Solo Roleplaying and Hidden Oracles

    I have no time anymore to play with friends. Its unfortunate but since I am a chronic early riser I end up waking up when my old crew of players are going to bed. Staying up to run my games isn't manageable anymore. This has what has recently been pulling me to solo-roleplaying.

    I am aware that there are already fantastic solo role playing games like Ironsworn which provide a whole package with system included, however recently I have been into system tinkering and have been looking to make my own game for use at my tables. So rather than using a already existing system that would work perfectly fine I want to make my own system for a solo-campaign. I expect that there will be a few blogs in this series as I develop and play my first game. I will invent as I go.

    First thing on the agenda for me is arguably the most important for the game, the oracle. When I ask questions as the player, I need something to give me information about the world. I would like to be able to run the game without a bunch of random tables for each piece of information that have set results. I use random tables already as a gm and I find that I prefer subjective divination of the reality I will create rather than more set responses. I can do more and get bored less with a result that tells me "treasonous" than "secretly wants to betray their family".

    To start my system off I am going to borrow the Yes-die No-Die system I've seen around. There is a blue 20-sided yes die and a red 20-sided no-die. Which ever number is higher between yes and no is the way my question gets answered.

    If I ask if I can detect hostile intent from a traveller that is facing me down, and I roll a 5 for yes and a 2 for no, then its a yes, I can detect hostile intent.

    This system is all I fundamentally need. To tie break I could just always take yes since its the more interesting between the two options, but I see this as a chance for further complexity. I originally heard about this system from Matt Jackson but I am going to add a 6 sided slider die that decides between ties. Which ever dice the slider die is closer to in my dice tray is the one that it attaches to. However rather than have the slider dice add intensity to either result, I want it to add a chance for complications. If the slider is close to my yes and rolls 4-6 then it turns into a "yes and" with some more specific responses that enhance the result, on a 1-3 "yes but" it will add conditions or deeper issues. 

  

    In my previous example, if the slider dice was closer to my no then it doesn't come into play and the oracle is just "You detect hostile intent from the traveller", but if it rolled a 5 while being closer to my yes dice, then it becomes "I detect hostile intent from the traveller and...". 

    Filling in that complication is where more specific tables can come in, but I want to add vibes to this while I play. The vibes should be immaculate, artisan even. Truly occult vibes. To do this I would like to use tarot cards to add more physicality to the game while still creating good results for me. To fill in that and/but ill draw from the major arcana. If it is an and I am looking for, I take the positive/upright meaning of the card I draw. If it is a but, then I use the negative/reversed meaning. If I need to seek more clarity on it I roll a my yes no oracles again with no complications until the meaning is clear to me as the player.

    Back to my traveller example, I ask "Do I detect any hostile intent from the traveller?". I roll my yes and no dice with a slider dice. The slider dice rolls a 2 and lands close to the yes, and the yes rolls a 5 while the no rolls a 2. Its a yes but. I pull from the major arcana, and get the High Priestess. You can use any tarot guide but at some point ill distill my own effective list for use while gaming, one I found online says "lack of centre/loss of inner voice/repressed feelings". I start asking questions "The traveller is hostile, but is it guilt that is undermining them?" No "If they are not guilty than maybe they seem unsure of why they are doing this, they are acting unconsciously and against themselves for some reason?" Yes "Is it hunger?" Yes.

    This paints a picture of a traveller facing me off due to starving in the woods, ready to attack me but I detect a hint of uncertainty in it, something my character can act on. There is one issue however, and that is as both player and GM I have perfect information. I as the GM might know that information, but I the player may not, and that can undermine the role playing a little for me. I need a way of hiding oracles until they are absolutely confirmed, and give room for being wrong in what I detected. To give room for me as the player to be mislead.

    I need to hide the oracles, so here is the change to the system I made and ill run through an example to show the complete system.

 I as the player ask "Do I detect any hostile intent from the traveller?"

The oracle is rolled. 18 Yes 8 No, the slider dice is a 1 and its closer to the yes. I as the GM respond "Yes, but they are experiencing a loss of inner voice, they are repressing and hiding something". At the same time I take the minor arcana from my tarot deck which has so far been unused. I draw one of the 10 non-face cards and one of the 4 face cards and put them down separately. The knight and page are lower servants, so they do not affect the result. The King and Queen are higher royalty. They add 10 to the result. This gives me a result from 1-20 without me knowing what the result is. That result is the truth, and if it is still higher or equal to the No dice, then the truth is maintained, and I was correct in my reading of hostile intent. This gives me some meta knowledge, but not absolute certainty, and it reminds me of that uncertainty by having the truth right in front of me in the form of cards.

I as the player say "Ill raise my firearm. I am not ready to fight anything right now, but Ill try and intimidate them to turn the other way and not to make any sudden moves. I am committing to shooting them if anything happens against what I said."

I as the GM think this is a moment where the truth is revealed. I flip the cards. A 2 of Wands and a Knight of Cups. That a 2, which doesn't beat the no, the truth is there is no hostile intent. "The traveller starts to run, their terrified of you. You committed to firing so you do. Roll to hit"

I as the player rolls a d20 to hit them with my flintlock "13, that hits."

I as the GM "The bullet finds its mark, the round ball of lead leaving a trail of white smoke then a trail of red mist as it exits through their right breast. They fall dead."

I as the player "I run over to loot them, I hope they have food."

    I think I like this system as an oracle. It does bring up a system of a player committing to information and even as they learn the truth. They get locked in to what was decided . It doesn't get rid of the meta game but just adds risk to every choice in the narrative. I think Ill tie into how this system operates as I develop the player facing rules and decided how actions get resolved between the gm and player.

    If I ever need to add more specific oracles for other things I think I will just alter this for each situation like generating npcs and dungeons. I also will need to factor in player skills for things like reading intent and detecting hidden information. But the combo of yes-no dice and tarot should get me started. As time goes on ill see if I can tie the meanings of the minor arcana into the oracle results.