An idea: What if superstition were real?

[Jon_Dahl]

What if superstitions were real? Some of the superstitions are already real, such as garlic and vampires (but then they aren't superstitions anymore, right?) but what if everyone has a secret personalized superstition and following that superstition might help them in some way?

If a person A eats 500 grams or more tomatoes per day, (s)he always receives +1 to hit.
If a person always washes his or her face in river before sunrise, (s)he has +1 caster level for that day.
If a person runs around a tall building five times while naked, (s)he immediately heals one hp per level. Works once per day.

I was thinking that personal superstitions were an ancient tradition that was forgotten thousands of years ago when the current deities replaced the old ones, but they could come back in the game via revival of the old gods. I could make a chart which could be used to generate conditions and benefits for superstitions and publish it in the Homebrew section. This chart would be used in character generation.

What do you think? Yay or nay?

[Kelb_Panthera]

I like the idea in principle. I don't think "do odd thing, get random bonus" is quite how to go about it. Using some old world superstitions from real life might not be a bad way to go.

For example, it's said that if you feel your ears burning then you know someone is talking about you. You could allow a cleric or wizard, after describing their ears burning, to attempt to scry on whomever was talking about them with an actual chance of success.

Another; it's long been held that a black cat crossing your path brings ill fortune and that you'd need to perform some minor ritual, say throwing a handful of salt over your left shoulder, to cure it. Represent this with a -1 penalty on dex based skill checks and remove the penalty when the ritual is performed.

The important things here, IMO, are to keep the benefits and drawbacks fairly minor and to base them on real ideas then make game mechanics to fit rather than just trying to get people to act weird for arbitrary bonuses.

[Ravens_cry]

I do like the idea at least. I feel there isn't enough 'little magic' in D&D. Now, I wouldn't make every superstition real and even less have game effects, but I do like the blurring of the magical and mundane in little, special ways. Magic isn't just for killing bad guys, it's also in the baking of bread, the drawing of water, the blessing of fields, the whispers the wind brings us. It is birth, it is life, it is death and all their little rituals. It's in the stories and explanations we give to things we otherwise can not explain.
That is magic, a magic far more magical, to me than saying some funky words and throwing a ball of two parts of gunpowder at someone.

[The Viscount]

Something like this exists for wu jen, which gains spell secrets in exchange for observing taboos.

It's an interesting concept, but the cynical part of me fears in actual play it would turn into everyone taking the easiest superstition to observe, and forgetting all about it.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Something like this exists for wu jen, which gains spell secrets in exchange for observing taboos.

It's an interesting concept, but the cynical part of me fears in actual play it would turn into everyone taking the easiest superstition to observe, and forgetting all about it.

This is true. To that, A certain amount of trust must exist between the DM and their players for the game to work. With that in mind, perhaps don't let them choose. If they hear about a superstition they must observe it in the area near where they heard of it because its weight is built on the belief of the people that live in that area rather than the personal belief of any one person observing it.

This will allow you to both introduce as many of these as you please without them becoming overwhelming and if anything gets particularly onerous the party can either leave or try to kill the superstition.

[Starbuck_II]

Spirits ( includes Outsiders) can't cross a line of salt. So a circle protects you from them (well they can throw stuff at you still).

Japanese Superstitions:
1) If you play with fire, you will wet your bed
2) If you whistle or play a flute at night, snakes will come to you
3) If a funeral hearse drives past, you must hide your thumb in a fist; If this is not done, one's parents will die.
4) If you go to a Japanese funeral, you should throw salt over yourself before re-entering your home. This is believed to be cleansing otherwise spirits can follow you in.
5) You should never write a person's name in red ink: This is due to names on grave markers being red.
6) If you see a spider in the morning, it means good luck so you shouldn't kill it. If you see one at night, it means bad luck so you can kill it
7) Your flu will be cured once you manage to contaminate somebody else.
8) If your nose itches, someone that you know will have a baby.
9) If you sneeze once, you're being spoken of well. If you sneeze twice, the opposite is true. Three times and someone loves you, and four times, you have a cold.
10) If you are the middle person in a picture with two others in it, you will soon die or suffer a hard tragedy.
11) If a pregnant woman’s husband eats a lot of bananas, she will give birth to a girl.

[tsj]

Very interesting

I could see the fun as a DM in maling the Japanese ones real and not tell the players about it unless they gather information

Then they would experience various stuff until getting to
know the superstitions

Some of the Japanese ones are valid in Europe as well

And some of the others. .like

Black cats .. salt over shoulder

Sneezing

And fire.