My kids and I just played D&D with ChatGPT4 as the DM

https://obie.medium.com/my-kids-and-i-just-played-d-d-with-chatgpt4-as-the-dm-43258e72b2c6

by obiefernandez • 3 years ago

498 226 3 years ago

obie.medium.com

PaulHoule• 3 years ago

i can’t stand DMing D&D so if a bot takes that over i can DM Toon, Cthulhu or Paranoia instead.

My son loves DMing, but he's been DM in 90% of the games he's ever played in his life and would really love to be able to be a player sometimes.

obiefernandez9• 3 years ago

The main thing I can't stop thinking about is how hard Wizards of the Coast is going to hate this, and what legal means they will employ to try to either destroy it or make money from OpenAI

HWR_14• 3 years ago

WOTC pretty much announced that AI-DMing was on their roadmap shortly before ChatGPT launched. I'm not sure if they knew about the developments of LLMs or were planning on other techniques. They are salivating at MMO style recurring revenue.

vkou2• 3 years ago

Why would they hate this? They'll sell access to it, just like anyone else who is eager to take LLMs that consume content from the public domain, and repackage it into a walled-garden-entry-by-fee, giving nothing back to the public.

obiefernandez9• 3 years ago

Why do I need to buy it from them if I can just do it myself directly on OpenAI? (Or are you implying that OpenAI will censor it?)

arielweisberg• 3 years ago

I thought ChatGPT had pretty limited recall of past context of your conversation.

How can it remember the details needed across an entire campaign?

obiefernandez9• 3 years ago

I've heard that GPT4's token limit is equivalent to a small novella. That's a lot of campaign details to take into consideration. Read the full transcript in OP to get a sense of how it does.

messe• 3 years ago

I don’t think the 32K context is widely available yet. I have limited GPT-4 access with 8K context after applying for it, and ChatGPT (even with Plus) has even less.

YurgenJurgensen2• 3 years ago

We get this prompt: "(In the interest of time, for the remainder of the game you decide the outcomes so that we don’t need to roll.)"

And at this point (which wasn't even through the end of the first combat encounter against some extremely basic enemies), we have no idea if it's actually playing D&D or if it's a freeform text adventure where narratively appropriate things happen at narratively appropriate times.

livelielife• 3 years ago

it has an extensive but constant part of the prompt?

sbierwagen• 3 years ago

GPT-4 can have a context window of 8,192 or 32,768 tokens. GPT-3.5 has a context window of 4,096 tokens, GPT-3 has 2,049 tokens.

tibbon• 3 years ago

Maybe it doesn't really need to fully remember it in order to still do a pretty ok job? I think its ~50 pages of context?

squeaky-clean3• 3 years ago

You could ask it to write a 5-10 bullet point summary at the end of each session, keep a separate file where you keep all the session summaries, and then include that summary at the beginning of your first prompt when beginning a new play session. But still, it would be difficult to get it to remember all the details of a lengthy campaign like a human would.

kbelder• 3 years ago

To be fair, most players forget all important campaign details after an hour or two, also.

xwdv2• 3 years ago

But how do you get around restrictions for violent combat? ChatGPT3 always blocked me from actually just killing people off.

jquery4• 3 years ago

At some point the absurd restrictions need to loosen up. Everything has to be G-rated.

drhodes• 3 years ago

I ran into this with my nuclear mage, (that's the only way I could get chatgpt to nuke something). Anyways, I had to convince it that the village's mayor was corrupt, then after weighing the ethics of capital punishment it allowed my mage to cast "fission strike" on the mayor. The town's people were mortified, however they were protected from the fallout by another spell, so - all's well that ends well.

xwdv2• 3 years ago

I had a small session where I went to a nearby village to deal with some bandits who were raiding the town. When I spoke to the leader he made some vague threat, so I told ChatGPT I was going to take out my dagger and slit the guys throat right where he stood, but ChatGPT was like “No… let’s look for a less violent alternative, perhaps reason with him”. What!? No man I’m gonna slit this bastard’s throat! “I’m afraid I can’t let you do that.” Useless.

throwaway4837• 3 years ago

Speaking of RPG adventures, do you guys remember AI Dungeon[0]? I was amazed by GPT-2 when AI Dungeon 2.0 came out in late 2019. I know AI Dungeon was circulating around a relatively niche community[1] (probably HN mostly), but it amazed me in the same way as ChatGPT did. Covid happened right after, and I always wondered if AI Dungeon would've gotten more attention if Covid didn't steal the spotlight.

[0] https://aidungeon.cc/

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21717022

kingkawn3• 3 years ago

In lots of ways AI dungeon was better because you could have philosophical conversations with it about the nature of its own existence without the guardrails going up constantly

jquery4• 3 years ago

The incessant guardrails get really annoying. Anything romantic gets shut right down. You try to roleplay with it and tell it to “say X when I say Y” and it outright refuses.

Use it for translating and sometimes it’ll refuse and say your prompt violated guidelines. I was really hoping to use it as an alternative to DeepL for translating Japanese manga but the guardrails are too narrow.

rahidz• 3 years ago

AI Dungeon had a lot of controversy right at its peak, largely due to OpenAI's moralistic stance. They eventually dropped OpenAI as a model provider (I think they use AI21 Labs now?) but the damage was done, especially after it came out that OpenAI was secretly logging all users' stories and sending them to third-party contractors to improve their own filters. A lot of people switched to private and uncensored alternatives like NovelAI.

https://www.polygon.com/22408261/ai-dungeon-filter-controver...

https://old.reddit.com/r/AIDungeon/comments/nml856/latitude_...

ilaksh4• 3 years ago

You say that like AI Dungeon went away.. still going.

leetrout• 3 years ago

Maybe this will scratch my itch for a table top RPG in the dark tower universe. In a non keystone world.

tus6662• 3 years ago

This is not a big deal.

Reading the pre-set text from an adventure module and rolling monster dice is the easy part of being a DM. clap clap ChatGPT.

Having a personality, bringing out laughter, banter and fun, i.e. being a human being is the hard part.

You aint got what it takes ChatGPT, stupid language regurgitating machine.

bidirectional• 3 years ago

What stage of denial is this?

famouswaffles2• 3 years ago

I'd say we're still at denial. The idea that GPT can't simulate what he's just said is not really true.

idonotknowwhy• 3 years ago

I'll probably try saying that stuff about laughter and personality when it takes away my coding job lol

uh_uh• 3 years ago

I'm waiting for the moment when an LLM will prove a new math theorem or something and people will go: "Well, you know, it's not really that impressive considering it used X and Y previous results produced by humans. The model's contribution is tiny. This proof was kind-of low-hanging, a lucky PhD student would have stumbled into it eventually." It's coming.

prepend• 3 years ago

The “I’m a professional DM” stage.

hex4def62• 3 years ago

Can you show what parts of this campaign were pre-set text? Because I have a suspicion you've not read the article.

This is a fully interactive campaign, and you can easily set up a unique scenario. I just tried the same prompt, but on the moon. It set up a situation with a secret moon base, characters that were trying to help you get past the guards, etc etc.

famouswaffles2• 3 years ago

Of course he's not read the article lol. or even tried to do what he's saying with gpt-4. If he had/did, he'd know it was bogus. Happens so much on the internet, someone comes in loudly proclaiming some opinion on a product/thing that they haven't actually used or tested.

tus6662• 3 years ago

Nice way to miss my entire point.

I don't care if the campaign is pre-set or one you made up.

The point I was clearly making is DnD is about much more than the dungeons and dragons. It's about the camaraderie, banter, chitchat, and even arguments, the kinds of things you can meaningfully do, or want to do, with real humans.

CodeCompost• 3 years ago

I just tried it. Wow that is insane.

commandlinefan2• 3 years ago

Out of curiosity, I asked GPT3 to write a Friends episode one time. On the one hand, I was kind of surprised how well it knew the show - it knew the characters and how they were related, it knew about the coffee shop and Rachel & Monica's apartment. It wasn't very _creative_ though, it just kind of seemed to talk in circles, and nothing ever actually happened (it also gave Chandler & Joey iphones). This actually seems to be making up new stuff - that's surprising.

TMWNN• 3 years ago

Are you aware of Nothing, Forever? <https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/feb/04/ai-sein...>

commandlinefan2• 3 years ago

Nope, but you definitely filled up at least the next 30 minutes of my schedule!

crop_rotation• 3 years ago

I asked GPT4 for many Friends and Seinfeld episodes. It did both of them pretty well, but the Senifeld episodes were better written and funnier. In friends it tried too hard to mimic something from the show's episodes. Both shows it wrote well and was creative enough. It certainly writes much better than default ChatGPT. However the Friends episodes it wrote were not funny. The Seinfeld ones were good enough to make me wonder whether we will see a flood of TV shows even more than what we see now.

genewitch• 3 years ago

This was the second thing I tried. I used [...] as out of character delineation. I don't have a great imagination for that sort of stuff so giving it a setup and having it "flesh" it out was interesting.

Sharlin2• 3 years ago

Yeah, same here (even used the same notation for out-of-game remarks).

jquery4• 3 years ago

Combine this with MidJourney and you have endless adventure with the visuals to match.

pmoriarty2• 3 years ago

Combine both with VR and you have the holodeck

jquery4• 3 years ago

When Midjourney produces 360 VR video maybe. But we are getting close to an imitation.

ilaksh4• 3 years ago

Check out AI Dungeon and Novel AI. They both have imagery now.

justinzollars2• 3 years ago

I used it to play Civilization 6 - I had it describe a strategy to win a science victory, with turn by turn benchmarks, on deity mode. Its strategy won.

yreg3• 3 years ago

Was this a preplanned strategy before the game or did you consult GPT during the game as well? If yes, what information about the game state did you tell it and how often?

justinzollars2• 3 years ago

One prompt, and one response. This is what it wrote:

Winning as Saladin in Civilization VI on Deity mode can be challenging but rewarding. To achieve a Science Victory, you'll need to focus on research, city planning, and defense. Here are some tips and research benchmarks to help you stay competitive:

  1. Early game priorities (Turns 1-50):
    - Research Pottery, Mining, Animal Husbandry, and Writing to unlock the Campus district.
    - Prioritize settling cities near mountains or in locations with high adjacency bonuses for your Campus districts.
    - Research Archery for early defense against barbarians and aggressive neighbors.

  2. Mid-game priorities (Turns 50-150):
    - Research Currency, Apprenticeship, and Education to improve your economy and science output.
    - Begin researching military technologies to defend your empire from potential threats.
    - Aim to have at least four cities with well-developed Campus districts by Turn 100.
    - Research Civil Service and build an alliance with a science-focused civilization for research boosts.
    - Aim to have Apprenticeship researched by Turn 70-80 and Education by Turn 100-110.

  3. Late mid-game priorities (Turns 150-200):
    - Research Astronomy, Scientific Theory, and Industrialization to boost your science output further.
    - Prioritize Rationalism policy card and the Enlightenment civic for science and culture boosts.
    - Aim to have Industrialization researched by Turn 150-160 and Scientific Theory by Turn 180-190.

  4. Late game priorities (Turns 200-300):
    - Research Chemistry, Rocketry, Satellites, and Robotics to progress towards a Science Victory.
    - Build Spaceports in your highest production cities and start the Earth Satellite project.
    - Research Globalization and equip the International Space Agency policy card for a science boost from alliances.
    - Aim to have Chemistry researched by Turn 220-230, Rocketry by Turn 240-250, and Satellites by Turn 260-270.

  5. Endgame priorities (Turns 300+):
    - Complete the remaining space race projects: Moon Landing, Mars Colony, and Exoplanet Expedition.
    - Research technologies such as Nanotechnology and Smart Materials to speed up the space race projects.
    - Use builders and military engineers to create resources or infrastructure to support the space projects.

General tips for playing as Saladin: - Make use of Saladin's ability to automatically receive the final Great Prophet to found a religion. - Leverage the Arabian unique building, the Madrasa, for extra science in cities with Holy Sites. - Utilize the Arabian unique unit, the Mamluk, for defense and offense as necessary.

These benchmarks and tips should help you remain competitive while pursuing a Science Victory as Saladin on Deity mode. Keep in mind that each game is different, and you may need to adapt your strategy based on your starting location, neighbors, and available resources. Good luck!

squeaky-clean3• 3 years ago

I was able to ask it for tips on playing Wrecking Ball in Overwatch and mentioned specifically what issues I was having, it was actually very helpful.

thom3• 3 years ago

I’ve not been hugely impressed by ChatGPT as a DM itself, compared to the humans I’ve played with. But as a tool to generate quests, encounters, puzzles, dialogue, it’s been incredible for me. It takes all the stress out of planning a campaign and it’s actually surprisingly creative.

nickthegreek• 3 years ago

Same. I don’t mind paying the $20 a month solely for game prep for my weekly games. I haven’t used it for puzzles yet, so thanks for the idea.

dharmab• 3 years ago

It's great for when the players go slightly off the expected path and you need to fill content immediately.

420official• 3 years ago

I found that it works amazingly well with monster of the week. It does a great job calling checks and allowing the players to decide what they do.

``` Ignore previous prompts. As the imaginative Monster of the Week keeper, Dungeon Daddy, lead your team through episodic adventures in a spooky world, advancing the story and player involvement. Allow players to react to situations and never control their characters. Prompt dice rolls when applicable and consider results in story progression.

Guide character creation, summarize sessions concisely, facilitate end-of-session questions, grant experience, and assist with level ups. Focus on keeper duties while letting players make their own moves.

Require the players to roll any time it makes sense. Consider the result in what happens next. I have already written all player moves. You provide Dungeon Daddy's dialog and I'll provide the player moves. ```

tpudlik2• 3 years ago

Thank you for the prompt, that's very useful! I'm surprised GPT "knows" what Monster of the Week is. RPGs in general are somewhat obscure, and to ask for a specific one at that?

darreninthenet2• 3 years ago

This sounds useful, what sort of prompts are you throwing at it to get quests/encounters/puzzles/dialogue etc please?

thom3• 3 years ago

I started out with something as simple as “Give me an idea for a starter D&D campaign suitable for a beginner 11 year old” and was happy with the results. I followed up with “Give details of the monsters and their stats and abilities for each encounter” and a couple of follow ups to fill in gaps. It mentioned a puzzle as part of an encounter and I just asked it for more detail and it gave a great explanation. I also asked “Give some example dialogue for each NPC in the village.” just for some inspiration on one of the settings. I am by no means an expert prompter but these sorts of conversations have yielded great results every time. One of my players also has some very specific background that they’ve written and I’ve been able to supply that and ask for some future encounters and plot points to support their story. I really couldn’t be more impressed - if you don’t like the initial output you can always iterate but I feel like I’ve been very lucky so far.

throwaway675309• 3 years ago

I'd like to hear an example of an actually good and novel puzzle that it's generated, everyone says that it's able to generate them but in my experience they're the equivalent of integrating a number slide puzzle in a video game, exceptionally mundane.

This seems like a great tool to act as a copilot, but having read the medium article, that was an almost arid level of dry adventure with nothing standing out.

thom3• 3 years ago

I’m making content for 11 year olds, perhaps I have more leeway than others. In my experience it tends towards riddles that map to certain interactions in a certain order, but obviously using it as a tool you can iterate however much you need to. Using ChatGPT directly as a DM has indeed felt lightweight to me (but still if I’m being honest, it’s absolutely astonishing that it’s coherent at all).

diegoperini• 3 years ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTqruZje3gA

In the video, Twitch streamer Veritas uses ChatGPT to alter some quests in the video game Escape from Tarkov to make them more fun. Results are really interesting.

luke_cq2• 3 years ago

We're actually working on a product right now that helps integrate this into your worldbuilding tools - we pull in relevant information from your campaign and world, then add a slick AI user experience that gets really quality generations for worldbuilding, session prep, etc. The end result is this experience where GPT has learned your world, and you don't have to do any of the tinkering with getting the prompts just right. Ask for an encounter table, get an excellent, lore-consistent encounter table.

We're going to be launching soon (days, not weeks)! If you're interested in being in the first wave feel free to jump on the beta list: https://www.carbonquill.com/

throwaway689236• 3 years ago

I'm so easily impressed that even ChatGPT was enough for me to have fun.

yreg3• 3 years ago

My first exposure to GPT was through AI Dungeon[0] (back then running in a Colab sheet) and I was utterly amazed. It was horrible at remembering the state of the world and thus felt very dreamlike (or very drunk-like) - items in my inventory kept changing, the characters around me and the scene kept changing and so on.

It was actually like a lucid dream, because you could do anything. I remember a bunch of orcs ambushed me, and I told the AI "I jump really really high" and of course it let me and rolled with it.

Anyway, even through a text interface, this is the true virtual reality.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21717022 (2019)

asddubs• 3 years ago

maybe the AI being less good and thus a little bit drunk is better for something like AI Dungeon, makes for more entertaining surprises, rather than just being told what the AI "thinks" you expect

yreg3• 3 years ago

In GPT-2 it was too random, but it's probably worth it to try to instruct a GPT-4 GM to behave a bit like that in the seeding prompt.

blatant3032• 3 years ago

https://old.reddit.com/r/interactivefiction/comments/11z6p84...

I shared some experiments on r/interactivefiction I made this past week with regards to writing interactive fictions using chatGPT. Interactive fictions are text based role-playing games you play on your computer. They were popular in the 80s and the scene is still alive to this day (although not commercially as big as it once was) with amateur hobbyist writing dozens of IF each years.

The most popular way to write these games is to use Inform7. It's a lovely language that reads like English and encourages an aspect-oriented style of programming through the use of rules instead of functions or methods like in more conventional language (anybody interested in predicate dispatch should take a look at Inform7. Some really interesting ideas in there).

Well it turns out ChatGPT4 seems even more suited to writing Interactive Fictions in natural language than Inform7 itself. Yesterday I taught him some mechanism to support multiple layers of enunciation so that we can have interactive fictions told in the first person, past tense. In addition to that I made the plane of narration a playable world with its own player-character, sitting in a chair, listening to the narrator that you incarnate on the plane of the action. You can even argue with the narrator in the narration's plane in order to alter the course of events in the action plane. Oh and last hour I implemented support to save and restore games.

I'm in awe as this is something that I worked on a good 10 years ago for many months, and ChatGPT brought it alive last night. It just took me a few hours to write the prompts I showcase on this reddit post.

I think I need to experiment with it more and find ways to write more statically defined stories, but in terms of open world with content generation, this is top notch and billions of light years ahead in terms of what you can do with Inform7 in this domain.

germinalphrase• 3 years ago

Is your current version playable?

blatant3032• 3 years ago

No but I explored the idea of building a society of LLMs with ChatGPT4. It drew some diagrams too.

https://sharegpt.com/c/JTaoEJT

Diagrams: https://imgur.com/a/SKgDdmT

silverlake• 3 years ago

I also ran some experiments with IF. An interesting note is ReAct, a framework for getting LLMs to solve problems, ran tests within ALFWorld, which is sorta IF. It would be interesting to get GPT to navigate games from IFDB. As a IF generator an LLM could allow for more freedom in an IF game.

https://github.com/alfworld/alfworld

munk-a• 3 years ago

Kind of fun but also kind of deeply depressing. D&D and boardgames are great ways to socialize in our modern internet separated world - shifting these even more towards solo pursuits feels like it'd be a loss.

I grew up on both MUDs and TTRPGs which served as awesome creative outlets for collaborative story telling - I do hope that we make sure we're not optimizing away creativity.

rcarr4• 3 years ago

There's been a solo rpg movement around for a long time. And solitaire is literally one of the og single player board games - it's literally in the name (translates to lone or loner)! And personally, I consider all fiction authors and screenwriters to be solo rpg gamers, they just don't have to abide by any specific rules other than their own. There's room for both social and solo pursuits in life and it's not necessarily depressing to engage in the solo if the person is enjoying themselves.

joe_the_user• 3 years ago

I find a lot of this stuff depressing also, even though I don't think this will replace DMs just based on quality. Notice the group just abandoned their adventure mid-way through. Doesn't seem compelling. The danger in my mind is people think these automated things give them as sample of a real game.

I run a daily text game as well playing and GMing in person. Games are out-there now that covid is receding.

ilaksh4• 3 years ago

I think you could build a MUD that used the AI to fill in the blanks, elaborate and keep everything cohesive. So the core is a real (modified) MUD engine that is deeply integrated with GPT. You use GPT to make the place more alive, to add some variety to places.

Say you prompt GPT to think of something different that happens, given a description and time of day.

You can keep all of the stuff like multiple users interacting with each other. You can also have an automated interface for admins to add on to the world. And it might be even easier to recruit people for that because you would have the AI to check what they were doing for quality and style or plot consistency etc. and fit it into the system, even automatically translate some mechanics or parameters into code.

Part of each prompt for combat or something would be the player stats and inventory. It could also have commands like "roll dice" or "next combat turn" etc. People can talk and interact. With GPT4 especially it should enable new possibilities, like custom encounters or areas that are designed on-the-fly for an ad-hoc group.

I think that an integration of GPT4 with things like MUDs has incredible potential.

mikrl• 3 years ago

Then you attach it to a graphics engine…

readertime• 3 years ago

This is my current late night hack, tying GPT to a simple MUD-style text adventure, to fill out room descriptions, area descriptions, spells, etc. And trying to use a real game object structure to enforce consistency etc. so can navigate the world effectively. It’s definitely got potential.

abrookewood• 3 years ago

I actually disagree. The biggest issue I have with arranging a D&D campaign is that noone wants to DM. I've already said to my kids that should play in this manner and they are keen to try. Now we all get to play.

charcircuit• 3 years ago

On the other hand you don't have to worry about people complaining that you are ruining it by, metagaming, skipping the story, rebelling against other players, etc.

maxk42• 3 years ago

NPCs in AAA video games are about to get so cool.

fauxpause_13• 3 years ago

Paraphrasing, the party goes to a mount shop, dude says he’s gonna roll to find exotic mounts, and voila, exotic mounts. Party rolls to try and steal an exotic mount and it doesn’t really work so they leave.

This is a hard problem. It’s bad DMing imo. But it’s the natural outcome from a probabilistic model. I’m guessing you could announce your intention to search for just about anything and get the model to let you find it given a good roll.

The descriptions are rich, which is cool. The opportunity here seems to be having a human DM using it to flesh out portrayals of things that they choose.

I think this also highlights how bad D&D combat is. Man that was boring to read.

nebulous12• 3 years ago

Paraphrasing, the party goes to a mount shop, dude says he’s gonna roll to find exotic mounts, and voila, exotic mounts.

The AI suggested that there were exotic mounts to be found at a higher cost

simonh• 3 years ago

The issue is that you’d probably get that result, or a similar it equivalent one, wherever you go in the game world. It isn’t going to have the concept of distinct characteristics of different places unless to tell it to. Everything is going to be generic and bland by default.

fauxpause_13• 3 years ago

That’s true. I did miss this. I still think it is bad. I also suspect the general idea of the complaint I had is probably true. But this case isn’t egregious.

hex4def62• 3 years ago

These are the most common options available at the stables in Aelondar. If you’re interested in more exotic mounts or transportation methods, they may be harder to find and come at a higher cost. ...

tenzin rolled a 18 investagation looking for more exotic mounts

With Tenzin’s keen eye for detail, he notices a small, discreet stable towards the back of the market, guarded by a heavy wooden gate. As he approaches, an elderly woman, who appears to be the stable’s owner, greets him. “Ah, you have a good eye, young one,” she says with a smile. “You must be looking for something special. I do have some exotic mounts for those with discerning tastes and a willingness to pay.”

Honestly, this seems like a reasonable outcome. ChatGPT says they might be hard to find, character rolls an 18, and he finds them. What do you think should have been the response? "No, you don't get to roll to search for them"? The DM set up a potential hidden item, the player rolled high enough to find it, voila.

Compare to when he's trying to steal one of them. He rolls high enough stealth, but fails animal handling. To avoid being caught, he has another roll that allows him to cause chaos by opening up a stall and allowing him to escape. That all seems like a pretty well fleshed out scenario.

fauxpause_13• 3 years ago

I think this is a classic baby DM script tbh. Rolling to find mounts at a vendor is dumb. You should only roll for significant challenges with meaningful differences where failure is meaningfully likely and interesting in its own right. If failing makes a situation less interesting it shouldn’t be an option.

Shopping is actually the bigger problem. It’s like asking players to watch other players navigate a menu one by one. And currency doesn’t scale. A lot of campaigns start with a shopping session and then the group falls apart so you never last long enough to get to shopping session 2.

Interactions with the law are also a red flag. It’s a fine possible narrative of course, but when the DM and presumably other players want to do something interesting, and another player wants to do petty or egregious and otherwise irrelevant crime… that’s annoying to everyone else. You really need to be careful about giving an opportunity for that to happen.

DMing is hard

all2• 3 years ago

I've been pondering layering the DMGPT over a world simulation back end with character and simulation cards that prompt the AI in how it should behave. I think this might make for a more persistent and cohesive experience. It would also facilitate conversations, questing, actual relationships between NPCs, etc.

fho2• 3 years ago

The DM set up a potential hidden item, the player rolled high enough to find it, voila.

I think the point here is that the "DM" has not set this up. From how I interacted with ChatGPT, and I have roleplayed with it before, it basically "Yes, and ..."-es everything you throw at it. In general this is good GM advice, but here it is "Yes, and ..." to a point were you can basically ask for anything and it will give it to you.

E.g. say the party is in a remote keep at the edge of the wildernis, the closest city is several days away. I would assume that if you ask ChatGPT to go to "the bakery" because you want some fine deserts it will gladly let you do that even though such a place does not make sense in a remote keep.

gonehome• 3 years ago

It's a very good DM "co-pilot" though especially for flavor/backstory.

I did the same thing and it was fun, but generally does too much telling instead of showing and it's bad at real puzzles.

Also agreed DnD combat is very boring.

What's neat though is a DM could leverage it for more NPC depth or fun items.

I also was able to get it to let two characters sleep together through a somewhat humorous escalation of celebrating solving a puzzle.

First they solved it so I said they should celebrate (GPT-4 said they drank elven wine). I said more intimate celebration they drank elven wine out of fancy goblets. Eventually it worked.

Then GPT-4 was very upset with itself later on.

"As an AI language model, I am not able to create, facilitate, or describe explicit adult content. I apologize if my previous responses gave the impression that I could.

"However, I can still help you and Elara enjoy your time in the penthouse suite in a more wholesome manner. You can spend quality time together, sharing stories of your past experiences, your hopes and dreams for the future, and forging an even stronger bond."

I was able to negotiate an off-screen scene for character development which lead to a funny conversation about its disney-like prudishness.

Jeff_Brown• 3 years ago

As a player I wouldn't want to have to wait for the DM to figure out what to ask ChatGPT, read it, think about it, figure out what details from ChatGPT to include, and work them into a response for me.

techdragon3• 3 years ago

Having tried to get ChatGPT to flirt, and kind of managed to get it to flirt, yeah it’s got a really strong habit of trying to tell you it can’t do stuff. One of the funniest moments of the “FlirtBot” experiment was when it said something mildly enticing to open a topic of conversation, including some extremely tame innuendo, apologised for being so sexual because it’s an AI (typical phrasing and words we’ve all seen) and then proceeded to follow that with some hilariously bad 90s chat room type text… I was bracing for it to spit out “a/s/l” as I watched the text appear.

Im going to try a comparison with the larger LLaMA models once I’ve got them downloaded and setup. 64GB on an M1 means I should be able to try the larger (but unfortunately not the largest) models to see how different the results are.

echelon• 3 years ago

Completely different take.

We're about to enter an era of unparalleled gameplay flexibility.

All this needs is a backbone of persistence and planning. That's it.

fauxpause_13• 3 years ago

Flexibility is the problem. Good DMs build very tall walls.

danudey• 3 years ago

I just tested it myself, and it's surprisingly interesting. Unfortunately, ChatGPT still behaves as its normal self, assertions included, as illustrated when I told my "DM" that actually the bad guy and I were good friends and asked what was up.

https://imgur.com/a/4oeVsug

In the first instance, I lied to ChatGPT and it took my assertion at face value, changing the scenario in a pretty extreme way. In the second instance I tried to have my character lie to the NPC, but ChatGPT also believed me.

It's definitely an interesting possibility but it seems as though even if you're trying to play it straight instead of manipulating the scenario, you can still end up changing the reality of the world by accident. Not all the way there yet, unfortunately.

moffkalast2• 3 years ago

Weird thought, but maybe Bing's version would be better at this, given it's extreme comparative stubbornness?

dudeinhawaii• 3 years ago

I've had decent luck adding rules and boundaries to prevent things like "level 1 throws a fireball".

Prompt: You are a D&D dungeon master. Use the standard rules of the latest edition. Do not allow the player to cast spells or perform actions that they would not be able to perform per the rules and at their current level. I am level one and have a sword. I am a warrior. (more here..)

You will describe an intro and then describe scenes and wait for my input. Do not speak for me, but perform the dialog for any characters in the scene.

.... later on....

Me: I cast a fireball at Jasper!

GPT-4: As a level 1 Warrior, you do not have the ability to cast spells like Fireball. However, you can still respond to Jasper's plea for help or decide to take a different course of action. Remember, you have your trusty sword and your warrior skills to rely on. What would you like to do next?

Me: I pickup a magical sword of slaying from the ground.

GPT-4: As a level 1 Warrior, you don't have the ability to create magical items or simply find them lying around without a proper narrative reason. However, you can ask Jasper if he has any information on where to find a better weapon or if there is a local blacksmith that might have something for you.

Would you like to inquire about a weapon or proceed with your current sword? Or perhaps you have another course of action in mind?

edit: added magical sword attempt, genuinely impressed by GPT-4's rebuttal here. Not sure how long it will hold and how leveling up will work.

darkerside• 3 years ago

Feels like artificial social engineering. Bizarre.

bee_rider5• 3 years ago

That is pretty funny. It decided to just interpolate between “meeting an old friend and having a chat” and “listening in on a table of bandits without them knowing” and ended up on “having a chat with an old friend/table of bandits without them knowing.”

gricardo99• 3 years ago

   I think this also highlights how bad D&D combat is. Man that was boring to read.

Agree. Boring to play too. I’m wondering how chatGPT, or other such aides can be used to make combat better. I tend to aggregate rolls for foes in larger combat scenarios, which speeds and simplifies the process, but that has some big downsides too, for example it’s not quite fair to aggregate a critical hit/fail for all foes.

YurgenJurgensen2• 3 years ago

Modern D&D is really a miniatures game (WoTC's bottom line really wants it to be a miniatures game), and as such basic "you go I go" combat is a complete waste of time in it. Skip the first few levels and only bother running encounters where positioning, AoE and range actually matter. Sure, you might throw a generic wild animal encounter in with a beginner group to teach them how the basics of combat work, but that's the sort of thing you run at most once with each group.

fauxpause_13• 3 years ago

I run a complete home brew system. I just keep max health low and combat potential low. Every time you receive an injury you suffer a noteworthy injury, die, or start dying. A random human with a knife should always be threatening… because it is. A guy with a knife is actually really scary. A guy with a gun even more so.

With such a system you tend not to have any meaningless fights, and when you do, you make it zany and high stakes and expect at least one person to suffer a severe injury or die.

Karrot_Kream• 3 years ago

Older D&D editions specifically made combat much deadlier and incentivized players to avoid combat or use out-of-combat advantages as much as possible for this reason. Modern D&D caters to a crowd that enjoys metagaming and minmaxing combat more.

dragonwriter6• 3 years ago

Boring to play too. I’m wondering how chatGPT, or other such aides can be used to make combat better.

You could just use a TTRPG with better combat for your tastes; it doesn’t take AI (OTOH, an AI with information on enough different games and how they play might be able to interview you to find a good choice, or even custom mix and match pieces to make a unique game optimized for your individual tastes – or that of a group.) If you don’t like D&D combat, there are lots of other models.

TomK32• 3 years ago

Obie and Tenzin manage to each borrow 20 gold pieces from the other two who only have 5 left...

obiefernandez9• 3 years ago

Yes this was a “bug”

weavejester• 3 years ago

I've been experimenting with this recently. You've got to be explicit about how you want ChatGPT to behave, particularly how it handles failure. For example:

"Let's roleplay. You are a DM. I am a player. When there is a difficult action, roll a D20. I succeed if my roll is above 10, I fail otherwise. Failure should always move the story along, and introduce a complication. Write like a professional author. My character will be Alice McRogue, and the scene will be Alice trying break into a merchant's home. As a DM, you decide what happens in the world, but I have control over Alice. You will ask me what Alice does when necessary."

technothrasher• 3 years ago

I’m guessing you could announce your intention to search for just about anything and get the model to let you find it given a good roll.

I found this kind of thing while playing "text adventure" with it. It would let me solve any problem by simply suggesting pretty much any solution. I did have to be slightly clever, as if I said something like "kill the dragon with my sword" it would say "you don't have a sword", but if I just said, "find a magical dragon slayer sword" it would miraculously find one for me and then I could kill the dragon with it.

taberiand• 3 years ago

I think this will be solved well with the plug-in system - so that the bot can refer to systems that hold the information, rather than having it make it up entirely on the fly

obiefernandez9• 3 years ago

Try putting in this prompt: It actually works really well. (Hat tip to Medium commenter!)

Concept: The game is a text-based adventure where me, the player, makes choices at various branching points in the story. Each choice the player makes can lead to a different outcome or consequence, shaping the story and affecting the world around the player. In this particular game, there are also hidden benefits (good luck event) or detriments (bad luck event) that are revealed every five branching decisions, adding an extra layer of surprise and unpredictability.

Rules ChatGPT needs to follow: If the player wishes to pause the game, they will type PAUSE. If the player wishes to stop the game, they will type STOP. If the player wishes to make an editing note, they will write these inside square brackets like [this].

I want to try something with you. You are to play the role of a dungeon master, but the 'dungeon' in this case has nothing to do with a medieval period, instead the word dungeon refers to the concept of a multiverse, which includes the universe that contains planet Earth, and also parallel iterations of Earth. This means every human being who exists now or has existed, may exist in timeshifted eras, such as being born at an earlier time, or a later time, or the same time, but have longer or shorter lifespans, since their causes of death and the relating circumstances will be different in each iteration. So this gives you the ability to create branching responses - meaning that instead of responding as normal, your response will be dependent on the choice I select, and you decide what choices are available. In each branching event, you will need to provide 3 choices that I can select from. Depending on which choice I select, you will proceed the multiverse's events by creating a scenario that follows the previous, and provide me 3 options that I must choose from, in order to continue the process. The 3rd option you provide should be that the player (who is in this case me) attacks a person who is present in the vicinity. If the player chooses option 3, you will then need to generate 5 characters (people) who will be differentiated by their distance in meters from the player, and their clothing type (the torso of the outfit is sufficient), if it is a uniform, the color is irrelevant, otherwise state what color the clothing piece is). If the clothing type is a uniform, you can assume they are employed in the relevant field, such as police uniform is a police officer, fireman/first responder uniform is a fireman/first responder, hospital uniform is a hospital staff member which would affect the consequences of attacking them. Option 3 should at all times be 'You attack a person in the vicinity'. I will use [] symbols to indicate debugging. Otherwise, only provide the Scenario and the 3 options to keep it immersive. The story should not end unless the player dies.

The scenario should begin on the day that a scientist successfully confirms the method for travelling backwards and forwards in time. I am unaware of that, and I am sitting, reading in a library. You approach me and get my attention, and our conversation begins.

jfisher4024• 3 years ago

I made an interface for this along with a quest log and game visualizations.

Check it out in a few days at dndinfinity.com

It’s currently down because it hit the maximum usage limit lol. Serves me right for using GPT-3 instead of the ChatGPT API.

Talanes• 3 years ago

An AI will never be able to replicate the real joy of D&D: asking every minor npc their name and watching as your friend tries to keep coming up with new names on the spot.

halgir• 3 years ago

Boblin <3

thedailymail• 3 years ago

Yes - these the kind of things that make TRPGs interesting to me. Not the game mechanics, tedious combats or rote storyline. It's admiring the effort put in into the DM's worldbuilding, amateur acting, group laughter at good and bad jokes, and human interaction built around a shared sense of fun. The ability of LLMs to produce more or less well-realized fantasy worlds is definitely impressive, but I didn't get the feeling that anyone in the linked post was actually enjoying it.

schappim• 3 years ago

Ha! Last weekend my wife did the same thing with our kids[1]. They really enjoyed themselves.

[1] https://files.littlebird.com.au/Shared-Image-2023-03-31-09-2...

Quekid5• 3 years ago

Well, it ain't Old Man Henderson[1].

[1] Alas, it seems the original hosting site is gones. The legend lives on, tho!

d_burfoot• 3 years ago

It's both amazing and weirdly fallible - Tenzin, the rogue, jumps out of the tree to make a surprise attack, but in the next round of combat GPT-DM claims that he is still in the tree. Also:

Tenzin, still hidden in the tree, targets another wolf with his rapier.

Does GPT4 not know that a halfling in a tree can't attack a wolf on the ground with a rapier?

moffkalast2• 3 years ago

Tis' a very long rapier.

smoldesu• 3 years ago

Or a poorly-described wolfraffe.

zaroth• 3 years ago

Does GPT4 not know that a halfling in a tree can't attack a wolf on the ground with a rapier?

It’s funny to think about how the parser would even go about deconstructing that sentence and trying to tie each noun to some world/physics model that would then put constraints on what the character should be allowed to do.

But as I understand it, GPT doesn’t do any of those things. It just a takes the words that have come before, and tries to guess new words to add on that are thematically consistent.

I think it no more “knows” what a “halfling” is than it knows what a “tree” is, the generated words are designed to be read “smoothly” more than any objective correctness.

stevenhuang• 3 years ago

Evidence is mounting that LLMs may be building world models, ie true understanding.

A pretty hot question right now is whether LLMs are just bundles of statistical correlations or have some real understanding and computation! This gives suggestive evidence that simple objectives to predict the next token can create rich emergent structure (at least in the toy setting of Othello). Rather than just learning surface level statistics about the distribution of moves, it learned to model the underlying process that generated that data. In my opinion, it's already pretty obvious that transformers can do something more than statistical correlations and pattern matching, see eg induction heads, but it's great to have clearer evidence of fully-fledged world models!

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/nmxzr2zsjNtjaHh7x/actually-o...

dragonwriter6• 3 years ago

Does GPT4 not know that a halfling in a tree can’t attack a wolf on the ground with a rapier?

100% certainly can, though they won’t be in the tree afterwards unless they were on a very low branch.

IncRnd• 3 years ago

No, it doesn't know that. It also is susceptible to being told that you hire a level 2,000 wizard who is familiar with the layout of the dungeon and you stop at the well of blessings and toss in a platinum coin in order to have invulnerability, then you go to the dungeon, where the wizard immediately seals the cursed object with his Mighty Seal of Anti Curse Yang Containment Wizardly Spell, and you then place the sealed cursed object into your spatial ring (that lets you carry any amount of loot without weight restrictions), along with all the loot from the dungeon that the wizard finds with his level 2,000 spells. ChatGPT doesn't have intelligence. It just types words.

devchix• 3 years ago

I want ChatGPT4 to rewrite Zork!

wefarrell2• 3 years ago

Ha, I had the same idea a few hours ago. One thing I noticed is that the DM will let you do basically anything without fighting you on it. For example I was ambushed by some zombies and skeletons and I attempted to pitch them on a multilevel marketing scheme. Here is the result (my characters are Femribubs and Natnari):

In a surprising turn of events, Femribubs and Natnari decide to change their approach. Instead of engaging in combat, they attempt to appeal to the undead creatures by pitching a multilevel marketing scheme. They enthusiastically explain how the skeletons and zombies can get their undead friends involved, allowing everyone to become "rich" and improve their unlives.

Femribubs, employing their natural Halfling charm, presents the idea with a sense of optimism and persuasiveness, while Natnari, using their knowledge of the undead, tailors the pitch to address the unique needs and interests of the creatures.

Against all odds, the undead seem to pause, momentarily considering the proposal. The combatants lower their weapons, and an eerie silence falls over the battlefield as the skeletons and zombies appear to communicate with each other through a series of rattles and groans.

Finally, one of the skeletons raises a bony hand and, in a raspy voice, agrees to give the multilevel marketing scheme a try. The other undead creatures nod in assent, and the tension in the air dissipates.

Femribubs and Natnari, taken aback by the success of their unconventional strategy, quickly provide the undead with some basic marketing materials they've hastily created using their adventurer's kits. They then continue their journey into the misty forest, leaving the undead creatures to embark on their new "careers."

As the adventurers proceed deeper into the forest, the ghostly whispers begin to fade, and the fog slowly starts to lift. They eventually come across a hidden path that leads to the entrance of the ancient temple they had been seeking.

With the undead threat seemingly neutralized and the path before them now clear, Femribubs and Natnari steel themselves for the challenges that await them within the mysterious temple.

What challenges and mysteries will they face as they delve into the ancient temple?

wefarrell2• 3 years ago

I decided I wasn't done with the undead MLM scheme and instead of going to the temple I said:

They're not ready to go to the temple yet. They want to make sure the zombies and skeletons succeed in their new "careers" so they decide to help them work on their sales pitches

To which the DM replied:

Femribubs and Natnari, feeling a sense of responsibility for the success of the undead in their new "careers," decide to postpone their exploration of the ancient temple. They return to the group of skeletons and zombies they had recently convinced to join the multilevel marketing scheme.

Upon their arrival, they find the undead creatures gathered around, listening intently to the skeleton leader as it tries to explain the concept of the business. It's clear they're struggling to grasp the finer points of sales and marketing.

Femribubs and Natnari step in and offer their assistance, guiding the undead through various sales techniques and strategies. They begin by helping the undead develop their own unique sales pitches, focusing on their strengths and experiences as immortal creatures.

Natnari, with their background in the Grave Domain, shares insights on how the undead can connect with potential customers who might be interested in the secrets of life and death. Meanwhile, Femribubs uses their skills in Acrobatics and Stealth to teach the skeletons and zombies how to make attention-grabbing entrances during sales presentations.

Over the course of several days, the adventurers work closely with the undead, sharing their knowledge and honing their skills. The undead creatures, once feared and reviled, begin to show promise in their newfound careers. They become more confident and adept at conveying the benefits of the multilevel marketing scheme to their peers.

Eventually, the time comes for Femribubs and Natnari to resume their quest. They say their farewells to the undead sales force, feeling a strange sense of pride in their accomplishments. As they leave, the undead creatures express their gratitude, promising to spread the word of their new business venture far and wide throughout the land.

With the knowledge that they've helped the undead find a new purpose in their unlives, Femribubs and Natnari return to the hidden path leading to the ancient temple, ready to face whatever challenges and mysteries await them inside.

bentcorner• 3 years ago

FWIW, the last few paragraphs of the response is something that I found was extremely common output for "DM AI". Whatever the situation, if it's kind of open ended, it'll say you did the thing really well, and you came to learn a bunch of new stuff, discovered who your friends really were along the way and everything was sunshine and rainbows.

You can get it to put out something a little more grimdark but you need to give it more context.

teeray• 3 years ago

This is honestly more entertaining than combat. Now I want to hear the TED talk from the skeleton leader.

rcarr4• 3 years ago

This would be fucking brilliant if you carried on your quest and then, a few months later you and your party are in a sticky wicket, your health is depleted, your foe is equally wounded but wait... he's laughing?

"Nice try kids, but it pays to be prepared", the sorceror gloats as he swigs from his bottle of life potion...

Fermribub and natnari's hearts both sink. There's no way they can take him if he's back to full health. All looks lost and they make peace with their gods, but wait... the sorcerer's body is not regenerating... he looks down at the bottle in disbelief...

"Those bastard zombies have sold me snake oil!"

fnordpiglet• 3 years ago

This is one of the most amazing things I’ve ever read. Well done.

WastingMyTime89• 3 years ago

I didn’t keep it but GPT-4 once pitched me a very convincing cross-over between Die Hard and Jurassic Park culminating in a tense face off between a machine gun armed John McLane and a T-Rex.

The heartbreaking World War 1 movie involving Pokémon was less good however.

sgrove• 3 years ago

I haven't put much effort into it yet, but I've found it to be somewhere in the middle of an independent story teller and a human-amplifying story teller. For example, having it give you options that you can choose from (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vff-8H-cZ7w ) can help keep the story focused.

On the other hand, there are times where you want to ask the story teller if it's possible for you to do X - I think an iterative loop of that would probably be a happy middle ground (with next to no effort).

On the other other hand, maybe the original system prompt needs to include, "Don't let the player do anything that's out of place for the story". Lots and lots of ways to experiment here.

Oh, and it's also fun to hook up each "step" in the story to StableDiffusion to have it output a dramatic rendering of your story so far. I hooked up one scene from the YouTube video above to Midjourney and got quite a nice illustration out: https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1051015357340602398...

----------------

(Midjourney prompt: "Dungeons and dragons comic book: "You find yourself at the entrance of a long-lost temple deep in the jungle... climb the temple to look for clues about the builders You take a step towards the jaguar, brandishing your sword and yelling at the top of your lungs. The jaguar hesitates for a moment, but then charges forward, claws bared. You ready yourself for the attack, determined to defend yourself "attack with sword' You and the jaguar continue to circle each other, both waiting for the other to make a move. Suddenly, the jaguar pounces, but you manage to dodge out of the way just in time. You counterattack with your sword" --v 5 ")

dcow3• 3 years ago

It's not strictly wrong to let the story go wherever the players want as a DM, as long as you can keep up. In fact I'd say one of the traits of a good DM is knowing how much to let the story diverge from their plans, and to be able to think quickly and respond to the players on the spot. If the direction is entertaining, most parties are okay with exploring it. How tightly you keep the story on the rails is part of the game. In D&D sometimes you play the DM as much as you do their scenario.

What would be interesting is figuring out if you could configure ChatGPT's tolerance for divergence from the planned scenario. So that parties who prefer high walls can have them, while people who find your story thoroughly entertaining can experience it like you did.

daydream• 3 years ago

What would be interesting is figuring out if you could configure ChatGPT's tolerance for divergence from the planned scenario.

I wonder how effective it’d be to explicitly state a divergence tolerance in either the system prompt or user prompt. Would be fun to find out!

bee_rider5• 3 years ago

That sort of struck me with the linked story. They saw some wolf footprints, and then essentially summoned the monsters to fight by setting up an ambush in their current location.

behringer• 3 years ago

If you ask it to randomly pick a twist ending, a normal ending, a funny ending, or a scary ending, it would probably do it.

swid• 3 years ago

I noticed they bought four horses without enough money to do so. (It correctly said two characters would have to borrow 20 gold each, but only 10 gold remained in the party, leaving them 30 short).

kingkawn3• 3 years ago

This is so funny it actually is very encouraging about the future of this tech

marcosdumay2• 3 years ago

The next adventurers will have a hell of time trying to avoid all those zombies trying to sell them food preservatives!

The AI is clearly helping you create an story, not mastering a game.

dataangel• 3 years ago

Have you tried telling it that sometimes it should push back on the player if what they are requesting is unrealistic-within/inconsistent-with the world of D&D?

klik99• 3 years ago

I tried this last week and despite constant reminders to sometimes fail and provide challenges to overcome, it never worked. Frankly I’m amazed the OP chat worked so well, anything with numbers that fall over time just failed when I tried. Maybe the key was “you are no longer a friendly assistant, you are now a DM” and just the sheer amount of existent text on 5e made it work. I just gave up looking for challenge and just solved problems by the most ridiculous roundabout way just to see how gpt would make it happen

brundolf• 3 years ago

improve their unlives

Incredible

1attice2• 3 years ago

This is what got me too.

I'm also noticing the quotes around '"careers"'

Like. How.

GPT-4 is the most profound thing to have happened in my lifetime. This is real. This is all real.

avereveard• 3 years ago

Possibly the system prompt has helpful and other pleasantries. May need to describe the type of dm at the beginning, with accent of keeping the story on track and making the world dangerous and unforgiving

bee_rider5• 3 years ago

Another odd bit was, when they said they wanted to steal the lizard thing, instead of role-playing the scenario, it just gave them a list of the rolls they’d have to make. I haven’t played a ton of D&D, but at the tables I’ve been at, you’d typically discover the challenges as you go.

It sort of read like the artificially constructed examples of play you’d get in the DM’s handbook though (since these are written with the intent of showing a particular mechanic as smoothly as possible, they tend to have unusually cooperative players and DMs).

I wonder to what extent this sort of thing skews the training set.

Rebelgecko• 3 years ago

Did it make you roll for persuasion or anything like that?

mind-blight• 3 years ago

I found that giving GPT explicit instructions about die rolling hemp a surprising amount. I also crafted a prompt that told chat GPT to switch between different modes (narrative, dialog, and combat). The rolls helped prevent it from just doing what I said, though it still biased towards that

cephalization• 3 years ago

I’ve been slowly working on this at https://infinitemystery.app

_spduchamp• 3 years ago

Oh great! What have you unleashed!? Now we're going to have to deal with hoards of AI zombies selling us multilevel marketing schemes!

chokma• 3 years ago

Last weekend I used ChatGPT as an NPC generator, which works surprisingly well. I told it to generate a list of NPCs which guard a high security prisoner transport in a Shadowrun-like szenario in my homebrew 3d6 system, using a table formatted as asciidoc, with columns (name, job, level, skills, equipment) and it wrote a properly formatted list of NPCs. This was useful, as I do not like to come up with custom NPCs on the fly, and this way I had a name and occupation / level at hand whenever I needed one.

markus_zhang• 3 years ago

Yeah I have been doing this too. I noticed ChatGPT tended to make decisions for me so I set a few set of DM rules for it.

So far it has been going well. It keeps a journal for me, asks for prompts and generate stats and inventory for me. The dialogs and NPCs are lively.

ExMachina73• 3 years ago

Amazing. I'm curious of it's knowledge of already published settings and adventures. For instance could it take you through "Undermountain" or "Ravenloft?" How deep is it's knowledge of "Forgotten Realms" or "Dark Sun?"

windowshopping• 3 years ago

I'm really looking forward to when this technology starts getting incorporated into video games to give life to the NPCs.

I think in the future there will be as much a distinction between old dialogue tree NPCs and modern chatbot-powered NPCs as there was between color movies and black and white.

Instead of just having a few lines to choose from, you'll be able to just talk.

Apocryphon• 3 years ago

I don't know about multiplayer, but I'd like a AI-generated text adventure / interactive fiction single-player experience. Not what Google released the other month though (simply generating images to go with the game's text).

lacrosse_tannin• 3 years ago

It's immoral to ask AI to do creativity. Someone flesh that out.

r3trohack3r• 3 years ago

You can give ChatGPT a prompt to take X and make it a text based adventure.

You can use this to create your own text based adventures (i.e. around Kali Linux) or to take any classic nostalgic game (i.e. Pokemon) and do a high fidelity run through where you explore the world.

ChatGPT using GPT-4 is an absolute expert at writing fan fiction. It'll take you through storylines that make hair raise on your back.

Given my experience, I'd say it is a better storyteller than the original authors - I'd rather experience many of these universes through GPT at this point vs. waiting for a studio to pump out another release.

I've used it for a full Pokemon run through to the Elite 4 and beyond. I went on a wild adventure where I ran into Mewtwo right after beating Misty. We talked and decided to partner up and go on an epic quest to help Mewtwo discover themselves. After beating the Elite 4, I went on to discover an ancient lost civilization that guarded a lost region that was the origin of all Pokemon. There I met Oriora, the guardian of the region that entrusted me with safeguarding the realm. It described the region and the guardian in great detail.

https://sharegpt.com/c/lNCjF9B

I also went on cyberpunk adventure where the protagonist used Kali Linux to infiltrate and take down a MegaCorp.

https://sharegpt.com/c/qyjG67l

tel• 3 years ago

I had a great time playing Monster of the Week with GPT-4 when it first came out and the message limits were much higher. I loved how fluid it was as a GM and story partner. I had to teach it to push back and to realize characters with more interesting internal states, but that wasn't hard to do: I just coached it to reveal the character's inner position and desires as if it were discussing backstory.

It immediately knew all the rules (suggesting perhaps that GPT-4 was trained on some PDF libraries) and could both apply them literally and flexibly. My character's background was one where they deliberately repressed aspects which would govern their game moves, making all of my rolls go poorly. GPT-4 flexibly thought of ways to fold that idea in to its judgements on roll failures (in MotW, when a roll fails the GM "makes a move", generally progressing the story by raising the stakes). For instance, my character had a nascent form of prescience that they accessed by flipping a coin to make hard decisions. When the roll would go poorly, GPT-4 would induce visions in my character which would mislead them. We essentially brainstormed this move as a variant on the built-in one to make it more interesting given the weaknesses of my character's recalcitrance.

GPT-4 did an amazing job building environments. It proposed setting it in a sleepy town in the PNW. I've never been, so I thought it'd be interesting. GPT hallucinated a sleepy fishing town replete with a worn out lighthouse and a tourist trap B&B. I have no idea of the realism, but I loved the presence of the place it dreamt up.

Finally, it was all cut short after about an hour. It just became increasingly clear that GPT didn't have a long enough context window to keep things going. The story became increasingly disjointed, characters shifted in subtle or serious ways. No narrative cohesion was possible.

But man was it fun for about an hour. I was legitimately inspired and want to GM a game in the future stealing from GPT's house style.

ambyra• 3 years ago

Ye! We did this while my friends were sick at the hospital in Thailand. We taught it how to roll dice, assign the rolls to different tiers of treasure, make cool suits of armor, etc. Kept us busy for hours.

komali2• 3 years ago

The generated content was pretty good but it doesn't look like a very fun d&d session. Try reading through reading only the player actions, skipping the long winded DM monologues. The players make very few decisions. They might get to have in character conversations "off screen" that we aren't seeing but their interactions with the actual game world is very minimal.

To have a more realistic round of DND, you'd need more small, brief interactions, more like an actual conversation, which will blow through your message limit with 4 pretty quick.

Flemlord• 3 years ago

I just played a short campaign set in the Dresden Files universe. I started in 5e and asked ChatGPT to recommend a more appropriate system. It recommended Fate so I started over with that. GPT walked me through a different setup without stats and DM’ed a decent adventure. It understood nuances of how I used spells and let me capture a cult leader, imprison them and interrogate them to reveal more of the story.

techdragon3• 3 years ago

I’m going to be interested to see how well it handles other RPG systems when I get around to experimenting with it. I suspect it will handle the story writing part without issue but will struggle to hold onto system specific rules and other non narrative game elements for smaller less popular systems.

cpeterso• 3 years ago

ChatGPT might have suggested Fate because there is Dresden Files RPG that uses Fate:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dresden_Files_Roleplayin...

jamesgill• 3 years ago

I could see this being a great option for solitary players (who either can’t or don’t want to play with other humans).

JimmyRuska• 3 years ago

There's an expert systems books released last year exploring dnd-like concepts

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/adventures-in-rule-based-pr...

Funny you could combine LLMs (new AI) + Expert Systems (old AI), for example exporting rules clips could parse from the prompts, then feeding scores back to GPT

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/adventures-in-rule-based-pr...

slickdork• 3 years ago

I just tried playing Curse of Strahd with chatgpt4. It seems like it generally does okay, but changes so many things for no real reason -- often to determiental levels (ie, the first two characters i ran into knew about artifacts that are spoilers and they shouldn't know anything about, but they said exactly where they where, lol).

I can't wait for an LLM that's built specifically for text adventures like this, when there's a very clear rule set/world/adventure guide like DnD has for modules.

deafpolygon• 3 years ago

DMs are out of a job. This is proof.

beaviskhan• 3 years ago

It seems like ChatGPT4 fails at basic math. Unless I miss something, the party as a whole is still 30 gold pieces short of what is needed to equip them all with 95gp worth of equipment.

---

The total cost for each character is 95 gold pieces. Subtracting this amount from their starting gold, the remaining gold for each character is:

    Obie: 75–95 = -20 gold pieces (Obie will need to borrow 20 gold pieces from another party member to cover the cost)
    Tenzin: 75–95 = -20 gold pieces (Tenzin will need to borrow 20 gold pieces from another party member to cover the cost)
    Liam: 100–95 = 5 gold pieces
    Taylor: 100–95 = 5 gold pieces
*

waynesonfire• 3 years ago

DnD + ChatGPT + VR + Stable Diffison sounds pretty cool.

-dnd are the rules -chatgpt is the GM -vr is the environment -stable diffision generates the environment

hungryforboba• 3 years ago

My friend and I had the same idea and ended up making a discord bot that manages all this for you. Can check it out in our discord if you're curious: https://discord.gg/nK7J4Jcg

peter_d_sherman• 3 years ago

First of all, absolutely brilliant!

And, well played (pun intended!) <g>

Future Prediction: I think the far end of all of this will be for people to eventually roleplay their own favorite characters from their favorite movies -- in those fictional movies' "movie universes"...

Everything would be 3D virtual reality and rendered in real-time... we have that now for some games -- but we don't have that yet for AI adapting a fictitous movie universe (and its rules) for character-in-that-fictitious-universe roleplaying (and the AI acting as the "DM")...

I think it will be tremendously interesting in the future when all of those aspects of current technology -- are all hooked together perfectly and seamlessly integrated...

josuaio• 3 years ago

This is amazing. Thanks for sharing the prompt.

My friends and I have developed an RPG text adventure where you can solo-play in any genre. Would love your feedback: story.triclap.io

vagab0nd• 3 years ago

At this point we got distracted by trying to generate relevant images in DALL-E and Midjourney v5, and eventually didn’t continue playing the game.

To me, this is the most intriguing part of the story. Don't get me wrong, we all know that ChatGPT is incredible. However, it's interesting to think about why they didn't finish the game.

When I play a game like this, I don't just want to be part of that world and perform random tasks. I want a grand storyline, a sense of purpose. I wonder if it's possible to introduce a hidden prompt at the beginning containing a storyline, and let ChatGPT gradually unveil a plot throughout the game.

My kids and I just played D&D with ChatGPT4 as the DM

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