Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 rico_huerta Jul 30, 2009 16:14:22	I'm not very good at the whole prophecy creation thing. I know it's a great way to give cryptic information and my players have always felt it makes them more heroic to be a part of a prophecy. So I'm starting a new campaign that takes place in Forgotten Realms, in the transition years, and I want the PCs to hear a prophecy that is accurate to Forgotten Realms canon, but I don't know how to incorporate facts into a cryptic vague prophecy. I don't really care if they actually end up fulfilling it, I just want it to be something that pushes them on. Like "We have to fulfill the prophecy, it's the only way to make things right, and we're the only ones that can do it!" sort of idea. So anyway, I thought it would be cool to start up a thread to get advice on writing and incorporating things like prophecies into a campaign for those who are new or just new to the idea.
#2 garner_adam Aug 02, 2009 1:22:52	Prophecies work best when they have three elements. a. They are vague. This allows the story to work with it. If it's vague it allows a lot of room. b. It's supported by history or facts. There's a popular interpretation and there are supporting reasons or signs. (They may or may not be accurate) c. The signs and reasoning from above seem to be unfolding.
#3 Tovec Aug 02, 2009 23:58:07	Prophecies work best, from my experience, in two distinct ways. First is being vague in happenings but definite in results. Second is specific target but mysterious outcome. I'll explain.. *Disclaimer, while I think myself clever and enjoy making these up, I'm bad coming up with the actual wording so forgive me.* As to the first, This is where you try and keep specific dates, locations and people as far from the prophecy as possible. Instead of referring to a specific NPC or PC by name or known nickname try a vague title. Like instead of saying Mike the cleric of Pelor say The vassal of the shining one, or even more elusively, the first soul of the radiant messenger. Another good trick is having the prophecy not tied to a character action but having it tied to a date that you know but the party might have to research, and can do so with fail. Example, the first new moon of October can become. The hour of palest light trumpets the coming of the storm, only after the tenth hour of the gods' clock. As to the second, These are generally smaller outcomes and can very clearly be tied to characters but have an undecipherable trigger. These are best used for beginners and for non campaign related occurrences. For example, the first born of Michael (referring to a PC) will betray his closest friend and ally in their time of need. Or, As the star of morning approaches one of (name of your group) shall be cursed by a demon most foul. Hope this helps. If you want more help in doing the prophecy(cies) for your Forgotten Realms game then please post an example so we can help.
#4 gregt_314 Aug 03, 2009 0:28:13	Prophecies work well when you've carefully thought about them and decided they'll achieve a particular effect in your campaign. Prophecies work very badly when you're looking for a way to make your BBEG look more menacing and your plotline seem more epic and you decide throwing in some prophecies is the solution. Remember that declaring a prophecy is tantamount to saying, right out in the open, that divine forces intend to railroad your players into completing a quest. It'll be met with a lot of groaning unless either (a) you've got players who like a good railroad, who are more common than you might think, or (b) you've earned the trust of your players and established by past conduct that even when you unambigiously declare a railroad that there are nevertheless some really awesome chances for the players to set their own destiny coming up.
#5 rico_huerta Aug 03, 2009 14:36:32	Ok, I really like the advice given, and I'll post what I came up with. I think it makes it pretty vague in what can happen, so at the end I hope they don't feel railroaded but if it ends up different than what it appears to be they can realize they might have misread the prophecy or something. Anyway, here's what I came up with:
#6 garner_adam Aug 03, 2009 14:45:12
#7 gargs454 Aug 03, 2009 16:23:09	Your proposed prophecy seems to work fairly well. Something you might want to be careful of though is referring to particular PCs or even a particular number of PCs. I'm not sure if the "Four" mentioned in the prophecy refers to the PCs or not, but you want to be careful about doing that. The reason is that while you might have only 4 players now, perhaps someday your group will grow, or one of your group will leave, etc. If that were to happen, you would have to either a) start a new campaign since two more PCs won't fit into the current prophecy or b) run the risk that one or more of your players will feel as though they are just support staff. Personally, I would much rather refer fairly specifically (albeit cryptically) to villains in the prophecy, but only refer to the heroe's in general terms. The "Strong-Hearted Brotherhood" for instance (and yes its a crappy name but my mind is frizzled at the moment) can easily be adapted to any number of PCs as it refers to the group in general. With regard to mentioning specific PC's like "Vironus' First Born" the problem you run into is that PCs have a nasty tendency to die from time to time. If your prophecy requires that Vironus' First Born be in the band that defeats the BBEG, you better hope that the PC in question doesn't die, or the player quits, etc., because if that were to happen the players might feel compelled to go the resurrection route rather than rolling a new character, etc. Otherwise, you run the risk that your campaign gets derailed. All that being said, it looks like you have a great start with what you got and the problems I mentioned are fairly well contained in that little bit.