How to reveal Fate steps

[oistene]

How do you all reveal - if you reveal them at all - Fate steps to your players? Do you tell them the relevant step as the session starts, as the step comes into play, as the session ends or something completely else?

[Shadowopal]

Depends on the group. I usually clue the player in by saying like "you feel a sense of deja vu" when the potential scene is starting. But there was one group who wasn't very good at picking up on subtle clues and I realized that I had to just let the player know their fate was progressing. 

[EnternalVoid]

I have tried a couple ways, often with in the same campaign so they cannot predict it plus find out which way I like best for a group.  I did find if I let them know right up front in some way that some of them tend to go through the game thinking about what they will do with their destiny rather than focusing on the at hand as much so I am still experimenting.

I have given the players who have a fate coming up a piece of paper before hand with a bit of a lead up *a dream about their family, a bird falling dead at their feet when they left their place, an eerie half said word on the wind*.  I have just said who's fate was up at the beginning.  I have not told them at all and let them know when a moment keys in *when a certain scene is their fate* or let them know afterwards that the event matched their Fate. 

I have to admit I like not having one set way, so it is not always entirely predictable.  So you can catch them by surprise or build up the tension by letting them know something is coming.  It also lets you kind of craft it to the individual player to try and make it more enjoyable for them.

[Steamtastic Vagabond]

I don’t even tell them until after it passes, makes them wonder who’s coming next, and when.

[oistene]

Thanks for the input, guys! Particularly the suggestions from Enternal gave me something to work with.

[Mason]

I usually just name the session after the Destiny Step and toss it out there right from the start. This lets the player being focused on for the session realize that they are in the spotlight, which informs their decisions going forward for the session. This also signals to the other players that the session's focus is on so-and-so, allowing them to move into a more supportive role for the session (from a roleplaying perspective).

[Bazlord_Prime]

I'm still very new to all this, but I tried Mason's suggestion last session and it worked better than revealing the Destiny at the end, or just after it happened. It still felt like a minor part of the session tho, and the character in question didn't really become the focus of the session, the other characters didn't step back at all.

 I think that perhaps we're not roleplaying deep enough yet for that to happen, but also that - since we're doing A Night In Rottenburg - I'm scratching around to find ways to shoehorn the Destiny Steps into the scripted elements, and the first two steps I did were pretty off the cuff and ugly (still learning how to improvise).

Maybe with a custom adventure it would be possible to tailor the entire session around an upcoming Destiny Step, and really go hard on the theme? Or do the Fated just do the usual thing, and wander off-script to a degree proportional to the amount of work the FM has put into it? 😉