2 | Orchestrating Omens

Omens are story fronts contributing to the advancing Doom. While they may not directly cause the Doom, they speed its arrival. Think of them as mini story arcs supporting and bringing dimension to the apocalypse. Guide, start the game with 3 Omens.

• If your Doom is the escape of a demon lord hungry to consume the entire kingdom, the Omens could be:
  • The local cult is hoarding gold and gems for a secret ritual.
  • The lords’ council has disbanded, leaving royal defenses scant and uncoordinated.
  • The Grey Magus has disappeared, leaving only a mysterious map.
• Say your Doom is about the local chieftain’s wedding. The Omens could be:
  • The local bard practices a truly cursed harana.
  • The Fairy Queen’s beloved flowers are being plucked for a wreath, earning her ire.
  • The wedding planner is going around town, inviting utterly ill-advised guests.
• And if your Doom is about children’s laughter being stolen by a miserable trickster god, Omens may include:
  • The trickster god’s wife walks in the mortal realm, proclaiming herself divorced at last.
  • Strange plants sprout throughout the village and giggle at night.
  • The babaylan have fallen deathly ill, one by one.

Like the Doom, Omens are living story arcs that progress without player intervention and do not wait for action.

Heroes can resolve Omens to slow down the Doom. Resolution happens when they’ve removed its cause or have rendered the subplot’s impact moot. In the above examples, they could resolve the “local cult is hoarding gold and gems” Omen by defeating all cult members, stealing all valuables, convincing the cult to disarm, asking the local kawal to intervene or even burning down the cult’s headquarters.

Guide, while you do not need to inform players whether they’ve stumbled upon an Omen, you can use the setting to give clues. For example, the town crier can proclaim that something is amiss or a villain killed the priestess and left a calling card. The same goes for resolving Omens. Use the story to show that something has happened for the better. Say, the villain is shackled and imprisoned in the bowels of the keep.

Can an Omen stay active even when heroes already attempted to address it? In our example above, perhaps the heroes informed the kawal about the situation but told a deeply incomplete story, resulting in the guards being ill-prepared to corral the cultists. The Omen can still be unresolved in this case. If the heroes’ approach is mismatched or significantly inadequate, the story should reflect a non-improvement.

This doesn’t mean the end of the world, however—or does it?

※ Alternate Ruling: Short Games

For games less than 3 hours long, you can play with just two Omens instead of three to keep the story lean.