Tilt

An oracle for solo roleplaying

© 2020 Alex Yari / Little Dreamer

A bite sized introduction to solo What his question is, will depend on the situation. If you're
just starting out a fantasy themed game, for example, you
roleplaying might ask if there is a tavern in town ("Is there a tavern in
this town?"). You might estimate that there is a 70% chance
This document assumes some familiarity with solo of a tavern existing in the town, so rolling a 7 or less would
roleplaying. If you are a complete newbie to it and its jargon, I mean a Yes from the oracle, and rolling over would mean a
recommend you take a look at the Solo Roleplaying: A brief No.
introduction guide first. Nevertheless, I will do my best to Note that if you were to roll a 1 as a result, your answer
give a bite sized overview for the uninitiated here. would always be Yes. If you were to roll a 10, it would be a
People found out early that playing by yourself lacked No.
something that you got with other people. You don't have
anyone to play the role of a living world for you. Therefore, a
major piece of the typical roleplaying experience is absent. Chasing a Suspect (Example)
Out of the need to fill that gap, oracles arose.
Suppose your character is an undercover cop and
Being the sole person in the game, you are the one that he is chasing a suspect into the subway station. You
comes up with all the ideas necessary to "play the world." wonder if the station is busy or not, so you ask:
The oracle just allows you to disavow decision making when
it comes to your ideas; it only answers "Yes" or "No" “Is the subway station busy?”
regarding any questions you have. Thus, at their very core, You think about the context of the adventure at
oracles are just a glorified coin toss (except you are more that point and come away with the facts that you are
likely to be asking them if a dragon tries to eat you, rather in a big city, in a busy part of town and it is morning
than whether you should have Italian or Chinese for dinner). rush hour on a normal Monday. You estimate that
the chances of the subway station being busy are
This might not sound very inspiring, but what this extremely high so you decide there is a 90%
figurative coin toss can do effectively is introduce an element probability of a Yes answer.
of surprise and suspense to your lonely games. These are
key features of playing with other humans, and they can
make your solo play that much more enjoyable.
An example 1d10 Oracle
This is a roll-under-or-equal oracle, which means that you
have to roll under the chosen target number (target number
always between 2 and 9 to always allow the chance of a Yes
or No answer regardless of probability).
Choose this Target For This Probability of a Yes
Number Answer
2 10%
3 20%
4 30%
5 40%
If you don’t happen to roll a 10 (always a no for
6 50% this sample oracle), your answer will be some sort of
Yes. If so, you will have established that the subway
7 60% station is busy. If not, the answer means the station
8 70% is not busy. That might be odd given it's rush hour
on a Monday. If you wanted to know why, you could
9 80% ask follow up questions such as "Is it closed for
repairs?" You can always ask the Oracle as many
In order to use this oracle, you have to think of a question follow up questions as you need until you’ve got as
that can be answered with a simple Yes or No. Once you clear a picture of the situation as you want.
have your question, you estimate what your odds of a Yes
answer are, and roll under or equal the target number for a
Yes or over it for a No.

© 2020 Alex Yari / Little Dreamer

Part 1:
The Tilt Oracle

A different take on Oracles Your Tilt Number

The Tilt oracle takes a unique approach to odds style Instead of having to decide odds for each question, Tilt
oracles. While the basic function of answering Yes and No asks you to choose a default target number between 2 and
questions is the same, it is also somewhat similar to having a 19 that remains fixed until the end of the adventure. You may
sort of luck based stat. In many games, the Luck stat is used only pick one Tilt Number regardless of how many Player
to determine the size of your luck point pool, so it is more like Characters you have. When you roll a d20, you need to beat
a finite resource. It is usually limited to attempting failed re- that target number to get a Yes answer.
rolls, or sometimes adding a bonus to your rolls. If your question falls under You, you must roll under your
Tilt, on the other hand, works more like a what is called in Tilt Number.
other games a "saving throw". It is not based on a finite If the question regards It, you must roll over your Tilt
resource, and it works by trying to beat a target number. This Number.
target number is fixed as a default. This is called your Tilt If it’s under Me, you pick the worst category from above
Number and is discussed in more depth in the sections that two but your roll includes the number (i.e. it will be roll
follow. equal-or-under, or it will be roll equal-or-over).
Given this structure, the closer your tilt number is to
Three domains: You, It and Me either end of the 2 through 19 spectrum, the more
predictable your answers will become. Thus, the more
Tilt has the concept of three domains each covering a predictable your answers are, the more those answers will
different aspect of the imaginary world. I call them You, It tend to be what you expect (though there is always a chance
and Me. You covers Non Player Characters and other that you will not get the answer you expect).
entities-- anything dealing with a sentient being. It covers That being said, it is not likely that what you expect will
inanimate objects-- anything that can be considered to be necessarily be what you or your character want (unless you
insentient, lifeless. Me covers your Player Character in any "cheat" and always frame your questions so that you always
situation where a game master ruling would be called (e.g. get what you want). When you don't get the outcomes you
success or failure at some action, being equipped, awareness want, you are put into challenging situations. This is the aim
of surroundings, etc.). You can also think of Me as a catch-all of Tilt.
skill when it's not covered by the role playing game you are
using (or you could use it to make a ruling about an RPG
system mechanic in regards to your character-- e.g., asking if
you hear anything). Gaming the oracle

A common worry among solo players is the

It depends on who or what possibility of "gaming" an oracle by framing
questions in excessively advantageous ways. With
When it seems unclear as to which domain applies to a Tilt having the potential to make answers even more
question, it helps to restate it. The first step is to interchange predictable, it may be natural to think that this
the pronouns into "You", "It" or "Me" and see which one makes Tilt susceptible to cheating.
makes most sense Your suspicion would be right, but the fact of the
“Does he have a gun?” if unclear, becomes "Do you have matter is that no oracle can prevent you from
a gun?", "Does it have a gun?" or "Do I have a gun?". If framing questions in unreasonable ways. Tilt is no
you're referring to another person, then you'd know that exception in this regard.
the You makes the most sense. If you were referring to a The only realistic solution to "cheating" is for solo
mindless zombie, then It would make most sense. players to be honest with themselves. If you feel like
“Is his gun loaded?” becomes "Is it loaded?", and would you're "cheating" and it decreases your fun, then
fall in the It domain. simply refrain from doing it. If you're having fun,
"Are they moving?" could be really ambiguous depending then it's not cheating!
on the context. Temporarily changing it to "Are you
moving?" or "Is it moving?" would make more clear to you
what domain would apply, either something like a group of
people in the case of "You", or maybe a group of zombies
in the case of "It".

3
© 2020 Alex Yari / Little Dreamer
 Tilt only answers Yes or No. There are no critical rolls; no The closer you move to the edges, the more lopsided the
ultimate Yes or No. However, there is always the chance of chances of a Yes or No answer become (e.g. only %5 chance
failure if you roll a 1 for It, or a 20 for You. For Me it will of a Yes for You if your Tilt Number is 2). This imbalance will
depend on which of the others is the weakest. tend to test your creativity when it comes to achieving the
end results you want. You'll likely try to rely on your stronger
Here is where the idea of a tilt hopefully makes sense to domain to get the outcomes you want, rather than your
you: weaker domains, but sometimes the outcomes you want are
If you tilt towards the You domain, your It and Me not easily achievable with your strong domain. You'll have to
domains will be weaker. find a way around that using your creativity.
If you tilt towards the It domain, then You and Me will On the other hand, sometimes you'll not be very invested in
likewise be less strong. whether you get a Yes or a No. If you have no desired goal,
Me will always be a step better than your worse domain. then there's really nothing to work around. The odds might
still be imbalanced, but you just give the question it's fair
Tilt Number Chances of a Yes Answer shake, and go with the answer given and the adventure
moves on. (Note: the reason you give each question a fair
For your convenience, below is a table with the percentage shake despite any odds is that the improbable is still
chance of a Yes answer in each of the categories depending possible, so a 5% chance, for example, is still a chance.)
on what Tilt Number you choose. As you get closer to 2 or 19,
your chances of Yes or No become more predictable but in I Lied. Your Tilt Isn't Completely
opposite directions depending on the domain. The Me Fixed
domain is always a step better than the worst of your other
two domains, so as you get closer to the edges, the chances You can change your Tilt during an adventure, but it's only
of a No become more likely. a temporary change limited to one Oracle question. You'll also
have to earn it by finding or introducing facts that support
the answer you want. Each fact that you add lets you
Tilt Number You It Me temporarily move your Tilt Number up or down by one step.
< > <= (You still have to stay within the range of 2 and 19).
2 5% 90% 10% Where can you find facts?
3 10% 85% 15%
You can look for supporting facts in the past events of the
4 15% 80% 20% adventure you're having, or in any related backstory or
5 20% 75% 25% background related to it. The adventure's background
includes the setting and adventure premise already
6 25% 70% 30% mentioned before. Once you find them, you can use each
7 30% 65% 35% fact, on for one, to temporarily move your Tilt Number up or
8 35% 60% 40%
down one step.
9 40% 55% 45%
10 45% 50% 50% Looking For the Dragon's Hoard
Tilt Number You It Me (Example 1)
< > >= You want to answer the following question:
11 50% 45% 50% “Are there any rumors of a dragon and its hoard?”
12 55% 40% 45%
A dragon that cares about treasure sounds like a
13 60% 35% 40% sentient, so you could argue this is a You question.
Therefore, you would have to roll under your Tilt
14 65% 30% 35% Number to get a Yes answer. Assume the Tilt
15 70% 25% 30% Number is a 7. (There is also an assumption that it
will have a hoard, but we'll ignore it for simplicity's
16 75% 20% 25% sake).
17 80% 15% 20% Some possible facts:
18 85% 10% 15%
Dragons are known to exist around this part of the
19 90% 5% 10% setting -- maybe the setting book says so, or
maybe it became part of your adventure
background.

4
© 2020 Alex Yari / Little Dreamer
 Looking For the Dragon's Hoard The Bank Robber (Example 1, cont)
(Example 1, cont)
He wants to get in and out without major
problems, but there is an armed security guard
This is a world full of greed -- this premise could posted near the entrance. This could really
be spelled out in the setting book, or it could complicate things for him.
have been thought up by you when planning the
adventure. The character would appreciate it if the guard left
his post unattended.
With these two facts as supporting evidence, you
can adjust your Tilt Number up by 2, improving your A You question would take care of this, say with
effective Tilt Number to a 9 for the question above. an emergency call regarding his mother (notice we're
making a lot of assumptions already):
“Does the guard leave his post due to an emergency
call regarding his mother?”
If you can't find supporting facts, you
Unfortunately, our Tilt Number is a 7 that we
make them up must roll under. This doesn't offer the greatest
chances of a Yes answer.
When you can’t find supporting facts in the adventure
backstory, premise or setting, you will have to introduce that Finding some supporting evidence sure would be
evidence yourself. You can make up facts, but it will take helpful to our thief.
work and luck. There are two ways of doing this: using the
Tilt Oracle or using your roleplaying system.
Using the Tilt Oracle to introduce facts
One way to make a potential idea into a supporting fact is
by trying your luck with the Tilt Oracle. Mechanically, it's the
same as when asking normal questions. You try to introduce
each fact by formulating a question about its trueness or
falseness using the appropriate domain (You, It or Me).

Metagaming is OK
Your character need not know about the
supporting evidence either; it's enough that you as
the player knows. If Tilt tells you the potential fact is
true, then it becomes part of the adventure
background, and can be used as supporting
evidence.

Another problem is that we just made up this guard

so there is no backstory to help us find facts about
You’re looking to create the fact as if it was already part of him. If he had been a non player character he might
the backstory (a retcon or flashback) or something that have had facts such as:
happens just in time to help you. Where in space and time He has a sick mother -- a good justification for the
the supporting facts happen is a matter of what makes sense call
and feels plausible to you given the parameters of premise, He isn’t treated very nicely by his employer --
setting and backstory. maybe this makes him care less about leaving his
post
Our only solution, then, is to create these possible
The Bank Robber (Example 1) facts. As both of these are related to people ("who"),
we'd also have to use You as our domain and roll
Let's suppose your player character was a bank under 7 for each potential fact to become actual
robber. evidence we can use in our main question.

5
© 2020 Alex Yari / Little Dreamer
 Using your RPG system
Another way of introducing supporting evidence is to do The Bank Robber (Example 2)
through player character agency. The idea is that acting as Let's assume we successfully established that the
your character, you can influence events to bring about the guard in our imaginary scenario has a sick mother,
desired supporting evidence. As before, this could be done in and that our character knows that about the guard.
the form of a flashback or in the present moment. With that in mind, we could try to engineer a plan for
our bank robber character in which he tries to trick
Though you could use the Me domain of the Tilt Oracle, it the guard into leaving his post.
is more fun to think of how to solve the problem using the
resources available to your character through the RPG Our character could try making the guard think
system. This encourages you to engage with the mechanics there is an emergency involving his mom. In order to
of the system as well as an immerse inside the perspective of do this through our character's mechanics, we need
your character more often. to look at what his mechanical resources are (e.g.
skills, attributes, equipment, etc).
Suppose our bank robber has a skill called Fast
How to pick a difficulty level (relative Talker. Our RPG system says this skill gives
difficulty rating) characters a chance to pull a fast one on people.
Using this Fast Talker skill, our character might be
able to call the guard on his cellphone and deceive
Most RPG systems come with their own guidance for him into thinking there’s an emergency involving his
game masters on how to set the difficulty level of a test. For mother.
many situations, however, a ruling on the part of the game
master is necessary and expected since a game as open as
an RPG can't provide exact rules for every possibility. As
such, the game master will have to draw on his own
knowledge to arrive at a fair judgment. The same is true for
the solo player.
When you have a situation whose difficulty is uncertain to
you, it helps to find other more familiar situations that you
can compare it to. These other situations should be ones
whose difficulty you already know or are comfortable rating
right then. The more varied the group, in terms of their As far as setting the difficulty, let's say that the
difficulty rating, the more accurate your subsequent RPG system has a simple scale of three ratings:
estimation will tend to feel. Easy, Moderate, and Hard. You try to come up with
some familiar situations involving fast talking, and
Once you have at least one known situation, take the the first thing you think of is convincing a stranger
difficulty scale of the RPG system and group each of these to lend you some money (whatever works).
known situations under the difficulty rating you feel is most You come up with the following examples.
appropriate. After that, compare your unknown situation Though these are unrelated to an emergency call,
they do involve persuasion, so they will help you
against each member of the known group, starting with the guesstimate your persuasion power in the other
one closest to the middle. situation.
As you compare your unknown situation with one of the Asking someone for a quarter for your parking
known situations, gauge if it feels the same, less difficult, or meter - you figure is an Easy task. You could tell
more difficult. If it feels the same, then you pick that them you forgot to bring your wallet.
difficulty and you're done. If it feels more difficult, you move Asking someone for $2 dollars for the same -
up the scale to the next member; otherwise, you move down that may be a Moderate task. It is enough money
the scale. Repeat this process until you find the unknown that most people would probably feel somewhat
situation's relative placement among the group. suspicious, but if you look honest they might
give the $2 to you even if they think you're an
Though it's helpful to have a situation to compare to in idiot.
each difficulty "bucket" of the RPG system, it's still possible Asking someone for $20 dollars - that is a Hard
to do this relative rating with even just one known situation. task since most everyone would scoff at giving a
You just need to rate the unknown situation relative to the stranger $20 dollars and would be suspicious of
one you know, so even just rating it one step above or below any story.
should be acceptable. Assuming no one has tried this scam on them
before, you reason that most people's concern
would outweigh any suspicion that the call could
generate,

6
© 2020 Alex Yari / Little Dreamer
 RPG mechanics as supporting facts
The Bank Robber (Example 2, cont)
Sometimes you may feel like an RPG system mechanic
but you'd still have to sound like someone who such as a Charisma stat may count as a fact. If you can make
would make that kind of call (a nurse, a policeman, sense of how it applies as a helpful fact and it doesn't violate
etc.). At the same time, you realize you don't know your sense of fairness, go for it. However, every time you
the mother's name, or even the guard's name. That think of involving an RPG mechanic as a supporting fact, you
complicates things. should also check if the RPG system can resolve the
question in lieu of a Tilt Roll.
You compare your challenge to asking someone
for $2 dollars (the middlemost example you could If you can't find a mechanical test, you should still ask
come up with), and you conclude that your Fast Talk yourself what the influence of that mechanical element would
roll is more difficult than that. You move up the scale actually looks like in the situation. This may reveal an actual
to Hard, and since this is the maximum difficulty of supporting fact that the mechanical element is abstracting.
the RPG system, you're done. Using this actual supporting fact will likely add more flavor
On the other hand, if you knew the guard's name that just stating a fact like, "I have a Charisma of 18."
and his mother's name, you would be a lot more
convincing. In combination with the shock and
concern, the circumstances might make it easier to
The Bank Robber (Example 4)
persuade the guard into thinking it's a real
emergency than it would be to get $2 dollars from
him or any stranger, so you would rate the Fast Let's say that our bank robber has a high
Talking roll under those circumstances as an Easy Charisma stat (18). You are thinking of maybe using
task. (Note also that this would be an opportunity to your charm on the guard in person to make him
challenge your character to find out this information drop his guard and then make a move. This would
if he doesn't have it). be a You Oracle question and you think that your
high Charisma could be a supporting fact. This
should be a signal to look for a possible mechanical
test involving your Charisma stat. Perhaps, you'd
Mechanical bonuses in your RPG system find something like Fast Talker and your Charisma
stat may even grant a bonus.
It is entirely possible to give your character a mechanical However, in the very unlikely case your RPG has a
bonus to their actions through supporting facts (usually this Charisma stat with no mechanical effect, you'd have
is called "fictional positioning"). In order to be fair about it, no choice but to use a You question. You could just
you have to decide ahead of time what supporting evidence state that either "I have Charisma 18" is the
would give you a mechanical bonus and how big a bonus it supporting fact and leave it at that, but what if you
would give you. You would then follow the process already considered for a moment what the Charisma stat's
outlined to find or create the evidence that would justify influence would look like on the guard?
granting you a mechanical bonus. (You'll have to make a
ruling on the target number on your own, though.) You think about it, and one thing that comes to
mind is the guard smiling and having a good time
talking to the robber. Now you have a more flavorful
fact like "My charisma makes people have a good time
around me."
The Bank Robber (Example 3)
Take the same running example of the bank
robber who wants the bank's security guard to leave Recursive heuristic for creating
his post. We want to obtain a +1 bonus to our Fast challenges
Talker roll. In order to do that, we want to establish a
fact that we think will justify giving ourselves the
bonus: Apply this to any facts you want to be true, including
supporting evidence are trying to get:
He has a sick mother -- would make the call more
convincing 1. Using the RPG system mechanics, how can this be
brought about? If not possible, go to step #2, otherwise
I can't think of a good way to make this happen skip to #3.
with my character skills right now, so I decide to use
the Tilt oracle. As this deal with a person, this would 2. Which oracle domain would help bring it about (You, It or
be a You oracle question. If we get a Yes answer from Me)?
the Tilt oracle, we can then apply a +1 bonus to our
Fast Talker action 3. Is there any supporting evidence that would increase your
chances of success? (Either by adding a mechanical
bonus in your RPG system, or by temporarily changing
your Tilt Number.)

7
© 2020 Alex Yari / Little Dreamer
 Repeat for each piece of potential evidence as desired. Creative Problem Solving
Also, remember, evidence can be found in your parameters
(setting, premise, past events, etc), and it can be created I’ve found that the need to find supporting facts to get
through your RPG system of choice, or the oracle. what you want tends to act as source of challenges for your
A chain of supporting facts? character and yourself. The Tilt oracle encourages this due
to how you can never have more than one domain with
Potential facts all work the same mechanically, so you can chances greater than 50% (the higher you rate in one, the
find supporting evidence for other potential supporting lower the others become).
evidence, thereby increasing its chances of being true. This As you try to figure out how to increase your chances of an
is simply a causal chain of events, one leading to another. affirmative answer, you may find yourself planning out how
This causal chain can be constructed using any combination to best use available resources to lay the groundwork for the
of oracle questions and character action that you can think success your character needs. This type of problem solving
about. Like a line of dominoes, you can try to set them up and relies on your creativity and your logical ability (plus a little
knock them down. bit helping of luck).

Player Immersion
Hard mode
If you want to make finding facts even more This chain of events can also have an effect on your ability
challenging, you can add any of these rules: to immerse in the player role. Events may feel more real as
they develop a backlog of other events that justify their
No retconning or flashback facts. All supporting existence. The weight of the causal chain and the luck of the
evidence must exist already and can only be dice may evoke a sense that they are the driving force behind
created in the present. the imaginary world. In a way, they were there all along just
No meta gaming. In order to use the supporting waiting for you to find them through your creative logic.
evidence, your character must know about it.
Adverse Facts - For any given oracle question,
when an adverse fact becomes self-evident,
move the Tilt Number up or down a step
accordingly to account for the difficulty this fact
adds. Keep in mind that Tilt already makes things
hard enough, so you don't need to actively go
looking for deleterious facts. Just take them into
account when you become aware of them.

8
© 2020 Alex Yari / Little Dreamer
Part 2:
Best practices
Think of these as highly encouraged though not mandatory One useful approach to coming up with these escape
guidelines. They have served me well most of the time, but as routes is to find contrasts for the first potential branch you
with anything, drop them when they're not adding to your think of. The alternate answer should be like a mirror or
fun. negative image of the first one. Take the first answer and
identify its key elements first. If the antithesis of a key
element doesn't come to mind right away, then think of a one
Before you roll, decide what your or two adjectives you'd use to describe the original element.
branching paths will be Use the antonym of those adjectives to come up with its
inverse element.
An Oracle’s plain Yes or No answer can leave you stumped Another, perhaps easier approach is to think of a follow up
sometimes if it negates what you were asking about in the question. Since a question's answer is usually embedded in
first place. You ask if something is true or false, not realizing the questions, you should be able use that answer as your
that one of the answers could paint you into a proverbial alternate branch.
corner.
Timebox your search for a second branch
One thing I consider a “best practice” in my games is to
formulate ahead of time what an affirmative and a negative If you can't think of an alternate route and it's stalling you,
answer would mean. Both should add something to the set a time limit (e.g. one minute after you feel yourself getting
imaginary situation that gives you a branch to follow rather stuck). If you can't find the second branch, you can assume
than a dead end. This way no answer will leave you at a loss there is no contrasting path. Take the first path you thought
as to how to follow up. of, confidently assuming it is the one and only path.
You don't have to use this alternate branch right away if
you can think of other follow up questions you want to ask
first (thus giving them a fair chance). Still, you'll have it as an Looking For The Dragon's Hoard
escape route should the follow up questions not offer a path
forward. (Example 2)
The alternate route is also there when you feel like asking You want to know: “Are there any rumors of a
more questions about the same subject isn't worth it, such as dragon and its hoard?” The Yes answer is already in
when your Tilt Number is particularly lopsided but you're the question:
more invested in keeping the adventure moving than in giving
other follow up questions a fair chance. “Yes: there are rumors of a dragon and its hoard.”

The No answer is not so obvious, but this is how I

would go about it:
I consider changing the dragon and its hoard for
something else.
While there’s no obvious opposite of a dragon,
what comes to mind is its huge size and that they
are kind of extraordinary. So the opposite would be

9
© 2020 Alex Yari / Little Dreamer
 That's not to say that the way the answer will not manifest
in a different way. However, new manifestations shouldn't
Looking For The Dragon's Hoard betray the spirit of what's been settled as the answer.
(Example 2, cont)

something small and mundane. Likewise, the

opposite of the verb “to hoard”is “to squander”. The Afraid of ghosts (Example 1)
resulting transformation of the Yes answer is:
Suppose your character, Rita, and her husband
“No: There are rumors of a short, and otherwise Rick are staying at her late aunt's mansion, that's
nondescript man who squandered what used to be reportedly haunted. They stand to inherit a great
considerable wealth.” fortune if they can spend the night. You know the
trope.
With this potential branch, you now have a path to
follow should you receive a No answer from Tilt to While exploring the house, you both think you see
follow up questions like: an apparition, and through a series of RPG system
checks or oracle questions you find out that the
Are there any rumors then of a dwarf mine? husband panics and bolts down the stairs. Now
Is there a creature threatening the town at night? you've established that he is a scaredy cat and afraid
of ghosts.
If I were to get No answers to these, I could always
fall back on the rumors of the man who squandered
his wealth.

Why branching is a good practice

If you want the pace of play to move along quicker, always
having a path forward minimizes the chances of getting stuck
when the oracle rejects so many of your answers that you
run out of ideas. You could also just choose one of the
branches each time without follow up questions to speed
things up even more, but since you're giving the oracle only
two choices, you'll be prematurely closing off other
possibilities in the name of speed.
No branching necessary when looking for
facts You should immediately consider whether to
declare any question regarding the husband's
If you're working towards having enough supporting reaction to an apparition "settled." The next time an
apparition manifests itself, your question should not
evidence to increase the probability of another answer, it be "Does he panic?" That should be an assumption
means that you already have or should have a branching until some proof emerges through play that would
path. That is, the answer you're trying to influence with warrant him not becoming so alarmed.
evidence should already have an alternative. Therefore, all
you need to know about a potential supporting fact is it's Instead of asking "Does he panic?", you could ask
trueness or falseness. No need for an alternative route. something like "Does he faint?", depending on
whether you want to play it for laughs or not.
Still, if you want to create branches when testing a
supporting fact, that is OK too. You won't be able to use that
branch as supporting evidence, but you will be creating a
more detailed world. If you don't mind the extra bit of work, Keep an eye out for a change in situation
it's worth the richer background.
As mentioned, when something happens that could change
Settled questions the situation drastically, take a pause and consider whether
the change could warrant reexamining the question that was
In simple terms, this means not going against facts that settled before. If it does, make a note of it so that you can test
you've established. At some point, you have to decide that the whether the adjusted situation also change the settled
question is settled and its answer should only be open to question.
change because the situation surrounding the question has
opened the door for reevaluation. Otherwise, it should be
assumed that the answer will be the same

10
© 2020 Alex Yari / Little Dreamer
 Afraid of ghosts (Example 2) Question Framing Example
In the course of the night at the haunted mansion, Assume you have a Tilt Number of 7 and your
let's say that Rick has been downing whiskey shots character is that bank robber we've been using in our
to calm his nerves down. Now that he's good and examples so far. You ask the question:
drunk,
if you're playing it for laughs, you could consider Is there an armed guard in the bank?
that maybe liquor makes him lose all fear because he
It is likely that the outcome your character would
becomes so oblivious.
want is that there be no armed guard, so you'd want
So now, if the apparition shows up when Rick is a No. This being a question about a person, it would
drunk, you could ask again if he panics. If he doesn't, fall under the You domain, so that means you'd have
now you've established that indeed liquid courage to roll over 7 to get a No answer. The probability of
works on the husband. getting a No is 65% (not bad).

You can then further find out how he does react However, you want to tie your desired outcomes
when he's drunk, maybe by asking if he berates or to a Yes answer, so you'd need to reframe this
even tries to befriend the ghost! question to something like:
Is the bank unguarded?
Framed this way, now your desired outcome can
Ask as many questions as you need only come true if you get a Yes answer by rolling
under 7. Your chances have just dropped to 30%
(ouch), and now You acts more like your unlucky
Conventional opinion cautions against asking “too many domain.
questions” of an oracle lest your game get bogged down or
stall. What you’re supposed to do instead is decide what
happens after a few questions either by following your logic
or finding the most obvious direction. Watch out for presuppositions
This may be fine for some players but others may find it
far too predictable and inherently lacking in suspense. Sometimes we make assumptions in our questions that
Therefore, asking as many questions as needed to maintain may contain content which could be asked in other domain
suspense and the potential for surprise may be the better questions. For example, this question has two:
approach for these players.
“Do I see a man with a loaded gun?”
My advice is: ask as many oracle questions as you need to If you were to get a Yes answer, not only would you
enjoy the tension and suspense that comes with each establish there is a man (1), but that he has a gun (2), and
question and dice roll. Your game will not break. that it is loaded (3). If this were broken up into three
questions, they would be handled by three different
To Get What You Want, Get A Yes domains:
Answer First 1. Do I see a man? - a Me question.
2. Does he have a gun? - a You question.
If you are like me, and you can't help being hyper aware of 3. Is the gun loaded? - an It question.
how you frame your questions, it helps to always assume You will not be aware of such assumptions all the time. If
that the outcomes you want only come with Yes answers. you happen to catch it after the fact, don't obsess about it. If
Tying your desired outcomes to a Yes answer reduces any you do see a presupposition before you ask the oracle,
propensity to "game" your results. (Of course, when you don't though, the most fair and challenging way to handle it is to
feel strongly about one outcome over another, the framing of test each assumption by breaking up the question. The less
your questions is less relevant.) assumptions you make, the more surprises and challenges
It may even be helpful to think of your Tilt Number as a you'll potentially generate.
statement of how lucky you and your character are in a At the same time, sometimes it's convenient to introduce
certain domain. The higher chance of a Yes, the luckier you an object with a You question, an NPC with an It question, or
are in that domain generally. On the other hand, as your any of those with a Me question. For example, you might
innate luck rises in one domain, your other domains get want to ask something like "Is there a wizard living in a tower
unluckier. here?" so that you don't have to ask a separate question to
establish the tower.

11
© 2020 Alex Yari / Little Dreamer
 While this is convenient, the downside is that you may be Probably a ridiculous example, but the point I am trying to
missing an opportunity to add surprise by bundling both of get across is that as you start including more things in a
these elements together. Had you asked them in separate question in order to avoid using other domains, you start
domain questions, you may have ended up with a mansion or moving closer to that "cheating" line. And the closer you feel
a shack, for instance. yourself getting to that line, the less fun you'll likely have.
In conclusion, use your judgment when dealing with In order to maximize your fun, try to be as fair as you can
assumptions and find the best balance for you between in letting each domain handle their own elements. This will
convenience and surprise. increase your fun by adding more surprises to your game.
Whenever possible, default to the
On gaming the Tilt oracle
RPG system
Early on, I mentioned that Tilt, like other oracles, is
susceptible to "cheating" via unreasonable questions. To It bears repeating:
expand on that, consider this question: Whenever possible, use the RPG system to answer your
Is there a wizard living in a tower here? questions, create supporting evidence, or make things
happen in general. In particular, if you're going to use the Me
As mentioned in the previous section, though this bundles domain, think first of whether your RPG system covers the
an object into a You question, it might be OK for the sake of same situation, and if it does, use the RPG mechanics
convenience. However, if you were to ask something like: instead.
Is there a wizard living in a jewel encrusted tower The reason for this, again, is that thinking of the RPG
with a moat that has giant piranhas swimming in it system first will tend to generate creative challenges for you
because the wizard is experimenting with nature as you try to make the best use of your characters'
corrupting magic? resources.

12
© 2020 Alex Yari / Little Dreamer
Part 3:
Mince your words
Cut-up Method (Découpé)
The Cut-Up Method is a technique that is credited to
Tristan Tzara, one of the founders Dadaism. It has been used
by countless artists to create new works out of remixing old Now that you have chosen your texts, start cutting the
ones. The result is something that is still your personal pages into strips of similar length. Note that you don't need to
expression. Here I present a modified version that you can destroy your books. Copying the pages you need and cutting
leverage to play the world when not using an oracle to guide the copies works the same. The more pages you use, the
you. more material for discovery that you have available.
How it works
I like to have at least fifty pages worth of material.
The idea is simple: For the length of the strips, I like them to be between
five to eight words long. Your most inspirational
You take a text (e.g. a novel, article, short story, your own parameters may vary, so be sure to experiment.
adventure logs, etc) and you cut the pages into strips. The
strips should be long enough to form partial sentences.
These fragments become your building blocks to generate
the narrative needed to play the world.

Prep work: Cut them up Finding the narrative

Decide which texts you would like to use. It helps if they Once you have enough strips, mix them together. Put them
are thematically compatible with the setting or adventure in a pile like in the sketch shown below, or in a container.
premise that you have chosen to play with. In other words,
they should be similar in concept or you might find the
building blocks going against the grain of what you wanted in
the first place.

For example, don't use a science fiction short story if

you want to play high fantasy. On the other hand, if
you find a mashup of disparate genres interesting,
mix and matching your texts is a fine idea.

13
© 2020 Alex Yari / Little Dreamer
 When you want to play the world without the oracle, you
will sift through the pile of partial sentences in order to find
the pieces that speak to you about what happens next. Many ways to interpret
Depending on what you're looking for, you may find non
player character actions, their responses to you (dialogue), The words in the paper strips can be seen and
descriptions, bits of color, and other window dressing hidden interpreted in many ways: prose narration, non
in the partial phrases and in their combination. Anything that player character dialogue, or even game master talk.
a game master may narrate while playing the world for you While it may seem strange to interpret things at the
may be found here. Use as many strips as needed to put level of game master talk, you may find that it makes
together as coherent a statement as you can find. One by the game more immersive for you. It also you more
one, put them next to each other or arrange them vertically. options, and makes the method more versatile.

Once you feel there is enough narration and context, you

Delete, cut, transform have the option of taking action as your character, following
up with Oracle questions, or continuing with the cut up
If only a part of a snippet speaks to you, delete, technique. Use the tool that keeps the game moving at that
ignore or transform the rest. Move around, alter, moment.
cross out or write in your own words as your instinct
demands to complete the message that you're
getting. Your own words can act as connective Since the paper strips are a finite resource, you may
tissue between snippets. decide to use just enough to help generate a
The statement that finally comes together from situation in which character action makes sense, or
this process should speak to you about the situation potential oracle questions become evident.
at hand. Once you've found that, you've found the
narrative.
A Self Sustaining Cycle
After you've found the narrative The context created with the cutup technique will help you
come up with questions and their possible answers.
When you've found out what happens next, you can record Likewise, the Oracle and other ideation tools help me tune in
it as you please. Commit it to paper; record it on audio or to certain kinds of text phrases when using the Cut-up
video; or keep it all in your head if you wish. Again, this is a Method. It will make it easier to "hear" them when they
matter of experimentation to find what works best for you. "speak" to me. I find that the tools feed into each other,
creating the conditions for inspiration with the others.

If you're stuck
If you’re not feeling any inspiration with one tool,
move on to a different one. When you're feeling
stagnated, set a time limit and start a countdown. At
the end of the countdown, make the switch and try
your luck.

14
© 2020 Alex Yari / Little Dreamer
It's not a writing pageant Advantages of the Cut-up Method
Don't feel any pressure to put together some sort of Since the Cut-Up Method is inherently random, it can
sophisticated prose. You don't need to treat your game like provide the necessary sense of unpredictability that is so
some sort of writing pageant if you don't enjoy that. Not even essential to being surprised and being held in a state of
if you plan on sharing your game in an after play report. The suspense. It also helps with that need to disavow decision
most important thing is your enjoyment in the moment of making, since the choices available to you will be random.
play. If you worry about sharing your actual play report and Furthermore, each partial sentence possesses a micro-
want to spruce it up, you can always do it after the game. context of its own. This sometimes imparts a feeling that you
are discovering an event or a narrative as opposed to
creating it yourself whole cloth.
A More High Tech Approach To The
Cut Up Method Example 1: Setting the scene

If you’re not up to the task of physically cutting up paper, I am at the very start of a game and though I was initially
there are many online tools that you can use to achieve thinking of starting in the tavern scene, I decide instead to
something similar. The first step is to find a text splitter that try the cut-up strips to give me a sense of a starting situation.
you can feed a text to and have it output it into partial lines: Below are some strips I pulled at random from my larger pile,
not yet arranged in any particular order (basically jumbled
randomly):
Online text splitter
https://www.dcode.fr/text-splitter flicker and go black. Turjan melted
growing with strange and wonderful
of tall blue-green trees, the leaves
useless against Laccodel's Rune." But
white-blue eyes closed, the great
night falls the stars appear in
equal value for me. When you have
perhaps it was expected of him."Halt,
appalling screech, so wild and
dark eyes he saw her misery and the
youth. There was Azvan the
Kandive on the night of the festival
the creature's mouth. But the mouth
when the Sage had stood beside him.

In this chaos, our brain's pattern recognition ability might

see that some sentences seem to fit together somewhat well.
One could arrange them like so:
The next step is to copy the resulting lines into a line
randomizer tool. You can randomize the lines each time you
are trying to discover what happens next, starting from the night falls the stars appear in
top. That is your virtual pile of strips. flicker and go black.Turjan melted
of tall blue-green trees, the leaves
growing with strange and wonderful
Online text randomizer
white-blue eyes closed, the great
https://www.browserling.com/tools/random-lines

15
© 2020 Alex Yari / Little Dreamer
 From this, I can tell that the location seems like a forest at
night. I take out some words and insert others where needed
to bring the passage to its final form. I've put the words I've (cont)
added in bold and hopefully you can notice the words I've
removed to change each sentence: advanced. Mazirian's young-old eyes
TURJAN SAT in his workroom, legs
night falls and the stars
neck hangs an amulet of carved blue
flicker between
equations fall away to elements like
the leaves of tall blue-green trees,
awake you will be in the city
like strange and wonderful
white-blue flowers growing on them.
With the idea of a possible encounter in mind, I start
moving the new and old fragments around, keeping some,
We now have in the above paragraph a sense of location, removing others, etc. Soon, a new picture starts to emerge:
but still not much of a situation. I now decide to use my some sort of exotic animal, and maybe I am trying to trap it
agency as a player to state that I had already set up camp by for a mount. (You don't have to let the fragments dictate what
myself and was contemplating the sky. your character does (in this case, attempt to trap an animal),
but if you happen to like what the words suggest, there is no
Then I take a look at the pile of fragments for my next cue (or harm in following their lead.)
the game master response, if you will). I go through the same At this point, you could just narrate in your own way what
process as before, trying to find a pattern in the partial the situation is. The other option is to arrange the fragments
sentences: into something approaching a piece of narration. The latter
happens to be immersive for me because they are not my
appalling screech, so wild and words, so I try to arrange the fragments:
the creature's mouth. But the mouth
TURJAN SAT in his workroom, legs
dark eyes he saw her misery and the
the river; yet she was a pleasant
useless against Laccodel's Rune." But
recreation he formed a girl of exotic
when the Sage had stood beside him.
Earth or die."T'sais mounted her
perhaps it was expected of him."Halt,
for a service. I will not only guide
perhaps it was expected of him."Halt,
One may perceive a suggestion of an encounter in the
words. I wasn't really planning on any type of encounter, the creature's mouth. But the mouth
much less something dark in tone (it's a surprise to me). I feel appalling screech, so wild and
somewhat reluctant, but, overcoming my resistance, I decide
to follow this lead to see where it goes. I pull more strips and and her eyes glowed with a peculiar
get the following fragments:
dark eyes he saw her misery and the

recreation he formed a girl of exotic death for you!" cut her down as she

Earth or die."T'sais mounted her neck hangs an amulet of carved blue

for a service. I will not only guide useless against Laccodel's Rune." But

the river; yet she was a pleasant

danced the Dance of the Fourteen
From this, I can mold this raw material into a more
readable state. I do that by removing what I don't need,
replied T'sain, "and I love him adding words as needed, moving words from one fragment to
the other, etc. Some fragments may end up being
and her eyes glowed with a peculiar transformed completely, having served their purpose as the
death for you!" cut her down as she seed of an idea. This is all OK.

16
© 2020 Alex Yari / Little Dreamer
 In its final form, I've decided to present it as if a game
master was addressing me directly (because I also find this Happy Gaming!
immersive). First, I establish what my character was doing
up to the point they noticed the animal (I've used double With these tools at your disposal you now have more
slashes "/" to show where the fragments were joined): options to add to your bag of solo gaming tricks. I hope that
you will find these as useful as I have!
You're lying on your bedroll enjoying the view of
the stars // and listening to the pleasant sounds of a If you have any questions about this or any other solo
nearby brook // when suddenly you spy the form of roleplaying topic, you're welcome to drop by our forum at
an exotic looking mare. /r/solo_roleplaying and our Discord server any time. You can
also find tons of other resources at the Solo Roleplaying wiki.
I can now decide whether I will try anything with the mare.
I like the suggestion of capturing her for a mount, so I decide
my character will do that even though they're a mage and not
a ranger. I decide to try and sneak up on her (using an RPG
system test), but my skill test fails. This is the result:

You attempt to sneak up on her to mount her and

the mare reacts // like she will either escape or die
trying. // She wasn't expecting you, and // an
appalling screech, wild and miserable escapes // the
creature's mouth. // Her dark eyes // glow with a
peculiar anger as if saying // "death for you!"

From here, I can attempt some sort of animal skill roll or

animal charming spell if I have them. If no other option, a Me
roll ("Do I capture her?"). Futhermore, if I had succeeded in
my previous sneak attempt, I would grant myself a fair bonus
to the test roll or a boost to the Me roll.
As you can see, this ideation tool helps you introduce
sequences you wouldn't think of otherwise, helping to keep
some amount of surprise in your narration. You could almost
say that the narration builds itself, as the fragments paint
their own limited pictures which you can fit together like a
puzzle, and adapt as necessary.

© 2020 Alex Yari / Little Dreamer