[Secret Santicorn!!] A second, more serious oracle for character simulation: The Methodical Oracle

As promised, a more serious offering for Kirt Dankmeyr, based on his request of a "A small oracle for solo OSR play oriented toward simulating party members and not the GM. Tho bonus points for a GM replacement oracle that dovetails with the first one".

The Methodical Oracle!

The point of this small oracle is to aid the solo GM in "in-character" decision making.

Create a Profile for each player character in the party by assigning one of the five Methods to each slot:

Profile types:

Balanced	Focused	Hyperfocused	Method slots
2-3	2	2	Rare
4-5	3-5	3-4	Secondary
6-8	6-8	5-9	Main
9-10	9-11	10-11	Secondary
11-12	12	12	Rare

The five Methods:

Violence	Direct confrontation, brute-forcing
Diplomacy	Smooth-talking, bartering, calling in other parties (e.g. NPCs)
Knowledge	Monster lore, survivalism, arts & crafts, history & politics
Trickery	Exploitation of the space, devices, creative use of objects, falsehoods
Magic	Spell-slinging, prayer to higher forces, decipherment of arcane clues, activation of weird objects

The Procedure:

At any decision point, pick or randomize a lead character. Then roll 2d6 and consult the character’s Profile to see which Method they offer.

To make things more interesting, pick or randomize a second character and cross-check their Method using the same roll result as the lead’s (so if you rolled 6 for the lead, check what’s a 6 on the second character’s Profile). Describe the conflict or the synthesis of their Methods. You can use a standard Reaction roll to see whether the other character likes or dislikes the alternative proposal.

 

Example Profiles:

Bubba the Wizard

Hyperfocused	Method
2	Violence
3-4	Knowledge
5-9	Magic
10-11	Trickery
12	Diplomacy

 

Morax the Duelist

Focused	Method
2	Knowledge
3-5	Trickery
6-8	Diplomacy
9-11	Violence
12	Magic

 

Example Decisions:

Situation 1.

The party enters a cave, the lair of a dozen goblins. The goblins are surprised. Bubba the Wizard takes the lead, and, after some deliberations (2d6: 11 = Trickery), offers to sneak by them. Morax the Duelist (11 = Violence) might offer to take advantage of the situation and charge the unaware goblins.

Situation 2.

The party is looking for their patron’s stolen ring in the big city. Morax the Duelist takes the lead and comes up with the ingenious plan (2d6: 5 = Trickery) to create a fake ring. Bubba the Wizard (5 = Magic, Reaction roll: 9 = Positive) agrees and checks his books for an illusion spell to help with the plan.