Foreshadowing

We've all seen it. Frost mistakes the poisonous syringe of anti-coagulant for Blade's synthetic blood. Bond suddenly remembers the bomb Q hid in his pen. Buttercup recognizes Westley when he shouts "as you wish."

Movies usually set a detail up before it becomes important. Then, just when the audience has forgotten about it, the detail comes back and changes the course of a scene.

Good game masters have been doing this since time immemorial, and happy roleplaying groups are often good at referencing each other's ideas. Why not take it a step further?

Creating Foreshadowing Dice

To create a Foreshadowing die, a player weaves something they think is cool into one of their descriptions. Hiding a knife in a boot, for example. They mention to the other players that this might be foreshadowing, then write the relevant detail down on a notecard or a PostIt or something and puts it in the middle where everyone can see.

Using Foreshadowing Dice

Any player can gain a die by bringing the foreshadowed thing back into play. In the case of the knife, the character might find himself tied up, as the water level rises. As the player describes his character trying to wiggle free, he decides to bring back the knife. By putting it into his description, he gains not only the dice for the Details, but also one extra for referencing the knife again.

Alternatively, he could claim the same die for trying to reach the knife (but failing). Another player might gain the die for his character by asking "hey, you still keep that knife in your boot?"

Each instance of foreshadowing provides only one die.

Additional Option: Thwarting

But suppose the villains searched the character before tying him up? If they didn't find the knife, things work as above. If the GM decides that they did, though, the player gains 2 held dice for being a good sport.

A particularly sporting GM might even give the player the choice: "do they find the knife- which will get you two dice- or should we keep that for later?"

Similarly, you can use foreshadowing to prompt character conflict. A player whose police officer character tampers with evidence could create a foreshadowing die for it. When another character uncovers the tampering, each involved player could gain 1 held die.

Why

Foreshadowing dice are a way for players to come up with things that they think would be cool, and leave them on the table (literally) for themselves or other players to come back to later in the session.