Café de Nuit

Long story short, I'm an old fan of a manga series called "Ranma 1/2", which features several characters who fell afoul of an enchanted valley. By falling into a spring in this valley, a person is cursed to physically transform into the creature that cursed that specific spring when it drowned in that spring; the transformation is triggered by being touched with cold water, and the victim can only revert to their true original form by touching hot water. The precise array of curses is unknown, but includes both human male and human female springs, assorted animal springs, and a referenced personality-altering spring called the "Spring of Drowned Virtuous Man".

As we all know, in Ravenloft, curses are broken into 5 gradients based on strength; Embarrassing, Frustrating, Troublesome, Dangerous, and Lethal. As the title says, I'm curious which of these "grades" you would adjudicate the Curse of Jusenkyo to fall under?

I've personally been unable to decide, and I will admit that a Jusenkyo curse's strength could depend on what specific creature that a person turns into. I've been specifically focused on the main character, Ranma Saotome, a boy with the Spring of Drowned Girl curse who thus becomes a female version of himself when the curse is triggered, but I'm also interested in opinions on the other cursed characters as well... Ah, heck, I might as well share the best I've been able to figure out on the subject... Ignoring the possibility that it just automatically translates as "Lethal Strength" since it involves a very noticeable physical transformation.

Ranma Saotome: Human Boy cursed with Spring of Drowned Girl. I've kind of vacillated between Frustrating and Troublesome. Turning into a girl doesn't directly endanger Ranma's life, and he has found ways to live with it, but it also is a fairly major annoyance to him, especially since his female form is quite beautiful and attracts attention from various perverted men he continually encounters.

Genma Saotome: Human Man cursed with Spring of Drowned Panda. For this one, I'd go with Frustrating, or even simply Embarrassing, mostly because of how well Genma has adjusted to living with it. He's fully capable of walking upright and using his forepaws like hands, he gets around being unable to speak with the ability to write missives, and he actively enjoys using his curse to get out of having to work or be held responsible. He'd still rather be human 100% of the time, but he frankly is the least upset by his curse of the main cast members.

Ryoga Hibiki: Human Boy cursed with Spring of Drowned Pig. Ryoga is at least a Troublesome curse, but honestly I'd lean more towards Dangerous, simply because a small pig is an easy prey item for animals AND humans alike, meaning he's not only defenseless, but plenty of people and creatures will look at him and think "free lunch!" Being adopted as the pet of the girl he has a one-sided crush on, who is oblivious to his true nature, doesn't compensate for how much the curse inherently messes with his life.

Shampoo: Human Girl cursed with Spring of Drowned Cat. This I'd mark as at least Troublesome. Becoming a small, non-verbal quadrupedal animal is a huge disadvantage, and Shampoo also has to deal with the fact that the boy she's infatuated with, the aforementioned Ranma, is utterly terrified of cats due to severe childhood trauma. At the same time, people don't generally think of cats as food the way they do pigs and ducks, so it's not quite as inherently dangerous as Ryoga and Mousse's curses.

Mousse: Human Boy cursed with Spring of Drowned Duck. As with Ryoga, I'm torn between either Troublesome or Dangerous for Mousse's curse, but whereas I'd lean towards Dangerous for Ryoga, I'd lean towards Troublesome for Ryoga. While he is small, non-verbal and incapable of using his hands in his beast form, which is also that of a common prey animal, Mousse is able to fly and so can escape danger more readily than Ryoga. More importantly, Mousse is still able to defend himself with violence, being able to unleash barrages of throwing daggers and bombs courtesy of his martial arts training, whereas Ryoga goes from a super-strong brawler to a defenseless victim.

I would say the Jusenkyo Curses would be dangerous to lethal curses, given as how they transform the cursed into whatever drowned in those cursed pools.

Hell_Born wrote: Thu May 21, 2026 8:42 pm
Ranma Saotome: Human Boy cursed with Spring of Drowned Girl. I've kind of vacillated between Frustrating and Troublesome. Turning into a girl doesn't directly endanger Ranma's life, and he has found ways to live with it, but it also is a fairly major annoyance to him, especially since his female form is quite beautiful and attracts attention from various perverted men he continually encounters.

IRL gender dysphoria can easily cause depression and suicidality, so I'd mark that as Dangerous. But it really depends on the person and circumstances - I'm trans and I was never seriously depressed, cause I knew from day 1 that there's a community and that I have friends who support me. A person who was magically transformed into a sex different than the gender he identifies as on the one hand might find it a lot harder to explain stuff to people and get support, but on the other hand might have bigger things to worry about than body image or pronouns (the plot, for example) and won't grow as self-concious about it.

Hell_Born wrote: Thu May 21, 2026 8:42 pm
Genma Saotome: Human Man cursed with Spring of Drowned Panda. For this one, I'd go with Frustrating, or even simply Embarrassing, mostly because of how well Genma has adjusted to living with it. He's fully capable of walking upright and using his forepaws like hands, he gets around being unable to speak with the ability to write missives, and he actively enjoys using his curse to get out of having to work or be held responsible. He'd still rather be human 100% of the time, but he frankly is the least upset by his curse of the main cast members.

But what would happen if he was illiterate?

I think this discussion reveals that the gap between curse strength (as in, the strength of the curse itself) and curse impact (as in, how much the curse actually harms the target's life) can be pretty big. Cause it really is a matter of circumstances.
Like, curse a random villager to grow horns, and it can really ruin his life - maybe he'll be horrified and ashamed of his own appearance annd never go outside again, maybe superstitious neighboors would think he's a fiend and try to kill him... Curse an adventurer to grow horns, and they'll be like 'ooh, cool.'

I would say from embarassing to Troublesome. It triggers with coldwater so a good umbrella is all you need to stay safe in most circumstances.

Hey Hell_Born, Mistmaster and TheArcaneWeirdo...

Ranma 1/2 curses are generally by 3.0/3.5 rules seem to fall under the following aspects.

Troublesome for relatively minor changes to say gender or appearance that leave them still functionally humanoid but different.

Dangerous due to functionally acting like water based lycanthropy and being changed into an animal though retaining their mind.

Lethal due to changing into a full monster that could have very powerful abilities or such but is not permanent.

A key breaking point of this however is the previously mentioned trigger of cold to enter their cursed state and hot to reverse it. Some forms are more hindered by this than others since getting hot water easily is situational and or is far easier with hands or a voice to ask for it or cast spells or such to produce it. Still if the cursed person has easy access to water both hot and cold then this can easily be turned to their advantage more so than standard curses whose effects are permanent usually or whose conditions are not simply a binary not tied to the narrative of their curse itself. For the most part a Jusenkyo curse is rather a static unbiased thing with no real ties to its bearer other than it seems irony from the story of Ranma 1/2 as to how it affects them and reveals other aspects of the persons affected.

I would opt considering they are not permanent in the sense that the curses trigger conditions are controllable to a degree and thus reversible or able to be useful if exploited or the consequences to a degree avoided if careful that it should no matter the form only be considered Dangerous or Troublesome and not Lethal.

However, since again some forms can be very powerful ranging from demon/celestial beings, claimed-god-like beings and or other monsters of some power in mythology but can be hindered by using the reversal trigger of hot water against them then I would perhaps say that they might be somewhat balanced by placing them all at Dangerous just to split the difference a bit.

Even the hindering aspects of the animal or form changing curses can be negated rapidly by their counter of hot water though this may not be common especially in Ravenloft so I can see placing them all also at Dangerous since you may not have time to find hot water while being chased by a mob especially if you have no hands due to being a small animal.

That is basically how I would rate such a curse if I placed it in a game.