Like the kind you'd see in penny arcades or featured in the Tom Hanks movie Big :D

Thaaat would be something they'd have to be very careful with. Most of those machines have really racist depictions of Arabic men or Roma women.

I see a couple of ways they could do this while (hopefully) avoiding the racism.

First would be to have one of the pet species be the face of it and have it give out random fortunes.

Second would be to tie it in with the Shengui Guo spirits which could have multiple outcomes. Maybe the trickster/mischief kinds of spirits have a tendency to hang around the machine more often because of the scammy/silly nature of the machines in real life and they give out negative or joke fortunes. But occasionally you might get a response from a more well-intended spirit that gives you a more uplifting fortune.

I'm not sure how best to do the fortunes though, they'd probably have to be vague. And also I'm not sure how many people would actually use the machine, and this seems like a lot of work (especially the writing fortunes part) for an activity that could largely go unused.

Maybe it could occasionally spit out a carnival ticket if you kick it.

'Uh oh. The machine makes a clunk and won't give you a fortune! What do you want to do?' 'Kick it' 'Punch it' 'Scowl at it' 'Leave it alone'

Hitting it could have a small chance of a carnival ticket or a carnival prize

Yeah, something like that could work. I was also thinking maybe having some game-specific prizes that you could get randomly and rarely from the machine, which could work if you go with the spirit idea maybe. Sometimes instead of giving a fortune, it could be like "Wow, this spirit has really taken a liking to you!" or something like that and it leaves behind an item for you.

I'm gonna be THAT PERSON and say it should be a broken down old rusting machine with an animatronic ala Five Nights at Freddy's.

Make it creepy and stuck in some forgotten back corner of the carnival

That would be fun too, and would fit in with why it hasn't been discovered before. Or have it be something that was found rotting away in their storage area and they decided to bring it back out because it still kind of works.

In that case, I think the Charlie would be perfect for the robot pet inside.

A charlie would be good.

I think other ideas that would be good too in the 'unintentionally creepy' zone would be Feli, Kanis, Kumos, Mallarchy, Popoko, or a Terracoon

man i'd love a fortune teller machine, those things can be pretty neat however im 100% more on the side of 'make it a pretty one' vs creepy lmao

there are also ones that dont feature a person in them at all

I really like the idea of it having a pet animatronic in it! Whether creepy or not, I'd prefer it to the spirit idea because tbh I feel like there's been enough spirit-themed stuff added in recent months. I'd like to see pets featured instead.

I think a Harvester would make a great fortune teller, but if we're going for the fnaf vibe, def a Charlie, Kanis, or Popoko. I already think Popokos are kinda creepy :P

Yes! love the ideas here, especially about being haunted and forgotten and giving out mysterious trinkets or raffle tickets. Maybe give it a random chance of raising your pets intelligence or alchemy or something?. ^.^

It would be really interesting if it could replace the coin machine down in the subway to use the coins we find randomly around the site. Sometimes we get a fortune. Sometimes we get an item. Sometimes we have to kick it because the dang thing doesn't work. saying that, would it defeat it from being in the carnival area? Although not all games/rides use the same token system. IDK.

I think it'd be cute. I don't think it'd have to be useless. It could be like the other carnival things: you put in a token, and it spits out a fortune and sometimes a bonus.

It'd also be funny if there was a haunted fortune machine battle challenger that'd get pissed at you for kicking it.

I think that could fit well with the haunted animatronic/FNAF idea.

I'm swaying more to the side of the creepy/haunted machine now, after thinking about it.

I thought of a couple more ways to get like "bad" reactions from it as well:

1. Doesn't give you anything/gives you the option to kick it, etc.
2. Gives you a blank piece of fortune paper
3. Spits out the whole roll of fortune paper like when you hit the jackpot on a game and it spits out a bunch of tickets, except the paper is just blank.

I think it would be funny as something the carnival runners just found again and decided to put out, acknowledging that it's old and sometimes doesn't work but whatever just have fun with it ~

And sometimes giving out carnival tickets/raffle tickets/dubious item prizes would be a nice incentive to actually use it. I also like the idea of having it be a battle opponent that you unlock when kicking it.

[edit]Also to go with the creepy factor, maybe it could be coded so that sometimes for a random hour it just won't work at all. None of the parts light up, none of the buttons do anything, you just hear weird noises coming from the machine and decide to leave it alone for a while.

Pls. I want a creepy fortune teller machine now. I LOVE creepy carnival things, love love love.

We already have Carnival games to rip you off for your Wizard Tokens...do we need more?

I think it should be like any Carnival game where you put in your Wizard Tokens and you get a variable (or none at all) amount of Carnival Tickets, and a randomly generated fortune. IF there are any other prizes they should be quite rare and be like Account buffs like quickfeet or extra wizard quest or a forum title.

There aren't actually that many games in the carnival. The balloon one and ring toss are the only ones that don't give you a guaranteed prize, the mallarchy one will always give you at least one carnival ticket just for playing. Ruffie Raffle is free, and gives you a guaranteed item. And Bluff is an actual game that you have to play and think about.

Carnivals have always been kind of a rip-off, you're paying more for the fun aspect than for guaranteed prizes so I don't think having it sometimes not give you a fortune would be completely unfair.

This is mostly just something for fun and to add something else to do with the carnival, and to possibly give it a little creepier something since haunted circus/carnival things are a bit lacking. I think I've even seen the idea of having a fortune telling machine on-site has been mentioned elsewhere before, but I'm not sure.

Just to clarify I think it should be free to use once a day, I don't think it should cost wizard tokens