I have a great idea for a story / game, but I can''t bring myself to write it unless I can come up with a way to explain something that is a relatively... enormous plot hole. I want the characters to know a few things that are impossible to know. For instance, every person in the world will at birth know the profession they''ll take as adults, or who they will marry, or some such things. How am I going to explain this? It''s not something specific to the main character, and must for the story line''s sake apply to the entire population of the world. Maybe everyone is born with a birthmark that depicts their trade or names their future spouse, or something like that. Maybe it''s just some innate knowledge people have, but I''ve been thinking that would just seem too simple. What''s the best way to explain people knowing the impossible? -Arek the Absolute

Feudal Cast system. People follow their family''s trade due to serfdom.

Don''t try to explain it. Just don''t try to claim it''s real - maybe, in some paralell universe, a force of ''fate'' acts on everyone, to the extent that people sometimes know what''s going to happen to them.

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Thanx! I figure I will just go with that, but I just figured people would think it was weird. And while I''m at it, I''ll thank you for that tutorial you linked to on my other thread. It''s both helpful and funny!

Back on topic, though:
Anyone think it would be too wierd if I didn''t explain it?

-Arek the Absolute

There''s a trilogy of books by Paul Park called the Sugar Rain series, that has something similar.

When a child is born, the priests listen to the baby''s cries and determine who it is and what it will be in life. Part of a belief in reincarnation or somesuch.

Anyway, the priests then tattoo the infant on one hand with an ink that is permanent for the person''s life. So when meeting a stranger, people hold up their hand for the other to ''read''. Kinda like exchanging business cards.


Also take a look at the Bene Gesseritt (sp?) from the Dune series, who spent a lot of effort at matchmaking over a long period of time.

JSwing

I think it depends partially on the rest of the story and setting.

Like if it took place in New York in the 1940s, you play the bodyguard to the most hated gangster...and everyone lives in igloos, for a reason that is not explained. But, if the whole place was bizzare I don''t think it would be as hard to accept. I think I would still give some explaination though.

I''d make up some way to explain it, like by saying something like it''s encoded in micro-genes (haha, i''m sooooo creative) that are encoded inside of regular genes. Or something like that.

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If its SciFi, then you can get away with society being made up of a subspecies built by "real humans" to perform the tasks that needed a lower class. However, there was a cartoon about this concept, i think it was called "Exosquad." But, you open up the can o'' worms that you have to enshroud these facts in conspiracy.

-> Will Bubel
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well you could do this: reincarnation of the soul and your soul can see beyond any singular moment in time, however you cant. humans have only figured out how to read a larger idea rather then things like the imediate future, so things like your life profession are larger enough for the average human to read . the idea here is breaking the link between mind and body, our body travels through this life, but our soul lives beyond it, so breaking that barrier can change humanity largely. a little cooky but it coudl work

in a story by isaac asimov (don''t remember the name), children don''t go to school, when they reach a certain age they learn to read (iirc they use some kind of learning tapes), so they learn to read in a day. Then when they get older they get tested to find which profession they are most suited for, they get tought what they need to know the same way they learnt to read. The twist in the story is the main character rejects the job he is selected as, since he always wanted to be a computer programmer (or something) and he eventually finds out that his job (through some cool plot twists) is to write the programs that teach people all the stuff they need to know.