How many of you dodged a oracle rant

[The Odor]

On Belkars death I post this. Wich of you have broken a oracles prediction.



Me. I have. I did not die against 1000000 orcs... I died against 999999 orcs. So he was wrong. Kinda

[Comet]

If you took the time to count them, instead of fighting the buggers, it's no wonder you ended up dead

[herrhauptmann]

1- There's a forum for the comic.
2- What are you talking about? Belkar's still alive

[Siosilvar]

On Belkars death I post this. Wich of you have broken a oracles prediction.



Me. I have. I did not die against 1000000 orcs... I died against 999999 orcs. So he was wrong. Kinda

It was probably a rounding error due to integer division.

[KillianHawkeye]

It was probably a rounding error due to integer division.

Or the oracle's calculation method doesn't have that many significant figures.



Also, wrong forum, dude.

[Hat-Trick]

It's the right forum, he's asking who's cheated fate in one of their games, not discussing the comic.

I have not cheated fate, yet. A character of mine is overcoming a curse, though.

[mostlyharmful]

If you got around it it wasn't your fate, there's a bigger meaner more painful version still to come.... ALWAYS!!!!!!

[FoE]

Here's another question: who among the DMs here has ever used an oracle or a seer in their campaign?

[Triaxx]

Dodged an Oracle? Nah, they have pretty bad BAB so dodging isn't hard.

Seriously? None. I had a character told he'd die because of a malevolent spirit. That game ended with Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies, so I guess it counts.

[Volkov]

I grabbed the oracle and smashed her human brains into the wall. Does that count?

[Yukitsu]

I was the party oracle, so when I used spells based on that premise, I was rather consistently wrong, because I kept asking for spoilers that the DM couldn't give, because there wasn't any way for him to know the answers. I also constantly asked really jerk questions, like "Where will I find magic item X" which, if we were granted any answer at all indicated that A) I'll be alive when we get it, B) we will get it and C) we don't have to look for it, because we will get it. It's no wonder the DM made my predictions constantly wrong.

[John Campbell]

I killed an oracle once. As she died, she looked at me and said, "I knew it'd be you."

Personally, I'd have been more impressed if she'd said that before I struck the fatal blow.

[TheCountAlucard]

Personally, I'd have been more impressed if she'd said that before I struck the fatal blow.

Yeah, but if she had done that, you might've done something else to spite her and her "predictions." Pesky "free will" and all that.

[taltamir]

If you got around it it wasn't your fate, there's a bigger meaner more painful version still to come.... ALWAYS!!!!!!

that.
the key to make successful predictions is to make them vague enough... remember in the order of the stick when roy thought he fulfilled the prediction his father gave him? its basically like that every time.

[Mr. Mud]

This is in the correct forum, is it not? It's talking about game experiences, specially pertaining to an Orcale's prediction(s). Anyway, I love to use Oracles or Seers in my campaigns.

[Fenix_of_Doom]

I killed an oracle once. As she died, she looked at me and said, "I knew it'd be you."

Personally, I'd have been more impressed if she'd said that before I struck the fatal blow.

Predicting that someone is going to kill you while they are already standing in front of you isn't very impressive either.
I'd be more impressed if she said: "read the note in my pocket"
the note being a message directed at you, saying she knew she would die but couldn't accept it.

[drengnikrafe]

Saying an Oracle was wrong because his prediction was miffed by 1 orc is similar to saying that your Statistics teacher was wrong because after flip number 50, heads came up 60% of the time. Predicting the future is not a precise sport, it's drawing conclusions based upon vague (or sometimes specific) pictures that enter your mind, but are beyond mortal understanding. At least, that's the way I picture it.

[RS14]

Saying an Oracle was wrong because his prediction was miffed by 1 orc is similar to saying that your Statistics teacher was wrong because after flip number 50, heads came up 60% of the time. Predicting the future is not a precise sport, it's drawing conclusions based upon vague (or sometimes specific) pictures that enter your mind, but are beyond mortal understanding. At least, that's the way I picture it.

A bad analogy. If your statistics teacher denies the possibility of heads coming up 60% of the time on a finite set of flips of a fair coin, your statistics teacher is wrong.

Now they can say that there is approximately a 4.18% chance of heads coming up on 60% of your 50 flips, but that's totally different. That would be analogous to the oracle looking at actuarial data and giving your the probability that you die in various ways.

[Optimystik]

Predicting that someone is going to kill you while they are already standing in front of you isn't very impressive either.
I'd be more impressed if she said: "read the note in my pocket"
the note being a message directed at you, saying she knew she would die but couldn't accept it.

I agree. And the note would have been something she wrote quite some time ago.

[Jayngfet]

I was predicted to destroy a civilization once. The game kinda died shortly after the prophecy but I probably would have done no such thing.

[taltamir]

maybe the oracle was just rounding... instead of saying:
"nine-hundred and ninety nine thousand nine-hundred and ninety nine orcs"
s/he say:
"one million orcs"

[Mikeavelli]

"Oh no, we're not doing this again. During this quest, we have gone through no less than three different oracles, each filled with cosmic knowledge of the multiverse, each guiding us long this thrice-damned journey to do powers-knows-what! We've had vague portents and half-truths that left us with even LESS of an idea what was going on than before, and EVERY TIME you idiots have given us advice that turned out WORSE than useless! I am DONE with this nonsense. If I've got this great destiny and almighty power in store for me down the line, then you're just going to give me a straight damned answer!

And if you don't, I swear I am going to seize that destiny without you, and then I am going to spend the rest of my life tracking down each and every one of you jackass seers, and END you. DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?!"

- Variation of something a character of mine said when.. Well, the context of the game should be obvious.

[drengnikrafe]

A bad analogy. If your statistics teacher denies the possibility of heads coming up 60% of the time on a finite set of flips of a fair coin, your statistics teacher is wrong.

Now they can say that there is approximately a 4.18% chance of heads coming up on 60% of your 50 flips, but that's totally different. That would be analogous to the oracle looking at actuarial data and giving your the probability that you die in various ways.

You're right. My analogy is a bad one. The point I was trying to make (but missed) was that statistics (a "science" that suggests the way something will turn out based upon probability) is not all that different (in my eyes) from being an oracle. I suppose, based on the second half of your proof, even that is invalid until it is drawn out to the generization of "both will be imprecise sometimes".

[mostlyharmful]

"Oh no, we're not doing this again. During this quest, we have gone through no less than three different oracles, each filled with cosmic knowledge of the multiverse, each guiding us long this thrice-damned journey to do powers-knows-what! We've had vague portents and half-truths that left us with even LESS of an idea what was going on than before, and EVERY TIME you idiots have given us advice that turned out WORSE than useless! I am DONE with this nonsense. If I've got this great destiny and almighty power in store for me down the line, then you're just going to give me a straight damned answer!

And if you don't, I swear I am going to seize that destiny without you, and then I am going to spend the rest of my life tracking down each and every one of you jackass seers, and END you. DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?!"

- Variation of something a character of mine said when.. Well, the context of the game should be obvious.

This seems oddly familiar.

[GallóglachMaxim]

One game I played in started with a prophecy that if all the unusual (magic using/nonhuman) people of a city weren't evacuated, they would die. Turns out it was a trap.

Here's another question: who among the DMs here has ever used an oracle or a seer in their campaign?

My campaign setting has an unappreciated oracle, an apparently insane Sadhu-type man who tells people the future in such a garbled and confusing way that they don't realise what he meant until after it happens.

[Solaris]

Here's another question: who among the DMs here has ever used an oracle or a seer in their campaign?

Once. They find the oracle dead, the temple having been overrun by a band of orcs some hundred years ago or so. The oracle was kind enough to leave them the message they needed anyways.

[Moff Chumley]

Oracle told us he had foreseen visions of himself ruling the empire. That was immediately before my rogue pulled a knife out of his sleeve and stabbed him in the eye.

And no, he didn't come back as a lich or demon or anything. Our cleric did something to that end, but I can't remember what. Was a while back.

[Volkov]

My players got a fortune that they were doomed to fail against a 12,800 thousand hit dice end result of a merging between eight Worms that Walked and Eight Demi-liches. They won out, barely. And the triumph was a phyrric one at that, the only one left was the wizard, who then bled to death within a round.

[Berserk Monk]

On Belkars death I post this. Wich of you have broken a oracles prediction.



Me. I have. I did not die against 1000000 orcs... I died against 999999 orcs. So he was wrong. Kinda

What was the oracles exact words for this prophecy?