What's New
Here are the most recent additions to the website. Because of the way this page is generated many of the links won’t work correctly so go to the actual article by clicking on the title.
The Latest Article
Godot Oracle Engine
You may have seen the python version of this which was based on a tkinter interface. It worked fine but looked like something from the early days of computing. I was keen to make use of Godot to create a much more user-friendly version which could be deployed on Linux and Windows. You can find out all about it here, and use the links below to download the files.
In case you haven’t seen the previous article, or have no idea what value a Godot Oracle Engine could possibly have, I have included the relevant sections from the previous article below.
What the Oracles are For?
Whenever I’m writing a story, I like to refer to oracles from time to time to throw in a bit of randomness and just generally make the story less smooth going for the protagonists. This way I’m not at risk of creating a contrived story with convenient happenings and events. Prior to creating this tool, I would have a pile of solo roleplaying rules and a selection of dice on hand. I would think about my question and the context surrounding the situation, roll a dice or two, and consult the various oracle tables. Having this Godot tool is quicker and easier as well as allowing much bigger word lists.
There are two oracles in the tool. On the left is the Yes/No Oracle, and on the right, the Deeper Meaning Oracle.
The Yes/No Oracle
If you frame your question to require a “Yes” or “No” answer, then you can use the Yes/No Oracle. Select the likelihood that your answer will be “Yes” using the drop down, then press the Consult the Oracle button. The oracle will display its answer which will be one of; “Absolutely Yes, and …”, all the way down to “Absolutely No, and …” Here is the list of possible answers and how you interpret them.
| Yes, and … | An exceptionally good “yes”. This is a “yes” with an added benefit. |
| Yes | The expected result is true. |
| Yes, but … | The expected result is true, but there is a minor problem. |
| No, but … | The result is the opposite to what is expected, but there is some positive aspect to it. |
| No | The result is the opposite to what is expected |
| No, and … | The result is that things haven’t turned out as expected, and even worse, there is an added sting in the tail. |
Example: I have written a story where the main character is careening down a street in a shopping trolley and there is a sharp bend in the road ahead. On the inside corner there is a steep earth bank rising above the road, and on the other side there is a guard rail, and beyond that a big drop into a swamp. While I could dictate what happens, I like a add a bit of serendipity or disaster into my stories so it doesn’t end up looking contrived. I consult the Yes/No Oracle, with the question in my mind “Does the character make it around the curve safely?” I assign the likelihood of success as Unlikely. I am being kind. I could have selected Very Unlikely or Nearly Impossible. Pressing the button yields the answer “Yes, but…” I interpret that as the character somehow manages to lean the shopping trolley in such a way that they successfully manage to get around the corner but now they’re facing an on-coming car.
The Deeper Meaning Oracle
The Deeper Meaning Oracle can be used to introduce more information about a scene, or a character’s behaviour. Consulting this oracle will yield two words which are interpreted based on the context. Interpret the words based on what you know of your world, your character, and the story. It may be that you can’t get any meaning from it, in which case, press the button again.
The oracle pairs are selected using the two drop downs.
Example: While planning the story “Love is in the Air”, I wanted to know why the research station the crew of the Addington were investigating, had been vacated. This was a perfect question for an oracle. In this case I used the Action and Theme oracles from the Starforged science fiction solo roleplaying game rules.
The results were; Action: Falter and Theme: Poverty. In the context it was easy to interpret this as the station had been abandoned because the researching funding had dried up. This meant that the station had also been stripped of valuable or easily portable equipment by the research organisation.
Using Your Own Custom Oracle Word Lists
I have made it so that you can load your own oracles into the Deeper Meaning Oracle. The Oracle_Word_Listsv0.txt file in the lists directory is simply a .csv file with the oracle word lists in columns. There is no limit to how many words you put in your lists, but you will need to put the word count into the second row of the file.
The word lists included, are from my A Goblin Alone solo roleplaying rules I created as part of the Goblin Errands gamejam on Itch.io.
Download the Godot Oracle Engine
The Linux and Windows binaries have been zipped up and uploaded to Box.com. Both are about 25Mb in size.
Unzip them whereever you like. In the zips you will find an executable binary file, a .pck file and a directory called lists which contains the oracle word lists file. To run the executable, you may need to make it executable. I haven’t tested it on a Windows machine.
The files and directory structure will look a bit like this;
Obviously, the Windows version contains a couple of .exe files instead of the linux .x86_64` file.
Linux Version
Windows Version
You can also find it on Itch.io if you’d prefer.
The Godot Oracle Engine and Oracle Word Lists are released as donationware on itch.io which most people interpret as free. The software and word lists presented here are copyright ©Hamish Trolove 2025. No guarantees, As is, where is, and all that sort of stuff.
That’s about it. Have fun using this.
The Most Recent Articles
-
Sources of Inspiration
I love learning about where people get ideas and inspiration from. To prompt a good discussion within the Hurunui Writers’ Group, we looked at sources of inspiration.
Read More .... -
Dorothy Higginson's Huge Pear
One of the topics the Hurunui Writers’ Group looked at was writing memoirs and historical fiction. Personally, I am not a fan of memoirs and certainly not interested in writing one. One of the challenges for the session was digging into Paper Past, the New Zealand archive of historical papers, finding a story there, and creating our own fiction around that. I found a story about large pears …
Read More .... -
Building Emotional Depth in Writing
Following on from the article on Character Development, here is a related article about infusing your writing with emotional depth.
Read More .... -
El Fumo - Wreck Runner
Out of amusement I bought a copy of “Space Aces - Wreck Runners”, one of Stephen Hans’ “Space Ace” series of role playing games. The whole notion brought a smile to my face. It has some rather clever mechanisms too. Anyway, I was keen to have a crack at playing it and capturing it in a commentary, not unlike the WWF commentary.
Read More .... -
Creation, Care, and Feeding of Your Characters
This article lightly covers the topic of character creation and development to help you create characters with depth. Making a new character is fun – it’s like meeting someone new.
Read More .... -
Python Oracle Engine
I often use Oracles to help introduce a natural variety into my stories. This avoids them becoming contrived, and also provides a few surprises for me as I create the story. Often I would write with a pile of Solo RPG rule and dice beside me. Sometimes, though, I need an answer quicker, and so creating a coded oracle to look up oracle lists seemed like a good python exercise. This is where this project arose from.
Read More .... -
Writing Flawed Secondary Characters
I recognised a weakness in my own writing which was writing characters that were too much like myself. For the topic in March 2025, the Hurunui Writers’ Group discussed writing flawed secondary and background characters. Often I capture articles from around the web to put my own topic articles together, but in this case I struggled to find articles on flawed secondary characters, so I had to create this one based on creating flawed primary characters.
Read More .... -
Romance in a Short Story
These are the notes on writing romance in a short story created as a handout for the Hurunui Writers’ Group. While the rules are the same as writing romance in a novel, the settings and time-frames are all much smaller which makes it that much more challenging.
Read More ....