RPing a Diviner

[granny]

I've been wondering for a while now about good ways of RPing a Diviner. I'm playing one myself and I'm doing some experiments on it, trying to find the better ways of bringing fun for myself and for the ones that I'm sharing my time. For so, I would love to hear from the EFU community ideas of how you'd RP your diviner, what kind of ways you'd do it and more important: what kind of information source you would use...

I was reading this site and bomped into this commentary, which may be an interesting way (among others) of going through the RP process:

While I haven’t yet ironed out the details, an idea I’ve been playing with for a while is what I call “Heisenberg Divinations”. The idea is that divination is like the Heisenberg uncertainty principle for quantum mechanics: the more precisely one property is measured, the less precisely the other can be measured. For physics, these properties may be position and momentum, but for divination the properties would be certainty, chronology, and relevance. When divining, the PCs can choose one or two properties that are most important to them, and how focused this importance is. With greater focus, the chosen properties will be more accurate, but the unchosen properties will be less accurate.

For example, the PCs may want to know about dangers that face their king in the next day or so. If they choose to focus on chronology and relevance, the may find out about something that will threaten the king tomorrow, but the details of what it is could be ambiguous or erroneous. Alternatively, if they choose to focus on certainty and relevance the dangers that they find out about will be certain to come, but they won’t know when (they may even be things that happened in the past, if the GM feels this would add to the game). Lastly, if they choose certainty and chronology they will find out about things that will certainly happen soon, but they could be unrelated to their king (or they may *seem* unrelated…).

[Aethereal]

I have seen many wondrous portrayals of the diviner and played a seer myself. One thing you should keep in mind is that you have the freedom to choose from so many different representations, and whilst there are certain expectations, the character is more important than the vocation, though of course the two should compliment one another.

On to your request, I can share some background information to help you decide on the way you might play the role.

Divination often involves astrology and the reading of the stars to tell fate. However augurs who traditionally serve as advisers to a throne or similar power have applied methods such as reading signs out of boiled oil or taking the auspices (reading the will of the Gods from the behaviour of birds.)

Then there are shamans, who commune with the spirits and also come with a range of possible portrayals from a tribal sort who throws the bones (knuckles) to learn the will of the spirits, to those who imbibe intoxicants to enter 'heightened states of consciousness,' which would be akin to that of oracles.

Yet another archetype:

The Gypsie.
[INDENT]Usually taught by an elder as a skill passed down through the bloodline, as of many professions. They tend to focus on horoscopes, fortune telling through drawing cards, and peering into the crystal ball. [/INDENT]

As far as divination magic goes, look at the spells available for hints. Scrying, arcane eye, clairaudience and clairvoyance, premonition and true seeing.

There are just so many possibilities, because frankly, divination is the art of making people believe, the method is just a ruse (of course the diviner doesn't believe that, and nor do the people who heed them and I imagine in the setting they will be given proper respect.) Be creative, certainly draw upon inspiration from various sources and make it fit what you are going for and you can easily make it an enjoyable experience for all involved.

Hope some of that helps, otherwise PM me with the particular idea you want to bring to life and I'll be happy to help out with more specific ideas.

It's probably most fun (amusing) if you have other diviners to compete against though!

[Lenthis]

From playing a long lasting diviner myself, I worked off a way of magic, he would see with the "Fourth Eye". The manner as in, he was looking into the weave and seeking out patterns and formulas that seemed to make sense with what he looked to find and what he wanted to find. (AKA a number type of divination) I found this to be a solid way to do it. But for your concept you have to work with, -Not- knowing the future and predicting it accurately if your good at making deductions from little fact and hoping that their accurate so you keep your credibility its a harsh road to walk but, feel free to try it.

Another more reliable way, is to make prophecies of things to come, things that may or may not happen, easy things to interpret into others. Research mystics and the like and discover how they word things, in this oddly acute yet vague way. It'll help if you plan to play it like that.

All in all, its a hard road to walk but its enjoyable in the end.

[SkillFocuspwn]

The only kind of divination you'll be doing that isn't mechanically a spell (like scrying) will be entirely at the discretion of the DMs; that being said, I've seen / heard of Aberrant beings that exist outside of time, visions of what will come in the Mist, ancient prophecies and curious riddles and there's been a lot of very cool divination on EfU.

As a player, though, just remember that it's not something for you to rely on; just have it as a bit of character and don't expect to get anything beyond what you can do IG from it. An interesting and unique spin on it, focusing on the how rather than the what you see, is what PC divination beyond just picking the spell school is all about.