Cassandra's Tears idea

[jftravis]

Bah, it's not a mistake if it doesn't kill you; it's just a learning experience. 

In any case, it sounds like you've got a handle on how to proceed. Let us know how it works out!

[PirateJack]

If you're not willing to retcon it out entirely, you could always go the false prophecy route. Have the player lose the Cassandra's Tears power but change one of her aspects to False Prophecies (or something along those lines) so that you can continue along the lines you've already gone but also keep the storyline. It also means you can introduce a being that is sending her these prophecies, which is rife with story potential.

[Haru]

In most circumstances, I'd go with a compel, too. But I've had players, one in particular (the husband of the person playing the psychic), explicitly state they're not comfortable trying to RP not believing the visions.

I can understand that notion, to be honest. If there's a vision depicting a situation that's supposed to come true, I as a player can't do anything to change the outcome. My agency is taken away from me, and that turns an RPG into the GM reading me a bedtime story.

Though I can't think of a good way to change that. Cassandra's tear is a weird power to have for a player.

Maybe it can work if it isn't the GM who gives the prophecy, but the whole group. That way, everyone can participate in creating the future they are playing towards, and they can think about how it might mean something different than what has actually been seen. That way, the agency stays in the group, and they might feel less weird about the whole thing.

[Wordmaker]

Haru that's not a bad idea. The power becomes more about the group deciding how they want the story to go. I like it. I'll run it by the group and see what they think.

[Ulfgeir]

What we did in my group with Cassandras' Tears is that my character (who started as a focused practioner with speciliiazation in divination, but is now a full wizard), often would get weird cryptic visions of something (usually bad) that was about to happen. Not often though I get the FP* for it, but her having those visions (and often falling unconscious from them or bleeding from her eyes etc) fit the theme of the character well, and made a good contribution to the campaign.

And yes there has been a lot of roleplaying from some of the other chars that they don't quite believe her visions. Of course once weird stuff start happening, the others have come around and acted on those weird things. And no, I don't get visions for everything, as sometimes the powers that be deliberately hide their doings from scrying eyes.

* We are generally bad in using compels. Most notably esceptions though have been to get some characters to do stupid things that would endanger themselves. If you have the trouble "What could possibly go wrong?" you kind of deserve to put yourself in trouble.

/Ulfgeir