Friday, February 15, 2013

When real life inspires game scenarios.

Certainly most people have heard the news by now that a certain major religious figure has decided to retire instead of dying in office as most of his predecessors for the past 600 years have done.

Did you however know about the alleged prophecy about this event? And that the next person to hold the position would be the final before a great apocalypse?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prophecy_of_the_Popes

I suppose it doesn't matter that the supposed document detailing the prophecy has supposedly been in the possession of the organization, that decides who gets the position, since it was written. After all, nobody would believe that such a group would use it as a guide to create a self-fulfilling prophecy would they?

This stuff requires very little effort to translate into a fantasy game scenario. It almost writes itself. Just change a few details and names, and whallah!, instant rpg material.

Example: A large religion that is falling on hard times and realizing it is declining begins lauding a prophecy of approaching end times in order to frighten the populace into conversion and obedience to the church of their Deity (the only hope of salvation). They spread stories of a holy text that predicts a series of vague events and tenuous connections to people and places. Then they set about creating these things while preparing a major plot to actually cause the apocalypse if the people do not do as they wish.

Where do the player characters come into this? Is this something in the background they have only minor interaction with? Do any of them belong to the church? Do any of them belong to a rival religion that asks them to get hold of this document so it can be studied or disproved?

There's a lot of game worthy fodder to be found in the news.

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