PlaneShift
Gameplay => General Discussion => Topic started by: buddha on February 08, 2005, 11:35:11 pm
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The description of the Blue Way insinuates that Divination will be possible at some point. I don\'t know how much this has been discussed, but I\'d like to discuss it here.
This particular branch of magic seems very difficult to implement in a fair and balanced way. (This bit is important to me as I play an obnoxious character.) In traditional pencil and paper games, it\'s easy. Here it\'s a whole new can of worms. I have some up with some questions people who play diviners are likely to be asked. I don\'t always know how to solve it, but I\'ll offer some suggestions. I would love to start some debate on the topics!
I will use Miss Cleo as my example diviner.
1. Where is the legendary Vorpal Sword? This one is easy. However, it probably requires a GM to evaluate how well the Miss Cleo made her roll. She could point from the wrong continent to a range of mountains to \"under Haldane\'s seat cushion\".
2. How will we fare on the field of battle today? This is trickier. If there really is going to be a mechanism to divine, then I suggest something like this: Miss Cleo rolls and some evaluation is made of the army\'s chances. Then she is given a (possible incorrect) answer. From there, if the chances are good, the members of the army can be given a +1 on that day during the fight. This unfortunately requires a GM, but in a less intensive way. Of course, Miss Cleo may still have told them they were going to get slaughtered...
3. What is my enemy planning? Well, your enemy might not even know this. And if he does, the GMs might not know. How do you solve this one?
4. What is the next number to come up in Hills and Valleys at the casino? Let\'s face it, if there are going to be diviners, there are going to be crooked diviners (I hope to be one, for instance!). So how do you do this? Well, you\'d have to mess with the randomisation code for the die rolls and allow players to influence them in some way. I personally this this would add a lot of flair to the game, but I can hear the objections coming.
5. Will my quest be successful? Hmm, how do you solve this?
Anway, those are some of the problems with divining. However, almost every piece of mythology and fantasy literature ever composed has a soothsayer in it. You know, the blind old woman the hero meets as he first sets out and she tells him \"Take a bag of wool\" or something.
What are your thoughts? Have you seen any good systems for this anywhere?
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forsight ingame? Well that would indeed be very hard to implement. I guess one of the things you would have to do is make it really vague and general on very general areas. The problem ofcourse will be what use it will be then ;)
Perhaps forcasting things like the weather or how some monsters will behave will be possible in future realases. Making comments like \"there will be a lot of gobbles in the sewers and they will scare of the rats\" should be easy to realize.
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Divination or other blue-way magic could also possibly be linked to perception of unseen or unheard things (scrying etc.) which might be a little more feasible. Quests or NPCs might also have attached \"hints\" that a diviner can reveal by making a successful attempt. Diviners also might just have to make things up, with high-level Blue practitioners occasionally being passed tidbits by the GMs. Not all questions can be answered by divination...
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well divination could be used to uncover other players\' stats or inventory....known spells. which could help you determine what is your enemy planing
Divination can\'t work on things you know little about... you can\'t say.... where is the Legendary Sword? cause you have only circumstential information about it...
even if you don\'t need information about...no god in (any) game will give you an answer to such questions....
for asking where the legendary sword is you will most definatelly get an answer like \'seek, and you shall find\'...for the outcome of your quest, an answer like \'try, and you shall succeed\'.