The best cursed item is one where an inventive player can use the curse to their advantage.
When designing the first of these swords, I tried to think of combos players can use to take advantage of it. Some of the later swords were just used to fit into the theme of "cursed".
Yeah, you misunderstand.
To use an RPG example:
There is a wooden sword (weak weapon) that cannot be put down (the disadvantage). A player started disarming his enemies since the curse prevented the downside of failure (being disarmed instead).
Note how it was the disadvantage was used as an advantage. This is not a case of mitigating a disadvantage (healing + hp loss).
I think I get a little bit of what you're saying. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
I've created some swords that have some synergies but only are "cursed less" when using those.
A good cursed idea would be something that can be used as an advantage, not just to be "worse less".
How would I go about making a cursed item that allows one to be used creatively? For example, with your wooden sword example, is that a forced combo for a disarming only strategy?
Yes, you do understand now.
I recently reviewed a card in the July monthly newsletter (Ghost of the Future) that had a drawback (opponent must draw for it to attack) that could be used to get an advantage (deckout deck). Notice how it could be used in a rush where the drawback is a drawback OR it could be used in the deckout deck where the drawback was beneficial.
The wooden sword, being generally worse than a non cursed sword, did force creativity to use. However that is all contained in the single item (like a single card). The forced combo problem arises when a card is merely an extension of an existing card or cards rather than a card in its own right AND the extension is too limited. (Animate Weapon is an extension of weapons but is very versatile in its targets)
PS: The word less usually precedes the word it modifies when it is a separate word. "less hope" or "hopeless" not "hope less".
(Extra: "Xless" is more extreme than "less X")
