How far can I go with divination?

[Frois]

Hi, in order to further my roleplay experience I have created yet another alternate character.

Now a bit of his background story is needed in order to have better ease to help me. He comes from a tribe that lives far from the vailable lands and in his tribe was a sort of shaman with divinatory powers (by entering trances through the use of plants and drugs) Now I of course wish to roleplay this ability but I would like some guidlines as to how to roleplay it without breaking the rules.

I do know that I can't predict a character's actions without their concent otherwise this would get on many people's nervs but as for the rest I don't know how I can work it out. So please give me some guidelines.

[novacadian]

My suggestion would be to clear any OOC knowledge you may learn about a character from the character OOC first. If they have no problems with that then it would seem fine to me. My character has a friend who has dreams of a similar nature and any premonition they have is first cleared with all involved OOC first.

With premonitions you kind of have to. 

This is just my opinion so it will be interesting to see how others feel about it as well.

- Nova

[Frois]

huh... I'm not sure I understood what you said, it's either because I'm feeling a bit sick, because I'm tired or maybe because I am not english from nature so please confirm or deny the following so I know for sure what you meant.

Did you say to use OOC knowlege with the approval of the players?

[novacadian]

Well it was my assumption that by divination you would come to some knowledge that would be OOC to your character. Like being able to know that someone was evil or that something was going to happen to them. Such things would only be known to your character through the RP of divination; so in that regard it would be OOC to the character until after the divination, at which point the knowledge would be IC.

Hope that is clearer and hope  we are on the same page with divination to mean perception by intuition or instinctive foresight.

- Nova

[LigH]

IC = "in character" is what your character knows.
OOC = "out of character" is what you as player know.

Separating them is a rather important prerequisite for a credible roleplay. It is not always easy to understand and to remember what your character in the game world "Yliakum" would not yet know about another character you may have heard about outside the game, or with another character.

Divination is an interesting and versatile roleplaying element. But I believe it should usually be vague, interpretable ... ambiguous. Rather "I see violence, an elder woman..." than "You killed your mother!" - Too much OOC knowledge could spoil the plot, people could blame you of "godmodding" (enforcing a reaction or behaviour).

[Frois]

True very true, but I have never met any problem with seperating IC and OOC as for the divination I do I did rp it a bit yesterday after reading your post in order to "test the grounds" and I actually asked everyone who were involved in the vision if they agreed with what I would say and if not to tell me what I should say instead.

The interesting thing is they agreed to what I wanted to say because they thought it was an interesting type of RP. I know not to god mod and this is why I say I can't predict a person's behavior without asking them first.

Also there is the fact that I add a margin of error in that rp as well. In fact true divination is nothing more than a hoax where they use gathered information to predict logical outcomes and so I would do just that in situations where it is for the best. But also my character does say that his visions do not give the absolute outcome since the simple fact of observing the future changes the future.


Also I asked a GM about a bit of guidelines and they told me that just like real life divination I should cheat a bit by using OOC knowlege or by spying. Well as for using OOC knowlege I have not yet come to displease someone and it's lead to two very interesting sessions of rp. Thanks for your help.

[Sillamon]

A GM told you that you should cheat a little by using ooc knowledge?

That's truly pathetic. You should never use ooc information like that. by doing that you risk losing your credibility as a role player and set a bad example for other players. What you described before - getting ooc permission in advance to use ooc information is perfectly acceptable.

What you described previously - being prudent with your characters abilities and seeking ooc permission to use predetermined ooc information is perfectly acceptable in my opinion.

[Frois]

I of course always ask before using OOC knowlege and the GM meant it that way. To use it in a way that wouldn't break the rules or would respect the people involved's wishes.

I do make sure not to break the rules and I'm quite stuck up on rules which sometimes leads to arguments with people around me. But yes I know not to simply use OOC knowlege like it doesn't matter I always make sure I am allowed to. otherwise it would be pathetic as you say.

Also novacadian, sorry for not answering you I didn't realise because of Ligh's post. I agree with you on that and that's how I rp it and I do mean divination as such. The sight of future through rituals and whatever else needed. Of course being a rp and needing to remain IC I needed the guidelines I asked for here and it seems to work fine.

Thanks for your help I appreciate Novacadian.

[novacadian]

Glad to help Frois.

The oracle or a shaman's divination has been used in my past table rpgs as a catalyst to get an RP going; as well as being a place to return to when the player(s) get stuck; so as to help the plot along. Hopefully you will register your character, with their divination ability in their desc, on the Cooperative Plot Creation Project, once in production.

My character's guild and allie mates gave it a good test run last night and it should be announced here soon after a couple of issues are addressed. Someone wanting to start an RP may want to use your character to advance the plot by feeding you bits of information that they want known IC.

- Nova

[Frois]

Right, for some reason I got confused a bit about the cooperative thing maybe it's just the song that's playing that messes with my brain (Music does tend to do that to me) But as for putting his abillity in his Desc it's not really IC so I can't truly put it. Although! I can say his name so anyone wishing to use him can /tell me to have a rp meeting set up and it's Zaft. Also in any need sending me a private message will get my attention almost instantly.

[novacadian]

... as for putting his abillity in his Desc it's not really IC so I can't truly put it.

The Cooperative Plot Creation Project is not meant to be IC. It is a database of characters that a player can review in order to put an RP together and to contact players for their involvement in the RP. There are, presently, characters listed as Black Flame; something that is definitely OOC. The Project is not in game, on this forum or even on this site. The information found in the database is meant to be totally OOC and used as a means to bring players together to create cooperative RPs.

Glad you brought that up so that that could be clarified.

- Nova

[Edit - spelling]

[Frois]

haha my pleasure and please keep me updated for when it is up and running so I can put my chars in that database

[Candy]

I have an alt that does "divination" in the sense that a few of the real-life self-proclaimed witches I've known do. She casts stones, rocks, bones, sometimes even entrails (well, nobody I know reads entrails that I know of), and comes up with vague predictions based on them. She never does a specific reading, and never reads for any specific person except herself. Because they're so vague, she believes herself to be right most of the time, and figures she misread the signs when she's wrong. She attributes her "gift" to Dakkru.

I have yet to play this trait out on this character, but if yours wants to meet another "gifted" one, maybe we can arrange something.

I also once encountered a character that had visions and could "read" people - she was just over the line of acceptable RP in my humble opinion; I gave her a glimpse into my character's past and she kind of embellished the story a bit on her own...I simply decided not to roleplay with that character any more; I never even found out who it was OOC. Just be careful not to overstep that line; don't be afraid to ask people to send an OOC tell if they think you might be godmoding a little.

[Sangwa]

Divination is an interesting and versatile roleplaying element. But I believe it should usually be vague, interpretable ... ambiguous. Rather "I see violence, an elder woman..." than "You killed your mother!" - Too much OOC knowledge could spoil the plot, people could blame you of "godmodding" (enforcing a reaction or behaviour).

Listen to the wise (though sometimes boring) man.

Here's what I do with my character: he reads cards, so I read them as well (for what they're worth) and then have him interpret it.

[Frois]

Well candy I'll tell you a bit of my character's story and how his Divination works so that you may understand better. I'm not saying your methods are wrong in fact I agree I just want to explain why mine can't really work any different.

He comes from a tribe very far away (Months of rp walk) They live in the harsh climat of a desert and as such require alot of skills to go through daily life. Because of something that happened in his youth (Not to enter too specific details that would ruin the interest of meeting him IC) He was cast as an outcast and was forbiden to learn any of the ways of magic or combat from his native tribe.

Although the man occupying the title of "shaman" (have yet to find a better name for it) Saw this opportunity to get a pupil to eventualy replace him.

The ritual is basically inducing hallucination by burning leaves and weeds (Do not try this at home) The way it works the ritual is extremely demanding physically and he does not remember the vision itself and must believe what others tell him he saw. He can't really decide when or who's future he'll see he can only ry to guide it that way.


In fact the ritual is so dangerous that it's why he was allowed to be his tribe's shaman because it might cause him to die. Now this specific ritual is not the only one he knows (But it is the only one I have so far) but it is the only one that risks to cause him perma death.

I make it so in order to avoid other people abusing this power and he doesn't remember so I can't use it for personal gain.

As anything of the asort there must be limitations which I have set up and yes if he abuses his powers he will suffer from true death.

As for meeting your character in game I would truly enjoy this mine's name is Zaft Zalta /tell me anytime you see me online on him or send me a private message on the forum and I will try to log on ASAP or you could just try to schedule the rp through forum messages. I am looking forward to roleplaying this with you.