Your palm says... You sweat a lot.

[Xarlen]

So, my PCs are going to encounter an Oracle, though not one of those old, wise ones; a potter's apprentice who just... learned he HAD the ability, so he's going to be a little more down to earth.

So, I'm wondering about some interesting methods of fortune telling and stuff. Yeah, Tarrots and Palm Reading, that's been done.

I remember something mentioned to me regarding the Salem Witch Trials; before the trials, many of the girls were dabbling in 'tempting things'. One thing they did was, I THINK, pour hot wax into a bowl of water, and see what the wax formed. And that was supposed to tell your future or who you'd marry.

Trying to think of some other interesting methods of 'fortune telling'.

So, has anyone used anything Interesting in their campaigns?

 

[BiggusGeekus@Work]

I've seen Wiccans do the wax in water thing. There is also tea leaves. The ancient Greeks used to tell the future by setting free a flock of birds.

Hope that helps!

 

[Xarlen]

I've seen Wiccans do the wax in water thing. There is also tea leaves. The ancient Greeks used to tell the future by setting free a flock of birds.

Hope that helps!

Yeah, I remember reading a book where a Diviner would look for signs in the flight of doves.

 

[shadoe]

The patterns of the cracks on pottery that has cracked after having been fired.

The Chinese were supposed to have used the cracks that formed on a tortise shell that had been put in the fire if I remember correctly.

 

[Oni]

Always the age old method of cutting an animal open and checking its entrails, though that sounds decidedly unpotterly. Go the simple route and say visions, or better yet voices tell him things that actually come to pass (hmmm, one wonders if the voices might cause those things to come to pass).

He could have whoever's fortune he's telling make a pot and then look at the pot and tell their fortune. He could enter a trance and start shaping clay, the shape it takes would be prophetic of something.

Cast bones or runes.

 

[Psychotic Jim]

In ancient China they made use of shoulder bones of sheep and the shells of turtles as oracle bones. Fortune tellers would inscribre grooves onto these bones and then put them into the fire. The fortune teller would then read how the bones cracked and detirmine the fortune.

With I Ching, the Book of Changes, the Chinese also threw sticks or coins and observed how they landed and checked with the book to predict the future.

 

[Oogar]

Unfired bowl on turning wheel. Drip slip (sorta like paint for clay) in the Inside of the spinning bowl. The paterns evoke a vision in him, He was doing that the first time he had a vision, and he does it the same way still. Someday he may evolve beyond it, but if he is new to the visions....

 

[Xarlen]

Always the age old method of cutting an animal open and checking its entrails, though that sounds decidedly unpotterly. Go the simple route and say visions, or better yet voices tell him things that actually come to pass (hmmm, one wonders if the voices might cause those things to come to pass).
.

Well, I plan on doing that. But not ALL of it should be 'Wham, I know what's going on'. Some will be intuition 'He just has a Feeling', others is yes, visions or whispers, while other stuff says more.

Hm. What do you mean by 'How it cracks when fired up'? Pottery cracks when you fire it up?

 

[justfisch]

You could have the potter's apprentice bump into the PCs in the street. This could trigger the potter's ability. While the PCs are picking themselves up they could notice that the potter is in some sort of trance and after a couple of moments he comes out of it and recoils from the PCs in fear from what he saw in his vision, maybe have him mumble something in draconic or some other language for a couple of moments.

cheers,
justfisch

 

[Xarlen]

Unfired bowl on turning wheel. Drip slip (sorta like paint for clay) in the Inside of the spinning bowl. The paterns evoke a vision in him, He was doing that the first time he had a vision, and he does it the same way still. Someday he may evolve beyond it, but if he is new to the visions....

Yeah! That's neat.

Well, I figure that depending on the question, depends on what method he uses. Some is intiution (What will happen, or has happened), What something means (The spinning stuff in the bowl), or things that may come or what they may mean, via the Dove release.

All I can think of is things that Have been, Things that Are, and things that Will Be. Any other things?

And, don't just help me: what have you guys used? Give antecdotes!