We're the Replacement Chosen Ones

[Andor]

I think my favorite 're-interpreted prophecy' bit was in Bullet Proof Monk.

For example "Fighting an army while a flock of cranes circles overhead" was fulfilled by fighting a gang in a warehouse... with a group of loading cranes hanging from the ceiling.

 

[Rechan]

(1) Don't require the presence of any single character. That character becomes a failure point. (This includes a "Chosen One", but it also includes "these five specific characters must all be present at the Final Summoning". The latter is actually even MORE prone to failure.)

(2) Make the "chosen" status something transferable. For example, if it's the imbued energy of a martyred saint, maybe that energy will leap to someone else if its host is killed. Or maybe there were always more hosts than just the PCs and its just a question of which ones step up.

These problems/situations were what sparked my inclination to do the thread.

One campaign, for instance, was about restoring a dying god. The PC cleric wound up getting a 'fragment' of that god, that was fairly important to the plot.

And the Player left.

I "transferred the spark" to the other PCs, sure, but it 1) felt kind of hoky and 2) if new players came in, they wouldn't 'get' the spark, since the Ex-PC in question sort of just 'dissolved' into the origianl PCs (he was a Deva).

That campaign I tried to give every character a quest to make their adventure relevant/give them a reason to be going in the direction they were. But we had lot of 'hey I'll join - but I only played for this session sorry I'm gone'.

 

[MarkB]

You could always use the "accidentally swapped at birth" trope to explain why the new PC turns out to have the old PC's destiny.

Player: "Wait, but I'm - and he was -"
DM: "Um, yes, well, dragonborn and halflings look surprisingly similar as babies."

 

[RavenBlackthorne]

In an old adventure for Mystara (I think) - Mark of the d'Ambrevilles(?) the characters are unfortunately covered in grain at the beginning of adventure, causing the townsfolk to go wild. They have fulfilled the part of a prophesy that heroes would be showered in golden rays. The townsfolk are so desperate for the "evil" family to be overthrown that they pounce on this occurrence and send the party off. After the adventure is completed, the party head back to town to get their reward, just in time to see a group of new folk standing in the market place as the clouds part and a shaft of golden sunlight illuminates them. The townsfolk shrug and scurry away

Always found that fun