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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cor Azer" data-source="post: 5492653" data-attributes="member: 870">In my opinion, one of the best story elements of fantasy epics are the prophecies, omens, and tales foreshadowing what lays before the heroes (or villains). Of course, for those of us on this board, we tend to play a game rather than simply write one, and as a general rule, even the best of us cannot see exactly how the players will (or even if) reach the end of the "epic" plots revolving around them.How then, do you approach prophecies in your games? Do you use them? Do you keep them vague ("Evil will rise f good does nothing")? Do you craft some nice twists? Do you let players discover their own quibbles in your prophecy, or do you deliberately place a quibble or two in there and leave hints for the players to find them (or just cross your fingers and see if they discover your prophecy's wordplay).I'm planning out a new campaign during which I'm hoping to use a bunch of prophecies and seemingly impossible challenges; I'm hoping the players will discover the quibbles I envision, or even better, find their own. I'd also be curious about similar prophecies others have used in their games. Now, several of mine are being adapted from (well-?) known prophecies and quibbles from mythology, which I'm hoping might catch a faint memory in a player's thoughts as an additional hint.The big bad is a warforged tyrant, who was prophecised to be invincible until his gnome artificer underling was given a clock he could not fix. Of course, the tyrant has put all sorts of resources into making sure the artificer can fix such things, 'cause he doesn't want to die himself. One such quibble the players can find: bring the artificer a perfectly functioning clock - it isn't broke, so it can't be fixed.Another of the tyrant's underlings cannot be harmed by "any who stand before him". Here, the trick is to attack him from behind, or from a kneeling/prone/sitting position.I'd like to use the LotR Witch-King's "will not be killed by a Man", but the players in my group actually rarely tend to play humans, so unless I make them the only non-humans in the kingdom, odds are likely that some sort of non-Man (be it a non-human or a female human) will have faced him in battle.Obviously, the trick is to keep the quibble obscure enough that it wouldn't have happened before, but obvious enough that I don't need to use some Jedi "Certain Point of View" logic to show that yes, that gets around his prophetic defenses.</blockquote>

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