How do you handle the 'Chosen One' in your game?

[Blackhawk748]

Pretty much what it says. I'm planning on running a game in Kalamar eventually and I'd like to use the plot thread of the Guardians of the Eternal Flame, who are waiting for the reincarnation of the Emperor so he can take his rightful place and topple Emperor Kabori.

Now, them being reincarnated helps as there's no messy bloodline crap to deal with and all they get physically is an Intelligent sword, I'm just curious as to how others in the playground have dealt with the issues that come up with having one party member be Special.

I see no trouble with my players, as they are all failry chill, I'm just curious

[KarlMarx]

If you can manage it given your plot, set it up such that the PCs are the people who have the *potential* to be the 'Chosen One' but which of them is the 'Chosen' has yet to be revealed. No, this isn't just a kick down the line for the actual problem; down the road, you can give the 'Chosen' status to the player least likely to cause upset in the party. Besides, by this point, the group dynamic should be established enough that nobody's going to have problems with it, which might not be the case if one of them is known to have the special status at day 1. If necessary, depending on your party dynamic, give a minor but noticeable boon to the 'Chosen's Companions' to sweeten the deal for them and avoid any charge of favoritism.

[Blackhawk748]

If you can manage it given your plot, set it up such that the PCs are the people who have the *potential* to be the 'Chosen One' but which of them is the 'Chosen' has yet to be revealed. No, this isn't just a kick down the line for the actual problem; down the road, you can give the 'Chosen' status to the player least likely to cause upset in the party. Besides, by this point, the group dynamic should be established enough that nobody's going to have problems with it, which might not be the case if one of them is known to have the special status at day 1. If necessary, depending on your party dynamic, give a minor but noticeable boon to the 'Chosen's Companions' to sweeten the deal for them and avoid any charge of favoritism.

I can't really do that as the Chosen One in this instance mut be Human, so anyone who isn't (Which is most of my players usually) is automatically out. This why I was gonna talk with them about it first.

The other side of this is, is that the CO (just gonna abbreviate it) gets two things, Central plot importance and what is more or less a Minor Artifact. Handling the artifact is easy as I can just have it scale up as time goes on, I was just curious how others have dealt with the first issue.

[Pex]

I forget the campaign setting name, way back in early 3.0 there was a campaign not by WOTC but using their rules which added spells of their own in a book called Relics and Rituals. There was a spell that kills by splitting the person's soul. In order to resurrect the person you needed to find all the pieces. Have the party be those pieces. You don't need the spell, just the idea. The Chosen One doesn't have to be killed first. When ever he is supposed to show up his soul pieces have to be found. Even that is not enough. The soul has to be ready to be formed, i.e. the PCs need to gain levels accomplishing heroic deeds some of which which may or may not be needed to be done for the Ritual Of Joining to happen. When the time is right, i.e. campaign end, the PCs join each other as the Chosen One is remade.

It doesn't matter what race the PCs are. It's the soul that counts. Not being human means it's that much harder to find. There could be beings who don't want the Chosen One to come so the pieces needed to be well hidden and a non-human host would be one way to do it.

[KarlMarx]

I forget the campaign setting name, way back in early 3.0 there was a campaign not by WOTC but using their rules which added spells of their own in a book called Relics and Rituals. There was a spell that kills by splitting the person's soul. In order to resurrect the person you needed to find all the pieces. Have the party be those pieces. You don't need the spell, just the idea. The Chosen One doesn't have to be killed first. When ever he is supposed to show up his soul pieces have to be found. Even that is not enough. The soul has to be ready to be formed, i.e. the PCs need to gain levels accomplishing heroic deeds some of which which may or may not be needed to be done for the Ritual Of Joining to happen. When the time is right, i.e. campaign end, the PCs join each other as the Chosen One is remade.

It doesn't matter what race the PCs are. It's the soul that counts. Not being human means it's that much harder to find. There could be beings who don't want the Chosen One to come so the pieces needed to be well hidden and a non-human host would be one way to do it.

Yes, that could work in theory. Reincarnation at least implies that it's possible for a human soul to end up in a non-human body.

[Cosi]

You could also move away from the idea that the Chosen One is one of the PCs. Maybe it's like the Black Company books at the Chosen One is involved, but not important to the particular story the players are engaged in. For a more cynical take, you could have the chosen one be a weak-willed NPC and have the plot be about manipulating or controlling them. For an extreme version of this, you could have the whole chosen one situation be fabricated to provide legitimacy for the political agenda of one side or the other. Or maybe the prophecy was real, but it got broken because of a ritual which destroyed the old emperor's soul (or whatever plot device) and now the PCs have to fake their way through it. Or maybe the emperor's soul is still active and independent, and would prefer to rule as ghost emperor rather than getting stuck into some mortal body. Lots of possibilities.

[Clistenes]

Maybe the priests or whoever is in charge of finding the reincarnation of the emperor just seek somebody with the proper traits to become a good emperor, and send him to an adventure to test them... if they die, well, they obviously weren't the real emperor... if they succeed, then they become stronger thanks to it and they get to try the new round.

They hope that, if they keep repeating it, eventually they will discover a superman able to pass all the trials and seize the throne... and at that point... who cares if they really are the reincarnation of the emperor or not? They will declare them to be so, because the obviously are awesome enough to rule...

Of course, if a candidate were to discover that he or she is the 867th person to be told that he/she is the "Chosen One" and that the 866 previous one were killed by the trials, that person will most likely be pissed...

[Coventry]

I'm just curious as to how others in the playground have dealt with the issues that come up with having one party member be Special.

The other posters have hinted at this, but I am going to say it directly: That scenario is a trap in group-based RPGs. It is not guaranteed to blow up in your face, but it carries two very big risks:


The player you chose has to drop the campaign
One (or more) players start resenting the spotlight always shining on the "chosen one".


It works great in single-player computer games. I suspect it works when the "chosen one" is a child being introduced to the game, while the child's parents are playing the other characters. Beyond that, you are rolling the dice. People may say they are okay with the concept, only to find out later that they are not. And then they are trapped ... either having to go back on their word, suffer through a game they aren't enjoying, or quit the game.

KarlMax already suggested using the, "we're not sure who - but we think it's one of you" technique; I am going to suggest a variation:

In a similar thread a few months back (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?554682-Help-with-my-campaign-idea), I suggested that the PCs were not the chosen ones, but were instead guarding them. In your case, each PC has a cohort that is of the correct race and background to be "the chosen one" - the NPC high priest might know exactly which one is the actual chosen one, but is not telling anyone(tm), as a way of protecting the chosen one.

In that scenario, the players each control their assigned cohorts, nicely avoiding the problems of having DMPCs. Each player gets to share the spotlight during the early stages of the campaign. You can even make it a game within a game - at the end of each gaming session, ask the players which of the cohorts they think might be the real chosen one. They might come to a consensus all on their own.

[Pex]

You could also move away from the idea that the Chosen One is one of the PCs. Maybe it's like the Black Company books at the Chosen One is involved, but not important to the particular story the players are engaged in. For a more cynical take, you could have the chosen one be a weak-willed NPC and have the plot be about manipulating or controlling them. For an extreme version of this, you could have the whole chosen one situation be fabricated to provide legitimacy for the political agenda of one side or the other. Or maybe the prophecy was real, but it got broken because of a ritual which destroyed the old emperor's soul (or whatever plot device) and now the PCs have to fake their way through it. Or maybe the emperor's soul is still active and independent, and would prefer to rule as ghost emperor rather than getting stuck into some mortal body. Lots of possibilities.

It runs the risk of DMPC problems if the Chosen One travels with the party. Even if not traveling with the party the focus of the game is on the importance of the NPC and not the players.

[Cosi]

It runs the risk of DMPC problems if the Chosen One travels with the party. Even if not traveling with the party the focus of the game is on the importance of the NPC and not the players.

I agree that there are risks, but I think it's solvable.

The first suggestion (which I think is the only one that runs into this issue) has the Chosen One as basically a background setting element. They are doing some stuff, and that stuff is presumably important, but it's not related to the stuff the PCs are doing. To give an example from fiction, look at The First Law. When Logen, Bayaz, and company go seeking The Seed, they meet another Magus who is apparently involved in some political manipulations in the Old Empire (IIRC he's backing one heir or the other in a succession conflict). There's a story there, and it could easily have some Chosen One element, but it's not really important to what the PCs are doing. Good world-building should give the sensation that there are other stories going on in the world without having them overwhelm the ones the PCs engage with.

Obviously you have to be more careful if the Chosen One is the center of the plot, but even then I don't think it's too hard to balance things. Basically, you need to figure out what the Chosen One can do, then set things up so that those kinds of problems aren't emphasized. You can also set the Chosen One up as mostly having political power, and make them relatively low-level and personally ineffectual, which gives the PCs lots of opportunities to shine (particularly because the kinds of things you'd do with political power aren't handled well by the rules in the first place).

[malloc]

Lots of concern about DMPC and stealing the players' spotlight. Easy solution to that--make the "Chosen One" really pathetic, unhelpful, or, in general, undesirable. Sure, they're the prophesied one, and eventually they'll grow into their power, but right now they're sort of a lump you're burdened with.

They might have some essential function, and actually be relevant, but the majority of the time they should be either out of the way, letting the players shine, or actively be hindering things, maybe with well-to-do ideas or even just by being reluctant about the whole thing. "Nobody asked ME to be the chosen one. Huh, I was happy enough as a tanner."

Or, the prophecy is all BS, there's no chosen one, and the players realize that at some late point in the game and go on to save the world on their own merit. Bonus points if the players resent the Chosen One, and the BBEG squashes him before initiative in a "cut scene".

[Kesnit]

Lots of concern about DMPC and stealing the players' spotlight. Easy solution to that--make the "Chosen One" really pathetic, unhelpful, or, in general, undesirable. Sure, they're the prophesied one, and eventually they'll grow into their power, but right now they're sort of a lump you're burdened with.

The Chosen One is 7 (or 10, or 13) years old. He (she?) is also being hunted by forces of the False Emperor. The party has to protect the CO, while escorting the CO to various factions to gain their allegiance. Each faction has things they need done, both to convince them that the CO is the CO, and also to allow them to free up troops/diplomats/advisors/etc to aid the Chosen One when the Chosen One finally makes his/her move. (Think Dragon Age: Origin)

[16bearswutIdo]

The Chosen One is 7 (or 10, or 13) years old. He (she?) is also being hunted by forces of the False Emperor. The party has to protect the CO, while escorting the CO to various factions to gain their allegiance. Each faction has things they need done, both to convince them that the CO is the CO, and also to allow them to free up troops/diplomats/advisors/etc to aid the Chosen One when the Chosen One finally makes his/her move. (Think Dragon Age: Origin)

This is a good solution, IMO. Make the Chosen One a 7 year old girl with an endearing personality. If your party is anything like mine, they'll basically protect her to the death. If she ever gets in SERIOUS danger (once or twice) and the party's unable to protect her, you can have her "chosen one powers" manifest to protect her, though she's unaware of how they did.

[Bronk]

I can't really do that as the Chosen One in this instance mut be Human, so anyone who isn't (Which is most of my players usually) is automatically out. This why I was gonna talk with them about it first.

The other side of this is, is that the CO (just gonna abbreviate it) gets two things, Central plot importance and what is more or less a Minor Artifact. Handling the artifact is easy as I can just have it scale up as time goes on, I was just curious how others have dealt with the first issue.

I think that whatever this prophecy is, it was recorded a very long time ago, and it could easily have been garbled. Who's to say that they got it right? They could have heard it, transcribed it slightly wrong, it might have been altered by someone long ago, parts could be missing, it might have been misinterpreted and re-recorded colloquially, wishful thinking might have been involved (like in Star Wars), and it could have been translated from one language to another once to many times (it pays to brush up on your celestial!). So, now it says one human gets reincarnated and gets a sword? Maybe not originally.

Plus, I think everyone in the party should get something! Are they part of the prophecy? Maybe! Maybe a different prophecy, who knows? Is it a sword? Also maybe! The whole party should be courted by various factions of the Eternal Flame group, and hunted by supporters of the current Emperor.

Here are some possibilities:

One soul is reincarnated as the chosen one, and he inherits a sword.

More than one soul is reincarnated and receives a sword.

A person is reincarnated, and later gains a sword that kills the emperor.

Someone is killed, and when they are reincarnated, they find a sword, which is later used to kill the emperor.

There is a reincarnated human, and they get... can't quite make it out, but I think it's an S word.


So everyone could get something cool - a minor artifact, a relic, an ancestral relic, a weapon of legacy, a previously used item familiar - and it could be a sword, a staff, a spear, and so on. Eventually, everyone is unsure who, if anyone, the chosen one really is, and everyone gains the benefits and the drawbacks to being thought of as a potential chosen one. Hopefully, no one feels left out.

[Quertus]

Well, I suppose it depends.

If it's a spotlight hog player, or an obnoxious GMPC, I'd say that the best way handle it to join the BBEG and kill the Chosen One.

If it's a player who needs the spotlight boost / everyone is cool in their own way / everyone is happy with the spotlight balance, or it's the happy beloved 7-year-old GMPC, then I say rock on (and protect the Chosen One like they were the party Wizard (or a 7-year-old girl (same thing))).

[Lapak]

I like both the 'any of you could be the CO' and the 'child CO in need of protection and guidance' options, but a good group can handle a player-CO if it's set up right. I've played in a well-executed Buffy the Vampire Slayer game where a Chosen One is built right in, but everyone had a good time.

The critical thing is to make sure every player has a niche and a role that the CO does not cover. To use the game I mentioned as an example, the Slayer was a combat monster and the key plot revolved around her, but the other players were:
- a witch (magic, covered plot elements involving spells and the supernatural)
- the scion of a mob family (covered political maneuverings and non-supernatural threats)
- a lesser demon (negotiations with non-human entities, specialist magics)
- a normal human (normal human things, also the only one who knows how to drive)

If you make sure that the non-Chosen-Ones have strong areas of responsibility and that those issues come up, you will have less of a problem. It's ok for the CO to have a role that is otherwise generic or less interesting, because their chances to shine are built in.

This is also a good time to lean into the myth-breaking; as they discover more about their destiny they may uncover hidden truths about the original Emperor that reveal they too had companions whose role in making things happen has since been under-emphasized or forgotten.

[JMS]

One idea is that oddly enough, everyone is a CO, though maybe not for the same thing. In one game I am running, we have a unknown heir to a dead empire, a person with the personification of magic looking over their shoulder, one of the personification of war or civilization, one of trickery, one of death, and one who I need to decide on. In addition, the three fates are manipulating stuff for the show down with the eventual BBEG

[Quertus]

One idea is that oddly enough, everyone is a CO, though maybe not for the same thing. In one game I am running, we have a unknown heir to a dead empire, a person with the personification of magic looking over their shoulder, one of the personification of war or civilization, one of trickery, one of death, and one who I need to decide on. In addition, the three fates are manipulating stuff for the show down with the eventual BBEG

Personally, I would love to play Bob, the completely ordinary and unfated, in such a game. But - key thing - I would love to choose to play Bob, not have Bob forced upon me.

But, then, it's a question of what people want out of the game. Know your players. Know what they'll enjoy, and run that.