Fate And Prophecy Tropes

Basic Information

Fate And Prophecy Tropes are topical tropes about the foretold destiny of characters.

List of Fate and Prophecy Tropes

• Because Destiny Says So
• Blind Seer
• Crystal Ball
• The Chosen One
• Either Or Prophecy
• Fainting Seer
• Fate Worse Than Death
• Mad Oracle
• Magic Mirror
• No Man Of Woman Born
• Oracular Urchin
• Prophecies Are Always Right
• Prophecy Twist
• Prophetic Fallacy
• Psychic Dreams For Everyone
• Red String Of Fate
• Screw Destiny
• Scry vs Scry
• Self Fulfilling Prophecies
• You Cant Fight Fate

See Also: Time Travel Tropes

Sources

TV Tropes Wiki entry

Game and Story Use

• These can be difficult to pull off in a game, since unlike the writer of a story, the game master cannot predict what the player characters will do. And if the characters decide to fight fate, attempts to get them "back on track" can become railroading. But it can be very satisfactory when it is done right.
  • The trick, as all the best prophets throughout history knew - is to keep prophecies vague and allow for multiple interpretations. Thus, when a character does something that is very obviously his choice, you can ret con your backstory so that it fits the prophecy, and allow the character to find about the connection afterwards. As long as the players can't prove the ret con, you should be fine.