(Adapted - in some places, stolen outright - from
the Divination/Blessed material found in GURPS CI, GURPS Magic and
GURPS Grimoire)
Despite the best efforts of both Destiny and Fate,
Blessed mortals can and do exist for years without anyone noticing. This can result in interesting results -
especially if the Blessed mortal is the sort to try and see patterns in the
world around him or her. Sometimes,
they succeed.
Divination (Perception) No Default; Prerequisite: the Blessed Advantage
This skill represents an organized (if not
comprehensive and/or infallible) study of the Symphony, with an emphasis on
pattern recognition and general forewarning.
A successful roll will give the mortal at least some idea of what is
going around them, a possible way to solve a problem, a general warning of
danger... in short, it's a Clue Stick/Thrown Bone/Plot Wagon/Sleazy
Rationalization for the GM. The CD
gives a general yardstick to how clear the information is: bear in mind that a
CD of 6 isn't going to make things clear. Also, an Intervention on a Divination roll will alert one Servitor
of Destiny/Fate within about half a mile that something interesting is going on
yonder: which one it is depends on whether the Intervention was favorable or
unfavorable.
There are literally hundreds of different Divination
'styles': the below are only a representative sample. Note that all of them assume hefty penalties for use without the
right materials: new types of Divinations should reflect this.
Needs a piece of paper, something to write with and
a basic knowledge of mathematics. The
style concentrates on financial matters: any other use is at -4 to both the
skill roll and the CD.
However, there is a variant called Rolling up a
New Character that allows for general use by roleplaying Diviners. This involves generating a character from
scratch for a RPG that uses a random generation system to determine attributes:
with a successful roll, the resulting PC will have skills, stats and abilities
deemed best suited to solve the most pressing problem of the Diviner.
For Divining using a point based system, see Bibliomancy
(GURPS) below.
The user must be able to see the night sky and have
access to some sort of manual explaining star patterns. If one or the other is not available,
subtract -2 from the skill roll: if neither is, subtract -4 from both the skill
roll and the CD (minimum CD 1).
The study of personal omens: attempting to Divine
things for anyone except the Diviner is at a penalty. A partner is at -1, blood relatives are at -2, friends/enemies
are at -3 (and -1 to the CD) and a random person is at -5 to the skill roll and
-3 to the CD.
Bibliomancy (Bible or other Holy Scriptures)
This type of Divination is fairly common: the Diviner
simply opens the religious text to a random point and ponders the scripture
verse found there. Any religious book
will work, but the roll is always at -1 to skill and -2 to the CD. Obviously, the Diviner must be able to read
the language in which the scriptures are written.
Bibliomancy (GURPS)
This is a very new Divination style, and one of the
most flexible ones. However, this skill
is at a base -6 to both skill and CD.
This penalty is reduced by 1 (to either skill or CD) for every 13 unique
GURPS supplements that the Diviner owns and/or can access
(maximum +0): thus, a Diviner with 156 GURPS supplements can use
this Divination without penalty.
By sheer coincidence, the author of this piece
currently owns about 156 GURPS supplements.
This type traditionally uses a Tarot deck; modern
Diviners have been found with regular playing cards, video poker machines and
even CCGs. The Cartomancer must
choose a specific deck: use of another deck of the same type is at -3 and a
completely different type of cards is at -6.
The Diviner uses one or the other. Crystal balls have to be at least 6 inches
in diameter to be worth anything: Tea Leaves always work, but at a -3. Also, use of this Divination for anything
except matters of romance will be at a -4.
Otherwise known as an Ouija Board. This is not strictly speaking a Divination
style as much as it is the Language (Ghosts) skill, based off of Perception and
effectively limited to Yes/No answers.
This would be the reading of entrails: -3 if the
animal had blemishes or flaws. In most
countries, it's also a good way to get arrested if done in public.
Fortunately, Diviners in the medical profession have
recently discovered a variant: X-Ray Reading. This requires first that an X-Ray, ultrasound and/or MRI be made
of the target to be Divined: the skill can only be used to forecast future
health of said target.
Only technically a Divination style: it's pretty
much the Lucid Dreaming skill with a bit more oomph. The lucid Dreamer must roll against Dreaming -4 in order to gain
the benefits listed above.
This style requires a flame and a sacrifice of at
least moderate personal value to the Diviner.
Amusingly enough, an Intervention on a Pyromancy roll will not alert a
Servitor of Destiny/Fate, but instead garner the personal attention of a
Servitor of Divine/Infernal Fire.
Again, which shows up depends on whether the Intervention was
favorable or unfavorable.
The user must have a complete set of runes (-5 to
skill if even one is missing).
Currently, the most common types are Futhark, Oggham, Dwarvish, Quenya
and Klingon. Use of another type of
rune is at -3 to both the skill roll and CD.
And, of course:
This Divination is available to Blessed individuals
who are formally in the service of either Heaven or Hell.
OK, so it's not actually a Divination. Sue me.