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Oblique and Oracles |
| 2022-04-15 |
Oblique and Oracles
Elethorn GM has been going through his Legend of Tsukikara (fr) solo play and one of his tools mesmerized me. I did not realize immediately that it was a card and it was simply labelled Muses et Oracles. I initially thought it was a more complex tool but it was a simple stack of cards.
I have the Oblique Strategies application based on Brian Eno's cards on my phone, and "Each card contains a gnomic suggestion, aphorism or remark which can be used to break a deadlock or dilemma situation".
Muses And Oracles is more content than strategy. I learned that they were selling the cards and I ordered them. I haven't used them yet, but I am sure they'll be more useful than my staring at Tarot cards or clicking my Oblique Strategies instance.
The cards are in French but can be ordered in Germany or the USA. They come in five colour themes. There are 240 cards, they can be ordered as standard cards with a decorative card back, or recto-verso, so it cuts the stack to 120 cards.
The cards borders sport 10 keywords, the point you pick the card at is supposed to determine which keyword is selected. If that is impractical, simply roll 1d10. If I roll a 3 with the card on the right, then the keyword is "suffocation".
On top of the card, just above the 1 to 5 stars (1d5), is the omen. It's "Yes", "No", "Yes and...", "Yes but...", "No and...", or "No but...".
The illustration is pure visual suggestion. The guide suggests drawing three cards and weaving a story with the three illustrations.
The one to five stars may be used as a 1d5 or as a reaction roll. Left of the stars is the direction icon, wind direction, threat direction, ...
Below the stars are the verbs. The first of them is a more general verb, while the two others are more specific.
They are followed by location, concept, object, weather (with the small cloud). The small heart flags the sentiment, while the question mark signals the disposition.
Sentiment and dispostion can be used for NPCs, as well as the apparence, motivation, traits, secret, and relation that follow.
Below the relation are four adjectives.
Finally there are the dice results, d2 (a go stone, black or white), d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20, and a d3 (+, -, or =, à la Fate). There is also the card number (makes it a d240).
I am sure I can find other ways to combine those various elements to come up with answers and suggestions that will be useful in my games.
I'm very happy with this deck of Muses et Oracles cards, but I am still a little jealous of Xaosseed and his Izirions West Marches Location Deck.
