at sea.
Congenial (p. B164) is appropriate to curses that compel characters to be alone or seek solitude, as part of such curses is the longing to be with others again.
Damned (GURPS Power-Ups 6: Quirks, p. 34) represents the fact that no matter what virtuous acts a character performs during his life he’s going to end up going to Hell, Gehenna, or whatever plane of punishment is appropriate for the campaign setting.
Distractible and Dreamer (p. B164) are perfect for curses that causes misfortune on specific types of tasks.
Distinctive Features (p. B165), like Unnatural Features (p. B22) can have its bonus to identify you be made specific to a group of people.
Incompetence (p. B164) – often more than one – can represent a skill or task that is “taboo” for the cursed one to perform. If a character gains a Divine Curse in play that makes it impossible for him to use a skill he has points in, he doesn’t lose those points immediately, instead he treats all of his rolls as if they were defaulted, but at an extra -4. If he loses the curse later on, he gains access to his previous skill level.
Neutered or Sexless (p. B165) can be a curse bestowed by a vengeful ex-spouse or angry goddess of love – you still have all your “parts,” but they don’t work. And never will.
Personality Change (p. B164) and Appearance Change (GURPS Power-Ups 6: Quirks, p. 10) suit curses that show a character’s “inner nature.”
Suggested Types: Commandment, Cosmic Law, Self-Imposed, Supernatural Affliction, or Weird Science.
Designer’s Notes: This Weirdness Magnet [-15] retooled to be more cinematic than outright weird. The cost remains the same and can represent some of the logic used in action movies to explain why the protagonist is so often in the “wrong place, right time.”