RPG Blog Carnival, September 2015 - Curses!!!

Johnn over at Roleplayingtips is hosting this month's Blog Carnival - Cursed Items and Calamities!

So, back in July, the Carnival topic was 'Legendary Weapons' - where a weapon became embued with its qualities, not necessarily from direct enchantment, but through energies gained from accumulated adventures and events.

So - conversely - why can't an object become cursed - simply because it's put together wrong, constructed with bad intent, or is involved in numerous unfortunate campaigns or events?

Case in point, my wife's car.

She owns a 2001 Subaru Forester- a 'gift' from her mother (warning #1). The car, purchased new, had come from the factory with a bad engine block (warning #2).  My brother-in-law, a Subaru mechanic, told my mother-in-law to have the dealer replace the car, which she was within her rights to request, based on recalls, etc.  She chose not to, but had the engine replaced (warning #3).  Several months later, she was t-boned at an intersection (warning #4).  And, again, went cheap on the repairs, counter to my brother-in-law's advice (warning #5).

At this point, she gets a new car, and gives the Subaru to my wife....



Since then, it has been:

• hit while parked (three times)
• hit by a driver blowing through a red light
• hit by someone who 'didn't see it'
• slid into by another car on the snow
• hit by a falling tree

Yes, really

Note how the tree specifically avoided the adjacent vehicles.

All four sides (and the roof) of this car have taken hits at this point.

Oh, and this vintage of Subaru is infamous for having bad head gaskets. We've replaced hers twice.

And today, she and the daughter were going to take the Subaru out to get in some learner permit training hours.

It had a screw in one tire.  (shakes fist at heavens)

So, yes.  The source of a potentially cursed object for consideration.  Constructed poorly, or perhaps ineptly, the weapon, device, or vehicle accrues further deficits by damage and misadventure, negative energy building up in its structure over time, stacking on more and more.  A sword wielded during defeat after defeat.  A piece of clockwork that malfunctions at critical moments. A ship beset by storms, monsters, and pirates. Each misfortune compounding upon the last, adding to the object's negative energies until...

A cursed item may not be formed as the result of a dying foe's last breath, or a malicious enchantment.  What may have been its backstory of bad karma before the player character picked it up and became tied to its unfortunate history?

**UPDATE:  While changing out the spare so I could take the car to get new tires, I caught my leg on the lugwrench and a) tripped over the spare tire, b) twisted my ankle, c) fell onto my previously-injured wrist (not associated with the car), and d) crushed my phone.