This whole thread is spoilers so I'm not going to bother spoiler blocking it.
I want to talk about the 5 cursed items in the secret vault of the property room. Each of them have bonuses when used versus the 5 baddies and each of them have some curses.
So the question I have for you, DMs, is how to relay the information for the curse/bonus to the players? The module (in my opinion) punts on this hard question by saying
"the unique effects these items have upon their respective haunts cannot be learned via typical item examination, but using a spirit planchette to communicate with the spirit in the item can reveal its us. At the GM's discretion, other methods of communicating with spirits could also function similarly."
OK so just how exactly do you see this planchette playing out? In my campaign the planchette has been an utter failure, so I can't really see the PCs using it. Example of how I think this might work:
PC using planchette: Spirit in the spellbook! Tell us how to use this to hurt the Splatter Man!
Planchette: Rip out the pages (very slowly, 1 letter at a time).
PC: Cool! I rip out all the pages, crumble them up, stomp on them, and then burn them! Ha! Take that TSM!
DM: Ummm... well, you were supposed to do that when you were fighting him... crap! Let's go back.
. . .
Planchette: Rip out the pages in front of splatter man!
It all seems so contrived. The players are way too low level in this adventure to have any real lore or divination abilities, so those are basically out. The legends of the prison are mostly lost and even so, strange effects (while cool in a role-playing sense) don't readily seem to me like things the locals or legends would tell of.
I could go on but I feel like I'm trashing on a module that I have spent a lot of energy learning and loving and that's not my intention. I honestly just don't see how to relay this information to my players.
Right now my PCs are just carrying the items around and I suppose will try and improvise using them in the combats. I'm frankly OK with that, but with the module suggesting ways to pull out more specific usage information I'm looking for ideas.
Anyone got any bright ones?
On a side note, I should be done soon with another set of player handouts for these cursed items and DM hints and reminders about them. And, frankly, this is some content I'd like to get onto those handouts/hints.
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I had Vesorianna tell the players that the stuff in the evidence locker 'will be able to help in the fight against the ghosts, but I don't know exactly how.'
OOC the party knows the items are cursed (except the two from the already re-dead baddies). Originally, I had just one cursed NPC (he decided he would ignore the paranoid oracle's bad spirit feelings and grabbed the fancy pants smith hammer anyway), but then after talking to V again, the group grabbed the other two haunted items. Now I have two players who are cursed! Even better, the one carrying the hatchet for Lopper isn't even proficient in it.
On a side note, my party never investigated the cemetary to get the Ouija board. They told Grimmy about it and let his 'I'll send someone to look' be the end of it.