Second sight gives people the ability to see things beyond the ken of normal folk. It manifests in two ways.
The first, and simpler, power of second sight is to see those things that are hidden by supernatural means. A person gifted with second sight can see invisible things without difficulty. This primarily means the character can see spirits and hidden creatures.
The second power is the ability to see things that are to be. This prophetic ability of second sight mostly involves people. With second sight the seer can see a person's luck, and omens of the future.
Second sight can also be used to see events that will occur. For example, in Iceland there was an old wise woman with the sight who regularly foretold when the merchant ships would be arriving for the season.
What is seen by second sight will happen, no matter what measures are taken to avoid it. While most things seen by second sight come to pass relatively quickly, it is not unknown for the prediction to be fulfilled years later.
Second sight does have its limitations. Attempts to use second sight only succeed 50% of the time, and even then may not reveal anything interesting or extraordinary. Most importantly, this ability cannot be used to predict the outcome of actions. A character with second sight cannot look at a chest and say that opening it would be bad, since this requires an action that may or may not happen (Upon hearing the prediction, nobody opens the chest and thus makes the prediciton untrue). Characters cannot use it to foretell the outcome of a fight or a battle, although the seer could say whether one fighter or commander's luck was good or bad. An event that depends on the specific actions of people, particularly player characters, cannot be determined through second sight.
As a last caution, the DM must remember that he is in charge whenever a character has a vision through second sight. If the DM has no idea what vision would be appropriate, then none need occur.
Some DM's may object to the gifted character's ability to constantly see invisible objects. Most of the invisible things seen are creatures from the other world—dwarves, huldre, tomke, nisse, and an assorted collection of sprites and fairies. Seeing such invisible creatures is no great blessing since they take a greater interest in those who can see them. The attentions of spirits are seldom desirable; those with second sight are often mad or touched in the brain by their own power.
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