Cledonomancy: Divination through interpreting random remarks, statements or events.

The premise of this jam is simple—rather than using more "pure" randomizers (dice, cards, etc.) or fully deterministic mechanics, create a game which uses real-life external "random" events (eavesdropping, license plates, weather patterns, passages from poetry books, objects found on the sidewalk, etc.) to determine some primary element of the game (action success or failure, character statistics, random encounters, equipment, reflection prompts, etc.)—a game in which you and the world become the randomizer.

I've made a few games in this vein—Creature's dream mechanic includes a few instances where the outcome of a dream depends on specific external conditions or player actions, and Fugitive Names is all about using random signs and overheard conversations to construct a magical repertoire. Outside of my work, physical games like Field Notes 23 and You Can't Make An Omelette, and even computer games like CentoQuest and non-RPGs like TikTok's Draw Your Monster Challenge, make use of similar design elements in a number of interesting ways.

Cledonistic game design opens up a lot of interesting questions—How can you prevent players from (or encourage them to try) gaming the system? What possibilities are available when a game's oracle has no rigid structure? How could a structure be imposed, and when should it be? How are games shaped by player interaction with the world outside the "magic circle"? How is that outside world shaped by it?—and it's those questions (and more, of course!) that I invite y'all to explore with this jam.

Rules:

1. Your game should include at least one cledonistic mechanic, and it should play a core role in gameplay.
   1. While they don't fall quite under the strictest definitions of cledonomancy, bibliomantic/shufflemantic/other similar mechanics (using randomly chosen passages from a book, songs from an album, etc.) and mechanics that rely on player actions that can succeed or fail but don't use typical randomizers (Creature's "call an old friend, take a Free Entry if they pick up" dream mechanic, for example) are also fair game.
2. Your game can include other random or deterministic mechanics, so long as this first requirement is met.
3. Hacks, supplemental material, and system-agnostic mechanics are welcome!
4. Own the rights to what you submit, and keep things non-bigoted.