What happens when your players ask a question you hadn’t prepared in your notes? I present ORACLE DICE.
I first stumbled across this rule while watching the mighty Runehammer. Typically, we’ll use a d6. In Mothership, we used a d10. Ultimately, the number of die faces doesn’t matter. Binary rolls are usually enough to resolve yes/no questions.
Evens = yes. Odds = no.
This scale can be weighted depending on likelihood. An example: Imagine your PCs are delving vagabonds, taking shelter in a village at the edge of the known world. One of the players, a shifty-eyed thief, says, “Could I find a poison seller here?”
Instead of simply saying “No, you’re miles from the closest dealer,” you could ask the Oracle Die. “You’re miles from any poison sellers you might know, but you could find someone here if you can roll a 5 or 6 on a d6.”
Old School Essentials formats this as “X-In-6”. Our previous example would have a 2-in-6 chance of success (’yes’ in the PCs favor). I tend towards having the PCs roll high. Better rolls might come with better boons. Give cool stuff out on the spot; if you’re afraid of breaking your game with magic items, hand out inspiration, hero tokens, EXP, consumable spells that can’t be copied, & so on. In this case, if they rolled a 6, not only do they find a poison dealer, but one who stocks a phial of rare night oils. What the heck is that? Who knows, ask the players or the Oracle Die.
Remember: with this approach, don’t forget to add in your own stuff. You’re still the GM. You have executive decision at any moment. Use this power wisely, for it is the mightiest force in all your world. The Oracle Die is best saved to increase tension in a dire scene. Imagine the players are a squad of space marines, overrun by alien monsters. They’re retreating down the hall as a swarm explodes from the blast door that just gave out. In desperation, one of them cries out, “Are there any vents in the walls or hatches to a trash compactor or something?!”
This is the perfect moment to ask the Oracle Die. There’s a lot riding on that roll. The players dread throwing these dice — whoever is cursed with the responsibility feels actual pressure. It’s a wonderful way to add some drama.
The Oracle Die can also be used to soften the blow of a player decision you’re unprepared for. In our last Mothership game, one of the PCs failed their SANITY check & was infected with an alien embryo. The scientist character rolled a nebulous “Vaccine” on his starting loadout, so of course he asks me, “Does this vaccine work on the alien virus?”
In Another Bug Hunt, it clearly states that no known cure exists for the infection. Who cares what that book says? This was a one shot with brand new players, the dice gods gave him a chance to save his friend via random starting loadout, so we put it on an Oracle roll (d10). Evens, he uses the vaccine to save his crewmates life.
Later on, two more PCs got infected with aliens. The scientist PC was tearing through the drawers of the medical lab, and he goes, “Can I find any more vaccines in here?”
I thought the chance would be miniscule considering all the dead marines, so I told him, “Roll that d10. It’s gonna be tough, but on a 9 or 10 you find more.” He rolls it… 10. Two more vaccines, the party is saved. Cheers erupt around the table!
Use the Oracle Die to minimize prep. You could make an exhaustive list of war-machine actions, special abilities & hidden moves for the party to use. Instead, trust that your players will come up with cool ideas, and tie them to the Oracle Die. In Xaxa River Valley, Endri Mortas created his own abilities in the form of venting the titan’s cannon & weaponizing the orange jelly to kill invaders in the airlock. These were stories my players created by assistance of the Oracle Die. As GM, your role is to provide framework & thematic glue that ties the world together. Many of the details memorable to your PCs will be details they themselves created.
When running on-the-fly with this approach, you need to be ready to apply some game design. We use the Oracle Die to get better framing for a scene, but action success/failure shouldn’t rely on a random binary roll. In another post, I’ll delve deeper into effective game design, but the best thing you can do is make slight tweaks on pre-existing rules within whatever system you’re running. You want to think like the game designers who made this game.
You can also use the Oracle Die as a buffer to things you’re unsure on. You generally want to allow players to try most things, especially if it’s a cool concept. Rather than saying flat out “no” on something you’re unsure of, the Oracle Die can be rolled to create a chance for “no”. Rolling removes the GM from full responsibility, putting the GM on the same side of the screen as the players. If I just say “no” flat out, I’m not necessarily working with the players to tell the best story. If the dice say “no”, so speak the dice.
This all works on a sliding scale. If something seems super unlikely, but could still be cool in concept, have “yes” only occur on a high result. Generally, oracle rolls are binary, evens favoring the players’ desires. If your oracle die is a d6, have an unlikely “yes” only occur on a roll of a 5 or 6. Likewise, if something seems more obvious (or plain cool), give it to them as long as they don’t roll a 1 or 2. These rolls create stakes that the players are immediately bought into because you’re reacting to their ideas rather than imposing outside forces on them.
Celebrate their victories. Even if they roll “yes” on a result you really weren’t sure about, find a way to make that work & fit within the confines of the game. Sometimes, you can use an Oracle “yes” as a way to permit a skill check. This is a second level of buffer to drain their resources, or at least slow them down as you mentally prepare a response to their actions. For instance, say the PCs want to take control of a station’s point defense cannon. They ask if there are any nearby terminals they can jack into — the Oracle says yes. You tell them, “You pop open a panel on the wall & think you could interface with the main computer from here, but it’s gonna be tough.. you’ll have to make a Computers check with disadvantage.”
This encourages your players to try cool stuff while adding several “gates” to their circumnavigation. At the end of the day, they came up with a sick idea & the dice told you twice that this is what’s happening in the narrative. Stretch your improv legs & roll with the punches.
Interestingly, as you invoke the Oracle Die more & more, your players will begin to understand that they can affect the environment around them as they ask questions about its nature. Many of their questions inevitably invoke the Oracle Die. Together we unveil the world. This puts the GM in a state of discovery just as much as the players — a scary prospect but one that ultimately unifies your group to play in a truly authentic, co-operative fashion. It’s very interesting showing up to game night with only a few improv tools & a few bullet points of world notes pertinent to their current location. The Oracle Die helps fill in many of the missing pieces.
I hope Oracle Dice are useful in your game. Have you tried something like this before? What’s the craziest thing the dice told you?
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