== A New Curse System ==
   by Dawn Metcalf

The Observation:

Major and Minor Curses, some of the few attack spells available to
Clerics, were nixed because (as I understand it):  it was a pain for GMs
to write up all the curses.  I understand this completely, but the current
solution of ³disad curses², the standards being Peaceful or Weakness, are
at many times inappropriate for the situation, the one casted upon [like a
wolf or a vampire] or the one casting it [a follower of Rannash or a
berserker enraged].  People generally seem upset by this change and I
believe these umbrella solutions just donıt reflect the diversity and
creativity of this spell category [which would be nice to have 2 levels of
again!] and I have a suggestion to address the creativity without bugging
the GMs every game.

Proposal #1:

Please reinstate Minor Curse and Major Curse to their former levels (3rd
and 6th).  Available curses are found on the Web off of a proscribed list
of options.

The appropriate committee approves a list of communal Minor curses and
Major curses available to all interested persons who do not believe disad
curses alone fairly reflect their character.  The PCs may use any of these
approved curses in their cache.  (These would be treated much like the
Divine Wrath list provided under the Curse directory currently, available
on the website for everyone to reference.)

By making a large, fixed list available to all PCs, the committees
involved only have to do this large-scale approval once and everyone, even
GMs, would know what effects would be possible with curses occuring
in-game.  In the future, people could propose adding curses to the list in
the regularly prescribed manner for changes/additions to spells in Quest.

Default curses would be the same disad curses listed in the body of the
attachment and on the web at the present time.

===

My proposal's purpose is to add to the unique and ongoing character of the
CG, reinstate former spells and spell levels without undo hardship onto GM
workload and reflect individual character perspective not currently
available at this time.

* Please see attached list of previous in-game Curses I submit for
consideration by the appropriate committee; this list is an available
resource I gathered from all previous documents I could recover and
divided them into Standard Curses [basic] and Pantheonic Curses
[reflecting the deities found in the CG pantheon] and certainly has room
to entertain more or substitute options if others are willing to
contribute. The idea is to approve a wide range of Major and Minor curses
than can reflect more variety while aligning with the CG universe and
in-game cohesion.


* The Proposals *

1) Players choose afflictions

-- In Rules of Magic: Special Spell Types: Curse Spells, change this:

"Each Curse spell will have one or two standard afflictions. In addition
to those, the Game World Committee of the game world (or the GMs of a
one-shot game) may provide more afflictions as they see fit.  These should
be attached to the spell page(s) in the character's spell book, providing
a greater choice of afflictions when casting a Curse spell.

For Continuing Games
	Clerics of the gods in the CG pantheon will have access to an
additional affliction(s), based on what god the cleric follows. These can
be found on the Quest Web site at www.quest.org/cg/curses.shtml"

to this:

"Each Curse spell will have one or two standard afflictions.  If casters
wish to personalize their characters, they may replace the spell's
standard afflictions with up to three afflictions per curse spell which
may be chosen from a list of afflictions pre-approved by the Rules
Committee [The Curse List].  Each affliction found on the Curse List is
available to all casters.  The Game World Committee of the game world (or
the GM of a one-shot game) may provide recommendations on how players may
use the afflictions to better integrate their characters with the game
world.  Once chosen, each affliction should be attached to the spell
page(s) in the character's spell book, providing up to three different
choices of afflictions when casting a Curse spell.  Casters may change
their selection in between games, choosing new curse afflictions from the
Curse List, as long as they do not exceed the maximum of three options per
curse spell per game.  The Rules Committee will handle proposals to add,
subtract, or modify afflictions on the Curse List, which can be found on 
the Quest Web site at __________

For Continuing Games
	Clerics of the gods in the CG pantheon will have a recommended set
of afflictions, based on what god the cleric follows. These can be found
on the Quest Web site at www.quest.org/cg/curses.shtml"

-- The GWC does not need to approve this, because it does not actually
require them to do anything.

-- All existing Curse afflictions will be automatically placed on the
Curse List.


2) Major & Minor Curse

-- Replace the single Curse spell at 5th level Cleric with 2 spells:
Major Curse at 6th level Cleric, and Minor Curse at 3rd level Cleric.
They work the same way as the current spell does.

-- The "standard affliction sentence" for Major Curse is:
	"The standard afflictions cause either Cowardice (per the
	disadvantage of that name) or the loss of 2 levels of both Will
	and Awareness, and last until dispelled."

-- The "standard affliction sentence" for Minor Curse is:
	"The standard afflictions cause either Peacefulness or Lameness,
	(per the disadvantages of those names), and wear off in 5
	minutes."

-- Non-standard afflictions will be added in the summer, after the
Publisher's deadline, so that we can do more changes now.