Prophecy, visions, and other forms of foretelling the future are a staple of fantasy and science fiction stories. In novels, TV, and movies, it poses no problem, as the author doesn't have to worry about "railroading" players too strongly. For RPGs, though, they pose a major opportunity for dramatic tension (and bewilderment) as well as as risks to player freedom and generally having the thing go all askew.
So, let's discuss ways to handle Prophecy in RPGs in ways that maximize player entertainment!
A note: If what you intend to do is to reply to this thread with some variation of, "Railroading is badwrongfun for (me, you, everyone), so you can never use prophecy in games!", I ask you right now to go and find some other thread to entertain yourself with. This thread is not for you, and flat naysaying and argumentation won't be tolerated here, and I prophecy unpleasant results for you if you engage in such
If you aren't here to be constructive, turn back now.
That said...
Here's a couple of ways I've seen prophecy used well, and both manage the problematic bits by sidestepping the issues....
1) The Bait and Switch:
This was from a 2e D&D game, but the setup works for any fantasy. Before the party forms, each PC has a short adventure in which he or she came across a distinctive magical item, that binds to them. They can't lose it if they tried. Then, the party comes together, and says, "Gee, we all have these items with this same crest on them, isn't that funny?" Soon after, they find a book in a nigh-illegible ancient language. Much game time is taken in slowly translating sections of the book, and they'll be darned if the book isn't describing *the party*, and things they are doing! Prophecy! Fate! Etc!
What the party doesn't know is that the book is retelling *history*. A past group bearing a passing resemblance to the current party saved the world, and then set up some mechanisms to pull together another group in the future if a similar threat to the world arose. Unfortunately, one long-lived enemy of this ancient group has spent the intervening centuries eradicating as much of the history as it could find. Issues with translation and the fragmentary history leave what information is available looking like prophecy. It also leaves it looking like the ancient enemy is actually an ally - when he meets the party, he poses as a mentor, and for a while uses them to further its destructive scheme. Eventually the party figures it all out, and wackiness ensues.
2) Never Aim for the Bullseye:
A Star Wars Saga game. Jedi can develop the ability to get visions of the future. In canon, this often turns out badly for the Jedi. This particular game took place in a slightly alternate past, about 5000 years before the movies, after what is known in canon as the Jedi Civil War - go look up Darth Revan if you want details. The Jedi are disgraced, and most of them are dead. In our story, one Jedi Knight drives himself to the brink of insanity exploring visions of possible futures, looking for one that ends up okay - and in that one, he gathers up a few Force-sensitive teenagers, and trains them to be Jedi. These teenagers are our PCs, and as I just noted, their Jedi Master is a bit of a crackpot.
Most of the players go for major combat abilities. One goes for being the "face", and turns out building a badass Jedi sorceress in the process. Me, I had to be different. In a game where everyone's magic powers are driven by Charisma, I use it as my dump stat, taking a Charisma of 10. I drop most of my points into Int and Wis, make myself an information and skill monkey, and look for Force powers that work well even if you can't hit a high DC. And then I see this power that can give visions - it is expensive in terms of Force points, but I can manage to hit the DC, and I am the information monkey....
So, to avoid our mentor's fate, my PC decides to make a vow. He will *never* try to disrupt the events he sees in a vision of the future. That way, quit literally, lies madness. Instead of trying to buck the fate he sees, he uses the information to prepare for the results of what he sees, or to subvert the implications. For instance, if he sees that the Republic flagship gets destroyed... we assume that happens. Can we make sure there's lots of lifeboats? Or, better yet, can we secretly evacuate the ship so that the Chancellor and crew aren't even on board when it gets destroyed? The game didn't last long enough for the GM to really test my resolve (or wit, depending) on this, but it did hold up for a while. But, by the time the game had ended, we had found some clone banks, so I was considering ways to even subvert visions where one of the PCs, including myself, were apparently killed....
So, let's discuss ways to handle Prophecy in RPGs in ways that maximize player entertainment!
A note: If what you intend to do is to reply to this thread with some variation of, "Railroading is badwrongfun for (me, you, everyone), so you can never use prophecy in games!", I ask you right now to go and find some other thread to entertain yourself with. This thread is not for you, and flat naysaying and argumentation won't be tolerated here, and I prophecy unpleasant results for you if you engage in such
If you aren't here to be constructive, turn back now. That said...
Here's a couple of ways I've seen prophecy used well, and both manage the problematic bits by sidestepping the issues....
1) The Bait and Switch:
This was from a 2e D&D game, but the setup works for any fantasy. Before the party forms, each PC has a short adventure in which he or she came across a distinctive magical item, that binds to them. They can't lose it if they tried. Then, the party comes together, and says, "Gee, we all have these items with this same crest on them, isn't that funny?" Soon after, they find a book in a nigh-illegible ancient language. Much game time is taken in slowly translating sections of the book, and they'll be darned if the book isn't describing *the party*, and things they are doing! Prophecy! Fate! Etc!
What the party doesn't know is that the book is retelling *history*. A past group bearing a passing resemblance to the current party saved the world, and then set up some mechanisms to pull together another group in the future if a similar threat to the world arose. Unfortunately, one long-lived enemy of this ancient group has spent the intervening centuries eradicating as much of the history as it could find. Issues with translation and the fragmentary history leave what information is available looking like prophecy. It also leaves it looking like the ancient enemy is actually an ally - when he meets the party, he poses as a mentor, and for a while uses them to further its destructive scheme. Eventually the party figures it all out, and wackiness ensues.
2) Never Aim for the Bullseye:
A Star Wars Saga game. Jedi can develop the ability to get visions of the future. In canon, this often turns out badly for the Jedi. This particular game took place in a slightly alternate past, about 5000 years before the movies, after what is known in canon as the Jedi Civil War - go look up Darth Revan if you want details. The Jedi are disgraced, and most of them are dead. In our story, one Jedi Knight drives himself to the brink of insanity exploring visions of possible futures, looking for one that ends up okay - and in that one, he gathers up a few Force-sensitive teenagers, and trains them to be Jedi. These teenagers are our PCs, and as I just noted, their Jedi Master is a bit of a crackpot.
Most of the players go for major combat abilities. One goes for being the "face", and turns out building a badass Jedi sorceress in the process. Me, I had to be different. In a game where everyone's magic powers are driven by Charisma, I use it as my dump stat, taking a Charisma of 10. I drop most of my points into Int and Wis, make myself an information and skill monkey, and look for Force powers that work well even if you can't hit a high DC. And then I see this power that can give visions - it is expensive in terms of Force points, but I can manage to hit the DC, and I am the information monkey....
So, to avoid our mentor's fate, my PC decides to make a vow. He will *never* try to disrupt the events he sees in a vision of the future. That way, quit literally, lies madness. Instead of trying to buck the fate he sees, he uses the information to prepare for the results of what he sees, or to subvert the implications. For instance, if he sees that the Republic flagship gets destroyed... we assume that happens. Can we make sure there's lots of lifeboats? Or, better yet, can we secretly evacuate the ship so that the Chancellor and crew aren't even on board when it gets destroyed? The game didn't last long enough for the GM to really test my resolve (or wit, depending) on this, but it did hold up for a while. But, by the time the game had ended, we had found some clone banks, so I was considering ways to even subvert visions where one of the PCs, including myself, were apparently killed....
