Reworked THW Yes/No Oracle

If you're unfamiliar with the term, in solo gaming circles an oracle is just a random method to generate an answer to a question. The simplest and most universal form is the yes/no oracle—exactly what it sounds like. You ask a question, and the oracle gives you a yes or no answer.

For example, if your character wakes up in an unfamiliar room, you might ask the oracle "Is the door locked?". Then you assess the odds based on context. If the previous encounter was a fight, it's likely your character is being held prisoner, but if it was just a night spent carousing... probably not.

Note that this is not new technology (just formalised terminology); GMs have been doing this in "regular" RPGs for a long time:

Player: "Is there a balcony close enough to jump to?
GM who hadn't prepped for this: "Hm, there probably is. Let's say, on a 3 or higher. (rolls a 3) Yep, but it'll be a tough jump."

Second thing, Two Hour Wargames. They're a small publisher most famous for their Chain Reaction system and the various wargames it powers. They have been doing solo and co-op miniature wargames and RPG-lite games (now sometimes termed adventure wargames) before it was cool. In fact, Ivan Sørensen was an avid 5150 player before he designed his own solo sci-fi games.

THW games often already straddle the line between RPG and miniature game, but with the inclusion of a universal oracle, it becomes even easier to play it like a "proper" solo RPG. Someone posted one on the THW forum, although I learnt of it in this actual play report (which you might prefer as PDFs can only be downloaded by members).

I figured I could restate it in a more concise way while putting my own spin on it, so here it goes. If you don't know any THW titles, keep in mind that "pass Xd6" means how many dice are lower than or equal to the target number.

Any time you have a yes/no question, you may ask the oracle. Figure out the odds, then roll 2d6 against the target number (4 for likely, 3 for 50/50, and 2 for unlikely).

• pass 2d6 with doubles: Extreme Yes!
• pass 2d6: Yes
• pass 1d6 with even: Yes, but...
• pass 1d6 with odd: No, but...
• pass 0d6: No
• pass 06 with doubles: Extreme No!

Okay, so I replaced "Yes, and..." and "No, and..." results with Extreme Yes and No. This is largely just a terminology thing; I am quite comfortable with the Mythic GM Emulator's Fate Chart, and it happens to use these words.

Second, I changed the pass 1d6 result so that no re-roll is necessary. Of course, now the chances of Yes, but and No, but results aren't equal, but I personally see no problem with it. For an unlikely yes answer, 1 is a "No, but" and a 2 is a "Yes, but". A 50/50 increases this with one possible "No, but" on a 3 (which is still an improvement as the "but" part offers a consolation, and likely adds yet another "Yes, but" on a 4.

You could add "extremely likely" odds with a target number of 5 and nigh impossible with 1, but they would almost never surprise you anyway. Of course, I almost included them above just because I like symmetry.

The Underappreciated Combat Table of Barbarian Prince

Barbarian Prince is a great little game from 1981. James Maliszewski over at Grognardia posted a short retrospective in 2011, and in 2020 Anne from DIY and Dragons wrote an excellent three-part analysis (Map and Layout; Main Menu; Characters, Followers, Encounters, and Combat). It has been recently on my mind partly because of the Drifter series (see my review of the first game here) and a four-part actual play series by the Lone Adventurer.

Today I only want to look at one specific aspect of Barbarian Prince: the combat result table.

The gist of it is this: roll 2d6, add your Combat score, subtract the enemy's Combat score, apply modifiers if any, and consult the chart below to see how many wounds the attack inflicts.

taken directly from Anne's part 3 post linked above

Anne points out how the wording in the original rules is confusing and how the table above makes no logical sense. The Lone Adventurer criticises the rule for a similar reason. I didn't go looking, but I imagine other people being baffled by the above table.

However, this table is actually pretty ingenious. Let me show you a table of the average expected damage results arranged by final modifier to the 2d6 roll.

The first column shows the final result; next to it you can see how many wounds that roll inflicts upon an enemy. The columns after that alternate between showing the percentage chance of a result (given the final modifier noted on the first line) and the expected damage. The bottom two lines show the average expected damage per attack based on the final dice modifier as well as the percentage chance of inflicting at least 1 wound (i.e. the chance of hitting).

As you can see, the average chance to hit steadily increases (up until it plateaus at 83.34%, while also retaining the increase in average damage). The way the table is set up allows the chance to hit
(basically) to follow a gradual progression whereas if it was a standard 2d6 roll (something like 2d6+mods vs a target number), the progression would be much steeper.

Of course, whether the added granularity and hard-capped accuracy is worth having a chart is something we may disagree with; I can at least point out how deliberate the numbers are, and the fact that such granularity can be achieved on a 2d6 roll is just interesting to me in and of itself.

Review: Four Against Darkness

Disclaimer: Note that some of the links below are affiliate links (meaning I get a small percentage of the sale without extra cost to you or the publisher).

In 2023, we are truly spoiled when it comes to dungeon crawling. A plethora of games focus on or have a robust system dedicated to delving the deeps, from computer games to board games and RPGs. There have been many solo options, but the pandemic really helped developers new and old to find a market starved for the strange alchemy of killing monsters, avoiding traps, and finding treasure — like the subject of today's review, Four Against Darkness.

Review: The Drifter

Disclaimer: Note that some of the links below are affiliate links (meaning I get a small percentage of the sale without extra cost to you or the publisher).

Last year I only played a handful of RPG sessions overall (about 10, according to my notes). However, in addition to picking up solo wargames and painting miniatures as a new hobby, I also played a fair amount of solitaire board games. Some of these were rules-light thematic games (mostly of the roll-and-write variety), while others were of the more involved, almost RPG-lite kind. I slowly intend to write about a few of these games, starting with The Drifter, an interesting paragraph-based hexcrawling game in the vein of Barbarian Prince.