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A Breakdown of Story Inspiration Systems

Illustration for A Breakdown of Story Inspiration Systems

Part 1: Why Am I Doing This?

I am writing a ttrpg Salvage Aces which I hope to be playable with a GM or GM-less or solo. For the system to work as a Solo and GM-less game, I need to include some tools to enable that play. I know this is done with random tables and mechanics to generate ideas and twists. However, I’m unsure what systems I want to include in Salvage Aces, so I’m reviewing the tools I have on hand that do this type of thing.

I limited myself to things I own or that are free. The tools/games I looked at are: Mythic Gamemaster Emulator, Journey, Ironsworn, Word Mill Adventure Crafter, Push SRD, MUNE, OSR Solo, Motif Story Engine.

I’ve decided to do the list in order of the amount I have to say.

Journey

Journey by Luke Miller at Greycastle Press is a short solo game about exploring and traveling through a setting. You chart a course, with a die roll deciding how many different sites you visit. Another die roll decides the type of site you visit, and another further die roll tells you how many details you’ll discover about that site. You then pull cards equal to the number of details and the cards give you inspiration for the detail and the site. So play is:

  • Roll to determine number of sites
  • Roll to determine type of site
  • Roll to determine number of details
  • Pull cards to inspire details and build the site
  • Fill all this info inside your travel journey

The suits of the cards give you some modifiers to help spice up the detail. This results in things like: “You’re visiting an architectural site, you should explore the signage or displays there, the displays somehow evoke a strong emotion from you.”

Thoughts

Because Salvage Aces is a card based game, I wanted to make sure that I included a generator that used cards. Journey was the only game I found in my library that fit that bill to some extent. There isn’t a ton of “story” generation, but there are questions and prompts to start the imagination.

While generators often use phrases and words, Journey uses questions. It’s different in that way.

Push SRD

This is a short SRD by Cezar Capacle that gives you the shape of the game, but not really a whole game. I’ve written a game in the SRD recently so this was my jumping off point. The Push SRD has two systems that power its solo play, a yes/no oracle, and prompt tables.

Yes/No Oracle

In this yes or no oracle, there is a likely and unlikely outcome that you choose before you roll. You roll a d6 and its the unlikely outcome on a 5 or 6 and on a 4 or lower its the likely outcome.

The system also has a push your luck option, that lets you roll another d6 to hopefully get the unlikely answer here. However if you roll over a 7 total, some misfortune happens.

Like all oracles of this nature, this is the system that you use to answer questions like, “Is there another way out of this room?” or “Does the barkeeper keep a shotgun under the bar?”

Prompt Tables

Because this is a SRD, there are no actual prompt tables, however a full game would have a set of 6 d6 tables with evocative phrases and situations to help push the plot onwards. These tables are rolled on after a scene is complete and are supposed to help create the next scene. A scene is set up as following:

  • Roll on the prompt tables
  • Discuss what the prompt means for this table
  • Establish the challenge the characters are acting against
    • There is a secondary table for challenges
  • Describe the scene as the characters see it
  • Play out the scene
    • Ask any questions you would normally ask the GM to the yes/no oracle
  • When the scene is done, begin again

Thoughts

I feel this might be the bare minimum for a story inspiration system. From here we only get more complex. Thats not to say this is bad, it operates well in the game I designed with this SRD. If I can describe my system with the same brevity and clarity, I would be incredibly happy. Due to the reliance on the prompt tables, this system could run out of new results quickly.

OSR Solo

This is a very short solo engine by Peter Rudin-Burgess meant for OSR titles. OSR Solo has a yes/no oracle, introduces plot twists, and has a system for “complex questions”.

Yes/No Oracle

This yes/no oracle introduces some additional options for the result. You roll a d6, low numbers are no’s, high numbers are yes’s, but in addition you have answers like, “1: No, and…” or “4: Yes, but…”. This gives the answers a bit more variety. This also lets you add a +/-1 to account for differences in likelihood.

Plot Twists

When you roll on the yes/no oracle you also roll an additional d6, a result of 1 on this dice means there is a plot twist. If you get a plot twist you roll both dice again.

The first die gives you the subject, the second die gives you an action. This results in phrases like, “An NPC appears” and “A physical event hinders the hero”.

“Complex Questions”

In addition to the yes/no oracle and plot twists, OSR Solo has a rumors and gossip system. Much like the plot twist, you roll two dice to form a short phrase resulting in things like, “Uncovering a foe or traitor” or “Opposing old lore or magic”.

The header to the section reads, “Complex Questions”, but I’m not sure the answers work for many questions outside of rumors and gossip. However, it works very well for that.

Thoughts

Having degrees of success on the yes/no oracle is an interesting inclusion. This allows for even a simple question to introduce some uncertainty and new information. Plot twists give even more uncertainty to the oracle, however, the subject/action lists are only 6 items long and somewhat specific, they could get repetitive rather quickly. The “complex questions” solution I felt was more of a rumors table than a true solution to questions that don’t fit a yes/no bill.

Not mentioned above, but OSR Solo also suggests keeping some lists of things like what scenes have occurred, a list of NPCs, and a list of loose ends to help tie everything back together. Which I feel may be helpful in generating ideas in a solo game.

MUNE

This is another short system at about 5 pages long, and due to its use of DM is probably meant for use with DnD systems. MUNE from the website Empai Tirkosu has a yes/no oracle, interventions (plot twists), and portents. The system also includes a small table for NPC interactions and tips for solo play in general like automating what you can and ignoring the generator when it doesn’t make sense.

Yes/No Oracle

Much like OSR Solo, we have a d6 table for the yes/no answer and options like “No, and…” and “Yes, and…”. The change here occurs with the likelihood options. While OSR Solo has static +/-1, MUNE instead has you roll the d6 with advantage (2d6 keep the highest) for likely answers or disadvantage for unlikely answers.

Interventions

Whenever a 6 is rolled on a yes/no oracle question, you gain an intervention point. When you gather 3 an intervention occurs and you start at 0 again. The type of intervention is determined with a d6 roll giving answers like, “new entity”, “advance plot”, or “entity positive”. These interventions introduce new elements to the story, “new entity’’, or bring about a change in the story, “advance plot” or “entity positive” (something good happens to an entity in game).

Portents

I’m including this because it’s part of the description of the system, but it’s not really included in the pdf. Essentially, to get inspiration for the interventions, or to answer more complex questions, you can use a short sentence generator or random word generator to inspire you. The pdf doesn’t give any tables for this, but it does link to some websites that do randomly generate words/phrases.

Thoughts

MUNE and OSR Solo are very similar. The major difference is in the table contents and their approach to more complex questions. Portents are more flexible and evocative than the small table that OSR Solo provides. However, portents aren’t even truly provided in the pdf itself, it’s an outside generator. I’m not saying the system doesn’t work, but I do have to be at the computer with access to those websites or something similar to fully utilize the system.

Ironsworn

Ironsworn by Shawn Tomkin is a rpg that is playable with a GM, GM-less, or solo (just what I’m trying to do!). It’s a fantasy game but with sort of darker themes and a viking-esque flair. I’ve played some of the game solo and it has a bit of a PbtA feel, but it is for sure its own system. Ironsworn leverages its moves, which power all the mechanics of the game to push the players to use the oracles it provides. The primary things Ironsworn provides for story generation are progress tracks and progress moves, pay the price and ask the oracle moves, and twists.

Pay the Price/Ask the Oracle Moves

In a game powered by a miss/weak hit/strong hit system, you have to make sure that the players have plenty of ways to deal with a miss and weak hit to prevent the game from getting stale. Many times a weak hit or miss will require the player to Pay the Price, and make some decisions. You can either choose a logical, negative outcome, or you can roll on some tables. One is specific to the Pay the price move, giving results like “The current situation worsens” or “You are separate from something or someone”.

The other table is the Ask the Oracle move. This Ask the Oracle move is Ironsworn’s yes or no system. It’s a d100 roll and accounts for different probabilities of a yes answer, having a sliding scale. For instance if it’s likely the answer is yes, you have to roll over a 26 while if its a small chance you have to roll over a 91.

In addition to this yes or no option, Ironsworn provides a slew of additional oracles that can be invoked under this move. I’m going to highlight the Action/Theme oracles. Its a set of two d100 tables that spits out results like “Defeat Vengeance” or “Gather Spirit” which are meant to act similar to portents in MUNE (though it’s maybe inspired from event tables in Mythic GME instead of something else) to spark new and fresh ideas.

There are also things to generate names, locations, and adventure seeds in the form of problems within settlements.

Progress Tracks/Progress Moves

Characters often undertake quests and journeys in the system that are monitored using progress tracks. Each time the characters successfully do an action that pushes the quest or journey further, they get to mark a certain amount in these tracks. When the character wants to complete the quest or journey they roll against the marks in their track. Their success in the quest or journey is a result of this roll, introducing one last piece of uncertainty in the plot of that quest or journey. This feeds back into the pay the price and ask the oracle moves as well, telling you if you’re unsure what went wrong or how things turn bad to ask the oracle.

Twists

This twist system kicks in whenever a match is rolled on two of the dice that are rolled for every move in the game. This twist feeds back into the oracles in which you can use the oracles to generate the idea of what this twist is. I have issues remembering to check for these, so I hardly ever spotted them in my play of Ironsworn.

Thoughts

I really like Ironsworn and it does a wonderful job of powering the solo play that it wants. You play a character, traveling about the Ironlands, settling the town’s problems as best you can, trying your best to stay alive and deal with the world. Everything is really tight and interlocks. The way the quests and journeys are mechanized does mean that characters can spend a lot of time on a process, only to have the whole thing crumble, which is not necessarily a bad thing but I know I felt poorly about failing a quest at the end due to a particularly bad die roll.

The way the moves feed into oracles and the way they shape the story itself with their results is very nice. I’m not sure it’s something I could succeed in including within Salvage Aces though, as I only have one “move” and options for misses and weak hits need to make sense for a wide variety of situations. Adding a statement to minor complications like, “if you’re unsure ask the oracle” wouldn’t be beyond the question though.

Motif Story Engine

I did break my rule of not buying anything for Motif Story Engine by Peter Casey. I could swear that I owned this somewhere at some point in its life. I couldn’t find it so I bought it again on DriveThru. Motif’s core system uses 3d6. With each dice in the series representing an answer on different tables. Motif’s primary story inspiration systems are the 3d6 rolls, and its patches. Motif is billed as a very customizable system, giving you tons of options to build your own engine.

3d6 Rolls

The primary rolls you do in Motif are 3d6s. Each dice is a different aspect of the answer.

  • The first dice is the yes or no of the answer
  • The second is the degree of the answer
  • The third is the flavor dice

This oracle answers yes or no questions, but in a way that has plenty of variety. The secondary dice give additional options. The first dice is similar to the yes or no in MUNE or OSR Solo. The second further solidifies how big or small/major or minor the yes or no is. These two combined give you answers like a “powerful yes” or a “weak no” that could also be interpreted in other ways.

The third dice is the “flavor” dice. This dice’s results will vary based on the type of question asked. It can be a scale of how favorable the result is for the players, or a scale of how weird the result is. Everything with Motif is a scale from nothing to everything.

Patches

Motif is the most versatile system I read through. It gives tons of options that you can opt into and out of. Motif calls these systems patches, and you can install or remove them as you please to suit the game you’re playing. I’ve picked a few important ones to me out, but there are others.

Twists and Turns

This is a system to introduce more uncertainty to the game. Whenever you roll on the yes/no oracle and you roll doubles on the first two dice and an odd number on the third it institutes a turn. This turn is a small shift and change in the scene or subplot that is occurring just then. Motif provides a small table for this as well to help flesh out the turn.

In addition to this small shift, every 3 turns you trigger a twist. This twist is a major change to the main story or plot and may occur then or just after the scene. There is also a table for these twists to help decide what it is.

Like all the other twist generators, this is meant to introduce uncertainty and prevent things from getting dull.

Tension

Tension is meant to cause the uncertainty to build over time, to ratchet up the tension and stakes with each scene until a climax is reached. In Motif, after each scene you roll to determine if any tension is added, and how much. As tension goes up, you should increase the stakes of the scene. Once you get up to 6 tension, a climax of the tension is reached. The story should move on to another chapter or level of the story.

In addition to that narrative effect, when using the tension patch, at the beginning or crux of each major scene you roll a d6, if the result is lower than the tension you add a minor complication or distraction to the scene.

Chaos

This patch ties in with the tension patch and is supposed to make results weirder the higher the tension is. However, the only mechanical effect I saw is rolling at a random point in the scene to see if something weird happens.

Mysteries

I’m always here to learn about a system to live out the detective solo game ideal. This system has you run the investigation as you would with the game you’re playing. You gain clues as you go, with each clue having a number value for how useful it is, clue points. Each level of an investigation has a required number of clue points to advance, with more elaborate mysteries requiring more clue points to advance through.

Motif provides many tables to roll on for this including three sets of 3d6 oracles.

The first is the mystery oracle, which sets you up for the generalities of the mystery, the second is the clue oracle which tells you information about any clues you find, and the last is the solution oracle which tells you all about the solution to the mystery that you found. I’ve left this vague as to me, it’s one of Motif’s selling points and I want to play around with it further.

Thoughts

Motif is general and broad in its approach. The core system has you roll 3d6, and sometimes only uses one or two of them. You also have to decide on the regular which table the third dice should have rolled on. The yes/no oracles and twist generators from all the other systems are there, it certainly works as it needs to. It does mean you roll less than you would for another system where you do a yes/no and then generate some other idea.

The twists and turns would be hard for me to watch for, and I feel they get forgotten frequently.

Mythic Game Master Emulator

Mythic GME by Tana Pigeon is by far the oldest system that I have. There is the emulator and the full rpg. I’m just talking about the Mythic GME here (even when I just call it Mythic). Mythic is the thing that people recommend first when you ask for a way to play any rpg solo. Mythic GME runs off of scenes, events, and lists to enable its solo play. It brings in a few tools to replace a GM including the fate chart, the chaos factor, and the events system.

The Fate Chart

The fate chart for Mythic is a variable yes/no answer generator. First, it has options for various levels of likelihood for answers (from very likely to impossible). Then it also has extremes on either side for “extreme yes or no” for each level of likelihood. This fate chart is used to answer most any question you would pose to a GM. The odds on this chart are also affected by the chaos factor, with higher chaos meaning more yes’s. This does mean to use the fate chart you need to reference the chaos factor and you need to decide the likelihood of your answers.

Chaos Factor

The chaos factor is a rolling stat that is tracked between each scene. At the start of play it’s at 5. At the end of each scene, the player either adds or removes one from the chaos factor. They add one if the characters were not in control and remove one if they were in control of the scene. This increasing factor changes the likelihood of yes answers on the fate chart, and increases the likelihood of the players planned scenes being altered or interrupted.

Events

Whenever doubles are rolled on a fate chart question, and the doubles are less than or equal to the chaos factor, a random event occurs. There is a random table for the event focus, things like introducing a new NPC or moving towards plot thread. On top of this there is a set of event meaning tables (action and subject) that produce things similar to Ironsworn’s Action/Theme oracle, “Recruit Energy”, “Deceive Death” and so on.

Altered/Interrupted Scenes

Whenever a scene ends, the next logical scene is lined up. However, before the scene starts, the player rolls a d10, and if the roll is less than or equal to the chaos factor, the scene is changed. It can be altered, changed in some way, or interrupted, the intended scene is usurped by a new event occurring. In either case, the player uses their logical choice, or uses the event meaning tables to figure out this change to the scene.

Lists

Mythic requires players to bookkeep a good bit. The chaos factor is tracked from scene to scene. The player has to update lists of characters and threads, plotlines and goals, from scene to scene. These lists are referenced in the random event focus and help guide the player in choosing future scene setups.

Thoughts

Mythic is the classic system for solo play and it for sure has everything it needs. There is a way to answer questions you’d ask a GM, there’s inspiration for complex questions, there’s a way to introduce uncertainty to your ideas as the player. When I use mythic I always find myself under utilizing the doubles/random even mechanics because I just miss them and forget to watch for it.

Word Mill’s Adventure Crafter

This is another Word Mill property, they’re the same people who publish Mythic GME. You can feel similarities but the Adventure Crafter is much newer, and not meant to replace a GM. Instead, it is meant to help build and flesh out an adventure for your game. I’m looking at this just to see what it does with plots. The Adventure Crafter by Tana Pigeon brings in some tools like themes, turning points, plot points and rollable lists.

Themes, Turning Points and Plot Points

In this system the player begins by choosing the theme priority for the game. These themes are kind of the “genre” of the game like action, tension etc. These are ranked, with higher priority themes showing up more often in the game.

These themes are used to generate the plot points durning the “scenes”, called turning points in this book. This name change is likely because of the intention to generate an adventure, not replace a GM. For each turning point a series of plot points are chosen. These plot points are rolled on an absolutely massive list of genre tropes and events. These are things like “People behaving badly”, “cryptic information from a known source”, or “chase”. These plot points are organized in a table with variable likelihood of occurrence due to the themes of the game. For instance the “people behaving badly” plot point only occurs in a turning point related to a social scene.

These plot points are evocative tropes and situations to help plan out the adventure. The priority list of themes helps keep the game tonally appropriate and focused.

Rollable Lists

When you start a new turning point, or when a plot point calls for it, you have to choose a plotline to apply it to. This is done by rolling on the plotlines list. This list starts off mostly empty with generic text on it indicating what to do when you roll that slot and it’s empty. So you may roll a 3 and get the prompt to “Choose logical plotline” which would indicate you should add a logical ongoing plotline to that slot. Each time you roll on the plotline list, you’re making new plotlines or reinforcing old ones. The more a plotline shows up on the plotline list, the more it will be rolled in game, making a bigger and bigger part of the game.

A similar list is made for characters, with additions being made as needed for plot points or plotlines. Again more important characters appear more often on the list, and therefore get rolled more frequently making them the focus of more turning points and plot points.

Thoughts

The bookkeeping here is higher than the Mythic GME, but that is likely because it’s meant to be used as a separate tool, though they do say it can be used as you go through the adventure. Plot points are a massive table, taking up several pages. If I used something like this I would have to lower the bookkeeping, and figure out how to reduce the size of the tables. The rollable lists of possible plotlines and characters is very interesting though. It introduces variability in a way other systems didn’t.

So What Am I Going to Use?

The answer is, I’m just not entirely sure yet. I like Mythic GME, the Adventure Crafter, and Ironsworn’s systems, however converting those mechanics into a card based realm might be a struggle. At the moment I’ve got a mix in mind, but I’m still likely to change this as I develop the system.

I’ll have a yes/no oracle, using black and red for 50/50 odds and a single suit for 75/25 odds.

I’ll also have a action/theme oracle with 52 options for each.

Finally, I’ll have a scene oracle. First, the player decides on the next logical scene, then they draw a card. This card determines if the scene is altered, the card is a clubs, or continues as intended, the card is any other suit. If the scene is altered, the value chooses which plot thread the alteration is related to.

A second card is drawn to select the theme with the suit and the plot point with the value of the card. Combined this gives you a plot thread, a theme, and a vague plot point to inspire you for the scene.

So this turned out way longer than I intended when I started. I apologize for a needlessly meandering review of things.

A reminder that posts like these are out 1 week earlier over on my patreon.