GLoG: The Doomsayer
Image: Artist Unknown, Various apocalyptic scenes from the Prophetic Messenger, published ~1833.
The streets of the royal city are lined with evangelists, fortune tellers, and clairvoyants. One can't walk to the market without being beset by dire forecasts and promises of sudden windfalls, each more desperate to hook your ear than the last. For a few coins, after all, perhaps this terrible future could be averted. Just step into my parlor, and I'll light some incense...
But among them are a few true terrors, folks who need not preach or persuade. They do not need you to believe in the truth, because they know it is coming. It won't leave them alone. It haunts their dreams and stalks them behind every tree. They know it will be their end - it's only a matter of where and when.
Starting Gear: A deck of tarot cards, pair of dice, or other game of chance. A cruel knife or a walking stick. d6 coins in a worn wooden bowl.
Starting Skill: 1 Heresiarch | 2 Mendicant | 3 Salaryperson
A: Doomed, Prognosticate
B: Uncanny
C: Grim Certainty
D: Doom
Doomed
Draw a tarot card. If you die, and your death can reasonably be construed as being predicted by this card, your next character starts with XP equal to 1/2 your current XP at time of death.
Prognosticate
At the end of each session, you may ask the GM one question about what will happen next session. They must answer truthfully and obliquely. Tell the GM what sign or portent you are reading.
Uncanny
All rolls that that target you (or groups you are in) are at -1. (E.g. attacks, damage, healing, reactions.)
Grim Certainty
When you would roll with advantage, instead you succeed and lose half your current Health. When you would roll with disadvantage, instead you fail and gain half your missing Health. Round against the player.
Doom
You were always the messenger. Once, you may make your doom come true. It happens now. Everyone within line of sight who could die from this does so. Yourself included.
Design Notes
A little bit ago I published The Counselor. I think it's still my best work in terms of actual game content. Recently, Hilander has been working on a response to that class that had me thinking about "You may ask the GM one question" mechanics. To me, the best versions of these are like a game of catch. The player gets info, but the GM puts the ball back to the player to say how they discover it.
This class extends the duration of that game of catch. Everything is extremely telegraphed here. At the end of each session, the player and the GM make a hook together that guides the next. At the beginning of the campaign, the player calls their shot. If they live long enough they can see the shot hit its mark. If not, they'll find themselves angle shooting to convince the table that their death was absolutely foretold.
Grim Certainty was briefly a so-so resource mechanic that let you bank advantage to spend later. Cute, but I think it was too much book keeping and felt against the core theme of inevitability. This ability may be too strong.
To the GM, once the Doomsayer gets to about level 3, start planning how to act on their Doom. It needs to be a big session ender. Scrub a hex off the map. Make a column of fire visible on the far side of the globe. Have two monarchs fall in love, then murder one another. Start weaving the beginnings of the doom into the narrative a few session in advance an you'll look like a genius when it all comes together.