New Background – Cursed
UPDATE: The partial background found in this article is a preview. It is fully available as a Pay What You Want product on the DMs Guild in a pretty PDF with art and 14 other ready to roll backgrounds.
So this month I’ve created some Halloween themed backgrounds for PCs. I’ve already revealed the possessed, lycanthrope, and dead backgrounds. Now it’s time for me to show off the cursed background.
Cursed
You lived with some sort of curse for years. How you got the curse and what the curse was are up to you. You can create the details with your DM or you may roll or choose them from the table below.
As a cursed person you once suffered from a magic problem so rare it’s almost unique. This curse could have been placed on you by a spellcaster or magic monster like a genie or hag. Or maybe you caught the curse while trespassing in an ancient tomb or vault or because you accidentally killed a sacred animal or offended the servant of a god in some way. How you caught your curse and how you or someone else cured it, are up to you and the DM.
| d20 | While cursed… |
| 1 | …you spoke only in questions. |
| 2 | …you spoke only lies. |
| 3 | …you saw all humanoids as terrible monsters. |
| 4 | …you had horrible nightmares whenever you closed your eyes. |
| 5 | …everything you touched turned to mud. |
| 6 | …all living things were harmed by your touch. |
| 7 | …you heard the surface thoughts of every humanoid within 50 feet. |
| 8 | …anything you ate tasted like sand in your mouth. |
| 9 | …others saw and heard you as if you were an undead zombie. |
| 10 | …you grew donkey ears and a donkey tail and couldn’t speak, only bray. |
| 11 | …you hungered for the flesh of other humanoids and thirsted for their blood. |
| 12 | …any offspring you had were goats instead of humanoids. |
| 13 | …any person for whom you had affection scorned you with unbridled hate. |
| 14 | …any person who tried to address you by your name or a nickname would instead vomit spiders. |
| 15 | …you lived the same day over and over again. |
| 16 | …you could not read or understand any language. |
| 17 | …all animals would attack you on sight. |
| 18 | …each day you would wake up in a new body with a random age, gender, and humanoid race. |
| 19 | …people who knew you before the curse forgot everything they knew about you and who you were during the curse. |
| 20 | …whenever you tried to speak, your mouth filled with corrosive acid. |
Skills: Intimidation and Arcana or Religion
Languages: Two of your choice
Equipment: A set of common clothes, a small knife, two random trinkets from the trinket table in the Player’s Handbook, and a belt pouch with 5 gp.
October 29, 2015 @ 3:33 pm
Another excellent background. This fits well for the spook and grimdark settings, for sure.
October 29, 2015 @ 3:52 pm
Hey thanks so much. Trying to keep your idea in mind of D&D world being more than medieval Europe.
October 29, 2015 @ 3:54 pm
I wonder what a background of “marked” might be. Born with a birthmark, or under an omen like a shooting star. Something vague that follows you and looms over your destiny.
October 29, 2015 @ 3:57 pm
Funny you bring that up! I was working on a prophesied background.
November 8, 2015 @ 5:19 pm
Reblogged this on Dustin & Dragons and commented:
James has made some awesome backgrounds and this is such a common fantasy trope that seeing it here makes it feel left out, and the execution on such a wide concept that much more impressive.
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