The Book of Thoth - Poll: What do you use?

[N0ught]

I was curious how often you all use Divination methods, and how many of you play superstitious characters who make their decisions based on them? Sound off! One. Two...

I personally enjoy the Tarot Cards. The descriptions I wrote for them (somewhere around 128 of them, I believe; literally my biggest undertaking ever for the game - took me about a week) are quite colorful. Although, lately I have had a fondness for the way the Ouija/Metatron almost seem to put sentences together sometimes...

 

[[email protected]]

I am not very superstitious, nor are my many avatars. When I voted, I actually thought "dice roll" meant gambling XD

Could one take this as a hint about the helpful nature of divination in the game?

 

[N0ught]

Actually no - divination only exists in the game as a method of making money, in a couple cases, or as a method of decision-making. This can be applied outside the game too I suppose - interpret the Tarot for yourself instead of your character, if you like. And yeah, I meant the "6" key dice roll.

Basically, if I wanted to siege two towns, but couldn't decide which town I wanted to attack first, I could flip a coin. Or I could assign 1-3 to one town, and 4-6 to the other, and roll dice. Or I could consult the Ouija Board, and if the name of one of the towns came up - or if it seems to say to not attack one of them - I could make my decision that way. Or I could ask the Bones and hope they give a clear answer... if you are a Seer, you could have a lot of these choices available.

Many have been confused as to the usefulness of these features. But then, many people consider fortune cookies foolish. I say they add some fun to the decision-making process. And hey, whether or not to get that sex-change is a really important decision for any character.

I also realized when I was making the first Tarot cards that I could not think of a single RPG with strictly by-the-book divinations - as in, you're not going to get the death card and die in my mod; other games always try to associate some kind of mechanic with things like this. I prefer to let the character wonder if the actual readings played a hand in their various random fates in the game - this kind of outlook is really fun for hardcore games, where you truly have to take what comes.

Was that random headshot that killed you from across the map a result of pure algorithms? Or was it because of the sense of doom you felt from that last negative Tarot reading that distracted you enough to cause you to lower your shield at the wrong moment? Good question...

 

[Roque the Rogue]

I had a few close calls with the tarot cards recently, I dont know whether you programmed them to know stuff, or you're simply making them run at random algorithms, but certainly... sometimes they break reality and know what is really going on around, creepy... 

 

[scrdest]

Definitely Tarot. The writeups are just in the right spot of the vagueness-specificity scale to make them feel uncannily accurate.

 

[NorthWind]

Tarot... they are so mysterious sometimes, but heck i still use them.

 

[Gappydave]

When I create a character I try to get a tarot reading that fits the character. One that could set the scene. Leads to a lot of save loading when my character gets to hear something nice happened in his past. The one where everyone he loved died.

I never rolled the dice to make a decision. I find that odd as I have done it before but not in game.

Dream Interpreting is also fun. Though made a bit complicated such you not be able to find the creature or not know what it is.

 

[N0ught]

For ease, the nightmares start you off facing the boogeyman through the fog, at a distance you cannot see them. However, in the case of the nightmare house (I wonder how many have fully explored this spot...) if you can't find the enemy, it is because they are in the basement. I think I will change that - I am thinking the player should start in the house, and the boogeyman should start just outside. There is actually only one completely invisible troop who might attack you in the nightmare realm: Jakfraust.

I am so glad everyone puts the Tarot to such good use - I hope you all have fully explored the options available to Seers as well (speaking of Jakfraust...).

But, just for everyone's edification: the only mechanic assigned to all divination is the constant bad omens for Demonic Possession characters. Literally.

Otherwise, all the results are completely random, with no weighting - i.e. each result is a one number result from a random range. That will probably blow the minds of some who may have thought they were "stacking the deck" with their readings.

But weren't you? If you believed a positive reading had a positive effect, and it did... well who am I to say it wasn't in the cards?

Manifest destiny!

 

[Untitled.]

As much as I like the tarot cards in this mod, dice have been my best friend for the last 7 years. I wouldn't go as far as saying I need to consult them to go onward in my life, but they've been involved in one form or another in most of my major life decisions. Not been let down even once. Better listen to their whispers. They know things.

 

[sethfcm]

I know this was along time ago, but I figured I'd weigh in now.

I voted dice, because it's what I am most likely to use, and enjoy using, but the Tarot is awesome, but then so are all the other forms of divination, I enjoy them all, and when I play a seer I use them frequently.