cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/9721677

I have a player in my newly starting Abomination Vaults campaign that wanted the Cursed background. As part of that, I asked them what kind of curse they would have, and they came up with/saw an idea for their curse that they liked and suggested.

Their initial suggestion would be that their PC would forever be unable to open doors, which I liked the flavor of, but based on the wording of the Cursed background, was worried that it would be too much of an ever-present mechanical obstacle. Note: This player is new to TTRPGs and PF2e, so may not understand the ramifications of mechanical limitations.

To try and match what they suggested, but expand on the curse a little bit, I suggested that they perhaps are occasionally compelled to close doors on themselves instead, which the player liked.

To make it more defined and consistent, I whipped together this curse, and would like feedback on it's implementation and overall feel.

Curse: Caspian once insulted a fey creature by enclosing it within a room, in an attempt to trap it. The fey then cursed Caspian to close doors on themselves under stressful circumstances.

When Caspian approaches or crosses a doorway under a stressful environment (this may be during exploration of a dungeon or during combat), a will save may be requested to be rolled, with a DC for Caspian's level. (Level 1 = DC 15) This may occur up to 3 times per day. [Should this be more limited?]

[Daily prep: does it reset difficulty? Maybe a refocus type activity to reset difficulty or prevent the will saves for a period?]

Outcomes:

Critical Success: Caspian overcomes the desire to close the door, and no new will saves must be made for the remainder of the day

Success: Caspian overcomes the desire to close the door, but the DC for the next will save is increased by one difficulty level. [maybe should be a +2 each time?]

Failure: Caspian is unable to resist, and must spend an action [should this be a free action only for curse? opening doors takes actions too] to close the door in front of, or behind them, [figure out in what scenarios they close it before/after crossing] The DC difficulty modifier is then reset.

Critical Failure: As failure, but Caspian is unable to open the door without attempting a new will save. The DC of this will save is the basic DC difficulty, and a failure does not increase the DC difficulty.

My current thoughts for targeted input are denoted in [square brackets], but I'd like some general feedback as well. My intention is that this is an obstacle that may end up in a more dangerous circumstance, but isn't guaranteed to get them in trouble all the time.

The question about the refocus activity would be a way to prepare for the possibility of the curse, like when the players know they are about to enter a dangerous area, similar to pre-buffing.

I've been primarily a player in my TTRPG games, and roleplay hasn't ever really been my strong suit. I've typically been more of a person to describe what my character is doing and saying, rather than acting "in-character", and this has been sufficient for the games I've played, but I've always felt I should be doing more to get better immersed into my character and worlds.

Now that I've finished my campaigns as a player, I'm looking to expand into DM'ing for a local group of friends, where I would be the most experienced player by far. (Planning to run Abomination Vaults for Pathfinder 2e)

My current worry is, because of my lack of experience establishing a "voice" for my PCs, if that will hinder the experience for my players by not having a range of easily identifiable voices for separate NPCs that the party will be interacting with.

Abomination Vaults is primarily a mega-dungeon, so I'm at least not diving into a campaign with dozens of unique NPCs required for social encounters, but there are still a number of frequent NPCs that will show up, and they will mostly be the same throughout the campaign (people like the primary quest-giver, the town guard captain, innkeeper, etc.)

And so, my question: How important is it to you, as a player or GM, that the GM has a voice for each NPC, even if they sometimes sound similar to other NPCs? Should I be practising voices in my spare time? Do you care if a voice for an NPC is consistent, or can it change as I get more familiar both with the character, and finding my style for voicing them?

What have you been playing this week? Do you think others might like it?