[Basic] Skill of the week: Fortune-Telling

[roguebfl]

yes there where redifened, but also all 13 existed before and progresstion twisted the path to so without redifing there would still be 13 curently. just like Polaris wasn't alway the North star.

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by roguebfl

yes there where redifened, but also all 13 existed before and progresstion twisted the path to so without redifing there would still be 13 curently. just like Polaris wasn't alway the North star.

Indeed, thanks to precession, we've seen in recorded history the North Star shift from Sigma Draconis (ca 3500 BC) to Polaris. I understand Vega is in the lineup of stars that has in the past and will in the future be our North Star, though I believe it'll be about ... 8000 AD? 18000 AD? Unclear on the date....


For the purposes of the Fortune-Telling skill, though, are we in the Age of Aquarius (Aquarius being the sign the sun rises in during the Spring Equinox) or still in the Age of Pisces?

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by tbrock1031

For the purposes of the Fortune-Telling skill, though, are we in the Age of Aquarius (Aquarius being the sign the sun rises in during the Spring Equinox) or still in the Age of Pisces?

Astrologers disagree. Estimates for the beginning of the Age of Aquarius somehow manage to span the range from 1500 to 3000 AD.

In terms of the current IAU constellation boundaries, the equinox is still in Pisces and will be until within a few years of 2600 AD (exact date varies with I think how you want to define the position of the sun, since it's inconveniently not a point). For the older drawings, it looks to be a little southeast of the fin of the southern fish, somewhere between Pisces and Cetus, and should be moving back into Pisces in a few decades.

[Friendpmcii]

Originally Posted by whswhs

...

Fortune-Telling as a mundane skill seems to cover approximately the same ground as the social engineering technique of Elicitation: Getting people to reveal information to you while seeming to talk about something else. In that approach, you take a penalty to an Influence skill, but give a penalty to the other person's Will; buying up the technique reduces the penalty. I'm not sure what Influence skill would fit reading someone's cards; probably the closest is Fast-Talk. In such an approach, the divinatory aspect might be fitted in as a complementary skill roll vs. Occultism. Or you might take Fast-Talk (Fortune-Telling) as an optional specialty. I suppose you might even do both! Having a special purpose social skill for this was more of an ad hoc solution, like having a special purpose social skill of Panhandling.

I actually got fortune-telling because: This is the art of interviewing someone in order to learn more about his lifestyle and personality... (And from there it hints that the other person does not know.) With skills in spycology gleaning information without the other person knowing is very useful. But I haven't found a DM who sees it that way (and social engineering technique of Elicitation wasn't in the book anymore.) So I just use a self made SOP perk and body language with observation.