Sothis said:

How about "Any Phase: For every 1 an investigator in Arkham rolls on a skill check, ignore one success that was rolled."

More Cursed now.

As for a rewrite: "For each 1 Rolled, Negate 1 Success also Rolled." But that brings up the question, does it negate 5's first, 6's first or player choose? That is important because of items that give 2 Successes for each 6 rolled.

dkw said:

Whoa... Better pass that skill check :'D

Cursed spells seem kind of weird to me... I can see a item having evil powers... but a spell? Wouldn't they stop useing the spell after they figure out is cursed vs. a item that once they use it the curse is already out of the bag.

Perhaps a very powerful on the surface cursed spell so you have a reason to want to use it but a sutle but dangeous side effect.

Here is a cursed spell that I think fits in nicely with the theme of this thread:

That is pretty good. If any other inspiration crosses your mind, feel free to post.

OMG the trapezeiological is horrible now! lol awesome

And for the Dark Totem, it doesn't matter if it negates 5's or 6's. It negates successes, so you'd still get the extra success from a 6.

More stuff that could help and/or ruin your day.

The Shroud is pretty cool. If a non-combat character drew it that would be a happy day! If not it would really suck! lol

Demonic Transformation is just Dread Curse with one more Sanity cost plus a terror increase. ???

Here is another cursed spell:

As for the creature it makes:

haha the blob generator! awesome lol

So the spell refreshes as normal right? Whoever gets it is going to need to get rid of it asap. You're useless unless you cast it, which means you're stuck wherever the monster was. That means you really can't do anything since you have this problem every turn, yet you don't want to keep making more of these things...

You should give it a discard condition of some kind. Otherwise the investigator who gains it is going to essentially be out of the game (except for when he's generating horrible blobs!). XD

This idea is too entertaining to be on a really dangerous curse card! It's much more fun if it's the sort of spell that investigators will want to actually keep and use as part of a strategy for dealing with monsters.

On the other hand, in either case, the actual blob is waaaaaaaay too dangerous. First time it moves: you end up with two blobs, at toughness three each. If those all move, it's four blobs at toughness five each. A third incidence of the 'diagonal bar' dimension symbol, and the bottom end of the board has eight monsters in it, each of which is harder to kill than The Dunwich Horror! Even creating one blob is a serious risk. If I drew Mutate Flesh, I'd regard it as my duty to get myself devoured as soon as possible, to get rid of the damned thing.

What movie is that picture from? Is it 'From Beyond'?

The major thing about this spell is that it is kinda tempting to use...... Also it is tradeable so if you don't like your fighting character having it you can give it away (seeing as how the term cursed still isn't fully fleshed out and is used in this thread only, if it can't be traded then it will suck).

Once this spell is gained you can't be a monster killer anymore without first using this spell. It is deliciously evil.

I know the hands useage is weird but this spell isn't used for combat so you can move, get rid of a creature, and continue right on your way. I gave it hands simply so that people didn't cast it in combat but instead before combat.

The picture and the quote are both from the Blob re-make I think.

Even so, you would only be able to use your items if you had passed by a monster and banished it by successfully casting the spell (losing 2 Sanity btw). Then the next upkeep you have to do it again or your items are all useless again. I don't think it's very likely that you'll find something useful to do where there is also a monster on the way *and* you can spend 2 Sanity on the spell. And even if you can find this situation every turn, you will run out of Sanity very fast. Not to mention you've created a couple blobs. As mentioned above, that's a horrible horrible situation in itself!

The player would need to deliberately *not* cast the spell at all and simply accept that they are useless now (i.e. go get devoured as mentioned above). One casting would be okay if someone was available to kill the resulting blob immediately (though the casting investigator is useless again of course).

Bottom line is that the idea is great, but the player is screwed and the blobs spiral out of control too fast. Here's a couple possible ways to make it less crippling to the game:

1) The spell doesn't refresh normally. Instead you can pay something to keep it exhausted, so you're not useless nor are you compelled to create yet another blob every turn.

2) Make the blob monster weaker so they don't spiral out of control so fast. Then you can change the spell so you don't have to exchange an existing monster when you cast it. For example, say the blob's stats are weaker (most importantly it's 1 toughness, but the other stats could be more average also). Then make it so the spell has nothing to do with other monsters; it just creates blobs. This would allow the investigator to create a blob on any turn where he decided he needed his items available, without having to also move past a monster. Plus you could also have a few blobs in play without them being unkillable. If you think this weakens the effect too much, change it so they *do* affect the monster limit.

Just some ideas. It's very cool but might break the game unless it's tweaked a bit.

Edit: Also think about reducing the Sanity cost since this will likely be cast at least a few times. lol just thinking about this card in play makes me laugh. Everyone will be yelling at the blob guy to "stop making all these &*@ing things"! haha

The Distorted Blob is too funny.

Make Blob's with a variety of dimensional markers. Give Blob's + toughness if they are stacked.

Hello -

Sothis, did you ever create a cursed card for the Innsmouth Mirror you wrote about?

Yeah it's on page 3 or 4 of this thread, not sure exactly. But it's definitely here.

Better?

Also, not sure if you think the Shroud should be worse or if it is fine as is.

Demonic is more unique now, and pretty cool. Standard issue with cursed spells still applies of course. Namely, you don't have to cast it so it's not so much cursed as it has a high benefit for a high cost. Couple ideas if you care about this issue:
- Make it mandatory in combat like your first cursed spell was. Already been done though.
- Make it mandatory under certain conditions (like when a certain dimension symbol gate(s) is on the board, or when any rumor is in play, etc. Then it will be obviously cursed because you'll either have to avoid combat or send the terror level out of control. Or just make a new spell that does this.

I think the Shroud is fine the way it is. It makes a significant change to the game for whoever draws it, but it's not horribly crippling. If a street sweeper draws it the team will have to make a concerted effort to close a hexagon gate quickly. Once in a while none will come up, but then the street sweeper's good weapons can just be given to someone else. It will sort of force people to change roles, which is quite cool if you ask me. Leave it alone.

Yea the transformation is pretty sweet now but not sure if it should be a "have to use spell" I like the more of a negative effect that happens every turn... example loss a Sanity

Plus the Shroud is sexy... maybe a little tweak in the wording.

On the blob maker... they do seem to tough maybe make all their stats set to the number in play but keep sanity/ stam damage set.

My thought of the Demonic Transformation is that you will go insane/unconscious during the game, and may end up losing your good toys as well as your Clues, but the Transformation will never be discarded and always be taunting you to use it because it is easy to use and powerful.

What do you think of this? Greater example: the Monster you are fighting has -3 and the Monster you draw has -4, you win the combat. It has to be greater, not equal to .

Cool idea, but the text is nearly incomprehensible. I didn't realize the caster was in combat until halfway through. Also there *needs* to be a way to distinguish between when you're referring to the monster in combat, and the summoned monster. Right now it just says "the Monster" over and over in a very disorienting way.

How about this:

"Any phase: Exhaust during combat. A monster appears! If this monster's combat modifier is greater than the combat modifier of the monster you're fighting, the monster you're fighting is defeated and the monster that appeared is returned to the cup.

Discard this card if the Ancient One awakens."

The point being that if you draw a weaker monster, you have to deal with both of them, and that is the 'downside' of the item - you don't need the 'Environment' abilities. Although - I haven't been following this thread too closely - do Cursed items definitely need to have a 'discard' condition and a penalty for non-use? Or is it enough for the use of the item to be risky?

(EDITED TO ADD) There is one other problem when comparing combat modifiers using words like 'greater'. Afaik, the word 'greater' isn't defined in any special way in AH, and it's seldom used on official cards to compare numbers which might be positive or negative, probably because the designers spotted this problem too. A +1 Combat modifier is 'greater' than a +0 Combat modifier, even though it is less difficult for investigators. It doesn't matter that it's a beneficial modifier rather than a detrimental one - it's a bigger modifier! So a strict interpretation of Summon Monster would cause a Cultist (the single most likely draw) to beat any monster with +0, which is Elder Things, Byakhees, Mi-Go, and Colours Out Of Space. It's not likely to happen and it wouldn't seriously unbalance the spell, so you can ignore it if you like, but I just thought I'd point it out.