Man Alone DESTROYS the Yes/No SoloRPG Decision Oracle using FACTS and LOGIC (and WHINING) 

Video 18 (of 25) of me liking and then commenting on every new upload to lead the people to a Cy_Borg or Pirate Borg playthrough. Please cast your vote by either commenting “Cy_Borg” or “Pirate Borg” below! Or don’t. Maybe I’ll just pick what I want anyways. *laughs in Evil*

6: Yes!!! 5: Yes! 4: Yes 3: Yes? 2: No 1: Fuck

If man alone is found in a ditch somewhere, do not believe the suicide note...

This is the one video that Big Oracle does NOT want you to watch!

Man Alone: bringing the hard-hitting facts you didn't know you needed

Reminder: You're your own DM, make those Oracle rolls fit the story you want to tell and the one you want to be part of. A "no but" is just a yes with extra steps In fact, if you're really playing like a DM, a "no" can just be a yes with extra steps. Oracles are supposed to be aids to your own creativity, you don't bow to them, they bow to you

Don’t ask the oracle so many questions. If you roll a yes, it’s most obvious outcome. If “yes but”, add the second most obvious thing, something that easily fits. Don’t ask the Oracle again what the “but” is. Just pick the first or second most obvious thing. This is just to add a bit more flavor or randomness. It doesn’t matter that much. “Is the gate locked?” Yes but… it’s really squeaky. You don’t have to ask if this is the correct “but”. The Oracle said there was more useful information, you decide what that information is, if something isn’t quickly obvious about what the “but” could be, drop the “but”. Some oracles have Twists or Interrupts. This just forces you to not get stuck in what you were expecting, you aren’t writing a story, you’re playing a game. Twists are designed to make you have to react to something unexpected. Roll on some random noun and verb tables to try to come up with a twist. “Is the farmers door locked?” No, but also the baker is snooping around inside! Now you get to try to figure out what the baker is doing, is he a spy after the same information you were looking for? The twist might be the most difficult part of the puzzle, as it pulls to the furthest away from what you were expecting to happen. But most of the time, you will get an answer that odd close to what you expected. The SoloDark oracle is a d20. 1-9 means no, 11-20 means yes. Odd numbers (besides 1) adds “but”. 1’s and 20’s are the extreme no or yes, and 10 is a twist. If something is likely, roll with advantage. If unlikely roll with disadvantage. Use mechanics in your system to answer questions that the system already has. Many systems already have weather tables, Hex crawl mechanics, random encounters, and so on. I maybe could have made this comment more succinct, but you posted an hour long video, so it’ll be ok.

It's an interesting question. I think it's actually a two-part question, and we tend to try and answer part two, first. I would say the two parts are: 1. What do I want the oracle to do? 2. How do I want the oracle to work? I think the answer to question 2 really requires a good answer to question 1 first. Do you want the oracle to be an AI gamemaster, or a narrative guide? They aren't the same thing, and I think people often want one, and get frustrated when the oracle is designed to do the other. I think answering what you really want the oracle to do will go a long way toward helping each of us to find the right oracle system for the game we want to play. Ultimately, the answer to question 1 rests on what we each want our role in the game to be. If we want to 'play the character', then we probably want an AI gamemaster. If we want to 'tell the story of the character/characters', then we probably want a narrative guide. The real challenge is that we probably want a mix of both, and we each have to find the right balance. To paraphrase Marc Miller from the old Traveller books, 'the role of the GM is to present challenges to the players for them to overcome, not to create obstacles for their success.' Which he immediately acknowledged was often difficult to tell the difference between in the moment. Just the thoughts that come to mind after watching.

I've been researching dice probabilities on RU-vid for the past few weeks attempting to understand how different dice combinations give a different feel to how a game is received in the 'experience' vs just mathematics. Your vid here just explained the 'why' of it and not the 'what' of it. You hit the nail on the head here. Nice job! Keep it going... 🙂

Try this really quick. Grab 3 d6. 1 Red 1 Blue 1 White Red = No Blue = Yes White = Sway Want a simple yes or no? Roll just the blue and red. Highest number color is the answer. Is a yes more likely? Roll all 3 and add the white result to the blue. If the combined number of the blue and white is more than the red, answer is yes. Reading further into the rolls: Say you rolled a 6 blue / 1 red. That answer seems very definitive. Does that large spread towards yes mean something to you after giving it 1.23 seconds thought? No? Then it's just a simple yes. But if you instantly thought of a 'yes and', treat it as such if you like. Rolling doubles: Sometimes you will roll doubles on just a straight yes/no question. Seems the answer is inconclusive. Is there a reason you could think of as to why you could not determine the answer in the length of time it takes you to sneeze? No? Cool, then just reroll. The key to using this oracle is to give options but not be bound to them. It's all about keeping the play going instead of comparing a chaos of a flow chart stuck to a piece of bubble gum under your desk then being forced to fit within your narrative. If doubles do not make sense, reroll. If 'ands' don't make sense / can't be bothered to think of any (usually my case) then don't do it. The colors of your dice are also irrelevant obviously. Red is easily identified to me as no and I chose white and blue so I could yell MURICA every roll as I envision bald eagles screaming from above. Bring it SGS, my bald eagles await your arrival.

"Balance is boring" but I want to say yes all the time? I enjoyed the video but if I'm playing solo and just saying "yes" to myself all the time then it's just creative writing.

Thanks for the shout out M!

When I need an alternative oracle system, I use an a series of outcomes mentioned in a They Might be Giants song. The oracle's d5 possibilities, in order of occurance, are: 1.) Yes 2.) No 3.) Maybe 4.) I don't know. 5.) Could you repeat the question?

Great video, MA! Good food for thought, and i appreciate your sense of humor. I personally do like the yes/no oracle for solo play, especially Mythic. My opinion is that it's risen to the top because it is simple, yet functional. Sometimes the additional detail of other answers ("yes and..." Or "no but") is helpful, but it is more than i need at the time.

Great video, quite thought provoking. I think you did find the forest, even though the trees were in your way. Sticking to the Year 0 Engine, just build your Oracle dice pool the same way you build a skilll roll dice pool. Start with a base of one die - if there's little or no reasons/excuses for the Oracle to weigh in you favor, but you are giving it a one last chance, that's all you get. If you feel that really want this out come, add a couple dice. If you feel that all of the karmically good decisions you've made during this adventure have improved that world and the oracle should maintain that momentum, add another die or two. Any sixes are a success.

Times like these, I always like to think of the words of Blaine Faulkner - "Well, hey, I didn't spend all those years playing Dungeons and Dragons and not learn a little something about courage."

Thanks for another great video! I always listen to them while cleaning the kitchen. The thing about oracles that should lean more into yes answers got me thinking about Justin Alexander’s book So You Want To Be A Game Master, where he writes something like “Always lean into yes”. Why shouldn’t that also apply to GM emulators / oracles? Then I thought: what about differently colored dice in the dice pool to give the reason/flavor/theme of the yes? Like a six on the green die meaning something like “yes because of nature” or whatever. You just need a dice pool of 5d6 in different colours and a flavour for each of them.

Happy belated birthday! I agree no oracle is particularly universal. Perhaps defining a couple of "statements" or worldbuilding declarations so you can have: a binary oracle, minor wrinkles (add crit and fumble) and then complicated (the full 5 to 6 variance of answers). Also I loved the gag about the mic and sandwiches. Enjoy more sandwiches!

@3:30 need an Oracle table for cheap unknown brands that also doubles as a fae/demon name table

I really enjoyed this one and the opening bit made me laugh out loud. I have a lot of the same thoughts about Oracle's and especially "and" and "but" additions. I have trouble always deciding what that should look like. I find that if I don't know what the "and" or "but" would be before I roll, then I just leave it out of the roll so I don't feel forced. I've always wanted to share my customer oracle and this seems like an ok time to do so incase it's inspirational at all to anyone who thinks about these yes/no Oracle's. I made a custom D6 with a blank black D6. I drilled pips on all the sides. 2 sides have 1 pip and 4 sides have 2 pips. Half of the pips are painted red and half are painted white. Split down the middle so there is 1 red 1 pip side and 2 red 2 pip sides. Hope that makes sense so far. There is also one special white 2 pip side that has a white and a blue pip. White is good and red is generally bad. White and Blue is best. So with this dice, I can roll for white which is 50% chance of success. I can roll for 2's which is a 67% chance of success. I can roll for anything but the red 1 pip side which is a 83% chance of success. Etc. I can also roll for weak hits and strong hits. A white 2 pip is a strong yes and a red 2 pip is a weak hit. Any 1 pips is a no. I can also roll for Crits. If I roll a red 1 pip it's a critical failure and a white and blue 2 pip is a critical success. Maybe it was a lot of work for something that is essentially a D6 but I find it easier to internalize what I need to roll for than saying I need a 5 or more, I need a 3 or more etc. Anyways I hope that all makes sense and I don't just sound crazy. Thanks for the video man alone. Made me think again!

The problem I have with oracles is you use one for your game and it answers all your questions. So very important questions and flavor questions are treated the same. This can really create some results that can derail your game or create something not needed. Maybe we should be using two different oracles when gaming. One for important questions that the outcome can shift the direction of the game. A second one for questions that don't need that type of detail, like roll a D6 and on a one you get the negative result and everything else is a yes with not degree of change.

I like using a white d6 as a Yes die and a black d6 as a No die. Roll both together. The higher result is your answer. The difference between the two numbers are the degree. So, a 6 Yes and a 1 No would be a critical Yes, whereas a 3 Yes and 2 No would be a Yes, But or equivalent. If you roll doubles, then there's a twist or something unexpected happens (positive or negative depending on the number rolled).

The reason there are more options than just yes/no is usually to add random elements to elevate your play from straight up fanwanking.

I personally have a large problem with the ironsworn, PBTA dice mechanic because I don't know how to handle a constant flow of yes but or miss, with an occasional strong hit. I find the game just goes off into oblivion. Like you said, I wanted to kill the dark lord but I end up trying to coerce a donkey with garlic. I kind of like the mythic one page system that still allows for applying some logic to a situation but seems to keep it simpler

I like to limit it to yes/no, especially if the system I'm using also includes possible complications. Otherwise it can get to chaotic if you end up with a "no and" plus a complication .

Maybe its just that I got into solo gaming and just learn of all the things people made up over several decades, this problem you're speaking of hasn't even occured to me. To each one their own I guess? I've grown to love GM's Apprentice card deck by Rockwood, and the cards you draw to get answers (among other random stuff) have this grade of yes/no oracles that depend of how you think the affirmitive answer is probable: the chances are either low, even or high. Although the primer has percantage of 25 for yes and the latter for 75, does this look "too balanced" to you or "not gamy" to you as a designer decision? P. S. finding your wholesome yet nonsense muttering over the internet was a great discovery for me, please continue

I believe it is always good to question why we do things. Sometimes we'll find the answers because it's the best way to do it, sometimes we'll find the answers because that's the way it's been done and no one has thought of a different way! I do not like the d6 no and no no but ... Because I don't think the extremes but and need to be equal to every other number! So if I'm rolling a d6 it is just strictly a yes no. That is why I typically use a variation of mythic that I have memorized!

My very first thought was Larry Ellison needs to watch this video. You either get it or you don't.

I had the finale to my solo Cy_Borg campaign last, after struggling to finally start a game, I had an excellent time! I will definitely be running more in the future!

The only thing I want from an oracle is the ability to oppose me, i don't want to have controll all the time as i want to have the abilty to lose or fail

Interesting video, I liked the exploration of the topic. Personally, I like the spectrum of possibility that Yes/No/And/But oracles represent, it seems to capture all the logical possibilities in the narrative, but I do wonder if there couldn’t be a better, more intuitive way to do it. Fudge dice seem like a possibility, where you only have 3 results [+], [-], and [ ]. So it’s affirmative, negative, and null results. I wanted to do maybe a 3dF oracle where you just let the counts of the +s and -s determine the strength of a roll, though the two results that kind of throw me would be a triple null result and +, -, and null, they’re both unclear on what happens. At that point would it just be better to do a weird d2 setup where it’s only + & - results? From there it basically turns back into the D6 oracle we started with. I’m sure a good, simple, intuitive system exists outside of Y/N/a/b, but I’m not sure what it is.

So create an oracle you think will work and we could do another round robin on it and test it out for you.

Can you give an example of the novel oracle ideas that the SGS is likely to file down for "correct statistical distribution"? Purely for theoretical reasons and not at all to attract the ire of the Syndicate, of course!

Interesting. It might be worth it to look at the Trey Solo Roleplaying system by Mattias Peterberg & Clarence Redd. Besides the 3 die system (d6, d8, d10), they also also have a system of story tokens. When the system tosses up an unexpected event, you earn tokens, and once you have enough, you trigger 'endgame' and can use them to bypass bad rolls and other things that lead your adventure away from a conclusion ending how you the player want. Trying it myself now. To your general point, it seems like your thoughts on this are rooted in (justifiable) frustrations with failure. When your cool new character isn't succeeding at doing the cool thing and/or not getting opportunities to even try, it's natural to start questioning the undelying systems. Much loke real life. These are some interesting ideas, and it may lead you to some interesting design choices. It could even lead to you making your own oracle system that may not have the kind of flaws that could lead to a full grown man being...oh, i dunno, being outsmarted by a can of peas... Off to pay my dues to Big Oracle....

Big fan of the voice recorder actually. I might need to look into it since I write/type way too slowly.

tier ranking all of the oracle answers. s tier: yes and / a tier: no but / b: yes / c: no / d: no and / f: uncertain

Oracles replace a GM, and GMs are never value neutral and would never have a party go from killing a vampire to milking a rat. So I think NOT following randomness is a keystone to some of the solo experience

I liked this episode, which earned a sub+like - I dunno what a SGS is, or who those clowns would be. I could see actual solo game authors/published types with an monetary investment into the capitol side, being in contention with any free thinking. However, i've only recently started looking at solo RPGing as a part time hobby. As a Videogame player, and I suppose I could say " retired " TTRPG player and GM ( as back when WoTC bought out TSR era, I sorta quit playing TTRPGs. Groups moved on, disbanded, got to adulting, ect...), and for a long while, I honestly thought the very idea of Solo play would be dull and kinda silly. My entire take on "solo" play, became at it's CORE- Just something you could do, for your enjoyment , however you desired to get to the outcome of enjoyment. There's NOTHING written in stone here , or signed in contractual blood, or determined by etheric beings of alleged power - In my past experiences- no matter if you are dealing with just about any topic : It could be Bushcraft/Survival Camping, Fishing, it could be ... Videogames, or TTRPG , or break that down further to TTRPG game SYSTEMS, but when someone starts gravitating away from "mainstream", that is accepted canonization if you will , there is always a initial "aversion" present from others, locked into that "mainstream" mentality. Thinking outside the box - is suddenly " taboo" to the vast majority. Why, well it is simple reaction ingrained in most people, to suddenly become disfranchised with what THEY have already come to terms and accepted. It causes aversion, because the concepts are, simply different from what they know and how they do things. I could give numerous examples of that, but this is getting long enough. However what is Solo-RPG? How did it come about? It came about as SOMEONE or SOMEONE's had a Out of the Box , creative way of thinking. Maybe born out boredom, or born out of need lacking a group to enjoy the game with. However, it came about , was a simple by product of, a non-canonical manner of using a TTRPG to enjoy playing by one's self came to be. Solo-RPGs were born from outside the box thinking. So I say, let the haters ( if any) hate, they are only hurting themselves. Keep at it. It's for YOU , and your thoughts could influence those like me, either direct ideas, or at least spark of inspiration , for our own manners of - Making a game work for me, how I want to play, how i get enjoyment out of ... because that's the goal really. Doing something enjoyable.

Is the SGS like a misanthropic meetup?

Great topic (DOWN WITH THE SYNDICATE!). I myself am currently intimidated by the Mythic book, but for those in this position I found on DriveThru, the Fate Wheel. Love the videos and Love SRPG.

Did you try to just use a d100 oracle, like mythic GME? I'm not the biggest fan of it, but its fate chart actually aims for giving you higher probability of "yes"

I never liked the Mythic chart either. That's why I use the simpler roll from Mythic Variations 2. There are many ways to get an answer, but I prefer Mythic.

Not interested in taking the responsibility to make an interesting choice, it has to be the dice telling me. Otherwise, we're just making stuff up in our heads.

Personally, I like having no-but and yes-but oracle results for the same reason I like ‘Mixed Success’ dice mechanics like Blades In the Dark. Adding complications to things makes my games more interesting in my eyes. Of course, there’s plenty of queries that definitely don’t need complication, and I often wonder if it’s better for those questions to use the “Say yes or roll dice” shtick. If your game is far more interesting if you say yes to an interesting idea, or if you’re excited about such an idea, it sounds to me like you should just say yes to your imagination. Maybe I’m misunderstanding what you’re trying to solve with this oracle, though.

This is a great video

Above my pay grade. But, it nudged my os soul. It feels like nudging the outcome in my favor from the beginning. If needed, I think I like the deus ex machina solution better when facing death dice. If there's no threat of death, then what's the point? I lean my dice with simple advantage/disadvantage or a +/- bump. You're probably talking about frog dissection, and I totally missed the point.

I will add that I agree more "yes leaning oracles" feels appropriate because you are already taking all the weight of creative imagination and trying to paint a narrative scheme. Its like you are a painter and instead of doing the "oops" Bob Ross moment where turn the "out of place" thing and keep painting the picture adding that weird tree or cloud... The variant no oracles are taking your canvas and throwing it in the trash and demanding you start building the scene again from scratch! Which can burn through your creative energy a lot faster and fatigue you out of the game quick.

yes, but. no, but. in some ways, i like the bx d&d method. ironsworn is pretty neat too which i've been on that side this year.

damnnn got the SPS after you!? You’re the Tupac of the solo gaming world

I still don't understand mythic being "complicated". Just choose how likely something is, and you got a more realistic range of whether something can happen or not. That's it. Don't even need to use the chaos factor if you don't want to. Hell, the app makes it even more simple with the fate check/chart being completely rolled by the app, including checking for random events and scene checks :/

What is your take and perception of 2D20 system for solo gaming?

WAKE UP!

down with the man!!! if people can't take constructive criticism, then may need to do some reflection on themselves and their organization

No because and yes because results? Or how about you think it's yes but it's really no. Or you think it's yes but there are reasons you may be wrong that you don't know. That might lead to better story prompt stuff.

Currently my favourite RU-vidr 🥰

I don't think Mythic has the (yes...and) crap. Another good point of Mythic.

Narrative structure? I'm playing D&D. If a narrative appears, it will have to emerge naturally from play.

Don't eff with the SGS. They will roll for you the ultimate solo adventure! YaknowwhatImean?!

I must say, this is both Stunning, *and* Brave!!! 🧇🧇