An offline companion for Black Rock City
Cast the stones. Seek the hour. Roam the playa.
SEEK
The whole city, lit up by what's happening right now.
Every marker is a real event at a real camp, pulled from Black Rock City's own listings — each one wearing its actual photograph.
- Bright means soon. Markers glow harder the closer an event is to starting, and fade as it ends. Glance at the map and the bright things are the things happening now.
- Re-seek. Can't decide? The whole field ignites, the wind takes them one by one, and whichever ember survives is where you're going.
- Tonight's path. Three or four events chained into an actual evening — far enough apart in time to get there, close enough to walk.
- Medical, Rangers, Ice, Info, Toilets. Straight from Burning Man's published city survey — Rampart, the Emergency Services stations, Ranger HQ, the Arcticas and all 45 toilet banks.
- Where am I? Reads your GPS back as a playa address — "you're at 4:15 & F" — with no signal at all.
- Take me home. Set your camp once; one tap gives the direction and walking distance back from anywhere.
ROAM · THE ROAD
Turn-by-turn through a city with no signal.
Black Rock City is generated from about twenty numbers — a golden spike, an axis, twelve rings. Nothing downloads and nothing needs a connection, so the streets stand at their true bearings whether or not you have a single bar.
- Stand in the city and look around. The dust, the rings, the Man and the Temple, drawn at true scale and bearing. Drag to look, pinch to zoom in on a camp sign across the playa.
- Directions in landmarks, not street names. Nobody thinks "bear left onto G." They think keep the Man on your right — so that's what it says, with his bearing on screen from anywhere.
- Spoken aloud. The turn, the distance, and what the place physically looks like when you arrive — so the phone can stay in your pocket.
- Real camps, real photographs. Every lit board along the road is an actual camp at its actual address. Tap one for its card, and leave a note that hangs there all week.
- Wander. No destination at all. It picks somewhere with something on, walks you there, then picks the next one — so the night keeps moving without you deciding anything.
- Orient to your body. Turn on the compass and the city turns as you turn, so what's ahead on screen is what's ahead of you.
- It knows the hour. Day and night follow the real sun for this latitude — with a countdown to sunrise and the day of the burn.
ROAM · GETTING BACK
It remembers where you left the bike. Even when you don't.
Losing your bike is the classic way to lose a night out here. So Roam watches your speed: a real ride followed by a real stop means you got off — and it pins the spot without being asked.
- It saves first and tells you after. Missing the notification can't cost you the bike. The banner is an undo, not a gate.
- Named by the camp, not a coordinate. At 4am "outside Banana Hammocks" finds a bike. Six decimal places does not.
- Every stop is kept. If the guess is wrong, the earlier ones are still there — so a bad pin is a shortlist, not a dead end.
- Breadcrumbs. A faint trail drops behind you as you walk. Useful for finding your way back tonight — and by Sunday it's a map of your whole week.
- Retrace. Follows that trail backwards. Often the only way home from somewhere you drifted to, where no street route makes sense.
CAST
Three obsidian dice pick your corner of the city.
Roll the hour, the minute and the street — or touch a single stone and let it speak alone. The dice land on a real address, and the map flares where fate put you.
- Every address in the city. 2:00 through 10:00, Esplanade through K — plus The Man, The Temple, Deep Playa and Home.
- 397 challenge cards. Every roll can come with a dare. Rated G, PG, PG-13 and R, so it fits the room you're in.
- Write your own. Add dares for yourself, your friends, your camp, or the whole wandering city.
- Tune the range. Cap the latest hour and the farthest street, so the oracle never sends you somewhere you won't go.
- The Chronicle. Every roll and every dare you accepted, kept as a record of your week.
Seek. Roam. Cast.
The playa was always the oracle. This just carries it in your pocket.
PLAYA ORACLE — AN UNOFFICIAL COMPANION FOR BLACK ROCK CITY