How to decipher a prophecy

[LostSoul]

Note: this whole fun adventure hook is spoiled with Comprehend Languages and such spells. Such is D&D. (You might be able to cheese your way out of this by saying the book has some kind of anti-magic spell done on it...)

You introduce an important literary work to the PCs. Something lost to time, written in an ancient language, undecipherable to all. This ancient book becomes important, and the PCs must translate it before the sky falls.

Set the Decipher Script DC really high, so high that Taking 20 won't make it. Then you can introduce things to the game:
-a Hag that can brew potions of Intellect, or has the needed ingredients so your wizard can brew his own potion.
-various scrolls and parchments that can be translated, adding small bonuses to the Decipher Script roll.
-finally, you can introduce a "rosetta stone" that give a big bonus to the Decipher Script roll. All these things together (or maybe most of them) plus Taking 20 adds up to the Decipher Script DC.

That's more fun than a single roll or a single spell.

 

[Sodalis]

yeah- a lot of spells take a lot of fun out of the game...

but you can also set the DC really high, and given certain information, give circumstancial bonuses to decipher script. like when an NPC says "read it backwards" or "only read by moonlight" or stuff like that that gives circumstance bonus...
-If in a bind, they have to read during the day- they will not make it...

Or you can just leak out as much information as you see fit as time moves on... I am retty sure the PCs wont mind that you are holding out on info- thus is the job of teh DM.

the rosetta stone is brilliant- I did something like that- where the ancient script is so rare and twisted that even current magic cannot decipher it. (magic is only as powerful as those who control it) and so I gave the PCs a clear stone of comprehension- which is used like a magnifying glass and if they read the script through the stone, it becomes understandable...

 

[hong]

Nostradamus' prophecies are perfectly legible to everyone who wants to read them, and yet people get tied up in knots over their meaning. Similarly, the oracle at Delphi made perfectly understandable pronouncements whose meaning was like mud.

Correct syntax and/or legible script does not imply meaningful content.

 

[LostSoul]

Correct syntax and/or legible script does not imply meaningful content.

I was wondering about that. Do you think that the Comprehend Languages would be able to interpret the content, or would you still need to make a Decipher Script check? If you allowed the two to work together, that would be the best solution. (It gives everyone something to chip in.)

 

[Sodalis]

yes- but the reason why most DMs write prophecies in a aged and lost language is so that the PCs will have to go through great lengths to get them deciphered. Nit just walk up to Wizards'R'Us and have it deciphered for 100 GP. whta's teh fun in that...

And after they are able to read it- it is another story to understand it...

An example that comes to mind is MIB when the Archalians shot at earth and gave them the ultimatum- they had to spend some time to translate it, and when they did, they wasted a lot of time- and so had only minutes to retrieve the GALAXY. Which meant they had to rush to Queens.

this is fun for the DM to tell the players theyhave a wek to do somethign so they take their time- only to realize that the task is harder than they imagined: like deliver this to the mayor- thinking the town mayor- but actually, the mayor is a man that lives on top of Mt Unclimbable...
or the other way around:like deliver this Fargo...where fargo was the guy sitting across the hall...but you didnt knwo that...

 

[hong]

I was wondering about that. Do you think that the Comprehend Languages would be able to interpret the content, or would you still need to make a Decipher Script check? If you allowed the two to work together, that would be the best solution. (It gives everyone something to chip in.)

I'd frame the prophecy in a suitably vague and nonspecific manner, and let them interpret it however they want. Then manipulate events to make what they think it means, come to pass. Or not.

 

[KingOfChaos]

Not bad ideas guys..I did something similar, about three children that were born that were supposed to herald the end of the world...the scroll described their appearance and mannerisms perfectly...the PCs were required to capture them and bring them before a council of powerful diviners to test to see if they were, in fact, the three children of the prophecy...fortunately they were'nt.

 

[LostSoul]

I'd frame the prophecy in a suitably vague and nonspecific manner, and let them interpret it however they want. Then manipulate events to make what they think it means, come to pass. Or not.

That's the way I've done it before, but I wanted to set something up so that the PCs would be able to roll their way out of it. Although you won't get any plot hooks from your PCs, you don't have to force the players to rely on their own brains and instead can use their character's.

 

[Psychotic Jim]

I was wondering about that. Do you think that the Comprehend Languages would be able to interpret the content, or would you still need to make a Decipher Script check? If you allowed the two to work together, that would be the best solution. (It gives everyone something to chip in.)

Comprehend Languages just tells you what the words literally means; it does not help you interpret it metaphorically. I would maybe think that Innuendo and/or Sense Motive rolls would be called for.

 

[Fade]

The correct way to decipher an obscure prophecy is to grap the prophet in a headlock, hold a knife to his throat and threaten to cut him a new smile unless he gives you a straight answer right now.