Victor’s GM-less Oracle by Victor A. Gonzalez is a role playing game supplement published by Seemingly Jaded. The supplement is covered by the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) license.
The supplement is available as a six-page PDF from DriveThruRPG for $0.99 but was purchased at a reduced price as part of a special bundle. One page is the license and half a page is the Credits.
What is Victor’s GM-less Oracle? explains that, unlike typical GM oracles, this one is intended to set the tone, urgency or tension of a scene, so that players can improvise a scene.
Ask the Oracle shows how it works. This is a d6 oracle, with 1 being best outcome and 6 being the worst (though higher results are possible). There are two +1 modifiers that are removed after the worst outcome is rolled. These modifiers make the rolls not truly random; previous roles will influence the outcome.
Doing More with Victor’s GM-less Oracle considers how it can be used and it works as an effective enemy A.I. tool because it’s semi-predictable and features a dynamic curve. Other oracles are purely random and thus completely unpredictable.
Examples of use follow. The Horror Scenario Oracle has a lurking creature, which starts off causing fear, through appearing to attacking and vanishing. The Mythic Snowswept Folk and Creatures has oracles for three different creatures, showing how they attack, and the Mecha Combat A.I. has two different mecha, each of which also has stats.
Victor’s GM-less Oracle in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and is short enough that these are not needed. The text formatting ranges quite a bit and appeared to be free of errors. There are a number of pieces of stock art. Presentation is okay.
At its heart, this is a very simple supplement, with the core being the oracle and the explanation. The examples do have some use in demonstrating how the oracle would work in different situations. Victor’s GM-less Oracle is a decent enough oracle and can be found by clicking here.
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