I like prophecies, they're all cool and shit. But how do I ensure that they come to pass in SOME way, without having the PCs basically derail it?
Viola was funYou make them vague as fuck and then justify them in some backward ways.Alternatively: Make the prophecy something that the PCs cannot influence. They can work around it, prepare for it, but can't stop it.
>>98831628Improvise, adapt, overcome.
>>98831628gotta pull a "greek tragedy" over it >anything happens has vague consequences that can go both ways>slowly build up consequences>any attempt at derailing ends up slowly creating material that will backfire>or pull a Perseus and make it happen by sheer bullshitheavily depands on your storycrafting ability tho
>>98831628Like everyone else here has said, make the prophecy vague enough that its going to come true no matter what the PCs try, or how successful they are.One idea would be making a prophecy that seems to foretell the PCs victory, while having some unrelated but similar enough characters in the background that the prophecy could apply to. If the PCs do everything right, great! If the PCs screw up enough, turns out those other guys are the heroes of a different story, and the PCs better figure out how to solve their problems without a handout from skeins of fate's loom.
>>98831628Roll whatever activation dice is the most prominent for your game mechanics. Build a vague prophecy around the results. The prophesied has to use that result for the next mechanical use that comes up. The player can see the result and try to twist fate so it works in their favour as the gm can try and provoke its use in circumstances that are to their ends.
>>98831628>But how do I ensure that they come to pass in SOME way, without having the PCs basically derail it?Make the prophecy carried forth by so many independent factors that, singlehandedly, can cause it, that if they do derail every single one they actually deserve to best fate. Prophecies should only ever be specific and close to set in stone if they aren't easy to derail. Make sure to add dire consequences for failure.
>>98831628Write a book.
Add "And the destined heroes will get sloppy head from princesses, bags of coke and shitloads of dosh after the prophecy is complete" to the end of any prophecy.Always make sure the oracle sounds a bit baffled at that part, as if their god is intervening to add it directly at the last moment.
>>98831628Have prophecies not simply be predictions, but actively and explicitly enforced by the gods/god of fate with overwhelming force. > Prophecy says X will happen> players don't like that, intervene to change things> it works, they make X impossible to occur> A booming voice says "That is not as I have written."> describe as time stops, rewinds. Undoing all of their actions in the past minute or so. And then time resumes, and this time events proceed as the prophecy said it would before the players are given control of their characters again as divine power steps in and FORCES the outcome that has been decreed.> If you want to avert prophecies, you're going to have to deal with the gods that handed down that future in the first place.
>>98832769That's extremely retardedYou are supposed to be actively preparing wordplay and secret plots to spring on the players right after they think they stopped the prophecy.It's no fun if it's obnoxious like that
>>98831628Explain the foretold scene as a vague picture, as if you're looking at the scene through a thin curtain, not as a block of text, then design a few areas somewhat matching the description to check if the players actually pay attention to your explanation. If you catch some of them actually tracking, then you know you got the right picture in their head so then just wait for the moment to spring the foretold scene on them.>>98832769Don't do this.
>>98832769Time rewind sounds a bit ham-fisted but forcing prophecy to happen by some contrived bullshit is absolute classic.
