The Fantisist: It is Your Destiny - Part IV

The Messenger & The Message
All three vehicles, and others that I am sure escaped my attention, serve to bring the prophecy to the characters in a piecemeal fashion. Dumping the whole lot on the players in the first gaming session will drown the story and kill the tension. The hardest part for many gamemasters is to allow the suspense to run its course. I usually want to blab to the players but the vehicle of prophecy should dole out only a little information each week. For successful use of these literary elements, it is important that the gamemaster avoid bragging about how “kewl” the story might be. Gamemasters will have to read the players carefully, some players will get frustrated with information that comes too slow and others will want to draw out the mystery. Each set of players will have their own evolving pace and successfully running the game requires that you have its pulse. If players are talking about the prophecies and calling you names that are not fit for polite company, then you are doing well. If, on the other hand, they yawn when the topic is brought up, then something is wrong.

The Climax
One of the most satisfying events in a novel or a movie is the climax: that moment when all the built-up tension is released. It is the capstone of fantasy. It is also hard to replicate in role-playing games.

Most players want to continue to play in games, well, forever, but most gamemasters are not up to the task. There are two different ways to handle this that spring immediately to mind; the first is to have a campaign with a beginning, middle and end. The game has a set terminus. The unsatisfying aspect of this type of campaign is that players often want to return to these successful games and bring out the character who is still on top of his or her game. Opposed to this style of campaign is the story that is divided into different books. There are stages to the game that have their own natural climaxes and at these points, the game can be shelved for a few months before picking it back up and beginning a new book. Popular serial television shows, on-going fantasy sagas, and even many storied video games follow this premise. The major drawback to this type of story is that the characters might end up feeling like they are off once again to save the world, a ho-hum feeling at best. In order to make the most of this style, the gamemaster will need to be careful to have good climaxes for each book but not climaxes that are ever-escalating. The game may also need to have some retarded progression of experience in order to keep the characters playable.

Not Everything Is As It Appears
A successful use of auspicious lives is that oftentimes what appears to be known is simply misinterpreted. Characters may see a vision that includes something that, by itself, is disastrous — perhaps they betray the order that they are dedicated to protecting or kill a close friend in their visions. In these cases, the snapshot picture does not provide enough information to explain the circumstances. In the betrayal example, what is not seen in the vision is that the order is corrupted from inside and the characters had to turn to a traditional enemy to succeed in liberating the temple from the snake at its breast. Plan these misleading prophecies carefully and sparingly; the more frequently they are used, the less power they carry. Ideas for misleading prophecy typically involve character death, betrayal, or failure.

A Backup Plan
One of the reasons that many gamemasters shy away from using these plot and literary devices is that sudden and unexpected death on the part of key characters can derail the entire game. Most of the scenarios above are inoculated from that pitfall since the examples involve groups rather than individuals. Make sure that you leave room in your destiny plan for both additions and deletions as needed in case there are deaths or character changes.