Oracles and Omens

Welcome once again to another edition of the Solo Mine (we'll get back to maps eventually so I have good inspiration to make more top-down icons), where I talk about all things solo-tabletop gaming... or something.

Anyhow, this time I thought I'd take some time out and do a crossover with the Musings series and talk about how I approach uncertainty during solo gaming. This covers how I use Oracles and other divination methods to figure out where the story is going should my running dialog falter.

Solo Gaming vs Writing

I made that header a little adversarial, but it's really not. For me, solo gaming and writing are similar creative endeavors with some direct differences.

In my Ironsworn Actual Play Transcript you can get a taste of how the vibe was leading to story, which I suspect could be refined into a piece of published fiction should I choose to polish it up.

Many times through that experience, I had a decent idea for how the ongoing story could unfold, and when the inspiration struck, I just kept rolling with what I thought was logical. For example, during the first area, I have a strong idea of what "reveal a danger" means in the story. I could have rolled an oracle to give me more ideas, but I did not, since I had a good one ready to go.

That happens a lot during that particular actual play, with the oracle only being used when I didn't know what was next. I even skipped the oracle when moving to a new area, because I had a cool idea for the ongoing narrative.

I do not always treat the Oracle like I did in Ironsworn. I was on a roll with a font of flowing inspiration.

The Duality of the Oracle

Not long ago, I did an actual play post using the Shadowdark Solodark rules and I got some solid feedback / questions from posting it to the Arcane Library discord. It boils down to a difference in how various folks use oracles in solo play. That's part of why this post exists. It never occurred to me to outline how I use oracles.

For that actual play, I'd created some random characters and took them through a dungeon I'd created in a previous post. This created a combination of things that required me to rely on the oracle a bit more than I would in the past:

• I didn't have any idea who these characters were or how they would behave narratively
• I have perfect knowledge of the dungeon.

So this led to a couple of interesting consequences. For example, when the characters arrive at the dungeon, they have the option of going through the obvious entrance (at the front) or climbing up the side of an embankment to see if there are alternative entrances.

I suspect most players would choose that latter intention, but since I treat the NPCs less as an extension of myself probing the world (because I know where things are placed) and more autonomous entities in the story with their own motivations, I used an oracle with a straight 50/50 shot to see what they would do. Are these the kind of people who just go in the front door with reckless abandon? Are they more cautious?

In that instance, the oracle allowed me to learn and observe these randomly generated characters' behavior. Turns out I learned a few things from that interaction:

1. Gweddyn is more reckless, and Biraad curbs her worst impulses
2. Together, they are more cautious and curious about what else is happening in the dungeon.

A good part of that is my mind extrapolating who should say what dialog in the narrative (Gweddyn worships Raamlat for some reason, so here we go), and then seeing what happens.

I didn't have to do that, I could have either decided their motivations myself or I could not worry about their motivations at all, and not bother with any of that. But I think, my primary reason for playing solo games is for story and so the use of the oracle is always to facilitate that story.

Which Way do we go? Part 2

I consult the oracle to determine which way the PCs go later in the session, but the second time I do it for another reason. I have a more solid understanding at this point of who the PCs are, so I don't need to divine what they're going to do.

But I do have perfect knowledge of this dungeon. I know there's a trapped water elemental to the south, and a pile of possibly sleeping cultists to the northwest. Neither of those options particularly called to me as the "more interesting" thing to deal with immediately, so I leave it to chance.

Good thing too, because Solodark (like many other oracles) has the concept of a "twist". I got one there and it lead to a very fun little moment with some cultists.

If I had to summarize...

Analyzing my thoughts and feelings on the topic, I think it boils down to these points:

• I play solo games to generate interesting narrative first, and care about the interesting gameplay second (even in Final Girl, which was a little weird but hey).
• The oracle is used only when there is uncertainty in that narrative. If I know what's going to be interesting to me in the narrative next, I tend to not use the oracle.

And that's pretty much it! This also ties back to something I said in a previous post about the Mythic GM Emulator:

I think this is another point of divergence from me and the wider OSR community. Folks who love OSR games also seem to love random tables. From some conversations I've had - I think this is a concept of "Oracles as a surprise to everyone at the table". Letting the dice fall and presenting interesting (and frequently nonsensical results) and figuring out why (or not) is part of the fun. The Mythic System, for example, embraces this and uses Oracles all the way up to emulating the GM along with tables for word association to move the plot forward.

Which is just not how I play these kinds of games. The randomness can introduce sparks of surprise, but I usually get better results from call-and-response with friends. When I'm playing by myself, I think I create a little simulated universe and as the characters gain levers and personality, their actions require less input from the randomness engine.

But yeah, that's how I use oracles! I sure hope that's logically consistent with my other posts. Anyhow. See y'all next time.