Solo RPG and Technology - Using AI as an Oracle for Solo TTRPG

Table of Contents

My Solo RPG Hobby

Lately, I’ve been getting into tabletop RPGs. Unfortunately for me, you have to also have a group of people who are also getting into tabletop RPGs to play most RPGs. I say most because there’s a whole genre of GM-less “journaling” solo RPGs that I’ve gotten into. What I like about this hobby is everyone has their own “stack” of tools they use to make it work for them. And I think that’s really beautiful. My stack is below.

Here’s how I’ve been doing Solo RPGs:

  1. Find a game that has good solo-ing rules, or even better, is designed to be solo.
  2. Grab a journal and spark tables. Spark tables are tables that have numerical values tied to anything (items, words, names, quests, etc)
    • Juice Oracle is a really good set of spark tables. But there are whole books/websites dedicated to spark tables.
  3. World build, create world/town maps, create a character that has a goal.
    • Cairn’s world map building is fantastic. Cairn is linked below and free.
    • I use Cute D&D Character Creator to make an avatar.
    • For dungeon crawling, I use Mystic Waffles to generate randomized maps on the fly.
  4. Journal and roll on those spark tables. Write down what happens.

Some games I’ve found work really well solo:

Journaling can really be a pain though. I’ve switched from writing to putting my game down in a markdown file using vim. Is there anything nerdier than that sentence? Yes actually, someone has made a markdown notation system for Solo RPG. And, someone has made a neovim plugin for that so you can memorize key combos to make your notations. So, don’t judge my nerdiness when we are building this solo RPG thing brick by brick. There are dozens of us!

The Quest To Find a Good Oracle

I mentioned spark tables above. Well, Oracles tend to be spark tables that allow you to ask it questions like a magic 8 ball.

Most of the time, Oracles have 5 options:

  • Yes/No
  • Yes, but
  • Yes, and
  • No, but
  • No, And

Besides the mentioned Juice Oracle, I’ve found a good Oracle for Cairn called Barrow Delver. Both are solid spark tables.

Depending on what is asked/what the dice roll is on the Oracle table, it can change the trajectory of the entire game.

Example: in one of my Cairn games, my main character needed access to a secret society of acedemic people. My character asked a potion shop owner for academic robes he used to wear so they could sneak into the academy. I didn’t have enough money so I offered some inventory. I rolled on my Oracle table to see if the shop owner agrees and got a “Yes, but.” I decided the shop keeper would take the money and inventory, but would make me drink a “promise potion” that would kill my character if I didn’t retrieve an item for him. Well the academy quest did not got well and I actually forgot to get the item for him. I rolled on the Oracle to see if the potion effects were real and rolled a “no.” But now, every time I’m in that town, I roll my Oracle table to see if the potion shop owner spots me. Clearly, he won’t be happy with me if he ever sees me.

What About Using AI for GM-ing?

I asked the same question. With all this talk about AI creativity and unpredictability, it should be great at GMing? Right??

It was a terrible GM. There was an offline model I used that someone tuned for D&D. More than half the time, I could just say whatever I wanted to get out of the situation. For instance, if I was in a cave, I could just say “I unlock the door to the town, step in, and teleport back to town.” It wouldn’t question it. No dice rolls, just “okay.”

I could easily talk my way out of situations. It liked the trope of NPCs crying while spilling their backstory. It was too easy to get monsters to break down and tell me all their life’s secrets without any dice checks. At one point, I took out a bandit that came back to attack me later. Just flat out forgot the bandit had been pushed off a ledge.

And the safety constraints made things frustrating. I love safety constraints on AI. We need more of them. I definitely think they should be there, especially with the amount of AI psychosis affecting people. But, when my character is defending itself against a monster attack the AI orchestrated only to see “I can’t help with that - if you feel anxious, I suggest seeking a medical professional” it really kills the game. No pun intended.

AI also tends to be VERY LONG WINDED. Paragraphs and paragraphs of text to sift through.

I did like that it allowed me to do dice checks for a lot of things (after I asked.) That made it feel a little more collaborative. But that’s where the positivity ends.

Oracle AI Prompt and Experience

What AI is good at, however, is being an Oracle.

Just a note, I don’t use cloud AIs for this. I believe that wouldn’t necessarily be an ethical use for AI, if it exists. I explore this more in my AI ethics post.

I’m using ollama locally with an old gaming PC running a GTX 1070.

The model I’m running is gemma4:e2b with “nothink” set. Once you run the model, run a /set nothink command.

Here’s my fine tuned prompt:

Can you act as a dungeons and dragons oracle when I used the keyword oracle? 
I would like for you to answer from these choices and elaborate on what they mean given context I'll give you -  
"yes", "yes and", "yes but", "no", "no and" or "no but." 
Every once and a while, make the "yes and" either extremely beneficial and the "no and" extremely catastrophic. 
Keep your answer concise, it doesn't need to  be a long answer.

After that, calling the Oracle AI is as easy as using the keyword “oracle” with some context. For example - oracle - did the guards hear me?

>>>> Me: oracle - did the guards hear me?
**Yes, but.**
 They heard your footsteps and muffled noise, but they haven't quite pinpointed your exact location yet. 
You have a split second to move into the shadows before they begin a more deliberate search of the area.

Examples from my Cairn campaign:

- Cashier - "History book eh, let me take a look?"
- AI Oracle - The cashier does not recognize the insignia as belonging to the Secret Academy, though they notice it looks like an extremely rare and prestigious seal of a 
high-ranking institution.
- Cashier "Hmmmm, a college text. Where did you come of this?"
- Character "Well you know, just looking through some old textbooks." (Cairn willpower saving throw) He buys the lie.
- Cashier "Yes well, we all have those lying around. Hmm, how much are you looking to get?"
- Character "I don't know much about how much it should cost in this area, let's say 100 gold?"
- Cashier "This insignia... let me take a closer look" 
- Oracle AI - Upon taking a closer look, the cashier pales noticeably. They recognize the seal of the Academic Exiles and
 immediately warns you that possessing such a book could bring unwanted attention from "certain authorities."
- Cashier "I can't take this here! GET OUT OF MY SHOP!"
- Character "Wait wait wait, someone gave me this map to a secret area of the shop.... would they be able to help me?"
- The cashier looks around and eyes the clerk. He says while looking at them "I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU HERE AGAIN" while nodding to the secret area of the shop.
- I take the hint. I find an old bookshelf that is partway destroyed at the back of the store (away from prying eyes.) I push it to the side to reveal a dark hallway full of 
cobwebs until I see a faint light. The hallway leads to a small room with a desk and a singular woman sitting at it by candlelight. She looks up.
- Mysterious woman "Been quite some time since I have seen someone back here. Did Markaous send you?"
- Character "I'm not sure, I received this from a person on the street." (From an Oracle AI prompt earlier)
- "Of course, that would be Markaous. I'm Master Elara Vane (Oracle AI generated name,) peddler of all things strange, magical, and weird. What brings you in?"
- I show her the book
- She laughs. "My dear, pilfering the Academic Exiles is a good way to make yourself into an undead servant for all eternity. But what's done is done."
- Characater "How much can you give me for this?"
- Her "First edition, decent shape for it. Hmmm, how does 34 gold sound?"
- Character "No way, I stole something from the Exiles and you want 34 gold?? I'll take 200 gold"
- She laughs, stands and as she does the candle goes out. She yells "SIIIILENCE!" 
- Oracle AI - "She doesn't cast a spell at all; instead, she places a heavy, magically enchanted seal on your lips that prevents you from speaking for one hour, making it 
impossible for you to argue or defend yourself."
- I realize what's happening, does this make me panicked? (Cairn Panic Check) No, but it's very frightening! I can't speak!
- I mumble some words to her and she nods and mocks me.

So, as you can see, it randomizes enough and adds enough flavor text for it to slot into a good journaling game. The only thing it’s missing is something called “chaos.” Chaos makes the Oracle more negative or positive depending on what’s going on the game. I guess I could always go back and forth between Oracle tables and AI. For now, this is working and I’m happy with it.