My Favorite Solo Play Tool: Random Realities (revelations for the roving raconteur) by Cezar Capacle

 Let's say you are playing through your solo play campaign and you ask any of these questions:

• What's been spray painted on the walls?
• What's the innkeeper like?
• What are they offering us to take up this quest?
• Is it raining?
• What time is it? 
• What is the first thing my character notices about the forest?
• What's a fun plot twist that is happening?

There are stacks of books and decks and dice and other oracles that can answer these questions. I know. I have roughly 6 shelf-feet of space taken up, at least, of books and card decks and story dice that I draw from from time to time (not including snippets from other non-pure oracle resources that also help a lot, such as Vaults of Vaarn for a lot of my stranger stories). 

But then there is Random Realities: Revelations for the Rousing Raconteur by Cezar Capacle that does a lot of the work of that entire shelf in a relative tiny zine smaller than most in-flight catalogs. It is absolutely portable but it generates so many answers so quickly it is frankly a minor miracle to use it. 

Look at the same page as provided on the Itch page: 

As you can see, and to quote (again) the product page: "The idea is very simple: roll d66 (2d6, using one number as decimals and the other as units) to determine your page, and instantly access a unique combination of results from 60+ tables (the dice results are in the bottom right corner, along with a d4 and a d12 as well). Don't feel like rolling dice every time? Simply flip the zine to a random page if you have a print copy, or click on the dice to go to another page." 

You can get weather conditions, a random direction, a time of day. You get eight symbols that can be used to add details based on your interpretation - the owl might strike you as "wise" or "night" or a literal owl. You get a straight oracle yes/no answer. You get a prompt for a dice/fate type check. Lots of pairs. 

While you might wonder how it is a big deal to have these "66 realities" keep in mind that each page is built the same way. Let's take another page from the book (and yes, I will randomly roll to see what pops up):

Do you see how genius this is?  That 1,1 and that 4,6 allows the solo player to mix and match a large number of details. To go back to my previous list of questions and using just these two pages we might end up with something like... 

• What's been spray painted on the walls? "The graffiti reads The Bug and the paint is made to look like flames coming out of the text..." [combining the beetle icon with the campfire icon]
• What's the innkeeper like? "Morador Seryn is a indifferent but respectful man. His unkempt beard frames a sad face, driven by some unspoken guilt he never shares..." [combining name prompts with other bits from the People fields and adding in some ideas]
• What are they offering us to take up this quest? "A magic sword that allows the wielder to cast Knock once per day..." [combining the "weapon" rewards with the lock icon...]
• Is it raining? "No, it is sunny day..." [just grabbing one of the weather icons
• What time is it? "Afternoon..." [grabbing one of the clocks]
• What is the first thing my character notices about the forest? "The air is hot and stuffy, here, and there is a definite silence, like everything is holding its breath and waiting for you to act..." [blending one detail prompt with a place: mood prompt]
• What's a fun plot twist that is happening? "Your mentor has been using you to try and get to the queen!" [combining the plot twist from one with the crown icon from another]

That's just two pages. There are 36 of these pages. What's better is that the prompts and symbols in one section can often map over as you see it. The event prompt under Exploration can be used to inform a quest or give backstory to a character as needed. The scene complication can be used in a variety of ways. 

So much time was spent in my campaigns just trying to figure what table I wanted to roll on that some sessions were basically unexpected prep to figure out enough details that next time around I might able to play...until another big question came up and I had to do it, again. 

"What symbol do the cultists use to represent their god...well, I guess I could use this table about generating a new religion and broadly go from there...or maybe I just look at the shirt my daughter is wearing and make it spookier... evil looking horses it is!"

You can roll between 1 and 4 times (2 times being my sweet spot), here, and answer, to some degree (often a good amount), nearly any question you might have. The twelve-sided die might be interpreted as room size and the four-sided die might be the number of exits, for instance with location/scene/exploration/symbols all adding in details. Factions might build off prompts in the People field (or one of the others). 

You will have to bridge some gaps and play the terms off of each other so that they fit into your context and focus, but my experience with this zine is that it hits the vibe the vast majority of the time while leaving me enough room that I am not having to convert or adapt too broadly.

I am a librarian. I am well used to telling people, "some resources are good for broad questions, others are better for specific questions," and that can be true for oracles as well. Some folks do not want to know "Midnight - Resistance" when trying to figure out, "What do I see looking down the hall?" I get that. There is likely a 1d100 Things You See Looking Down the Hall in a Mid Level Dark Fantasy Campaign that would tell you exactly what you see (give or take five minutes of looking up stats or having to retcon the fact that absolutely no goblins was one of your starting rules). 

However, a well done oracle that gives me just enough paint and canvas to make any picture I want is invaluable to me. I don't have to dig through 50+ PDFs or go through 19 zines or pull out three hardback volumes of random tables to try and answer a five second question. If I get to a question that I want something a little more pre-packaged or something a little more detailed: I still have those books and I will still use them. For all those questions where I just want a quick snapshot, just want a quick symbol, just need a few words to help me get from "I enter the edge of the forest" and "the stream flows gently down the slope," then this book and its simple like 36 sets of quick words and phrases and symbols is amazing. Even the bigger questions get easier and easier to answer the more I use this book.

I have used it in all of the campaigns that I have played on this blog at least a little and plan to use it more and more. 

What's even better, buying a copy grants you a zip of all the pages as PNGs which makes it possible to add three or four to your phone for an afternoon play AND it comes with a spreadsheet with all the possible options for those who want to make a script to pull just a few details from the list. It is about as user friendly and as widely applicable as a solo player could ever want. 

You know...besides those folk who like to keep much broader types of oracles in their pockets:

"Flip a coin, if it is heads then this means 'fire, up, creativity, left, the taste of copper, growth' and if its tails it means 'water, down, acceptance, right, the stock market, pickles.'" 

I love those folk.