IsabellaRose

Nyssa arrived in town "mysteriously" (none of the player characters remember that they're time travelers from the start), stumbled into a road, was almost hit by a car, and police took her to the local police. After briefly holding her because she can't remember who she is and has no identification, they get through some child protective paperwork (they can't verify her age and she looks young) and remand her to the custody of Mrs. Bennett, a foster parent who has been sheltering needy children since her own daughter passed years ago. Nyssa met her foster brother Johnny, a young teen, and her foster sister Elizabeth, already 18 but Mrs. Bennett is allowing her to stay in her house until she gets on her feet, even though Mrs. Bennett is no longer receiving state funding to care for Elizabeth. Nyssa and Elizabeth share a room. The players wanted to play out a scene where Elizabeth (a goth cam girl) tries to convince Nyssa (a shy and reserved girl) to dress sexier, but Nyssa naturally resists. To play this out, they both write their characters' perspectives as normal. We used a sort of shorthand in the game thread, but discussed the meaning and mechanics in the ooc thread. At the start of the session, Nyssa has 4pp and Elizabeth as 2pp. The Trouble Pool1 is 2d6 (the default starting trouble pool). Mechanics Here's the rundown of how this worked mechanically and why. Elizabeth initiates the contest by stating her intended outcome: Elizabeth convinces Nyssa to try on sexy underwear. At this point Nyssa's player can just give in. She doesn't need to resist if she thinks her character would just go along with it. BUT, there are mechanical benefits to playing this out with dice. They both have the opportunity to earn Plot Points (meta currency used to incorporate and/or enhance game mechanics later) and/or Stress (a mechanical representation of "damage" your character takes, including physical, mental, and emotional. Stress can be used by you or your opponent during a contest, and reducing Stress is the main mechanic by which your character advances or "levels up"). Since they have a chance to earn plot points or gain stress, Nyssa decides to use the mechanics to resist. On with the contest. Elizabeth assembles her dice pool. From her character sheet, she will use 1 Relationship, 1 Value, and possibly a Distinction, if applicable. She chooses her d10 Nyssa Relationship (because she's trying to persuade Nyssa), her d8 Power Value (because she's trying to exert her power over Nyssa), and argues that she could incorporate her d6 Shameless Flirt Distinction (because she is shamelessly flirting with Nyssa). -Her dice pool is: 1d6, 1d8, and 1d10. She rolls d10=9, d8=6, d6=6 (it's important to know which die rolled which result. I'll explain later) She adds the two highest results for a total of 15. Before she rolls, Nyssa can give in without consequence. If she rolls, someone is taking Stress. Nyssa decides to roll and assembles her dice pool. She will also use 1 Relationship, 1 Value, and possibly a Distinction, if applicable. She chooses her d12 Elizabeth Relationship (because she's dealing with Elizabeth), her d4 Glory Value2 (because Glory is for the insecure, and she's very insecure right now), and argues that she could use her d10 Daring Distinction because it's worded that she rolls that when "your bravery and confidence would help you achieve what you want"). *Nyssa also activates her Attractive Distinction SFX "d4: Earn a Plot Point when your looks draw you unwanted attention." She earns +1pp due to Elizabeth being flirty with her. Nnow has 5pp. -Her dice pool is: 1d4, 1d10, 1d12. She rolls d4=1, d10=7, d12=11. She rolled a "1", or a Hitch. This number can't be used in her dice total. She adds the two highest results for a total of 18. She beats Elizabeth's roll. *The GM buys her "hitch" by paying her 1 Plot Point and adds a complication to the scene for Nyssa. The GM uses the d4 to "Step Up3" one of the dice in the Trouble Pool. The Trouble Pool is now 1d6, 1d8. Nyssa now has 6pp. Elizabeth has been beaten, but it's not over yet. She can Give In, relent and decide it's not worth pushing it any more. She'll have to pay 1 Plot Point to Nyssa but she'll avoid taking any Stress. If she continues she runs the risk of being "Stressed Out" which is when your Stress is bumped up above d12 and forces you out of the scene. She decides it's early enough in the game to not worry about stressing out and decides to roll again to try to beat Nyssa's 18. She rolls d10 Nyssa Relationship, d12 Glory Value (because she wants to glory of being the one that convinced her new roommate), and d6 Shameless Flirt Distinction. -Her dice pool is 1d6, 1d10, 1d12. She rolls d6-5, d10=4, d12=10. Adding the two highest, she only has 15, which won't beat Nyssa's previous roll of 18. BUT she decides to pay 1 Plot Point to add the third result, for a total of 19. She's beating Nyssa! Elizabeth now has 1pp. Nyssa would have to beat a 19 to win, unlikely unless she wants to spend Plot Points to add dice to her pool and more plot points to add dice results to her total. She Gives In. She pays Elizabeth 1pp and goes along with her suggestion to try on the sexy underwear. The Contest is over. Elizabeth wins and convinces Nyssa to try on sexy underwear. In the spoiler below is how the scene played out in the game thread with our shorthand mechanics added (I italicized them to make them easy to pick out) Now, this may seem like a lot to go through for such a trivial contest (and honestly, it is... I don't usually make players roll unless the stakes are high, but this was an early scene in the game, and Nyssa's player asked, "could this be a contest?" So I said, "Sure!" There's no reason for it to NOT be a contest, and it gave them an early chance to interact with the rules, earn plot points, and increase my Trouble Pool. 1 Trouble Pool: The Trouble Pool are the dice the GM can roll against you. When the session starts, the GM gets 2d6 by default. They can buy dice that roll a Hitch (a natural 1) by giving the player rolling it a Plot Point, and then either incorporate that die into the Trouble Pool or "Step Up3" an existing die in the Trouble Pool. 2 Special Note about rolling d4: Choosing to add a d4 to your roll increases your chances of rolling a "1", which is a Hitch. A Hitch can be activated by the GM by paying you a plot point. There are times when you don't mind having bad things happen to your character so you can accumulate plot points for use later. It's often strategic to choose to roll d4's early in the game, to build up a stock of plot points for when it really matters. 3 Stepping Up: You Step Up a die by increasing it's size by 1 rank. d4 steps up to d6, d6 steps up to d8, d8 steps up to d10, and d10 steps up to d12.

Also, I started writing up some examples from a game I'm running. It's over here, but it's locked. Any questions or comments, please post them here. I'll answer/explain here, then try to update that thread with the answers so the examples are all together.

To me that's the fun, watching your character concept evolve through Pathways with the other players, watching them become attached to the world, NPCs, other players. Character creation IS worldbuilding and vice versa. It's so integrated you end up making a character that fits specifically into this world and is inextricably tied to it and the other PCs. I can't imagine any of my Cortex Drama characters playing in other games. Magic in this game could be as simple as a Distinction called "Witchcraft" with some definitions of what it means to be a witch, and specific SFX showing how your witchcraft will affect dice mechanics. One of my favorite mechanics for this is to add an SFX that allows you to use ANY power (to simulate casting a spell for whatever effect you want) but to do so you have to add a d10 to the Trouble Pool (the pool of dice the GM gets to use against you throughout the session), which means that sure, you can do anything, but then later, there will be dramatic repercussions... magic comes with a price just think about what kind of steampunk/weird west character you want to play... really until we get going, there's not much else to do, and I'm happy to help with the mechanics as we go. I assume a learning curve, but once you get it, it's really pretty simple.

I'm starting this as a new thread to keep it separate from the interested check. I'm hoping these examples from a game I'm still running on another site will give people an idea of how the game works and what to expect from playing it. Game Setup/Background This game was originally setup as a love triangle between 3 people in the future - a young woman in an arranged marriage, her future husband, and her secret lover. The future husband and lover are best friends. To escape and be together, the lover and woman plan to travel back in time, and the future husband pursues them. Garbage about how time travel works for this game To add an element of confusion and mystery to the game, we decided that only your mind can time travel and you steal a body back in time. They arrive in the past with amnesia, in bodies that are not their own. It is left to the will of the dice to determine which character is which. The players are playing their new selves in the past, letting this new character dynamic drive their interactions, and slowly unlocking their memories over time. Will they still love who they loved before they left, or will this new situation and the lives they live until they remember who they were change how they see each other? We rolled randomly to see who arrived first, and details about the new bodies they took. There is at least 1 gender swapped character since the future characters were 1 female, 2 males, and in the past it's 1 male and 2 females. They may have all been swapped. Derek was the first to arrive, male, aged early 20s, and through shady means he acquired money and seemed to thrive on exploiting others. He owns an auto body shop, runs a cam girl site, and secretly owns a drug lab. Elizabeth was the next to arrive, 2 years later, female, aged 16. She was put into foster care and taken in by Mrs. Bennett. She hung around the auto body shop for a couple years and when she became 18 she started being a cam girl on Derek's site. Nyssa arrived 3 years later, female, aged 18. Her amnesia is strong, and she is also put into foster care, taken in my Mrs. Bennett. The game starts when Nyssa arrives. Pathways Setup Here's part of the Pathways chart. Notice how there are two arrows between each of the main characters, and how they point in opposite directions. The arrow pointing from one character to another defines their relationship from the originating characters' perspective. For instance, the arrow pointing from Elizabeth to Derek says "I hate that he knows how to turn me on." That's how Elizabeth feels about Derek. This is rich with implication - Derek can turn her on. He knows how to push her buttons. But she hates that fact, which might imply her feelings for Derek may not be overall positive. The arrow pointing from Derek to Elizabeth says "loves my forceful ways" which is also filled with implications. On the surface, it tells is that Elizabeth is more submissive to a forceful Derek. It also implies an ego for Derek, but noticeably it doesn't show much in the way of genuine emotion from him toward her. She may just be a plaything to him. We don't know from this statement, but it feels like something fun to explore. These Relationship statements help to define the emotional stakes and action of the game. Based on those relationship definitions, I can assume that Elizabeth's player wants to have Derek turn her character on, and I can assume Derek can and probably will. It gives me as the GM ideas for scenes to setup to test theses characters, giving Derek chances to turn her on and her chances to despise that it works, or even try to resist. It gives us a potentially uncomfortable non-con situation that I'll have to be careful running to make sure we're not crossing any lines. The whole Pathways map is convoluted and crazy. I'll paste it later. Character Sheets There are a lot of details on the sheets that might seem confusing or daunting. I'll paste a couple sheets in here and then show how a scene plays out using their stats. The basic trait sets used in this game are: Values, Relationships, Distinctions, and then secondary traits for Assets (locations, extras, signature items, etc.) Every time a player rolls for their character they will always use 1 Value and 1 Relationship to build the dice pool. Sometimes a 3rd die can be rolled from Distinctions, Extras, or Locations if the player can make a case for it and the GM agrees it is relevant. More dice can be rolled by paying a plot point to add them. No matter how many dice are rolled, you only ever add 2 results for your total, unless you spend a plot point to add an additional die result. Nyssa Elizabeth With those two characters established, I'll make my next post showing how a scene plays out between them, when dice are rolled (far less often than in most games), and how and why different mechanics are engaged. I'm locking this topic for now to keep posts here specific to examples, but please ask any questions in the interest thread and I'll make sure to make clarifications here for future reference.

We play in whatever world we decide when we start setting up the game. There may or may not be magic. I'd lean away from typical gamified fantasy magic, but really it's up to everyone playing to decide together.

I can provide a sort of tropey character list for the genres. Keep in mind, this list is not exhaustive. A mashup of two or more is always fun, too. Also keep in mind this isn't a traditional d20 tracking hit points fighting things trying to survive kind of game. A schoolmarm is just as valid as a Sky Pirate, and will have just as much mechanical impact on the story. Steampunk Character Tropes the Mad Scientist/Inventor, often eccentric and responsible for technological breakthroughs the Gentleman/Lady Adventurer, bored with society and eager to explore the Sky Pirate, a roguish individual who travels the skies the Automaton, a steam-powered mechanical being that can question human nature the Dandy/Femme Fatale, charming individuals who use their wit and looks to achieve goals the Engineer or "Wrench Wench", a capable mechanic or engineer. the Explorer, driven by a desire to discover new lands and experiences, they embody the spirit of exploration the Gadeteer Genius, they specialize in creating a vast array of intricate and often anachronistic gadgets the Gentleman Thief, a sophisticated criminal, often from the upper class, who uses his cunning and refined manners to commit daring heists the Spirited Young Lady, an independent and strong-willed female character who defies societal norms and often takes on roles or adventures not typical for women of the era the Gear-Ranger, a rough gunman equipped with steam-powered technology and bulletproof armor, representing a blend of frontier and mechanical elements the Street Preacher, a character who spreads a message, often related to the discovery of new technology or a unique interpretation of faith in the new mechanical world Western/Wild West Character Tropes the Lone Gunfighter/Drifter, a wandering hero, often a gunslinger or reluctant lawman, who lives by a personal code the Lawman, a character who upholds justice, either as a corrupt official or a righteous figure the Cowboy, a central figure defined by rugged individualism and self-reliance on the vast frontier the Prospector/Forty-Niner, a classic "old coot" searching for gold, often portrayed as a miner the Hanging Judge, an imposing and authoritative figure who presides over frontier justice the Bounty Hunter, a mercenary who hunts outlaws for a reward the Snake Oil Salesman, a charlatan or peddler of fake remedies the Hooker with a Heart of Gold, a saloon prostitute who reveals an inner goodness the Schoolmarm, a gentle, virtuous teacher often present in frontier towns the Preacher Man, a religious figure who brings spiritual guidance to the lawless West the Trapper/Mountain Man, a skilled outdoorsman and solitary figure of the untamed wilderness the Chinese Laborer/Launderer, represents the diverse immigrant communities that helped build the West the Noble Savage, a stereotypical image of a wise and dignified Native American the Savage Indian, an archetype of the barbaric, uncivilized Native American the Magical Native American, a mystical Native American character who serves as a guide or imparts wisdom. the Outlaw, maybe a cattle rustler, train robber, or bandito, the outlaw lives by taking from others the Arms Dealer, a wealthy man who sells guns to whoever can afford it the Cattle Baron or Railroad Baron, a wealthy figure who has made money by buying up all the land and now owns all grazing land, or by being a owner/president or majority stockholder in a large successful railroad the Professional Gambler, who makes their money playing cards or games of chance, often seen as a cheat the Army Scout / Cavalry Officer / Remnant Soldier, often a scout for hire, or an active duty officer in the military. Remnant soldiers are former confederate soldiers trying to survive on the frontier

Thanks for being letting me know. Enjoy the other game!

By all means, come up with a concept that fits the original short description. Just keep it vague and... concept-y. You could end up connected to a weird organization, or your father could be the big bad guy, or it might work out that another PC fits as your sibling... The best thing to do for this is to embrace the #1 improv rule: "Yes, and..." meaning when someone says, "what if your character is my characters' brother?", instead of saying, "nah," try saying, "Yes, and... our father is the maniac turning people into zombies!" or something like that. "Yes, and..." is super powerful for improv, makes everyone's contributions integral parts of the whole, and lets you keep building atop each other instead of shooting each other down. Obviously, if someone tries to impose an element that's just way outside of what you imagined for your character, then nix it. But I find that it's a lot more fun and forces more creativity to "yes, and..." most ideas.

I would caution using pre-existing characters. While we go through Pathways, other players have a bit of leeway over connecting your character to locations, items, NPCs, etc or connecting them to you. So too detailed of an existing character might be problematic, but just general concepts might work, as long as you don't mind adapting it to the world/game we create. Oh, and I have no idea what the max is. I'm going to give it a few more days to make sure anyone interested has a chance, then we'll see what shakes out.

I haven't figure out how to do rolling yet. I'll find a site that will work for Cortex dice, or maybe I'll build my own Or we could do that, which I might opt for because the only price of failure is giving yourself more ability to advance in the future.

For the map itself, I'll be using Miro. It functions as a collaborative whiteboard and I find the tools to be quite easy to use. I setup a basic template for new Cortex games and used it to create the first EcchiCortex game on Miro. The link to the board for this game is below. You don't have to know/learn how to use it. I can add to it for everyone, or you can mess around with it and do it yourself. Just don't mess with my template https://miro.com/welcomeonboard/Nk01YWtwTXhmdnFodEk1Rlo4YnVlVjJhdlNzdmhTSUxHbzlvL0xHRTFOVGIvTHBkdzdVRjZZaksxWWhKa2JIYTlDQk1lNnh0NUhkZXZYbzNndWk0SVRNYlQ1bE55Z0NwdW1pSnhFSDNFQ1lRaFhJSlZJd2duRkgwOUUwaElEK01zVXVvMm53MW9OWFg5bkJoVXZxdFhRPT0hdjE=?share_link_id=818859235310 Once I verify with my players from another site that they're cool with me using some of their writing, I can share a couple example scenes from another game along with what was rolled, how and why it was rolled, and commentary on the technical aspects behind the scene. I find that concrete examples make it all click a lot easier than any abstracted rules I can provide.

In the original Smallville game where the system was created, you pick from five choices at each step in the process that give you different options of what you get to add to your character. This was how you would create a Clark Kent/Superman character with an alien origin and super powers or a Lana Lang character with a mundane origin on Earth and no super powers. For instance, the "Priority" step of Pathways (which lists your life goals above) gave you options to choose your Priority from: Friends & Family, Work, Moving Forward, Looking Back, Performance. If we were using the default steps, I'd suggest Moving Forward for someone without a concrete goal. You're just trying to get through this moment and on to the next thing, no matter how it happens. One of the big things about this game, though, is creating characters who are already tied to all the other characters, who are invested in each other for good or evil, and who care about what happens to each other. You will have a Relationship rating with every other character, and a statement describing your relationship to them. One of your Relationship ratings will be used in every single roll you make, as everything that happens in the game should be dramatically relevant to at least one relationship. You can be a loner without concrete goals, but you'll still have a relationship with all the other players, even if that relationship is defined as "d8 Robert - Robert needs to leave me alone and let me do what I want." When Robert gets in your way or even just tries to talk to you and a conflict arises, you would roll your d8 from that relationship (plus other dice) to affect the narrative.

PATHWAYS Pathways is an interactive and collaborative setting and character creation process. As you step through the Pathways process, you work with the other players to create a map that shows the connections between player characters, NPCs, places, events, and objects that helps provide the basis of a Cortex Prime game. It’s best to set aside an entire session for it, and it’s intended for use in a long-term game. Pathways is excellent for creating the setting within which the players create their characters. Each stage in the pathways process can be used to assign some of the points or steps that create a character beyond their starting values. For instance, you begin with a d4 Relationship with each of the other players. If you know you need to assign a total of 9 points to Relationships, and you’re using 9 stages, each player will increase the value of a single Relationship during each stage. More Than You Ever Wanted To Know About Cortex Pathways

The prep is all frontloaded and collaborative, so I'm only doing 1/5 of it if there are 4 players. After the Pathways setup, I need a bit of time to setup the world with all the pieces the players created. but then it pretty much runs itself. Dramatic roleplay relies on characters, their motivations, desires, values, relationships, and whatnot, so all I need to know is pretty much which playing pieces are involved and the story will more or less tell itself by the players actions and dice rolls. I'm a very improv GM, and this system really works well with that style. Usually I'll do an intro/setup post, then let all players post, then post NPC replies as necessary, but I've run games of this online where there are dozens of player posts before I ever have to make one. Those are the best, when the characters are interacting and making their own drama.

Eight interested players... maybe I'll make 2 games of 4 each... hmm...

WEG Star Wars d6 was amazing! Great system, great sourcebooks. Also Maid is a bonzo crazy game. It's so chaotic and fun!

The primer is mostly just "this is how the rules basically work" and lets you know about building dice pools, what plot points are, and the basic "roll and keep" system. I'll be getting together a "system reference" document for the various trait sets I'll be using in this game. You'll build your character, the NPCs, key locations, important groups, etc. concurrently with all the other players during the Pathways system, which I don't believe is outlined in the Primer. The way this works is, first I define the basics of the world, which I did with very broad strokes up above. Then the players each go around and say "for me, THIS must exist in the world to make this game exciting." We all get to make sure that the elements we want, or elements we do not want, are specifically called out prior to creating the game. Using your example, if you said "I'd like vampires to be in the game," but three other players said, "Vampires would be taking it a step too far for my liking", then we'd have a discussion, see if you would be interested in another type of character, and/or see if the other players would be willing to include vampires. The idea is to get consensus on the basics of the world that we all agree with. Keep in mind that if you decide to include something like vampires, that gives me as the GM a new playing piece on my board, as well. Yes, I'm the type of GM who loves to infuse things the players come up with into the world and into the enemies they'll face. Anything any of us puts on the table is a toy that anyone around the table (so to speak) can play with.

I'll leave this interest thread open for a few days to give everyone a chance to reply and to field any questions. Feel free to tag anyone in you think would be interested. Also, as a sort of disclaimer/warning: Cortex is very much a narrative system. It's in the game category that I call a "fiction engine" in that the mechanics support driving conflict and drama and creating a narrative. This is VERY different from the usual D&D style of play, which I think of as "simulation engines" in that the mechanics try to simulate physics, combat, and the physical actions of a character in the world. In a narrative style game you won't track hit points or gold pieces, there's no inventory, and player death is rare and usually only happens when the player decides it would be a good way for their character to go out. The game is highly collaborative, and the way I run it, very improvisational. If you looked at the rules primer linked above, you will notice that you can roll a "hitch" which is a bad thing that happens when you don't succeed. Around a table, I'll have all the players toss in ideas for what the hitch is and we generally choose the most entertaining option. On here I might take a bit more of a referee role but if someone suggests a great hitch, I'm likely to use the player suggestions above my own. I will ask for input regularly, because this isn't my story I'm running you through, it's our story we're creating together. You will help create the world when we create characters and also as we play the game. I find this to be the most rewarding style of roleplay, but it's not for everyone. My D&D friends stumbled and took some time to wrap their heads around it, and a few bowed out because it wasn't what they wanted from an RPG. You've been warned. It's not a typical RPG, so if you think you wouldn't like a game without HP, Armor Class, and damage rolls, then you probably don't want to sign up.

Well, I opened up a new thread specifically to check for interest in my Cortex game. More details at the link below:

My favorite game system is Cortex, or more specifically, the Cortex Drama system originally developed for the Smallville RPG, improved with suggestions in the Cortex Hacker's Guide, and then brought all together in the latest version of the system, Cortex Prime. I'm considering running a dramatic game centered around a small group of PCs and their connected NPCs set in an 1880s wild west / steampunk / weird science world. Imagine someone combined the works of Jules Verne, Mary Shelley, Edgar Allen Poe, HP Lovecraft, and HG Wells, added in a dash of Nikola Tesla, a pinch of Indiana Jones (without the Crystal Skull nonsense), mixed in Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp, Calamity Jane, Wild Bill Hickok, Annie Oakley, Doc Holliday and all the wild west tropes you can imagine, maybe added a bit of mad scientist and supernatural weird west nonsense, and dressed it all up in steampunk finery... and you're looking at the general idea for the setting. There will be over-the-top villains, square-jawed heroes, and buxom babes a plenty. Obviously, given our site, there were be lewd content and a deviation from the more buttoned-down, puritanical ways of the colonial western expansion and Victorian era, and I expect most characters to "get some" on a regular basis. In fact, I intend to add a mechanic that will make it imperative that you keep your honey pot stirred or your wick well dipped regularly in order to keep functioning at your highest level. I will be adding some rules references in the game ooc discussion thread, and clarifying rules there if necessary, but everyone can check out the rules primer on the Cortex site at https://www.cortexrpg.com/compendium/explore-the-rules If you're interested, reply here and I'll invite you. I'm looking for 3-5 reliable players who won't ghost the game. Normally I expect player drop out from an online game, but the way this system works, there is a Pathways system to setup the game world and it ties elements of the game world inextricable to every PC. If someone drops out or disappears, it can really mess up the flow of the game. So please, only sign up if you're serious and expect to be in it for the long haul. Oh, we'll also be using another site for the Pathways map, which gets messy and confusing. So if you're leery of using other sites for things, don't sign up. That's my pitch. I'll understand if no one replies. I'm an evil taskmistress of a GM.

Challenge 44 is posted! Deadline Sep 20.

THE CHALLENGE For this challenge, write about a threesome. The setting, situation, parties involved, etc. are all up to you. Deadline Midnight (EST) , 20 September 2025 Limits 1 entry per person no strict word limit, but please try to keep it around 2,000 words- remember, everyone has to read these to vote Prizes 1st Place: 4,000 EcchiCredits 2nd Place: 2,000 EcchiCredits 3rd Place: 1,000 EcchiCredits

I always have at least one solo game going all the time. Mythic is great, but there are also solo rules and emulators for other systems. When I still enjoyed D&D, I found a particularly useful book called The Solo Adventurer's Toolkit by Paul Bimler on DM's Guild. If you're a 5e fan and want to play solo, I recommend it.

It's designed to be a universal system to play any game solo. I haven't used it for too many systems, but that's exactly its function. Being the weirdo data person I am, I recreated a lot of the rules and tables in Excel and Word with formulas to track stuff easier... well, easier for me, because I live in Excel for half my job. Everyone else would probably think I'm nuts.

In a solo RPG, an oracle is a tool (usually a table, but I've seen online generators as well) that provides answers to your questions about the game world, generates story elements, and creates content for improvisation, filling the role of a Dungeon Master (DM) in a traditional game. By rolling dice or drawing cards and interpreting the results, a player can get answers to yes/no questions, receive prompts for characters or locations, and generate plot hooks to keep the adventure moving forward. An example from the solo game I'm currently playing: The PC has amnesia and has been recovering in a small town, trying to find work without identification and social security number, and mostly relying on the kindness of a few locals who have sort of adopted her. Her amnesia was caused by trauma (nearly drowning in a flash flood) but before that, she was... someone. I hadn't decided if her background was more sci-fi, spy tech/espionage, supernatural, super hero, or... well, really anything. I just knew that there was something special about her and people would come looking if they thought she was alive. The way Mythic GM works, you figure out what would be the next most likely scene based on what has already happened, and then roll to see if that scene happens as expected, if there's an alteration (removing/changing a character, item, location, etc.) or if it's an interrupt scene (aka random encounter/event/etc.) She was found by the shore of a river after a flash flood with no id, no phone, nothing but the clothes she was wearing, so my expected scenes were: 1. wake in hospital, 2. meet nurse, 3. meet doctor get diagnosis, 4. meet sheriff get questioned, 5. hang around until sheriff or doctor have news, 6. find out she can't be identified, 7. find out she can't be kept in the hospital, 8. be released on her own. Those things all happened as expected. Based on the conversations and expectations I set, the next scene was her getting a bed for the night at the community center. BUT, I rolled the the scene would NOT be the expected scene, but be an "Altered Scene". On the Scene Adjustment Table, I rolled a 7, which meant I needed to roll for TWO adjustments. I rolled 5 (which says "Remove an Object" on the Scene adjustment table) and 3 (which says "Reduce/Remove an Activity" on the scene adjustment table). To figure out what object is being removed and what activity is being reduced or removed, I rolled once on the d100 Object Oracle Table and got 83 Soft. The I rolled on the d100 Location Oracle Table and got 81 Safe. So soft and safe are being removed. That was easy to interpret. The bed is not available, nor is the safety she assumed she'd find at the Community Center. It turns out the nurse was mistaken, and there are no beds available there- they only have beds there during a crisis or emergency. So now she has to figure out where else to go. She asks the community center employee for suggestions and gets a list of possible places to find a bed, one of which is the motel. She is told she might be able to work at the motel in exchange for lodging, so... off to the motel she goes. So the oracles give you lists of words that you interpret (or if you really want to take your chances, you could put them in chatgpt or something) to tell you what NPCs do, what happens in a scene. Mythic has generic "action" and "description" tables, but it also has tables for Adventure Tone, Alien Species Descriptors, Animal Actions, Army Descriptors, Cavern Descriptors, Characters, Character Actions (Combat), Character Actions (General), Character Appearance, Character Background, Character Conversations, Character Descriptors, Character Identity, Character Motivations, Character Personality, Character Skills, Character Traits & Flaws, City Descriptors, Civilization Descriptors, Creature Abilities, Creature Descriptors, Cryptic Message, Curses, Domicile Descriptors, Dungeon Descriptors, Dungeon Traps... and that's just through the letter "D". It's very versatile, and you can lean into the oracles as much or as little as you like... after all, it's your game.