So, I feel like I didn’t give enough last session to the player who rolled 10+ while opening up his character’s brain. His topic was the “coming battle,” and since I don’t know yet when and where and how that battle will take place, I didn’t think I had a lot to give.
Here’s more detail about their situation. The PCs have been hired to protect an isolated community, who fears they’ll be next on the list of people hit hard by very well-armed and disciplined raiders. My gunlugger’s player suspects (and is correct) that these raiders are actually her family, whom she parted ways with many years ago.
So what I actually did: The brainer saw the gunlugger emerge from smoke, covered in blood and with a look of regret on her face. Above the roiling smoke, the brainer could sense a pair of eyes looking down from the maelstrom, watching over the battle. He then sensed another pair on the battlefield itself, looking up and locking eyes with the ones above.
What’s all that mean? I tend to be symbolic with the maelstrom, especially when people are trying to divine the future. At the same time, I don’t consider these premonitions to be set in stone (hell, there may not even be a battle, much less a regretful gunlugger). The eyes up above belong to an NPC they worked for a while back, someone they don’t realize is a Warlord. He has an agent in town, who’ll report back to him on how things go.
As for the vision of the gunlugger, the driver already saw something like this in the previous session, when they were heading to the area just to sell a cache of weapons. He didn’t tell anyone else about it, though. So, it’s new to the brainer, but not his player. As far as the Warlord and his agent go, I could have probably revealed who one or both of them were (if this were a 7 to 9 result, I’d feel better about it). But while I thought this was interesting information, it felt a bit tangential.
I’ll note that the player seemed quite happy with what he got; the idea that there are greater forces at work here is grist for his character. One thing I’ve been thinking about is, once the battle is engaged, giving him some more information or some other benefit. I don’t want to proscribe too much beforehand, but I still worry that he didn’t get enough. I’ve also thought that I could say something like he hears a voice telling him, “Watch for the crows. They will know when it is time.” The crows, anticipating the bloodshed, follow the raiders and presage their arrival. (The brainer already hangs out with crows back home he has a thing about birds in general.)
One of the things I like to do, which I’ve only done once, is that when a player “opens their brain” to a future event I consider it like a prophecy. If what they want is to see the future, then they do, but if the future is mutable or fixed is up in the air or if the future is bad that’s also up in the air. I “ask questions like crazy” and figure out what the player expects to see and wants to see, and then a mini-moves snowball occurs where I determine how bad future events are and how changeable they are.
If I were to express this moves snowball as actual written moves, they would probably be this.
What Do I Do Now? when you look into the future from opening your brain, roll+sharp. On a hit, you know how these events will come to pass and can attempt to change them. On a 10+, you take +1 forward to changing the future. On a miss, you’re not sure how this is going to come about and don’t know exactly what needs to be done to change them.
How Bad Is It? when you attempt to change the future after foreseeing the events from opening your brain, roll+cool. On a 10+, it’s changed, whatever you want to prevent doesn’t come to pass and you can fine-tune the event to an outcome of your own desire. On a 7-9, you prevent the prophecy of your mind’s eye, but only at a cost or personal sacrifice. On a miss, these events cannot be altered, your vision comes to pass regardless of what you do.
That’s more or less how I’ve been playing it, but the “ask questions like crazy” advice is well taken. That may have helped hone in more. Last night, they ramped up to the confrontation, and I had some gleeful crows fly overhead towards the coming raiders, excitedly saying, “They’re coming! They’re coming! We’ll feast!” It was after the fact of actually opening his brain, but it was a result of that, and it gave him a benefit that he could actually use.
I’m not sure how much the vision of Fifi the gunlugger played into his interactions with her during the session, but, after she spotted a relation of hers among some “traveling traders” who visited the community, they had a juicy confrontation, where she kept the truth of why she was telling everyone to get ready from him (though she’d already told the driver), but he knew she was uncharacteristically nervous through reading her.