Seen many out there. I am ok with paying for a good one.

My top five are Mythic GM Emulator ($), CRGE/UNE (pwyw), Gamemaster Apprentice decks ($, several themes), Four Houses in Chaos (free, tarot powered), and Zero Dice (free, dice/icon generator).  I've had fun with all five of these. The reason why I don't offer a single choice is that they each offer a different play experience.  Disclaimer, I made the last two.

* Mythic is kind of the gold standard since it is very complete with good writing, but that makes it bulky and procedure heavy for some players.  System agnostic.  Use a Fate chart for probabilities and generic tables for random details.

* The Conjectural Roleplaying GM Emulator and the Universal NPC Emulator are fine tools written by the late Zach Best.  System agnostic.  Less heavy than Mythic.

* The GMA cards are like a bunch of huge colorful tables that are focused on a specific theme such as the Age of Sail or Cyberpunk.  They offer a wide variety of cool details and random values in a portable format.

* Four Houses in Chaos is my stab at the solo oracle thing.  With the standard Ryder-White deck it is a versatile tool for numerical and open ended questions.  It also focuses on faction play, dramatic results, and can really benefit from themed / inspiring decks.  I also like the random mechanics of deck handling since each draw changes the probabilities.

* Zero Dice is a free web page that is part dice roller and icon generator.  It is extremely free form with almost no instructions.  But, if you want something that feeds your muse and you like the interpretation, it can do the trick with a minimum of fuss/mechanics.  No table look ups so it is a 'one page' solution. 

Oh, if you are a dice maven and the idea of icons as a muse/oracle interests you, check out Story Cubes.  There are many sets available and they'll do the icon thing without the need of a browser. 

Note to self, combine the Scooby Doo and Batman sets and play a Saturday Morning Cartoon game.  :-)

And, are you aware of the https://www.reddit.com/r/Solo_Roleplaying ?  It one of the few non-toxic RPG groups on reddit and there are a ton of helpful people there.

I used to suggest Mythic till they jumped on the edition treadmill. Its a really robust system and you can run it with the basics, or all the bells and tables.

Bemusingly someone made a system for playing 5e D&D modules. Elminsters Guide to solo Adventuring think its called. A friend has it and st a glance its a compast little system for figuring out DCs on the fly and running modules meand for a group, using just one PC. Its only like a buck on OBS.

Two questions:
1. Are there any good player simulators (rather than GM emulators)?
2. Has anyone tried using Mythic along with AI? Mythic (and other oracles) offers many vague answers, so I'm thinking that AI could provide suggestions on how to interpret the results.

Well when it comes to Oracles, you can't get better quality than the Delphic Oracle, but she's been MIA/Out-Of-business for a couple thousand years so...

Not sure why you need one to play an RPG though.

Before paying for an oracle, I suggesting trying out this free online one:

https://www.rpgsolo.com/

It also has examples of other people's play, which are good to learn from.

Quote from: Socratic-DM on December 14, 2024, 01:15:56 PMWell when it comes to Oracles, you can't get better quality than the Delphic Oracle...

I heard that the temple took their operations private and opened up a fortune cookie shop.

https://www.astrology.com/compatibility/fortune-cookie.html

These are all helpful. Thank you. What about AI? Does anyone use it to play? I set one up using the free Chat GPT, and it did not keep things consistent at all. It was still fun, but in a very weird way.

I like the one in Kogarashi/True-D6 (essentially the same game).   

It's a simpler oracle.  It just uses 1D6, and answers multiple questions.  Yes/No, NPC attitude, direction, and half of the oracle are dungeon related.  Trap types, room type, number of exits, and what the next room is.

Only Kogarashi has this, but it has a table of 36 adventures aka make a D66 roll.  True-D6 lacks this table.

Both games also give a PC a few bonuses for solo play, like extra HP, and a companion like a dog or a spirit. 

I also like lots of random tables, and the best one for that is Maze Rats.

Quote from: mcobden on December 16, 2024, 05:32:15 PMThese are all helpful. Thank you. What about AI? Does anyone use it to play? I set one up using the free Chat GPT, and it did not keep things consistent at all. It was still fun, but in a very weird way.

I've played around with it and had fun.  Cyborg Prime is working on a system to give the AI a more persistent memory for games.  It's not a GM replacement, but a handy tool for lists and descriptions.  If you feed it constrained questions, it tends to stay on focus, so better as an oracle.

I know it has been recommended and I just want to add in how good Mythic GME is. I do all sort of experiments with it and it has great roleplaying games design philosophy.