Prophecy in D&D

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm thinking of creating a set of McGuffins -- 13 books of prophecy from a legendary (and deceased) diviner. The books are not all available together, partially because said diviner was torn to pieces by slaadi sent by enemies of the gods of fate and destiny. This also prevents full copies of the books from being created, making the real ones essentially minor artifacts.

Villains will have some of these books, at least one copy will be in the hands of an ally, and others are simply lost.

Has anyone used prophecy in D&D? I'm going to emphasize the apparent accuracy of these predictions with creating some prophecies after the characters succeed in completing whatever is predicted, but I also want to include some future prophecies as well. What would be the best mechanism for doing this?

Taking a cue from Nostradamus, I'd thought about having the prophecies be obscure and esoteric, and have reading from the books work like a bardic/loremaster knowledge check, but with each Knowledge skill over a certain level, a synergy bonus applies, to represent all the various obscure references in the books, along with a bigger bonus for successfully deciphering previous prophecies or having access to other of the books. Any thoughts on this?

 

[Ibram]

Another good one (an idea I have used myself) is that individual prophecies are spread across several books.

i.e.
To decipher the prophecy that tells of the fall of Kingdom X you need books 3, 5, and 11.

This can lead to interesting plot twists: with books 3 and 11 it appears that the kingdom will fall into darkness under the reign of the last king, but passages in book five hint that it is realy the kings brother in law.

Prophecies are always best when they are vague, and not easy to understand:

 

[Kaji]

Monte Cook has a good sized section on how to handle prophesy and visions in Book of Eldritch Might III: The Nexus
I thought it was useful.

 

[Eosin the Red]

Here is a PDF I wrote on using prophecy in RPGs. Not exactly what you are thinking but you might find some useful information.

http://www.callofthehorn.com/PDF/destiny.pdf

Sorry, the boards won't let me enter a hyperlink so the address will need to suffice. :\

 

[Turanil]

I already did that once, back in AD&D 2e.

I had written a prophecy that the characters knew. It was convoluted enough, and especially important didn't give any name, just descriptions that could fit with different people. As written, I could provide different interpretations of the prophecy. I did that so whatever the characters would do, the prophecy would be true. However, it was done so the characters would be the ones to fulfill the prophecy, and it was giving them some hints. However, on overall this was not a so great plot.

My suggestion would be: the prophecy does tell what will happen: i.e.: "the evil dragons return to enslave the world"; but not what will occur: i.e.: "the dragons will successfully enslave the world". As such it gives players' clue to what what will be happening, but let them change the outcome if acting appropriately. Now let most NPCs interpret the prophecy differently from the PCs, and be at odds at them...

 

[Henry]

Turnail's got the idea; what I learned from Piratecat, "prophesy the event, not the outcome."

If you DO go so bold as to prophesy in your prophecy, make it vague enough that someone else can complete it. "The worker of stone with face of flame" could be the PC Dwarf with a red beard, OR it could be a local town mason with a flame-like scar on his cheek running down to his neck. OR it could even be the duergar with crimson eyes who the party last befriended.

 

[Henry]

Sorry, the boards won't let me enter a hyperlink so the address will need to suffice. :\

Not sure I understand this: are you saying that the hyperlink you created when you posted the url above is not showing up? I downloaded that PDF just by right-clicking on your link.

You can also use the (URL=so&so.com) name of link (/URL) vbulletin command, or is that not working for you?

 

[Eosin the Red]

You can also use the (URL=so&so.com) name of link (/URL) vbulletin command, or is that not working for you?

That is the story.....I cannot name the link --- or sub in my own text. I just pasted in the long, ugly file host and the boards turned it into a HL (I tried to name it twice - since that was not working I assumed that it might not auto convert the text into a HL).

 

[Voadam]

Or go the greek delphi version (a great army will fall at X, it doesn't say which one though) which are vague and could actually be multiple results. Which is why my eldritch knight main PC doesn't put any stock into prophecies.

IMC nobody can see into the future, not even the gods. So prophecies end up being things that can be predicted because of existing conditions, such as on the night of a blue moon demons will enter Marchipur (because there is a gate to the abyss that opens once every 100 years but only under a blue moon).

Also they can be wrong.

 

[BlackMoria]

Monte Cook has a good sized section on how to handle prophesy and visions in Book of Eldritch Might III: The Nexus

Correction. It is the Book of Hallowed Might II: Portents and Visions