Cursed Coins

You got the autisms, pal. A good GM doesn't ask the players shit.

>Advocate maybe talking to your players about problems you have with their playstyle
who said anything about problems? I didn't say anything about problems! the PC has shown an odd quirk either because the player is still learning or purposely added it to the PC to add interesting role play. Either way it's a quirk that was presented that can make for fun and/or interesting situations. so why pass it up? Hell, OP said he wasn't looking for anything malicious, just quirky. So he's clearly not upset about it, just wants to have fun with it.

OP phrases things in a very particular way that implies he does, in fact, have a problem with the behavior. So much of a problem that he wants them to find an inherently malicious magical item that would not have even existed in anyone's mind had the player not been engaging in the behavior he very obviously has a problem with.

Cursed coin that always teleports back into your pouch after you use it to purchase something, the moment the seller takes his eyes off the money or puts them in his pocket.

Every merchant thinks you're short changing them if they notice the disappearance. Some may ban your from their store, less scrupulous ones might hire goons to shake you up or put a hit on your head.

The coin has about 50% chance to draw itself whenever you purchase anything, and it always comes back.

After a while your reputation is ruined, you are seen as a miser and a cheat and nobody but the most unscrupulous traders want to deal with you.

>So much of a problem that he wants them to find an inherently malicious magical item
Or OP wants to play a prank on the PC because he thinks it would be funny and this quirk is the perfect vehicle for said prank.

We have talked to the player about it, they claim it's just a part of their character as an out of work mercenary. We've both tried bringing up as not really making sense and it holding up the game but he seems pretty intent on it. Both him and the GM are being kinda autistic about it, so I want to convince the GM to have a little fun with it instead of just arguing with the player about the action.

>It's just a prank bro!
That doesn't make it okay. And I guarantee you that it'll only be funny to the GM in the worst way possible. It's a cheap ass HA GOTCHA that's not even clever. Moreover, why does the GM need an excuse in the first place? They're omnipotent in this world that they're running. If they genuinely wanted to make a joke with a cursed coin, the party would've found it regardless of their behavior. But no, OP is using this purely as a reaction towards a player doing something he doesn't like. It's a punishment, and you can't argue otherwise.

>It's just a prank bro!
This.

Once I caught my best friend with my now ex girlfriend. The cheeky bastard told me "it was just a prank bro! We wanted to see how you would react to something like this!"

Told the bitch to fuck off, but my buddy and I are still friends. Bros before hoes, amirite?

On the one hand, I'm worried that you saw a player do something you didn't like and felt the need to "gotcha" his character for it.

On the other hand, hey, as long as cursed coins turn up in locations other than this PC's hand, and are a facet of the world rather than an OOC punishment, then why not, have fun.

In which case, how about a coin that flies out of your purse when you open it, and knock things around if you can't catch it, breaking vases and the like?

Remove that stick.

Stop fucking with your players.

A coin that chooses it's master and always finds a way to return to him. Be it as spare change later or more extravagant events like leaping from the merchants hand and rolling down the street after the player.

It won't go away. Ergo, he can't spend it (or could be clever and steal with it.)

...

>Moreover, why does the GM need an excuse in the first place?
It seems like you're arguing against yourself here.
It's always been the role of the GM to challenge extreme attitudes of player characters. The way the character deals with it is what creates a player-focused narrative as well as character development.

I like curses a lot better when they come with a great boon, and the party take the cursed item because they think they can handle it and that the benefits are worth it.
If the player picks up a regular old gold coin just as they've done a thousand times before except this one happens to be cursed, then that's a passive aggressive gotcha! move.
If the player picks up an ancient gold coin from the temple of the dead civillisation that are known to have cursed all their treasure just before demons ate them all so no-one would ever be able to take their stuff, that's more reasonable.
If the player meets a hooded figure who offers them a chest full of gold coins in exchange for their soul, that's fun.

But what OP is suggesting isn't a challenge. It isn't adversity against the character, and it doesn't develop them in any way. It's needless, petty cruelty inflicted by the GM on a whim because the player did a thing he didn't like. You can't defend something like this as a joke, and then turn around and say it's for the character's benefit. If the GM was going to pull a prank in the first place, they would've done it regardless of player actions. As it stands now it is a reactionary, passive-aggressive punishment, and it baffles me why you would defend such a horrible practice.

A coin that nobody wants. It will always seem clipped, or corroded, or possibly foreign, and they'll never want to accept it as payment.

This seems to be getting worse and worse in your mind the more you argue about it.

>This seems to be getting worse and worse in your mind the more you argue about it.
Because as the argument goes on, it occurs to me that people actually think handing out arbitrary punishments is a good practice to get into. And that frightens me.

>You can't defend something like this as a joke, and then turn around and say it's for the character's benefit
I'm not that user. You're quoting my first post in this thread.

The way I see it, that particular action on the player's side is tantamount to a flaw. It's compulsive, it's outside the norm, and it's extreme.
Actions like that can be a storytelling goldmine if you put the player in a situation that makes them reconsider their actions. Anything that forces the player to stop and think about what they're doing instead of tirelessly repeating the same behaviour is a good seed for character development.

If the GM can't use PC behaviour and quirks to shape the story, you might as well be playing a video game that always runs the same course regardless of the personalities of the PCs.

>Cursed Coins
1 --add's a weakness to stats like a -2 or adds to enemies attacks on player like a +2
2 --if an enemy has a choice of players to go after it will go after Cursed player
3 --coin is FAKE and anywhere he tries to spend it will reject it and probably refuse to do anymore business with him
4 -- coin eating coin --- starts off as a copper then eats other coins to become a silver then a gold then a gold bar ---the amount of money did not change it just became one single item of currency --- good luck spending a 1000gp bar of gold
5 -- coins that jingle and make noise all the time -- good luck with a hide or stealth check
6-- coins as bait for a trap
7-- coins that look real till you try to take them and you find out that they are painted carvings attached to something bigger (like bottom of a box)
8-- FAKE coins made to look like gold and silver but are really much cheaper metals--- can go with a story. got idea from a short story where guy uses a briefcase full of fake money to pay off some really bad guys, the money looked real in stacks in the briefcase and at a distance so it worked long enough for him to escape bad guys before they found out

You should let him have a chance of finding a coin with a positive enchantment too. Here's one I'm fond of.
>An old silver coin stamped with the image of a king you don't recognize/from a nation that fell many years ago. The symbol for a god of luck/health/strength/whatever the magic is related to is carved into the face.

>DM takes note of a pattern of PC behavior and uses it to benignly fuck with said PC
>"wow I can't believe how arbitrary and punishing you are, what a frightening practice"
You must be delightful to game with.

>Discourage the players from doing anything because you're probably going to fuck with them if they do.
Wow, so benign!

>DM responds to a thing I do
>"augh, guess I'll never do that again"
I earnestly do not understand you. Do you ever laugh?

>who said anything about problems?
giving a specific player random cursed items when you normally wouldn't even think about them sounds like a problem
>OP said he wasn't looking for anything malicious
>More extreme curses welcome for discussion
also keyword 'curse'

personally i'd just give the player more interesting coins in general if i were to engage the trait at all, rather than a sack of purely negative items. there's a lot of weird stuff you can find out in the world if you look for it, both good and bad, and in a fantasy world, both mundane and magical.

i'm curious how one shapes their story with the inclusion of random curses targeting a specific player, or where the 'storytelling goldmine' is in this particular case.
it's arbitrary and contrarian, and if you're so worried about 'videogamey' behaviour, you could even argue that this reaction pushes players towards that very behaviour - after all, if a character with a quirk or interest is rewarded with penalties and negativity, why bother making another character like that?

>GM responds to a thing I do by making something bad happen.
>Never do it again because the GM has proven that bad things happen when I do that thing
>"GAWSH get the stick out of your ass it was only a joke jeez!"

Excuse the fuck out of me for getting some mixed goddamn signals here.

>Bad things happening to players based on their (repetitive) actions

>punishing the players

How do your players enjoy adventuring in the MLP universe?

DM is asking for a minor curse that literally has little to no mechanical effect, all foreplay based. How is this an arbitrary punishment? Nothing can ever come unexpected to the PCs?

>foreplay based
>I mean roleplay based

Ah whatever, what's the difference?

So you are upset that the players behavior is effecting the game? Go play vidya

>poster count doesn't change from 21
you should probably either stop samefagging or group your replies up in one post.
i'm guessing you're from the arguments and language used.

>OP suggests a curse specifically meant to make the character paranoid and constantly on edge.
Wow, so minor. Also, there's a difference between something unexpected happening to the character and the GM fucking with them out of spite.

Jesus, are you still going?

Just joined the thread, but yes those were me, kept finding new point to add

Also "constant paranoia" over your cpinpurse is hardly a definite term. This could be interperetted many different ways depending on the roleplayer. Hardly a character defining feature, if you don't want it to be.

>Whoever possesses this coin will see humanoid shapes flicker by in shadowy corners barely in sight, and will always commonly feel his gear/coinpurse as being lighter than it used to be.
>Whoever possesses this coin will see humanoid shapes flicker by in shadowy corners barely in sight
>humanoid shapes flicker by in shadowy corners barely in sight
Nah, I'm sure the sinister shadow men whom I can barely see out of the corner of my eye are just after my money and not out to, oh I dunno, kidnap/murder/do other assorted bad stuff to me. I'll just ignore 'em!~

>people don't mistakingly see thing out of the corners of their eyes all the time

Do you drop everything and tell everyone every time you think you saw something and didnt? Will this really hinder the game other than a mild annoyance that will lead to great roleplay opportunities? Does it hinder the character mechanically in any way? It's not like in the middle of a fight the DM says "OHHH HURRR YOU SAW SOMETHUNG NOW YOU HAVE TO CHASE IT LOL!! ITS WHAT YOUR CHARACTER WOULD DO"

It's something that happens that the character reacts to then the story moves along. You're acting like this coin is going to be the main point if the setting.

By your logic any curse that can be bestowed upon a player is an arbitrary punishment.

Or are you just one of those "it's not in the book the GM is cheating!!" Kind of puasies?

If the character is truly collecting coins because of quirk, the player shouldn't let it go after first inconvenient thing. If he does that, then he was collecting coins without purpose?
Don't forget that RPGs are group effort, the game is as interesting as whole group makes it.

> got idea from a short story where guy uses a briefcase full of fake money to pay off some really bad guys, the money looked real in stacks in the briefcase and at a distance so it worked long enough for him to escape bad guys before they found out

three ninjas?

nope

>nope
short story involving a kidnaping and ransom
there was also an explosive in the breve case

>Nothing interesting is allowed to happen unless it directly strokes my dick
Go play skyrim and butcher everything in the first town again if you're that boring.

>Or the PC finds a coin belonging to an autistic dragon that is going to hunt them down to the ends of the earth to get it's favorite coin back.

Imagine if you accidentally pocketed Scrooge McDuck's First Dime. But he's a really angry fucking dragon.

Give em lods of emone.

...

>Not having a coin with the gods of fortune and misfortune on either side and whenever the PC flips that coin something lucky or unlucky will happen to whoever he pays attention to

You seem like the kind of player who doesn't think the GM should be able to have any fun in a roleplaying world. Tell me; do you hate random encounters? Is it the GMs fault when you die? Is the plot something that needs to go?

>do you hate random encounters
Not him but random encounters are a blight upon roleplaying games. If I want fight generic monsters for no reason I'll just play vidya.

Coin mimic jesus op you even DM?

>for no reason
how about you organize an exterminatus in-game and get rid of the creatures that are attacking you instead of crying like a faglord.

Do you complain dungeons have monsters too? Maybe the GM should just give you the loot and teleport you from town to town.

If you don't want to roleplay get the fuck out and stay in your shitty "vidya"

I had one greedy PC that will rush to get some coins after finding treasures. She's wanted to get loads of money so that's pretty much one of her flaws.

One time we went to the Underdark and found a shrine of a dwarven god where inside one of the chests is actually a tributary offering full of platinum coins. and they looked like any other platinum coins from above. she nicked a few pieces before she knew they were actually cursed. so she took quite a bit of psychic damage and all she had to do to undo the curse was to return them... from her bag of platinum coins.

Thankfully the DM allowed the curse to dissipate after she returned the exact amount of platinum coins she pretty much stole from.

*one greedy PC in our game
i really need to proofread before posting

Firstly, I see nothing that suggests the DM is doing this to try and punish the player or that he doesn't like it.

Secondly, there's absolutely nothing wrong here. It probably isn't bogging down the game, it probably is just a random character quirk he decided on.

If anything this is more interesting, since the player has not only had the DM notice and acknowledge their quirk rather than brushing it off, but has gotten something rare out of the deal.

Granted, a cursed coin isn't the positive sort of rare, but players don't have to be rewarded all the time for everything. Plus, it can sort of be its own reward as well. A minor cursed item should be easy to get rid of, and it could be fun to slip it into an enemy's pocket and let them deal with it.

Not everyone is out to get you user.

I think you should make some positive enchants too. Like dabloon of the deep
>ironically makes the own very buoyant

Why even play at all then if you're going to cry when your snowflake is challenged with a fun bit fuckery?

>The curse of untimely flatulence
The bearer of the curse passes gas at the most inopportune time.

>always looking for coins on the ground

>the curse of policar
The bearer will replace his usual sound he makes when surprised with "OI VEY" and will refer to anyone who he doesn't know the name of as "goyim" or "goy"

While players can be annoying, never use the game as a way to accomplish objectives in real life, like punishing a player. It should be its own world with as little DM influence as possible outside of the actual story. Be the fair rules of nature, not a God.

Talk to him if it's annoying. If he continues, ignore him. Add the coin if it makes sense and fits the setting, but the reason for you doing it at the moment isn't a good idea.

Give him a coin that he feels compelled to keep but every day that he holds onto it it feels heavier and heavier. ( It isn't actually so you can avoid shenanigans ) Make it so he either has to endure the mental anguish of not having it, or has to be bogged down by having it.

>playing to the characters' quirks to adaptively add conflict and intrigue is a bad thing
A campaign should just be a bunch of assorted adventurers and warriors taking a peaceful walk through the countryside and nothing ever happening, huh? After all, conflict, an essential part of storytelling, is "punishing" your players.

You know when you find money on the ground one time, and for the next 15 minutes, you're really on edge because you keep thinking you see more money, but it usually turns out to be something else? The curse this coin gives is like that, all the time. Dude keeps thinking he sees money, but upon getting closer, turns out to be nothing.

Or a coin that makes anyone who sees it, think it's theirs.

>Pence
>Not Piece-o'-Eight

Disappoint.