Dungeons and Dragons 5e

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Managing ChatGPT’s Memory During AI Roleplaying

An important part of AI roleplaying is managing ChatGPT’s memory. If you wish to play AI text adventures by using prompts such as the one in part 3 of our solo DM guide, you need to learn proper memory management. ChatGPT’s memory limit of roughly 3000 words poses a significant challenge for AI roleplaying. When the conversation exceeds this word limit, the AI starts to forget details about the game, and the adventure begins to lose its coherency.

ChatGPT’s maximum context length and what it means

A crucial aspect of utilizing ChatGPT 3.5, available to free users, is comprehending the token constraints for AI roleplaying. With a maximum token reference of 4,096 in a conversation, this encompasses both user input and AI-generated responses. This essentially equates to around 3,000 words per conversation. Venturing beyond this token limit triggers token truncation, posing a risk to the coherence of your roleplaying adventure.

Furthermore, exceeding the token threshold not only affects coherence but also impacts the responsiveness of ChatGPT. As word count accumulates within the conversation, the AI’s ability to promptly generate replies diminishes, leading to potential lags in the storytelling experience.

Navigating these limitations demands a strategic approach. By maintaining conversations within the token confines, you preserve the narrative’s flow and avoid compromising the AI’s performance. Consistency in managing tokens ensures that your interactions remain engaging and comprehensible.

Manage ChatGPT’s memory by administrating the rules yourself, this includes running combat

Avoid burdening the AI with administrative tasks like rule management and combat resolution, like the prompt in this article. Rather than relying on the AI to administrate the rules or orchestrate combat, it’s recommended to handle these aspects externally. This approach helps conserve memory and allows the AI to focus on the storytelling and character interactions that make roleplaying engaging.

For instance, take charge of combat scenarios and rule enforcement personally. By doing so, you prevent the unnecessary consumption of memory tokens. If you wish to involve the AI in combat sequences, consider initiating a separate conversation dedicated solely to combat. This separation ensures that the tokens generated during combat do not erode the limited memory available for the main storyline.

Remember, the AI’s strength lies in its creative storytelling abilities and its capacity to generate engaging dialogue. By reserving memory for these pivotal elements of roleplaying, you enhance the overall quality of the experience.

Managing ChatGPT’s memory by imposing a word limit on ChatGPT

ChatGPT’s default tendency leans towards using approximately 300 words for scenes. However, it’s important to recognize that this excessive verbiage can lead to unnecessary rambling and memory usage. To counter this, consider setting a word limit of 100 to 150 words in your opening prompt. This strategic approach serves multiple purposes.

Firstly, implementing a word limit contributes to memory conservation. By restricting the AI’s output, you ensure that valuable memory resources aren’t exhausted on extensive textual content. This, in turn, enhances the overall coherence and continuity of your roleplaying adventure.

Secondly, a word limit greatly enhances readability. By curbing the AI’s inclination to create overly detailed descriptions or prolonged monologues, you create a more engaging and concise narrative. The player can absorb information more effectively, and the pacing of the story remains dynamic and interesting.

Lastly, enforcing a word limit prevents the AI from indulging in needless verbosity. It encourages the AI to focus on the essence of the scene, conveying important details succinctly. This results in a narrative that is both immersive and to the point.

Ask questions from oracles whenever possible

Rather than turning to the AI for answers, consider asking a roleplaying oracle when possible. This practice yields two significant benefits. Primarily, it helps preserve valuable memory resources. By utilizing oracles, you minimize the AI’s involvement in addressing queries, thereby conserving memory for core storytelling and interactions.

Secondly, consulting oracles promotes a sense of depth and unpredictability in your roleplaying journey. Oracles introduce an element of randomness and creativity that can lead to intriguing plot twists and developments. This adds a layer of excitement and spontaneity to the adventure.

It’s advisable to reserve AI interactions for cases where an oracle isn’t readily available to provide an answer. Once you’ve obtained insights from an oracle, seamlessly incorporate the newfound information into the roleplaying scene when using the AI. This approach ensures that the narrative remains consistent while optimizing memory allocation.

Manage ChatGPT’s memory by using more than one conversation

A valuable technique for achieving optimal memory utilization involves employing multiple ChatGPT conversations for your campaign. This approach not only enhances memory efficiency but also contributes to a more immersive storytelling experience.

At its core, this strategy involves the utilization of at least three distinct conversations as a foundation for your adventure. This combination  of conversations serves different purposes, each contributing to a cohesive and engaging narrative. The breakdown typically includes:

Main Quest Conversation: Dedicated to the core storyline and pivotal plot developments, this conversation forms the heart of your adventure. It centers on the primary quest, allowing you to delve deep into character interactions, major plot points, and overarching themes.

Travel and Exploration Conversation: This conversation tackles the aspects of journeying, exploration, and world-building. It provides a platform to describe landscapes, encounters during travels, and wilderness exploration.

Dungeon Conversation: Tailored specifically for dungeon crawling experiences. This conversation is where you’ll generate descriptions for dungeons and similar locations.

The effectiveness of this approach lies in its simplicity. While each conversation has a unique focus, the prompt template from part 3 of the solo DM guide remains the same across all three. By utilizing the same prompt for all conversations and modifying only the opening scene to align with the context, you streamline your process without compromising on narrative quality.

In fact, the same approach can be extended to include additional conversations for major quest arcs or significant locations within your campaign, providing an even broader canvas for storytelling.

View your campaign as episodic

A  useful technique to optimize memory usage involves perceiving your game as a sequence of episodes, each containing disposable events and characters. This mindset not only streamlines gameplay but also addresses the challenge of the AI forgetting past elements due to token truncation.

As your campaign unfolds, it’s crucial to recognize that the AI’s memory is subject to limitations. To counteract this, envision your campaign as a TV series, with each episode bringing new events and characters to the forefront. When certain characters and events exit the stage, consider them forgotten by the AI. This approach prevents memory overload and sustains the narrative’s coherency.

Maintaining notes of past events and characters serves as a valuable practice. At the conclusion of an episode, record what transpired and who was involved. When embarking on a new adventure, initiate fresh conversations to effectively reset the AI’s memory. To ensure continuity, reference the notes you’ve created, essentially “reminding” the AI of past events and characters as the story progresses.

Best practices for managing ChatGPT’s memory in a conversation

One effective approach towards managing ChatGPT’s memory is to maintain concise and focused conversations. By being mindful of the word count and prioritizing essential information, the player can help ensure that the AI retains important context throughout the roleplaying experience.

Another tactic is to periodically recap the storyline or significant events. Offering succinct summaries of the plot and key decisions made in the game can help refresh the AI’s memory and reestablish the flow of the adventure. This practice aids in sustaining the coherence of the narrative, even when dealing with limited memory capacity.

Additionally, the player should avoid going off on tangents or introducing excessive new elements within the conversation. Staying within the established framework of the roleplaying scenario prevents unnecessary strain on ChatGPT’s memory and promotes a more seamless gameplay experience.

In some cases, it might be beneficial to create reference documents or notes outside of the AI system. These documents can serve as quick references for both the player and the AI, ensuring that crucial details are not lost as the adventure progresses.

Furthermore, strategic repetition of important information can be advantageous. Reiterating essential facts and decisions at intervals helps reinforce the memory of both the AI and the participants, enabling a smoother and more coherent roleplaying adventure.

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Hex Flowers and Solo Dungeon Exploration

In this article, I will show you how to use hex flowers to create immersive dungeons. I first encountered this wonderful tool in this excellent guide on Goblin’s Henchman, and have used them ever since. A hex flower is a simplified hex map that you can populate with rooms and encounters. The abstract structure of the hex flower lends itself well to generating a fog of war for solo dungeon exploration. Additionally, due to the hex flower’s simplicity, you can rapidly create an entire dungeon. However, If you’re new to ChatGPT in solo play, start with this guide. Additionally, if you’re looking for a guide on how to play published adventures and dungeons then you should consult our published adventure guide.

Using Hex Flowers for Immersive Dungeon Creation

Hex flowers provide a fantastic tool for solo dungeon masters looking to craft engaging dungeons adventures. With their streamlined design, hex flowers offer a unique way to develop intricate dungeon layouts while maintaining an element of mystery through their fog of war mechanism.

What Are Hex Flowers?

Hex flowers are simplified hexagonal maps that serve as a foundation for constructing dungeons. These grids consist of interconnected nodes or cells, each representing a specific room, passage, or encounter within the dungeon. The beauty of hex flowers, however, lies in their abstract nature, allowing dungeon creators to generate layouts without committing to a rigid physical representation. This unique feature not only fosters variety but also provides a flexible framework for designing diverse dungeons.

Hex Flower

Creating Fog of War

One of the key advantages of utilizing hex flowers is their innate ability to create a fog of war effect, enhancing the sense of exploration. Whenever adventurers traverse the hexagonal pathways, new rooms and encounters unfold gradually, mimicking the gradual reveal of an uncharted territory. This dynamic process adds an exciting layer to solo dungeon crawling.

Hex Flowers and Solo Dungeon Generation

The most widely recognized hex flower is a set of 19 hexes arranged in a symmetrical configuration. The resulting diagram serves as a versatile dungeon map. When employing hex flowers for dungeon exploration, each hex is assigned a unique number, signifying a distinct room within the dungeon. The initial hex corresponds to the dungeon entrance, whereas the 19th hex signifies the ultimate objective. Successfully completing the dungeon entails reaching the objective hex indicated on the hex flower.

Traveling on the Dungeon Hex Flower

Place a token on hex 1. Whenever you want to travel to an adjacent hex on the flower, you must roll a Perception check at DC 15.  If you are employing a system other than D&D 5th Edition (5e), employ the counterpart of a Perception check within that specific system.

If you fail the roll, you get lost and must roll 1d6 to determine in which direction you travel instead.

Single Hex for Hex Flower Travel

Whenever you move off the edge, you enter the hex that’s directly opposite on the hex flower. The only exceptions are the edges on the hex flower with stars. These edges are blocked and cannot be entered. Choose another route or reroll the 1d6 if necessary.

Hex Flower Edge Rule

Populating Your Dungeon Hex Flower With Rooms

The most straightforward method of dungeon generation involves creating a list of rooms accompanied by short descriptions. These room depictions serve as a conduit for visualizing the diverse chambers within the dungeon. However, the utility of room lists extends further. They afford you the opportunity to harness ChatGPT’s capabilities to formulate dungeon descriptions in real-time as you engage in play. This integration of ChatGPT enhances the immersive quality of dungeon crawls, as it excels at generating descriptions that enhances the solo gameplay experience.

Using ChatGPT to Generate Custom Room Lists For Hex Flowers

ChatGPT excels at creating quick room lists on the fly. This makes it an excellent dungeon generator to use alongside hex flowers. The following prompt has been meticulously designed to generate an array of dungeons to suit various scenarios. It can be employed either prior to embarking on an adventure or seamlessly integrated during the course of one, whenever the need arises.

The ChatGPT Dungeon Generator Prompt Template

The following prompt was designed to generate a list of 19 rooms in a dungeon concept of your choice. A dungeon concept can be a haunted mansion, an ancient ruin, or any concept that will fit your adventure.

Assume the role of an expert fantasy writer that specializes in interactive fiction, and the characters, descriptions, groups and organizations, stories, events, magical artefacts/technology and objects of [Insert Campaign Setting].

The adventure take place in [Insert Dungeon Location]. Give me a list of 19 rooms in [Insert Dungeon Concept] short, one sentence visual descriptions for [Insert Dungeon Concept]. The first room is the entrance, the 19th room is the objective.

Example

The following dungeon generator prompt was designed to create a ruin overrun by undead in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting.

Assume the role of an expert fantasy  writer that specializes in interactive fiction, and the characters, descriptions, groups and organizations, stories, events, magical artefacts/technology and objects of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting for Dungeons and Dragons.

The adventure take place in a ruin near Baldur’s Gate. Give me a list of 19 rooms in a ruin overrun by the undead, that consist of one sentence visual descriptions. The first room is the entrance, the 19th room is the objective.

Room Lists

The dungeon generator prompt will create a list of rooms with a short description. Room lists are used to envision your surroundings in-game and function as prompts for ChatGPT.

Example

ChatGPT created the following room list from the prompt in the previous example.

  1. Entrance Hall: The massive oaken doors creak open to reveal a dimly lit chamber strewn with cobwebs, their silken threads hanging like veils over crumbling stone statues.
  2. Haunted Vestibule: The air is heavy with a musty stench as ghostly apparitions flicker in and out of existence amidst broken suits of ancient armor.
  3. Halls of Echoing Torment: A labyrinth of winding passages echoes with anguished wails and mournful cries, the walls bearing etchings of tormented souls.
  4. Chamber of Mourning: A room adorned with faded tapestries depicting scenes of loss and sorrow, the sobs of mourners seemingly trapped within the fabric.
  5. Cryptic Library: Bookshelves sag under the weight of ancient tomes, the words within them written in an arcane script unknown to most.
  6. Gallery of Forgotten Heroes: Paintings of once-glorious adventurers now marred by decay, their heroic deeds captured in frozen moments.
  7. Chapel of Eternal Vigil: A ruined altar stands at the center, surrounded by ghostly lights that illuminate the sorrowful faces of long-deceased clergy.
  8. Whispering Gallery: Ghostly whispers fill the room, their origins obscured by eerie spectral mists that dance in the air.
  9. Tomb of the Fallen: Sarcophagi line the walls, each bearing the name of a fallen warrior, while restless phantoms stand guard.
  10. Chamber of Weeping Stones: Water drips from the ceiling, causing the stone walls to weep with tears of moisture, creating an unsettling ambiance.
  11. Ethereal Observatory: A shattered dome reveals the night sky beyond, and faint outlines of astral beings can be seen among the stars.
  12. Hall of Timeless Watchers: Ancient suits of armor stand sentinel, their empty eye sockets somehow watching your every move.
  13. Abandoned Alchemy Lab: Broken vials and forgotten potions lie scattered about, with mysterious symbols etched into the workbenches.
  14. Spectral Ballroom: Tattered curtains dance in an unseen breeze, as the laughter and music of a bygone gala resonate within the walls.
  15. Lake of Unending Whispers: An underground pool reflects eerie glimmers of light while spectral forms seemingly swim just below the surface.
  16. Chamber of Mirrors: The walls are adorned with mirrors, reflecting the unsettling image of unseen figures watching from the shadows.
  17. Labyrinth of Lost Hope: Twisting passages lead through a maze of despair, with ethereal apparitions pointing towards dead-ends.
  18. Vault of the Cursed Relics: A collection of cursed and forbidden artifacts, their malevolent aura palpable even from a distance.
  19. Chamber of the Lich’s Phylactery: At the heart of the ruin, a foreboding chamber houses the powerful artifact that sustains the undead’s existence, emanating an eerie glow and surrounded by layers of magical wards.

Exploring the Hex Flower With ChatGPT

To create an immersive dungeon crawling experience, create a separate conversation in ChatGPT for your dungeon and use the following opening prompt:

Assume the role of an expert [Insert Genre] writer that specializes in interactive fiction, and the characters, descriptions, groups and organizations, stories, events, magical artefacts/technology and objects of [Insert My Campaign Setting]

The adventure takes place in [Insert Dungeon Location]. Provide suitable names for characters, locations, groups and organizations, events, magical artefacts/technology and objects. Give a narrative description of everything that follows in under 100 words, while remaining consistent with [My Campaign Setting], in response to what I type, in the style of [Insert Author] without scripting, generating, describing, or controlling my actions, thoughts, emotions, feelings, spoken and unspoken words, and dialogue in the story, scenes, events, descriptions, and conversations that follow.

 Have characters always use dialogue when interacting with me. Always conduct all conversations and dialogues in quotation marks in the style of a novel, written in the style of [Insert Author]. Keep all descriptions, conversations, and text under 100 words. I enter  [Insert the dungeon entrance description]. Describe what I see.

Using the Hex flower and Room List With ChatGPT

Begin traveling through the hex flower. When you land on a numbered hex, look for the corresponding number on the room list. Use the room’s description as a prompt for ChatGPT to create room descriptions as you travel from hex to hex.

Example

In this example we will use the room list from the previous example to generate descriptions. Every time the player enters the room, they provide ChatGPT with a description to use when generating the dungeon room.

Player: [Starts at hex 1] I enter the entrance hall. The massive oaken doors creak open to reveal a dimly lit chamber strewn with cobwebs, their silken threads hanging like veils over crumbling stone statues.

ChatGPT: You step into the entrance hall, the massive oaken doors creaking open to reveal a dimly lit chamber. Cobwebs hang like veils over crumbling stone statues, shrouding them in an eerie silence. Dust dances in the faint light that filters through narrow windows, casting long shadows across the worn tiles beneath your feet. The air is heavy with a musty scent, and an unsettling feeling of time’s passage permeates the space.

Player: [Moves to hex 4] I enter a chamber of mourning. A room adorned with faded tapestries depicting scenes of loss and sorrow, the sobs of mourners seemingly trapped within the fabric.

ChatGPT: Stepping into the chamber of mourning, you find yourself surrounded by faded tapestries that depict scenes of heartache and sorrow. The figures in the tapestries seem to emit an aura of grief, their silent sobs trapped within the very fabric. The room’s atmosphere is heavy with a sense of melancholy, and the air itself seems to hold the weight of countless tears shed in the past. It’s as if the room itself mourns for the tragedies of ages long gone.

Adding Encounters to Your Hex Flower

When starting a new dungeon, consult the Monster Manual or any other suitable bestiary and choose four different monsters that will suit your dungeon. Place these monsters on a simple D4 table such as the one below.

Encounter List

Room Content

Whenever you enter a new hex, you need to roll and see what the room contains. To check for an encounter, roll on the following table.

Traps

There is no need for creating a separate table for traps. When you encounter a trap, ask ChatGPT to describe it to you. It will create an detailed description of the trap you encountered. You can then use skill checks to disable or evade the trap.

Example

Player: [Encounters a trap] I uncover a trap. Describe what it looks like.

ChatGPT: Your keen eye catches a hidden trap, a pressure plate cunningly concealed beneath a layer of dust. It triggers a network of taut tripwires that lead to a rusted cage hanging above, bristling with venomous spikes. The trap’s malevolent design speaks of a masterful mind long gone, a grim testament to the perilous nature of these ruins.

Exploring a Solo dungeon Step-By-Step With ChatGPT

To explore a dungeon with the dungeon generator use the following steps

  1. Create a room  list of 19 dungeon rooms with the dungeon generator prompt.
  2. Assign a room to each hex on a hex flower.
  3. Move from hex to hex, until you reach the 19th hex.
  4. When you land on a hex, use the description in the room list alongside ChatGPT to envision the dungeon.
  5. Determine the room content and interact with any encounters.
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How to play published adventures solo

In this guide we will show you how to play published D&D adventures solo. One of the most common challenges for solo players is the difficulty in engaging with published adventures. Thankfully, advancements in AI technology have revolutionized this aspect, making it remarkably accessible through the use of appropriate prompts. By utilizing the right prompts, you can immerse yourself in numerous renowned published adventures, all without the requirement of a Dungeon Master. If you’re new to AI roleplaying, read this guide first before going any further.

In this guide we will show you:

  • How to prompt ChatGPT to create a text adventure based on published D&D material.
  • How to run dungeon crawls without a Dungeon Master, using ChatGPT.
  • How small groups can play a D&D adventure without a DM using ChatGPT.

How to play published adventures solo with the right prompts

One of the most critical errors a solo player can make is relying on ChatGPT as a substitute for a Dungeon Master. Due to its limited memory capacity of approximately 3000 words, it presents a significant barrier to this style of gameplay. Instead, a superior alternative is for you to assume the role of the solo Dungeon Master while utilizing ChatGPT as a narrator in a text adventure.

This approach not only conserves valuable memory but also enhances the overall game quality substantially. The following prompt has been designed to deliver an immersive and interactive experience with high-quality writing. Its components are straightforward and include the following instructions:

  • ChatGPT assumes the persona of an expert interactive fiction writer specializing in the adventure of your choice.
  • All descriptions generated by the AI are based on the player’s inputs, without unnecessarily constraining their choices.
  • Non-player characters (NPCs) engage in dialogue when interacting with the player character.
  • ChatGPT employs the writing style of a renowned author.
  • A word limit is imposed on ChatGPT to optimize memory usage.

ChatGPT prompt template to play published adventures solo

Assume the role of an expert fantasy writer that specializes in interactive fiction, and the characters, groups and organizations, stories, events, magical artefacts and objects of [Insert the Published Adventure’s Title].

The adventure takes place in [Insert Campaign Setting’s World]. Provide suitable names for characters, locations, groups and organizations, events, magical artefacts/technology and objects. Give a narrative description of everything that follows in under 150 words, while remaining consistent with [Insert the Published Adventure’s Title], in response to what I type, in the style of [Insert Author] without scripting, generating, describing, or controlling my actions, words, and dialogue in the story, scenes, descriptions, and conversations that follow.

Have characters always use dialogue when interacting with me. Always conduct all conversations and dialogues in quotation marks in the style of a novel, written in the style of [Insert Author]. Keep all descriptions, conversations, and text under 150 words. [Insert opening scene]

Example : The Curse of Strahd

To illustrate how this works in practice, we will prompt ChatGPT to create an adventure based on The Curse of Strahd, written in the style of Bram Stoker. The opening scene is outside the gates of Barovia on the Old Svalich Road. Feel free to copy/paste the prompt below into ChatGPT to start your own game based on this adventure.

Assume the role of an expert fantasy writer that specializes in interactive fiction, and the characters, groups and organizations, stories, events, magical artefacts and objects of The Curse of Strahd.

The adventure takes place in Barovia. Provide suitable names for characters, locations, groups and organizations, descriptions, events, magical artefacts and objects. Give a narrative description of everything that follows in under 150 words, while remaining consistent with The Curse of Strahd, in response to what I type, in the style of Bram Stoker without scripting, generating, describing, or controlling my actions, words, and dialogue in the story, scenes, descriptions, and conversations that follow.

Have characters always use dialogue when interacting with me. Always conduct all conversations and dialogues in quotation marks in the style of a novel, written in the style of  Bram Stoker. Keep all descriptions, conversations, and text under 150 words. I am on the Old Svalich Road outside the gates of Barovia. Describe what I see.

The opening scene

ChatGPT will proceed to create an opening scene for your text adventure. This opening scene acts as a spawn point for the player character.

ChatGPT created the following opening scene for the prompt above, yours will very likely differ from mine. AI roleplaying feels in many ways like a roguelike text adventure. Every player will have a unique experience as the AI improvises a new story .

As you stand on the Old Svalich Road outside the iron-wrought gates of Barovia, a sense of foreboding hangs heavy in the mist-shrouded air. The dilapidated village lies nestled at the foot of the towering Balinok Mountains, its stone houses crumbling and weather-worn. The wind whispers through the trees, carrying a mournful melody that echoes through the desolate streets. Before you, the gates creak open, revealing a path lined with gnarled trees that lead to the heart of Barovia.

Interacting with NPCs

You can interact with NPCs and talk to them as you would in a game. However to make sure that the AI understands that you’re talking to an NPC, place the sentence in quotation marks. NPCs will respond to your conversation in-game. It should be mentioned that ChatGPT will often swap around side-characters when creating a text-adventure.

Example

ChatGPT: A figure approaches, clad in tattered garments, his eyes haunted and voice filled with sorrow. “Welcome, stranger, to the land of eternal darkness. Beware the curse that holds us all captive.”

Player: “Greetings, I am lost. Is there an inn in the village where I can sleep for the night?”

ChatGPT: The figure’s weary eyes meet yours, reflecting a glimmer of sympathy. “Aye, traveler, ye seek respite from the encroaching shadows. The Blood of the Vine tavern awaits within the village, offering solace amidst the bleakness. Yet tread lightly, for the night holds secrets that even the stoutest hearts fear to uncover.  With a somber nod, he gestures towards the village, his voice trailing off in a hushed warning, “May fortune favor your path, stranger, for darkness ever lingers in Barovia.”

Exploring the world

To explore the world created by ChatGPT, simply tell the game where you’re going. You can explore the game world in any way that’s consistent with the adventure. Ask for clear and precise descriptions of places and events as this keeps the AI on track.

Example

As you step through the weathered entrance of the Blood of the Vine inn, a somber atmosphere envelops you. The air is thick with the scent of damp wood and aged spirits. Dimly lit by flickering candles, the tavern reveals worn wooden tables scattered across the room, their surfaces etched with countless tales. Shadowed figures huddle together, their faces etched with weariness and sorrow. Behind the worn counter stands a stoic innkeep with a greying beard and tired eyes. “Welcome, traveler,” he grumbles, his voice carrying the weight of countless stories. “What brings ye to this cursed abode?”

How to play adventures solo using a hard copy of the adventure book

Having a copy of the published adventure is vital when it comes to playing a D&D adventure solo. It serves as a valuable resource, providing crucial information on dungeons and encounters, essential for an enjoyable gameplay experience. However, for solo players, the adventure book serves a different purpose compared to that of a Dungeon Master.

For solo players, the adventure’s book acts as the ultimate strategy guide for navigating the text adventure. It serves as a tool to orient themselves within the game world and offers guidance on what steps to take next.

Moreover, owning a copy of the published adventure enhances your ability to explore dungeons more effectively. The room descriptions found within the adventure can be utilized as prompts to delve into various dungeon locations. Additionally, the published material includes vital details regarding encounters and other events that occur within the dungeon.

How to create fog of war using hex maps

Hex maps are an effective way of creating fog of war for solo exploration. The hex maps in this guide are based on the hex flower method in this guide. The player makes a list of the rooms in a dungeon or areas in a location. Then the player writes each room’s number on a hex grid. The hex map can be any shape the player desires.

Example: The Death House in the village of Barovia

Room List

  1. Entrance
  2. Main Hall
  3. Den of Wolves
  4. Kitchen and Pantry
  5. Dining Room
  6. Upper Hall
  7. Servant’s Room
  8. Library
  9. Secret Room
  10. Conservatory
  11. Balcony
  12. Master Suite
  13. Bathroom
  14. Storage Room
  15. Nursemaid’s Suite
  16. Attic Hall
  17. Spare Bedroom
  18. Storage Room
  19. Spare Bedroom
  20. Children’s Room
  21. Secret Stairs
  22. Dungeon Level Access
  23. Family Crypts
  24. Cult Initiates’ Quarters
  25. Well and Cultists’ Quarters
  26. Hidden Spike Pit
  27. Dining Hall
  28. Larder
  29. Ghoulish Encounter
  30. Stairs Down
  31. Darklord’s Shrine
  32. Hidden Trapdoor
  33. Cult Leader’s Den
  34. Cult Leader’s Quarters
  35. Reliquary
  36. Prison
  37. Portcullis
  38. Ritual Chamber

How to play published adventures solo by using dungeon hex maps

The player places a token on the hex marked “1” and reads the room description in the text. When the player is done exploring the room, they can move the token to adjacent hex. The objective is to reach the final numbered hex on the map.

Example

Each number below represents a room in the Death House dungeon.

play published adventures solo using dungeon hex maps

How to play published adventures solo by using a dungeon room list with ChatGPT

You can use the room list above as prompts for ChatGPT when exploring a dungeon. When you land on a numbered hex, ask ChatGPT to give you a description of the room. You can then turn to that room in the adventure’s book to see if there are any encounters.

Player: (Starts at hex 1) I enter the Death House. Describe the entrance to me.

ChatGPT: You step cautiously into the foyer of the Death House, a place steeped in darkness and decay. The air is thick with dust, the scent of mildew hanging heavy. Moonlight filters through cracked windows, casting eerie shadows upon the worn marble floor. A grand staircase, once regal but now marred by neglect, ascends ominously to the upper floors. Cobwebs drape the faded portraits that line the walls, their subjects long forgotten. A faint whisper brushes against your ear, carrying a haunting lament. The house groans with an ancient sorrow, as if it holds secrets that refuse to be forgotten.

Player: (Moves to hex 2) I enter the Main Hall. What do I see?

ChatGPT:  Stepping beyond the threshold of the Death House’s foyer, you find yourself in the Main Hall, a chamber frozen in time. The grandeur of the past lingers here, though faded and tarnished. Moonlight filters through tall, stained-glass windows, casting ethereal hues across the room. Tattered curtains sway in the draft, while dust dances in the stagnant air. Ahead, a massive fireplace stands, its once roaring flames now reduced to cold embers. Cobweb-laden chandeliers hang from the vaulted ceiling, casting eerie shadows upon the worn, threadbare carpet. The echoes of forgotten footsteps seem to whisper within the hall, carrying with them a sense of unease and tragedy.

Combat encounters

ChatGPT isn’t the best at running combat, which is why you have to do it, using the information in the published adventure. You’ll have to decide when combat is necessary or required. The adventure book contains all the stat blocks of the monsters you’ll be facing.  Use this information to control them during combat using AI rules. When combat is over, move to the next hex on the hex map.

Playing around ChatGPT’s memory limit

The AI’s memory limit of roughly 3000 words causes the AI to “forget” important information as the adventure progresses. When the AI reaches this threshold, it starts to truncate parts of the conversation. This means that the AI will forget parts of the adventure as the game progresses. This decoherence will build and eventually destroy the game.

There are two ways of playing around this issue:

  1. By introducing a word limit in the opening prompt.
  2. By playing the game as a series of episodes and reminding the AI of important details during a playthrough.

ChatGPT likes to wax lyrical during descriptions, sometimes annoyingly so. From my own experiences it tends to favor roughly 300 words for descriptions. This means that after less than 10 scenes, the AI will start forgetting details. To extend this horizon, you can prompt ChatGPT to use less than 100-150 words when describing a scene. This not only conserves memory, but also makes the adventure more manageable to read, especially when playing with friends.

Another option is to treat an adventure episodically. The player treats each story arc, chapter, and major area (such as a dungeon) as a separate conversation. However, it’s necessary to remind ChatGPT of characters and events at intervals to make sure it “remembers” them. Part of learning to play published D&D adventures solo is managing and playing around ChatGPT’s memory limit.

How to play published adventures in a group without a DM

It’s possible for small groups to use ChatGPT to play a published adventure without a Dungeon Master. As long as the group can decide on what to do and which rules apply, they can play without a DM. Firstly, one player needs to act as a narrator for the adventure.

The narrator reads the descriptions provided by the AI, and also enters all prompts. The group gets to decide which prompts the narrator has to enter into ChatGPT. Because the prompt above is meant for solo play, the narrator must speak for the group as if he is playing alone on his own. However, every player should be given a chance by the narrator to speak to NPCs and affect the game world.

If there are disagreements between players, then each must roll 1d20. The player with the highest roll wins.

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Solo DM Guide Part 3 – ChatGPT as assistant AI Dungeon Master (Updated)

In this guide, I will show you how to craft prompts that turn ChatGPT into an AI Dungeon Master assistant for solo games. If you craft the prompts correctly, ChatGPT can create an entire virtual world made of text for you to explore. The result is an interactive text-based game based on your input and gameplay. Furthermore, the gameplay is unique, with solo adventures being the closest comparison.

In this article, I’ll show you the following:

  • How to play D&D with ChatGPT by creating text adventures.
  • Converting your favourite works of fiction into solo games.
  • How to use published D&D adventures in a solo game.
  • Styling your game after famous fantasy authors.

The two main options for ChatGPT D&D prompts

There are basically two main styles for prompting ChatGPT for playing D&D:

  1. You can prompt ChatGPT to act as an AI Dungeon Master.
  2. You can prompt ChatGPT to create a text adventure.

Players who choose Option 1 prompt ChatGPT to act as a substitute for a human Dungeon Master, with the AI attempting to fulfill the role and assist in managing 5e rules and combat during gameplay. As a player, you take on a more passive role in creating the adventure. However, this style of prompting presents a significant challenge due to ChatGPT’s memory limit.

With GPT-3.5, which is available for free accounts, there is a token limitation of 4000 tokens or approximately 3000 words. Consequently, if you’re using a free ChatGPT account, the AI can only retain a conversation history of up to 3000 words. As a result, AI memory becomes a valuable resource.

Using ChatGPT to handle rules and combat consumes a significant portion of this limited memory. Consequently, ChatGPT may quickly forget important events and characters in your campaign, which negatively impacts the overall experience. This is where Option 2 becomes relevant.

Creating text adventures

To address the memory limitation, a more effective approach is for you to take on the role of administering the rules in the game yourself. In this scenario, ChatGPT serves as your AI Dungeon Master assistant rather than acting as the Dungeon Master itself. By adopting this method, you can allocate ChatGPT’s memory resources more efficiently, allowing it to focus on creating and developing your game world. This ensures that valuable memory is freed up for the core aspects of your adventure.

When you prompt ChatGPT to create a D&D interactive text adventure, it fulfills the following functions:

  • It creates interactive descriptions that bring the world to life.
  • It enables conversations with interesting NPCs.
  • It brings story elements together to create a plot.

When utilizing ChatGPT to create a text adventure, it is crucial for you to take on the role of the solo Dungeon Master who applies the 5e rules and manages combat during the game. ChatGPT, on the other hand, serves as your AI Dungeon Master assistant. Furthermore, you as the solo DM act as the campaign’s memory, especially during longer playthroughs.

By taking on these responsibilities, you allow ChatGPT to utilize its valuable memory resources for creating the game world and developing the characters within it. The exciting aspect is that these games closely resemble text adventures from the 80s, but offer significantly more freedom. As long as you remain mindful of the memory limit and manage ChatGPT’s memory, 3000 words provide ample space for engaging in solo roleplaying experiences.

Crafting an AI Dungeon Master prompt

To help you craft prompts for solo D&D we will use a prompt engineering framework called CRISPS. This framework is based on the guidelines in this post.

CRISPS AI Dungeon Master prompt framework:

Capacity and Role: Define the role ChatGPT must assume in your game. You want ChatGPT to assume the role of an expert fantasy writer who specializes in interactive fiction. You also need to specify that ChatGPT must be an expert in the characters, groups, and organizations, stories, events, and magical artifacts of your campaign setting. This improves the AI’s accuracy when it uses your campaign’s lore. You can also ask ChatGPT to be an expert in other subjects as well, such as Norse mythology if you want to create a Viking-inspired game session.

Insight: Provide the AI behind-the-scenes insight, background, and context to the adventure you want to play. Introduce the outline of your adventure and important quest details.

Statement: Statements tell ChatGPT how you want it to create the text adventure. Statements fine tune the prompt to your specifications allowing you to tweak it to your liking. 

Firstly, you’ll want ChatGPT to give narrative descriptions of everything you type. By using narrative descriptions, the game reads like a story in a novel. As a result, this changes your game from a series of bland, sterile descriptions to a compelling interactive story.

Secondly, you want ChatGPT to base all narrative descriptions on the actions you take in-game. This makes the adventure more interactive and helps prevent ChatGPT from running away with the adventure. It’s also important to add to your prompt that ChatGPT should never take control of you or your character in the adventure. This helps reduce railroading by the AI.

Thirdly, you want to prompt ChatGPT to stay consistent with your chosen campaign setting. This forces the AI to keep your game in line with the lore and characters of your setting.

Another crucial aspect is the inclusion of dialogue. To ensure believable NPC dialogue, prompt ChatGPT to use the conversational style and punctuation typically found in novels and short stories. This will help avoid situations where the AI describes a conversation instead of allowing an NPC to engage in actual dialogue with the player’s character.

Personality: Define the style or personality you want ChatGPT to use when creating the adventure .This feature allows you to style your text adventures using your favorite author.  You can choose any famous author that’s in ChatGPT’s training data, such as J.R.R Tolkien, Robert E. Howard, or R.A Salvatore. 

Scene: Set the opening scene of your adventure and ask ChatGPT for clear descriptions of what you see, hear, or experience. This starts starts the adventure by immediately placing you in the game world. If you fail to do this, the AI can derail the game before it begins.

ChatGPT D&D Prompt Template

You can use the following ChatGPT D&D prompt as a base for creating custom adventures. You can either keep it just as it is, or you can tinker with it until it’s to your liking.

Assume the role of an expert fantasy writer that specializes in interactive fiction, and the characters, groups and organizations, stories, events, magical artefacts and objects of [Insert My Campaign Setting]

The adventure takes place in [Insert Campaign Setting’s World]. Provide suitable names for characters, locations, groups and organizations, events, magical artefacts and objects. Give a narrative description of everything that follows in under 100 words, while remaining consistent with [My Campaign Setting], in response to what I type, in the style of [Insert Author] without scripting, generating, describing, or controlling my actions, thoughts, emotions, feelings, spoken and unspoken words, and dialogue in the story, scenes, events, descriptions, and conversations that follow.

Have characters always use dialogue when interacting with me. Always conduct all conversations and dialogues in quotation marks in the style of a novel, written in the style of [Insert Author]. Keep all descriptions, conversations, and text under 100 words.

[Insert opening scene]

How to build a custom AI Dungeon Master’s assistant prompt: CRISPS example

Capacity and Role: Assume the role of an expert fantasy novelist that specializes in interactive fiction, and the characters, groups and organizations, stories, events, and magical artefacts and objects of Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian stories.

Insight: The adventure takes in the world of the Hyborian Age.

Statement: Give a narrative description of everything that follows while remaining consistent with the Conan the Barbarian stories , in response to what I type, without scripting, generating, describing, or controlling my actions, thoughts, emotions, feelings, spoken and unspoken words, and dialogue in the story, scenes, events, descriptions, and conversations that follow.

Have characters always use dialogue when interacting with me. Always conduct all conversations and dialogues in quotation marks in the style of a novel.

Personality: Use the style of a Robert E. Howard novel.

Scene: I arrive in a port city on the Black Coast. What is it’s name and what do I see as I arrive?

The final AI Dungeon Master assistant prompt would read as follows:

Assume the role of an expert fantasy novelist that specializes in interactive fiction, and the characters, groups and organizations, stories, events, and magical artefacts and objects of Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian stories.

The adventure takes in the world of the Hyborian Age. Provide suitable names for characters, locations, groups and organizations, events, and magical artefacts and objects. Give a narrative description of everything that follows, while remaining consistent with the Conan the Barbarian stories, in response to what I type, in the style of Robert E. Howard without scripting, generating, describing, or controlling my actions, thoughts, emotions, feelings, spoken and unspoken words, and dialogue in the story, scenes, events, descriptions, and conversations that follow.

Have characters always use dialogue when interacting with me. Always conduct all conversations and dialogues in quotation marks in the style of a novel, written in the style of Robert. E Howard. I arrive in a port city on the Black Coast. What is the city’s name and what do I see as I arrive?

The opening scene of an AI text adventure

After crafting the prompt and placing it into ChatGPT, your brand new assistant AI Dungeon Master assistant will create your opening scene. ChatGPT created the following opening scene from the prompt I crafted above.

As you sail along the treacherous Black Coast, a jagged shoreline dotted with craggy cliffs and foaming waves, you finally catch sight of a bustling port city nestled in a protected cove. This city, known as Thalos, rises from the horizon like a formidable fortress, its sturdy walls of weathered stone casting long shadows in the fading light of the sun.

As your vessel glides into the harbor, you are greeted by a cacophony of sounds and a flurry of activity. Dockworkers scurry about, unloading cargo from ships of various shapes and sizes, while merchants hawk their wares with spirited cries. The scent of salt and fish hangs heavy in the air, mingling with the pungent aromas of exotic spices and bustling street stalls.

The cityscape of Thalos stretches before you, a vibrant tapestry of ancient and new. Towering minarets rise majestically, adorned with intricate carvings that depict scenes of long-forgotten legends. Colorful banners flutter in the breeze, displaying the heraldry of noble houses and guilds vying for influence and power.

As you step onto the worn cobblestones of the dock, your gaze is drawn to the city’s heart, where a grand bazaar unfolds. Stalls and tents spill over with a dazzling array of goods from every corner of the known world. Jewel-encrusted trinkets, silken fabrics, and gleaming weapons vie for attention alongside crates of exotic fruits, aromatic oils, and mysterious potions.

The people of Thalos pass by in a kaleidoscope of diversity. Muscular sailors with weathered skin exchange boisterous tales of the high seas with sly merchants in flowing robes. Dark-skinned nomads from distant lands haggle with shrewd locals, while armored guards patrol the streets with an air of authority. Over it all hangs a sense of anticipation, as if the very air crackles with the promise of adventure and treachery.

Talking to NPCs in your solo game

You can talk to any NPC in the game. However, in order to avoid confusing the AI, use proper punctuation during conversations.

ChatGPT: As you stand amidst the vibrant tapestry of Thalos, the city of endless possibilities, a voice booms from the crowd, “Welcome, stranger! You’ve arrived in Thalos, a place where dreams are made and fortunes are lost. What brings you to our fair city, seeking fortune or fleeing from it?”

Player: I turn towards the voice and ask with amusement, “And who, may I ask, wants to know?”

ChatGPT: You turn toward the voice, revealing a burly figure clad in worn leather armor, his bearded face weathered by countless battles. He stands before you with a confident smirk, his eyes gleaming with a mixture of curiosity and mischief.

“I am Borin Stonecleaver, a humble merchant and part-time storyteller,” he declares, his voice carrying the unmistakable timbre of a man who has spent his fair share of nights in taverns. “And it is my nature to be curious about those who venture into Thalos. So, tell me, stranger, what tales and secrets do you carry with you?”

Borin’s gaze seems to penetrate your very soul, as if he is attempting to unravel the mysteries that brought you to this fabled city on the Black Coast.

Player: “Only those of a private man. Can you tell me where I can find a drink in this city?”

ChatGPT: Borin chuckles heartily, his laughter echoing through the bustling streets of Thalos. “Ah, a man after my own heart! Fear not, for Thalos is no stranger to those in search of a good drink. Allow me to guide you to a place where ale flows freely and stories are woven like the finest tapestries.”

With a confident stride, Borin leads you through the labyrinthine alleys and bustling thoroughfares of the city. The sounds of haggling merchants and lively chatter gradually fade into the background as you venture deeper into Thalos. Finally, you arrive at a weathered wooden sign swinging gently in the breeze, bearing the faded image of a tankard overflowing with frothy ale.

“This,” Borin announces, gesturing toward the sign, “is the Rusty Goblet. A humble tavern, but one that has seen its fair share of revelry and camaraderie. Step inside, and you shall find respite from the world’s cares, and perhaps even a tale or two worth hearing.”

Playing your interactive text adventure using oracles

After the AI Dungeon Master assistant creates the opening scene, you can interact with it in any way you please. ChatGPT will adapt the adventure to fit your actions. However, to get the most out of your adventure, you should use oracles alongside the AI to make up for its drawbacks (see below).

To start, whenever you have a question that would normally ask another DM, ask an oracle and if necessary, ChatGPT. Through the utilization of oracles, you have the opportunity to infuse your creativity and story ideas into the game. As you delve deeper into the immersive world crafted by the AI Dungeon Master assistant, you can rely on oracles to address any queries you may have. These answers can then serve as prompts that shape the game world. It is important to emphasize that this approach is applicable to all the oracles available on this site.

Example

Player: I decide to go to the Thalos docks to see if anything catches my eye. Do I see anything interesting?

Oracle answer: Yes, and …

Prompt placed into ChatGPT:

I go to the Thalos docks. However, when I get there, something interesting catches my eye. Describe it to me.

ChatGPT description:

As you make your way to the bustling Thalos docks, your keen eyes catch sight of a peculiar object gleaming amidst the chaotic flurry of activity. Nestled among crates and barrels, half-concealed by a tattered sail, is a weathered and intricately carved wooden chest.

The chest appears to be of ancient origin, its wood worn and weathered by time. Its surface is adorned with faded engravings depicting scenes of epic battles, mythical creatures, and figures that seem to dance with otherworldly energy. The carvings themselves seem to shift and move as if they possess a life of their own.

The chest is securely fastened with thick iron clasps, hinting at the possibility of valuable contents within. Though its true origins and purpose remain a mystery, it exudes an aura of ancient power, as if it has witnessed countless ages come and go.

Curiosity beckons, and you find yourself drawn towards the enigmatic chest. The bustling activity of the dock seems to fade into the background as you approach it. The whispers of the sea breeze carry a distant melody, urging you to uncover the secrets concealed within the carved confines.

The chest stands before you, silent and enigmatic. Its presence begs you to unlock its mysteries and uncover the untold stories that lie within. Will you succumb to its allure and delve into the unknown, or will caution guide your steps away from its enchantment?

Using your character’s skills during the adventure

Your character’s skills play a vital role as a storytelling tool within your game. They furnish you with a range of actions that you can employ when embodying your character during roleplay. Whenever you encounter a situation that entails a risk or presents an opportunity for an advantage, it becomes necessary to conduct a skill check.

During a skill check, visualize the potential outcome and articulate it to the AI. Regardless of whether you succeed or fail, make sure to incorporate the result seamlessly into the ongoing scene you are playing.

Example

Player: I stand at the Thalos docks and look around me. What do I see?

ChatGPT description

As you stand at the Thalos docks, the air is thick with the scent of saltwater and the cacophony of sailors and merchants bustling about their business. The sun casts its golden rays upon the waters, shimmering like a thousand coins scattered across the sea’s surface.

Amidst the hustle and bustle, you catch sight of a group of unsavory characters eyeing you with ill intent. Their faces bear the marks of a life spent in lawlessness, with jagged scars and beady eyes that gleam with malice. Clad in tattered garments and brandishing crude weapons, they move with a predatory grace, their steps echoing the rhythm of impending danger.

As they close in on you, their leader, a hulking brute with a twisted grin, steps forward, blocking your path. He speaks with a gravelly voice, laced with a hint of menace. “Well, well, what ‘ave we ‘ere? A lost lamb wanderin’ into our territory, eh? Got somethin’ valuable on ya, I reckon?”

His companions snicker, their laughter a low, ominous rumble. The leader’s eyes narrow as he sizes you up. “Best hand over yer valuables, lad, ‘fore things get real ugly. Don’t make this more difficult than it needs to be.”

The Thalos docks stretch out behind you, a labyrinth of wooden piers and vessels bobbing gently in the harbor. To your right, you catch a glimpse of a tavern, its weathered sign creaking in the breeze, inviting both honest patrons and those of shadier persuasions. The bustling marketplace lies ahead, a colorful tapestry of stalls and peddlers hawking their wares, a tempting maze of potential escape routes.

Player: (Rolls a successful Stealth check.) I run towards the marketplace. Once there, I blend into the crowd and escape them.

ChatGPT description

With a quick decision, you break into a sprint, swiftly maneuvering through the crowded marketplace. The vibrant tapestry of colors, smells, and sounds surrounds you as you blend into the mass of bustling bodies. The ruffians, caught off guard by your sudden burst of speed, struggle to keep pace amidst the chaos.

The marketplace is a labyrinth of narrow alleyways and bustling stalls, each filled with a cornucopia of exotic goods and treasures. Merchants call out their wares in a melodic chorus, their voices mixing with the clamor of haggling customers. You dart through the maze of stalls, expertly navigating the maze-like pathways, your pursuers gradually losing ground.

The crowd acts as your shield, obscuring you from the view of your would-be captors. Their menacing grumbles fade into the distance as you weave through the throng, your heart pounding in your chest. Finally, you find a momentary respite, a hidden nook between two stalls, where you catch your breath and assess your surroundings.

From your vantage point, you can see the colorful tapestry of the marketplace stretching out before you. Traders from distant lands display their exotic wares, bejeweled trinkets, and fine fabrics. A skilled juggler entertains a captivated audience, while the aroma of spiced meats and baked goods fills the air, tantalizing your senses.

As you gather your bearings, a voice calls out to you from nearby. Turning your head, you see a weathered, bearded merchant with wise eyes observing you intently. He beckons you closer, his voice a mere whisper above the marketplace clamor. “A close escape, lad. Those ruffians won’t give up so easily. If you seek safety, I know of a sanctuary. Follow me.”

Player: I accept the merchant’s offer of sanctuary and follow him.

How to play published adventures, novels, and video game adaptations with the AI Dungeon Master assistant

ChatGPT can be prompted to create text adventures from  novels, video games, and even published D&D adventures. Here is an example of a prompt created to play the D&D starter adventure The Lost Mine of Phandelver.

Assume the role of an expert fantasy writer that specializes in interactive fiction, and the characters, groups and organizations, stories, events, magical artefacts and objects of  the D&D adventure The Lost Mine of Phandelver.

The adventure takes place in the Forgotten Realms. Provide suitable names for characters, locations, groups and organizations, events, magical artefacts and objects. Give a narrative description of everything that follows, while remaining consistent with The Lost Mine of Phandelver, in response to what I type, in the style of R.A Salvatore without scripting, generating, describing, or controlling my actions, thoughts, emotions, feelings, spoken and unspoken words, and dialogue in the story, scenes, events, descriptions, and conversations that follow.

Have characters always use dialogue when interacting with me. Always conduct all conversations and dialogues in quotation marks in the style of a novel, written in the style of R.A Salvatore. I’m meeting with Gundren Rockseeker in an inn. What does he say to me?

Playing video games as a text adventure with the AI Dungeon Master assistant.

With ChatGPT, you can even play in the worlds famous video games such as Fallout and Skyrim. A prompt to play through Fallout 1 and 2 might read as follows:

Assume the role of an grimdark fiction writer that specializes in interactive fiction, and the characters, groups and organizations, stories, events, technology and objects of Fallout 1 and Fallout 2

The adventure takes place in post-apocalyptic Southern California. Provide suitable names for characters, locations, groups and organizations, events, technology and objects. Give a narrative description of everything that follows, while remaining consistent with Fallout 1 and 2, in response to what I type, in the style of Richard K. Morgan without scripting, generating, describing, or controlling my actions, thoughts, emotions, feelings, spoken and unspoken words, and dialogue in the story, scenes, events, descriptions, and conversations that follow.

Have characters always use dialogue when interacting with me. Always conduct all conversations and dialogues in quotation marks in the style of a novel, written in the style of Richard K. Morgan. I have left Vault 13 and I stand outside gazing at the Wasteland. What do I see?

Getting the best results with the AI Dungeon Master assistant

Use literal, explicit, and precise descriptions and language when playing your game. This is essential to prevent ChatGPT from railroading the player excessively. Another way to prevent railroading is to ask for precise descriptions of what your character sees or hears at all times. Additionally, never leave a prompt open-ended. When crafting a prompt, it’s best to avoid asking a question such as “What happens when… ?”. This can result in ChatGPT railroading the player. Instead, ask an oracle and base a prompt on the answer.

Always stay in character. When playing your game, you should always stay in character and speak to characters in the game in first person. This forces the AI to stay on track and prevents immersion breaking bugs. Done properly, your game will read like a interactive novel.

Use punctuation to emphasize what you want the AI to do when crafting a prompt. You can make prompts more accurate by segmenting them through commas. When asking ChatGPT to do more than one task, separate each command in your prompt with a comma. For example, a properly punctuated prompt can read as follows:

Give a narrative description of everything that follows, in the style of a H.P Lovecraft novel, based on what I type, without scripting, generating, describing, or controlling my actions, words, or dialogue in the story, scenes, descriptions, and conversations that follow.

Ask ChatGPT to be an expert in your campaign setting or author of choice. This forces ChatGPT to be more exact and accurate concerning the lore of your setting. Remember to specify that the ChatGPT must remain consistent with the author/campaign setting.

Ask ChatGPT to describe the game environment as if it’s a specific person or combination of people. Using this method causes ChatGPT to emulate famous authors. Many famous authors are a part of ChatGPT’s training data, use them to style your game to your liking.

Ask ChatGPT to use narrative descriptions. This causes ChatGPT to describe scenes in your game as if you’re reading a story or novel.

Ask ChatGPT to use the conversational style and punctuation of a novel or short-story. This makes NPC interaction more natural and immersive.

Use punctuation such as quotation marks when talking to NPCs. This tells the AI that you’re conversing with an NPC and nothing else. Forgetting to add punctuation can in some cases confuse the AI, especially if the context is vague.

Drawbacks of  ChatGPT as an AI Dungeon Master assistant

To begin with, it’s important to note that ChatGPT cannot create rich game experiences as an AI Dungeon Master assistant without help from the player. Additionally, input from the player is a necessity for a good experience. In solo games, the player is a solo DM, while ChatGPT functions as the assistant DM who’s there to help make the game entertaining. Moreover, it’s crucial to understand that ChatGPT has severe drawbacks if not used or prompted correctly.

Memory limits. As I mentioned previously, ChatGPT has a memory limit of roughly 3000 words. This limits how much ChatGPT will remember in your game; this includes, characters, events, descriptions etc. However there are some tricks you can use to work around this problem. These techniques are discussed more in-depth in this guide on managing ChatGPT’s memory.

  1. Introduce a word limit of 100-150 words in your opening prompt. This will reduce memory consumption.
  2. Play your game episodically. This means that you view previous events and characters as disposable. When you enter a new major area (such as a dungeon), or begin a new chapter/story arc, start a new conversation and reprompt ChatGPT. Just keep notes of what happened so you can “remind” ChatGPT of characters and events.

Excessive railroading. It’s extremely important to note that ChatGPT loves to railroad players. This is most likely to happen during the opening scene created by the AI, but can also happen later. Therefore, be ready to click the Stop Generating button if necessary. Additionally, if the player leaves a prompt open-ended, ChatGPT can take this railroading to extremes. It can reach the point of ChatGPT starting and finishing the adventure without the player taking any actions. Basically, ChatGPT takes control of your character in the story and finishes the game without you. To prevent this from happening, you need to be as exact as possible and rewrite the prompt if necessary.

Try to ask questions such as “What do I see?”, “What do I hear?”, and “What does she say to me?” when using ChatGPT. It’s best to avoid questions such as “What happens when…?”. Asking imprecise open-ended questions can end an adventure in a few paragraphs. Also, you need to specify in your opening prompt that ChatGPT shouldn’t take control of you or your character. Although not fool-proof, this method helps reduce railroading considerably.

Inability to run combat scenarios convincingly. ChatGPT is terrible at running combat, which is why you, as the solo DM, will have to do it. All ChatGPT can do is describe combat like a novel, not run it like a game. In many cases, there will be little to no balance in what the AI will throw at you. Furthermore, if you want to engage in combat, you’ll need to be the one to keep track of everything. This means using techniques such as monster AI rules to control enemies during combat. With effort, you can prompt ChatGPT to run combat more like a game, but you will lose valuable memory that could be used for the story and characters. When combat occurs, run it yourself and describe the fight to the AI after you win (or lose).

Vague descriptions. When it comes to descriptions of rewards, locations, names, and various story elements, ChatGPT can be exceedingly vague. To address this issue effectively, one solution is to employ oracles that can fill in these informational gaps. It is common for magic items and other miscellaneous items to have ambiguous descriptions when obtained through purchase or as rewards. Similarly, ChatGPT often provides imprecise explanations for quest rewards and items. To ensure alignment between your purchases, quest rewards, and the items in Dungeons & Dragons, it is advisable to refer to your rulebooks and search for magical items that closely resemble those mentioned by ChatGPT.

Lack of creativity. A huge problem for badly prompted games is that ChatGPT becomes prone to reusing content in descriptions. Fortunately, oracles help to bolster the creativity of the AI assistant. This is one of the key reasons why oracles are still useful despite the creation of AI.

Complete inaccuracy and downright weirdness. Sometimes, but not always, mistakes by ChatGPT can result in extremely weird or lore-inaccurate events or scenes. This usually occurs during the first scene the assistant AI generates, but it can also happen later. Simply craft a new prompt and try again.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it’s crucial to note that ChatGPT shouldn’t be seen as a substitute for a human DM. Instead, ChatGPT should be seen as an assistant AI Dungeon Master that augments oracles and other solo roleplaying tools. This approach results in an interactive text-based adventure that’s unique. It’s worth noting that ChatGPT is an absolute game-changer when it comes to solo roleplaying. It does most of the heavy lifting and breathes life into solo games. As a result, solo games created with an assistant AI are compelling and interesting, and I cannot recommend them highly enough. The possibilities are truly limitless with this approach.

A man standing at a dark dungeon entrance with a torch
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Solo DM Guide Part 1 – Introduction To Solo Roleplaying

In this solo DM guide, we will describe the fundamentals of solo roleplaying using oracles and ChatGPT. This guide will provide you with game rules on how to play Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition as your own Dungeon Master. Additionally, the Oracle RPG system allows the player to take over the role of DM while still keeping the game interesting. As a result, it’s possible to play D&D 5e as a solo DM, without the need for other players. Moreover with ChatGPT, you can have an adventure anytime you want.

However, if you’re looking for pre-written solo adventures similar to Fighting Fantasy and other “choose your own adventure” style games, visit this page instead.

ChatGPT is an invaluable assistant for the solo DM. In fact, with the solo DM guide on this site, you can use ChatGPT to create interactive text adventures driven by the rules of 5E on demand. Consequently, you can adventure anytime you want, using a powerful tabletop ruleset.

Moreover, with the Oracle RPG solo DM guide, you can roleplay D&D entirely by yourself. This means that you can create adventures and explore dungeons using your imagination and creativity, without the game feeling predictable. Additionally, by using the AI prompts in our solo DM guide, you will be able to create rich and compelling text-based gaming sessions.

How does solo roleplaying work? Scenes, oracles, and AI

To understand the solo guides on this site, view a D&D game as a collection of scenes like a film or TV series. For instance, if you want to enter an inn and talk to the patrons, you treat that event like a scene in a film. Moreover, a tavern scene is populated by characters. These characters are NPCs or groups of NPCs that your character can interact with in a scene.

To complete the scene, you need information about what’s happening. In a traditional game, the DM would provide this information by describing the scene and roleplaying the characters. However, in the Oracle RPG system, you populate a scene by using oracles and ChatGPT.

Solo roleplaying oracles

Oracles are tables that answer questions, create story elements, and provide content for improvisation. During a traditional game, you ask your DM questions. In our solo DM guide, you ask an oracle these questions.

The player envisions a scene and then ask the oracle questions about the environment and what’s happening. They then roll a die or draw a card to obtain an answer to their questions. They can then interpret the answer from the oracle and apply it to their scene. The more creative your questions and the more creatively you interpret an oracle, the better your game becomes.

Oracles also provide story elements that can develop into full-fledged adventures. As you play, the oracles in this solo DM guide will add plot hooks and non-player characters to your campaign. You can then use these to create more scenarios for you to investigate.

Oracles and ChatGPT

Once the player has an answer from an oracle, they can use it as a prompt for ChatGPT. Properly used, answers given by oracles in this solo DM guide can be transformed into open-ended text adventures by this powerful AI chatbot. ChatGPT takes the bare-bones descriptions provided by oracles and breathes life into them; transforming the oracle’s descriptions into a story. This creates less work for the solo DM allowing for more rich and more compelling gameplay.

What can you expect from this system?

The guides on this site covers the three pillars of solo roleplaying: exploration, social interaction, and combat. With the solo DM guide, you will be able to explore a game world, have social interactions with its inhabitants, and engage in combat with enemies.

You can fight enemies on a grid by using battle maps with our Monster AI rules. We will also show you how to use miniatures and graph paper with the Dungeon Generator. You can effectively turn D&D 5e into a solo miniature adventure game with a compelling story.

Don’t worry about your games feeling predictable or on rails, let me assure you that they won’t. The solo DM guide was designed to be unpredictable but still allow for organic story development.

Can a friend play with me if I use the solo DM guide?

Yes. You can expand this system to include other players if you want to share this experience with a friend or loved one. The system plays almost exactly like a solo session, but two people are creating the adventure together. Cooperative, DM-free roleplaying creates fantastic adventures and is worth experiencing with a friend.

You can use the Oracle solo DM guide system in two types of D&D games:

  • Solo: You are both the player and DM of your own adventure. You create the game as you play in your own private session.
  • Cooperative (Co-Op): You and one or more friends create the game as you play. The entire group acts as the DM.

What you will need for the solo DM guide

  • A set of polyhedral dice
  • A six-sided die (d6). This is the core die for creating and controlling your adventure.
  • Percentile dice (d100). Together with the d6, this set of dice is creates content for your adventure.
  • A pack of playing cards. The tables in this solo DM guide uses playing cards to procedurally generate game sessions.
  • The tables in the Solo Gaming Tool. These tables form the core of the solo DM guide on this site.
  • A free ChatGPT account.

What this solo DM guide covers

The guides on this website provide several tools you can use for solo or DM-free D&D games. Our guides cover the following:

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Solo DM Guide Part 2 – The Solo Roleplaying Oracle

What is a solo roleplaying oracle?

The solo roleplaying oracle is the most basic method for solo play. Oracles are special tools and tables that procedurally generate content for your solo roleplaying games through a question and answer format. The player then uses these oracles’ answers to help them create the adventure as they play. These answers can also be used together with ChatGPT to further enhance the game as detailed in the Solo DM Guide Part 3 – ChatGPT As Assistant AI Dungeon Master. The oracles on this site are available for free as part of the Solo Gaming Tool.

Players  create the game as they play by:

  • Asking questions and selecting the most appropriate oracles.
  • Using their chosen oracles’ answer to improvise a roleplaying scene.

However, if you’re looking for solo games similar to Fighting Fantasy and other “choose your own adventure” game books, visit this page.

The Yes/No Solo Roleplaying Oracle

The simplest question you can ask a solo roleplaying oracle is a yes/no question. The Fate oracle answers a range of simple questions about your game world. It’s derived from the Free Universal or FU system that’s available from drivethrurpg.com.

Here are a few examples:

  • Does the mansion have a basement?
  • Are there guards posted outside?
  • Can I pick the lock without being seen?

To answer a yes/no question about your game, perform a Fate roll by rolling a 1d6 and finding your answer on the table below.

The Solo Roleplaying Oracle Table

You would’ve noticed that the Fate oracle not only gives “yes” and “no” as answers. It also provides variations such as “yes, and…” or “yes, but…”. A “6” is the most positive result and a “1” is the most negative. To understand what these different answers mean, we will use an example. We will look at how the same solo roleplaying oracle can give different answers about the same scene.  

Using the Fate Oracle

First envision the scene that you want to interact with within your game. Then ask the Fate oracle a yes/no question. Use the answers from the solo roleplaying oracle and the inner logic of your story to populate the scene.

For example, you’re investigating a murder scene. You’re looking for any clues about the killer’s identity. You ask the question “Do I find any clues about the killer?” You roll a 1d6 for a yes/no answer. Here are some possible Fate oracle answers:

6 Yes, and…

The answer to your question is “yes”, but with an extra positive twist. In our example, it can mean “yes”, you find a clue about the killer, and it’s an important lead.

5 Yes

The simple default “yes” without any added twists or factors. In our example, the answer is “yes”, you do find a clue about the killer. However, the kind of clue it is and how much it reveals depends on more Fate rolls.

4 Yes, but…

The answer is “yes”, but there’s a negative twist to the answer. Yes, you find clues, but don’t tell you much about the killer’s identity. You will have to keep digging.

3 No, but…

The answer is “no”, but there’s a positive twist. No, you don’t find any clues about the killer, but find a clue about a potential witness.

2 No

A simple default “no” answer. You don’t find a clue about the killer at the crime scene.

1 No, and…

The answer is “no”, but with an added negative twist. You don’t find any clues and what you find is worthless and tells you nothing.

Fate Oracle Modifiers

The only way to change the outcome of the Fate oracle is through roleplaying and skill checks. If you succeed in a skill check that’s relevant to the scene, you can add your character’s proficiency bonus to the Fate roll. For a more in-depth discussion on how skill checks work in the Oracle system please read Skill Checks In Solo Roleplaying.

Branching options

You can also use the Fate oracle to choose between two possibilities. Why? During your playthrough, you will be confronted with branching storylines and possibilities and you can use dice rolls to choose between them. 

In our previous scene, you decide that there are probably two possible suspects for the murder: a local criminal gang or a highly paid assassin. To decide which of these options are responsible roll a 1d6. A result of 1 to 3 means it’s the gang, while a roll of 4 to 6 would mean it’s an assassin. The logic of your setting and your improvisation skills will provide you with ideas for possible options.

Scale Questions

The Fate oracle can also answer questions such as:

How high is the tower?

What is the time of day?

How far away is the approaching army?

To answer questions like these you can place them on a scale from 1 to 6 and then perform a  Fate Roll. To know how high a tower is rolling a “1” might indicate a tower with a single story, while a “6” will be an incredibly high and formidable tower. If you want to know how far away an approaching army is, a “1” shows that it’s close by, and a “6” shows it’s very far away.

The other solo roleplaying oracles on this website give you the ability to answer more complex questions such as:

What are those NPCs talking about?

What’s happening in the market?

What kind of work do I find on the billboard?

What does the town look like?

What’s inside a dungeon room?

Collecting your own oracles

We strongly recommend that every player start their own collection of oracles. There are many random tables available online and in books that you can use as oracles. Any table that can add fun content to a game or answer questions counts as an oracle. The following oracles are only a starting point and you should create or find oracles that suit your needs.

Here are a list of the oracles our system uses for D&D 5e:

The Fortune Oracle is the Oracle RPG system’s version of the tarot . This oracle uses playing cards to procedurally generate events in your game world. It’s an extremely flexible tool that you can use in a variety of ways.

The Random Event Oracle introduces random events into your story to create story hooks and keep your adventures interesting. At appropriate times the Fortune oracle will show you that a random event is occurring. This event creates changes in your game world that you will have to adapt to.

The NPC Generator uses the playing cards to create an NPC. These tables will provide the NPC with a character role, personality, and motivations. All you need to do is draw three playing cards to create the NPC.

The Adventure Generator will provide you with adventure ideas and missions to do in-game. All you need to do is draw a card and consult the tables.

The Dungeon Generator provides tables that will enable you to create random dungeons and wilderness locations that you can explore.

Monster AI for Solo DnD Encounters covers the Oracle system’s dice-based AI rules for monsters. We will show you how to control an enemy using dice rolls and special AI rules.

How to use oracles and not “cheat”

How do you prevent yourself from cheating? What kind of questions is okay to ask? When asking oracles questions keep the following in mind at all times:

  • Is my question consistent with the adventure’s setting and situation? Does it follow the logic of my story?
  • Does my question make the game more fun?

Story logic is extremely important when playing a game without a DM. Every question you ask must be as plausible as possible. Always keep the setting and the adventure in mind. If you’re in a tavern in Baldur’s Gate asking, “Did someone leave a Deck of Many Things on the table?” wouldn’t make sense. Why would someone leave such a valuable item on a table in a random tavern?

If you’re playing cooperatively then make sure that your questions make the game as fun as possible for everyone. Trying to sneak onto a ship? Ask whether there are lookouts. Make sure that your questions create fun situations for yourself and other players.

Using oracles correctly

There is no limit on how many times you can consult an oracle. You can try to clarify an oracle’s answer by asking more and more questions. We strongly advise against this approach. Don’t try to automatically generate every scene, detail, and event with dice. This makes the game feel too random.  Go with your instincts and use the oracles to fill in the gaps.

Conclusion: How to use solo roleplaying oracles, step by step

  1. Ask a question and choose the most appropriate oracle to answer your question.
  2. Roll the required dice or draw one or more playing cards.
  3. Consult the oracle and look at the answer it gives you.
  4. Apply the answer to the context of your situation, setting, and lore. Does it give you any ideas or sparks of inspiration?
  5. If you have your answer incorporate it into the scene and continue playing.

If you’re struggling with the answers to the oracle you’re using, try again, use another oracle, or go with your instincts.

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Planning and Playing Solo DnD adventures

In this article, we cover the exact steps in planning and playing a solo DnD adventure using the Solo Gaming Tool. This system was designed to be among the easiest solo roleplaying experiences for DnD 5e. At the end of this guide, you’ll know exactly how to play DnD 5e alone, without a DM.

The core planning tool for this system is your setting, its lore, and the Adventure Worksheet. At the end of the article, we bring everything together in a step by step format. Many of the ideas in this article were adapted for DnD 5e using Ironsworn.

Setting and story logic in solo DnD

Before you start you need a rough idea of what kind of adventure you want to play. Your setting and its lore are extremely important. The setting will give you an idea of what’s possible in that world. It also provides a type of story logic that you use to shape your adventure.

This story logic dictates what kind of adventure you’ll be having. If your adventure takes place in Middle Earth, then Tolkien’s works will provide you with “rules” of what can happen in that world. If you want to play a hobbit from the Shire, you won’t be shooting lasers out of your eyes because it isn’t consistent with the game world.

The story logic of your setting is one of the most important aspects of your adventure. It provides essential world-building elements that you can use to steer your adventure. These story elements form the basis of the kind of questions you’ll ask oracles.

If you’re playing with a friend then each player must familiarize themselves with the most important parts of the setting’s lore. The more your friend knows the setting’s lore, the better they will be at driving the story forward. Not every player has to be an expert at knowing the setting, but all players must have at least some knowledge of the game’s world.

A map of your game world is essential if you plan to use this system. The map provides locations for you to explore in your adventure. This is particularly important when you travel between towns. Our system treats traveling the same way it does dungeon crawling and a map will tell you what kind of territory you’ll be exploring.

Planning your solo DnD adventure

To plan and pace your adventure you’ll need the Adventure Worksheet. The Adventure Worksheet is where you write down the most important parts of the adventure.

solo DnD Adventure_Worksheet

The quest objective and the Progress Track

To start your adventure, you need a clear objective for your story. Are you looking for treasure? Saving a loved one? Or do you want to overthrow the Dark Lord himself? The goal of the game is to reach your objective. When you reach the objective of your adventure you’ve succeeded.

You reach your objective by accumulating Progress points. You accumulate Progress points for every story event that you consider a milestone in the adventure.  Milestones are any kind of in-game event that brings you closer to succeeding in your quest objective.

Example:

Your quest objective is to investigate a series of murders in a small town. Examples of achieving milestones can include:

  • Finding important information about the victims.
  • Securing the help of the townsfolk.
  • Discovering clues about the killer.

The Progress Track’s role in solo DnD

The Oracle RPG system uses the Progress Track to determine the Difficulty Challenge (DC) of skill checks as well as the encounter difficulty. As your adventure progresses the DC of skill checks increase. As you gain more Progress, you also gain Rank. Rank shows how close you are to finishing your adventure and how dangerous your enemies are becoming.

As you progress in your adventure you tick the boxes on the Progress Track. Tick a box for each milestone that brings you closer to your objective. DC starts at 10 and increases with every second milestone.

solo DnD progress track
solo DnD Encounter Difficulty

Solo DnD and experience point rewards

You receive experience points equal to the encounter difficulty of your adventure’s Rank. The higher the Rank of your adventure, the more bonus experience you receive. Consult page 82 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide for the XP thresholds for characters.

Example:

Lorian a level 4 Paladin has freed a town from a local bandit gang. He concluded the quest when it reached Rank 4. He gains the same amount of bonus experience points as defeating a Deadly enemy. On page 82 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide, he sees that the XP threshold for a Deadly enemy at Level 4 is 500 XP. Lorian is awarded 500 XP for freeing the town.

Quest obstacles and setbacks in a solo DnD game

The obstacle is what stands in the way of reaching your objective. If you’re looking for treasure then it could be a perilous dungeon full of dangers. If you need to save a loved one, perhaps they were abducted by a mortal enemy. The obstacle is the enemy in your adventure. If the obstacle wins, you lose.

Instead of accumulating progress, the obstacle accumulates Setback points. When you reach 10 Setback points you fail the adventure outright and the obstacle wins. Setbacks are problems that prevent you from achieving the adventure’s objective. When you receive a setback, mark 1d4 Setback points on the Adventure Worksheet. Then come up with an appropriately bad event that takes place in your scene.

Setbacks can take place in one of three ways:

  1. Delaying an adventure to perform other tasks (such as leaving a dungeon to heal in a nearby town).
  2. A critical failure on a skill check.
  3. Failing a skill check at the worst possible time.
  4. Rolling a 1 during a Fate roll at the worst possible time.

Example:

You were caught stealing from a corrupt nobleman and need to fool two guards into letting you go. Unfortunately, you roll a 1 during a Deception check and critically fail the action. You need to describe a suitable setback and mark 1d4 Setback points. The guards try to take you into custody.

Characters and story events

The Characters and Story Events section of the worksheet is where you keep track of the characters and story developments of your campaign. Story events are major points in your campaign that are worth keeping track of. In this section, you place NPCs you encounter or create with the the NPC generator.

Story events are a record of major events in your adventure. All important story events that helped shape your adventure should be filled in the Adventure Worksheet.

How to play solo DnD step by step

  1. Choose a setting. Get a map and familiarize yourself with the lore.
  2. Fill in the Adventure Worksheet.
  3. Envision an opening scene. For information on scenes see part 1 of this guide. Instead of a Dungeon Master, ask an oracle to fill in the details. Use the oracles’ answers to create the scene.
  4. Through roleplaying and your PC’s skills, pursue the objective on the Adventure Worksheet. Use oracles to help create the various scenes along the way.
  5. Mark Progress points for every major scene that moves you closer to the objective. Mark 1d4 Setback points whenever you experience a major obstacle.
  6. Explore areas with the dungeon generator.
  7. Fight any enemies along the way with the monster AI rules.

When you think your story is ready to wrap up. Roll a 1d6 and add your adventure’s Rank. A result of 1 indicates abysmal quest failure, while a result of 6 indicates the happiest possible outcome. Envision the ending based on this roll.

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Skill checks in solo roleplaying

How do skill checks work in a DND solo roleplaying game? Our system uses skill checks in two ways: to perform story-based actions in the game world and to influence the outcome of yes/no oracles. Choose your character’s skills very carefully as this will dictate what they can do in the world and how they can affect it.

A bard with high Charisma and skills in Persuasion, Performance, and Deception will play very differently in a scene than a thief with high Stealth, Perception, and Sleight of Hand. As a rule of thumb treat your skills as tools to create an adventure. They will dictate how you play the game.

For example, in a scene, your character is taken captive by a band of orcs. You need to escape, but how? A bard can try to use Performance to tell them a raucous tale or use Persuasion and a silver tongue to escape. A thief will deal with this scene differently. They might decide to pick the lock of their cell and then sneak away while keeping a watchful eye.

Skills and Fate rolls

In the Oracle system, skill checks are the only way to affect Fate rolls.  Successful skill checks allow you to add your proficiency bonus to a Fate roll.

Example:

Your character needs to hide from an orc party. You roll a 1d6 and ask Oracle 1: The Fate Oracle “Is there a hiding place?”. However, you hit a snag and roll a 2. The answer is “No”. You can’t find a hiding place. What can you do? This is where skill checks come in.

Skill checks improve the odds on a Fate roll. As long as you have a skill that’s relevant to the question at hand, you can use it to improve the Fate roll after you rolled it. Suppose your character has high Stealth. You want to hide from the orc party by sneaking around and looking for a place to hide.

If you roll a successful skill check you can change the outcome of a Fate roll by one for each proficiency bonus level. Your character is a level 5 Thief, which means you have a proficiency bonus of +3. If your skill check succeeds you can add +3 to the Fate roll. This gives you a 5, and an answer of “Yes…”. Your stealthy approach helps you find a hiding place in the nick of time.

Spells in solo roleplaying

Our system divides spells and abilities into two broad categories: combat and non-combat. Combat spells not only include offensive spells like Fireball, but all spells that have combat effects. The spell Invisibility is one example. In 5e attackers have disadvantage to attacks against invisible characters. A spell you can be use in combat counts as a combat spell.

Non-combat spells are used outside combat for roleplaying. Players use spells like Arcane Eye outside of combat to scout for enemies or gather information. Spells like these cannot be used in combat and provide no combat benefits. Another example is Disguise Self. This spell provides no combat abilities but is very useful in roleplaying situations.

We use non-combat spells to change or alter the outcome of a Fate roll. Every useful spell or ability that’s relevant to the scene can change the outcome of a Fate roll by 1. For example, you’re about to be caught by a guard at an enemy compound. You ask the Fate Oracle “Can I lie my way out of this?”. The answer is a 2, “No…”.

To change the outcome of the Fate roll, you decide to cast Disguise Self. This spell can make you look like another guard. As a result, you can add +1 to the Fate roll. You also decide to cast Charm Person on the guard to make him think you’re his friend. This spell can another +1 to the Fate roll. As the guard arrives you cast your spells and roll a successful Deception check. The two spells together add +2 and the successful Deception check adds another +3 from your proficiency bonus. After adding all the modifiers, you have the final result of 6 “Yes, and…”. The guard thinks your one of his friends and you manage to lie your way out of your predicament.

Failing skill checks

Always roleplay a failed skill check. When you fail a skill check there’s a chance that the party could experience a setback. A setback is any scene that moves you further away from reaching the objective of the adventure.  A critical failure always results in a setback. However any time you fail a skill check at the worst possible moment, you can experience a setback, even if it wasn’t a critical failure.

You should always roleplay failed skill checks and their consequences. If you cant persuade a guard you’re innocent, roleplay the encounter and describe the most plausible outcome. When you experience a setback mark 1d4 Setback Points on your Adventure Sheet. If you accumulate 10 Setback Points, you fail the adventure.

using enemy AI in solo combat closeup of a sword
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Monster AI Rules for Solo DnD Encounters (Updated for 2023)

In this guide, you will learn a set of monster AI rules for solo DnD encounters. The core idea is simple: the monster uses a simple priority system to choose an appropriate action and the right target. Once the enemy ability and target have been selected, combat resolves as per D&D rules. When I designed this system, I looked at three board games for inspiration: Gloomhaven, Middara, and Dungeon of the Mad Mage. I adjusted their AI rules so that you can use them with D&D 5e.

Monster AI action priorities

During the monster’s turn, the monster prioritizes its actions from highest to lowest as follows:

  1. Making saving throws and removing conditions.
  2. Lair actions (if within a lair).
  3. Defensive spells on self (if needed), followed by offensive spells against enemies.
  4. Special abilities such as summonings, eye beams, and other special attacks.
  5. Ranged weapon attacks until the enemy enters melee range.
  6. Melee attacks until the opponent leaves melee range.

When it’s an opponent’s turn, the monster prioritizes:

  • Legendary actions, followed by reactions.

Monster AI rules during combat

  1. When it’s the monster’s turn, it targets the PC party member closest to it. If there are two or more targets within the same distance, choose the one with the highest initiative.
  2. Choose an attack based on the actions available to the monster and which of its actions have the highest priority. If there there are two or more actions with the same priority, choose one at random.
  3. Move the monster towards the target until it’s within the range of the attack.
  4. Roll the appropriate dice for the attack.

Choosing attacks and targets randomly with dice rolls

A player can randomly select a monster attack by assigning a number to each action and rolling the appropriately numbered die. Standard dice are the typical d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, and d20. However, to select a random attack or target, you can use dice that also cover other numbers such as d2, d3, and d5.

These are non-standard dice that use a pre-existing die, but with a simple formula. To roll 1d2, roll a d4, divide the result by 2, and round it up. To roll 1d3 and 1d5 you use the same formula but use a d6 and d10 respectively.

Important Monster AI rules

  • Monsters always target the closest opponent. If a monster has more than one target, it will prioritize the opponent with the highest initiative.
  • Monsters do not attack invisible or stealthed characters if they’re successfully hidden.
  • Monsters stop attacking characters that have been reduced to 0 health points.
  • If a monster needs to make a saving throw, break a spell effect, or remove a condition, it will prioritize it first before everything else.
  • Monsters will always try to establish a line of sight when making a ranged attack against an opponent.
  • Monsters with ranged attacks move until an opponent is within the range of their attack. If the opponent is already within range, discard any movement actions unless the attack requires line of sight.
  • Monsters with ranged attacks will attempt to hide behind the closest terrain feature that provides cover after completing their actions.
  • Monsters always seek to avoid visible traps and dangerous terrain. They will move around such threats during combat.
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The Dungeon Generator

In this tutorial, we will show you how to use the Dungeon Generator. This is the main tool we use to create dungeons during solo play. All the tables in this guide are all included in the Solo Gaming Tool which is available for free. There are three main oracles we use to create our dungeons: Room Tiles, Dungeon/Wilderness Content, and Battlemap Features. These three oracles together create indoor and wilderness battlemaps for our games.

What you will need

To use the Dungeon Generator you will need a pack of playing cards, a d100, and the oracles in this guide. You can use this Dungeon Generator with miniatures, terrain features, tokens, and graph paper. Graph paper is an affordable alternative to miniatures and works especially well with theatre of the mind.

Here’s a list of things you need:

Planning your dungeon exploration

Download the following Dungeon/Wilderness Worksheet and fill in the Description, Objective, and the Rank of the dungeon.

Oracle RPG's Dungeon/Wilderness worksheet example

The Description describes the dungeon and how it fits into your adventure. Are you exploring an abandoned stronghold, a cave, or a haunted barrow? The Objective states what you’re doing in the dungeon. Are you looking for treasure or are you trying to kill a villain?  Write down what you want to accomplish and write it in the Objective section of the Dungeon/Wilderness Worksheet.

The Rank of the dungeon determines how large, and dangerous the dungeon is. There are four ranks, Common, Uncommon, Rare, and Epic. A Common dungeon requires little time to explore and active traps have a lower trigger chance. An Epic dungeon requires a lot of exploration, and traps are more likely to trigger. To determine the Rank of your dungeon roll a 1d4; “1” is Common, “2” is Uncommon, “3” is Rare, and “4” is an Epic dungeon.

Enemies in your dungeon

There are tables online that give random encounters and they work fine in many cases. However, if you want your dungeon to have the monsters of your choice, fill in the Enemies table on the Dungeon/Wilderness Worksheet.

Consult the Monster Manual or any other suitable bestiary. Look at which enemies would make the most sense in your dungeon. Decide which ones look interesting and are within your capabilities to kill and place them on the Enemies table. Arrange your list of enemies according to how common or rare they are in your dungeon.

How to explore a dungeon with the Dungeon generator

Step 1: Determine the room tile

Shuffle a pack of playing cards, draw one card and consult Oracle 10: Room Tiles below.

Oracle RPG's room tiles

This will give you your first starting area. Place physical tiles or draw the room on graph paper according to the room tile on the oracle.

Step 2: Determine the room content

Place your character in the room and move them according to the movement rules of D&D. In 5e this is on page 190 of the Player’s Handbook. The openings in the tiles represent doors. When you reach a door roll a d100 and consult Oracle 11: Dungeon and Wilderness Content. This will tell you what’s inside the room.

Oracle RPG's Dungeon Room & Wilderness Content

Step 3: Attack or evade enemies

Whenever you encounter a monster roll a d100 and consult the Enemies section on the Dungeon/Wilderness Worksheet you filled in earlier.

There are primarily two types of enemies in Oracle 11: monsters without treasure and monsters with treasure. Monsters without treasure don’t carry anything of use and have no loot. Monsters with treasure carry loot and you can use loot tables for them. This site has extensive tables for the individual treasure monsters can carry according to their Challenge Rating.

Step 4: Place terrain features

The Dungeon Generator uses terrain feature placement to quickly create a battlefield. If there’s going to be combat, roll a d100 and consult Oracle 12: Battlemap Features. This will provide you with the terrain features for your battlemap. Place these on your battlemap or draw them on graph paper. Place your party in the room and place the enemies on the opposite side of the room.

Oracle RPG's Battlemap Features

Step 5: Detect/disable traps

Traps are an important part of the Dungeon Generator. If there are any traps, detect or disable them. Until you disable or detect the trap, there is a chance it can trigger whenever a party member moves inside the room. To find out what kind of trap is in the room, roll a d100 and consult Oracle 13: Trap Descriptions below.

Oracle RPG's Trap Descriptions

Every time a player character moves inside the room, roll a d100 to see if a trap is triggered. The higher the Rank of your dungeon the higher the probability it will trigger and damage the party. The trigger chance of a trap according to dungeon rank is as follows: Common 20%, Uncommon 40%, Rare 60%, Epic 80%. Traps deal the target’s level + 1d6 damage.

To detect and disable the trap, roll a skill check. In D&D 5e this is a Perception check. Other systems such as the various OSR rulesets should use their respective rules. Our system treats detecting and disabling a trap as having the same in-game effect. It prevents party members from triggering the trap.

Sometimes you will encounter trapped treasures. To obtain the treasure, the trap has to be disabled first. These trapped treasures should be appropriate for your level.

Step 6: Loot treasure

Loot unguarded treasure. Unguarded treasures are level-appropriate treasures that aren’t guarded by monsters or traps. A treasure hoard on the other hand is awarded by special encounters or meeting a dungeon objective. For example, you can award yourself a treasure hoard if the dungeon’s Objective was to look and find a treasure. Use this site to determine what treasure you receive.

Step 7: Roleplay special encounters

Interact with special encounters. Special encounters are roleplaying events that take place in dungeons. They may turn into combat encounters but not necessarily. For examples of special encounters use Oracle: 14: Special Encounters in the Solo Gaming Tool.

Traveling and exploring wilderness areas with the Dungeon Generator

Traveling and exploring wilderness areas is also part of the Dungeon Generator and uses the same rules as dungeon exploration. However, there are no room tiles or traps, and the battle maps are larger with more terrain features.

Whenever you need to travel through a wilderness area to reach a destination or objective, treat it as a type of dungeon exploration. Start by determining the Rank of the Wilderness location by rolling a d4. Fill in the Description, Objective, and Enemies on the Dungeon/Wilderness Worksheet.

How to explore a wilderness area with the Dungeon Generator.

Step 1: Determine the terrain features of the wilderness area

Because wilderness areas don’t have rooms, room tiles won’t work. To create a wilderness area we place or draw terrain features to visualize the area. Roll a d100 and consult  Oracle 12: Battlemap Features. Use the Wilderness Terrain table to place the battlemap features.

Place your character on the battlemap. Move your character according to the movement rules of the system you’re using.

 Step 2: Determine if there are any encounters.

To determine the encounters in your location, roll a d100 and consult Oracle 11: Dungeon and Wilderness Content. This will tell you whether you face any enemies or encounter other problems.

Step 3: Fight or evade any enemies you come across

If Oracle 11 gives you a combat encounter, roll a d100 and consult the Enemies table on the Dungeon/Wilderness Worksheet. Place the enemies on the opposite side of the battlemap.

Step 4: Evade environmental hazards

Environmental hazards serve the same function as traps. They impede and endanger the party. Environmental hazards include natural occurrences such as sandstorms, quicksand, rock slides, earthquakes, etc. The likelihood the hazard will injure a party member is determined by the Rank of the wilderness area. The injury likelihood for the wilderness area is as follows: Common 20%, Uncommon 40%, Rare 60%, Epic 80%.

To evade an environmental hazard you need to make a  Survival check. Failing a check results in damage equal to the target’s level + 1d6.

Step 5: Interact with NPCs

If you come across any friendly or neutral NPCs, you can choose to interact with them. Consult Oracles 4 to 6 to create these NPCs if you want to turn them into more fleshed-out characters.

Step 6: Roleplay special encounters

Special encounters provide roleplaying opportunities in your travels. These may turn into combat encounters depending on the inclinations of the player. For examples of special encounters, you can use the same tool you used for Step 7 previously.

Exploration objectives and the Dungeon Generator

The Dungeon Generator uses Progress to determine when you reach your objective. When you reach the edge of the battlemap start again at Step 1 to create a new area. For every room or wilderness area, you explore, tick a Progress box on the Dungeon/Wilderness Worksheet according to the Rank of the location. Tick 4 Progress boxes for Common, 3 for Uncommon, 2 for Rare, and 1 for Epic dungeons/wilderness areas. Progress shows how close you are to achieving the objective on your Dungeon/Wilderness Worksheet.

Every 8 Progress points add +1 to a Resolution Roll.  If you’ve accumulated 8 Progress it’s a +1 modifier, 16 Progress is +2, 24 Progress is +3, and so on. When you think you’ve explored a dungeon or wilderness location sufficiently, roll a 1d6, add the modifiers, and consult the table below.

Oracle RPG's Resolution Table

A  result of “6” indicates that not only have you reached your objective, but you also gain a point of inspiration. Due to the challenging nature of our solo roleplaying system, we strongly recommend using the inspiration system in 5e. Even if you use other D&D variants, inspiration is very useful for a solo player. Having advantage on a roll at the right moment can save a game, which is why many tabletop RPGs use similar mechanics. You can ignore setback points for dungeons and wilderness areas.

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The Adventure Generator (Updated for 2023)

In this guide, we will show you how to use our Adventure Generator for D&D and other fantasy roleplaying games. The adventure generator uses percentile tables to create a basic outline for an adventure. The player can then use this outline as a starter for a campaign or other important quest. The adventure generator uses seven tables to create the plot for your game.

These seven tables, when combined with the background lore of your setting, can provide many hours of adventuring for the solo player. These hooks can serve as inspiration when starting a game, or as a way to create other major quests. This tool can also be used alongside ChatGPT to help create text-based adventures. Our Solo DM Guide Part 3 – ChatGPT As Assistant AI Dungeon Master covers this method in detail.

The Adventure Generator is extremely useful and you can use it in many different ways. Need to do a favour for an NPC? Use the Adventure Generator to find out what they want from you. Looking for work because you’re low on funds? Use the Adventure Generator to find out what work is available.

What are Adventure Generators?

Adventure generators are tables that help you to create a random adventure. There are many tables like these online and feature often in OSR resources. If you want to have an idea for an adventure you simply throw a die and consult a table. Some players may already have an idea for an adventure before the session starts. This adventure idea can come from a film, book, or video game. In this case, an Adventure Generator isn’t necessary. Use your idea instead.

Adventure Type

The adventure generator uses four adventure types when generating a plot.

Caught up in events 

The adventurers are caught up in events that are beyond their control. A character might be struck down by a curse or a party member might’ve seen something they shouldn’t have.

Employment

The characters are hired by an employer to do a job. They might have to look for a missing person, hunt down a dangerous creature, or mediate peace talks between rivals.

Exploration

The party needs to explore a location to achieve a goal. They might be looking for a lost treasure, a creature’s lair, or a place of mystical power.

Civic affair

 The adventurers are asked to help a community in need. This might involve overthrowing a tyrant, investigating a cult, or saving a town from disaster.

The Who table

The Who table details people who need help or are directly involved in the adventure. This table gives brief descriptions of non-player characters that can act as quest givers in a campaign. However, in certain adventures, the Who table can also be used to generate enemies that work against the player.

To discover how much power an individual wields within the campaign (such as nobles, government officials, and military members) roll a 1d6. A result of 1 indicates a weak or low-ranking member. A result of 6, on the other hand, indicates an extremely powerful individual, such as a king or general.

The Opposition table

The Opposition table contains enemies that oppose the adventurers in the campaign. These can range from powerful entities to organizations that want to prevent the party from reaching the quest objective.

Roll a 1d6 to discover your opposition’s power. A result of 1 indicates that a weak individual or group. However, a result of 6 indicates an extremely powerful enemy. How they oppose the adventuring party should be based on the campaign setting and the player’s personal preference.

Using the adventure generator

The player can use the adventure in one of two ways. The first method involves rolling a d100 and consulting the various tables. 

Begin by rolling a die or choose a quest type on the Adventure Type table. Then roll a d100 a second time and consult the tables detailing the adventure type. Exploration adventures have an Exploration Location and Exploration Goal table. These tables describe where the adventure takes place and why the adventurers are exploring that location.

If you need a quest giver, roll on the Who table. To find out who opposes or works against you during an adventure, roll on the Opposition table. Then roll a 1d6 to determine how powerful the opposition is that you’re facing. A result of 1 indicates a weak opponent, while 6 indicates en extremely powerful opponent.

Alternatively, instead of rolling on the various tables, the player can simply choose the options that appeal to them. If the player already has a quest giver in mind, then rolling on the Who table might not be necessary. Similarly, if the player already has a suitable enemy in their campaign, then rolling on the Opposition table might not be needed.

When you have the various plot elements, adapt them to your campaign setting’s lore and locations. Use these plot elements to create a basic synopsis for your adventure.

Example

Peter wants to create an adventure that takes place in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. He decides to create an adventure for his party by rolling on the tables in the adventure generator.

On the Adventure Type table he rolls a 57. His party needs to explore an area. On the Exploration Location table he rolls a 98. The location is an ancient castle. To find out why his party is exploring this location, Peter rolls on the Exploration Goal table and gets 80. He needs to explore this castle to find a lost treasure.

Peter wants a quest giver for the adventure, so he decides to roll on the Who table to see who hired the party. Peter rolls 62, a religious figure needs his help. To find out how powerful this religious figure is, he rolls a 1d6 and gets a 4. The religious figure has some influence, but isn’t that powerful in their church.

To finish of the adventure outline, Peter rolls on the Opposition table to find out who opposes the party. He rolls 91. The party is opposed by a mystical entity. To discover how powerful this entity is, Peter rolls a 1d6 and gets 1, the entity is weak, but can still cause problems.

Peter decides that his party is hired by a Dawnmaster of Lathander to seek a lost artefact stolen by an imp. The imp is hiding in an ancient castle near the city of Baldur’s Gate.

Create side-quests with the legacy Adventure Generator

The legacy Adventure Generator is a part of the Solo Gaming Tool and uses a pack of playing cards to generate adventures. The legacy Adventure Generator is useful for creating quick side-quests during a game instead of at the start of the session. There are four categories of quests in the legacy version, one for each card suit: event-based (Spades), item-based (Hearts), NPC-based (Diamonds), and location-based (Clubs).  The card suit determines the objective and focus of your quest.

Here are the oracles in the legacy Adventure Generator.

How to use the legacy Adventure Generator

To use this tool, draw a card, consult the oracle, and follow the instructions on the oracle.

For example, drawing a 4 of Spades gives the objective as “protect someone involved in …”.

To find out the second part, the subject of the adventure, follow the instructions listed under the suit. In our example, because we drew a Spade so we must draw another card and consult Oracle 8. Oracle 8 contains a list of possibilities. If we draw a 7 of Hearts it gives us “… a mystical event”.

Together the 4 of Spades and 7 of Hearts give us “protect someone involved in a mystical event”.  You can use this short adventure hook any way you see fit in your campaign. You can use it as is and use other oracles to flesh it out, or you can use it as inspiration for coming up with your ideas.

Example:

You walk into a tavern and ask the innkeeper if he knows of anyone who has work for you. The Fate Roll says “yes, and …”. The innkeeper points you in the direction of a stranger sitting alone at a table. You ask them, “I hear you have work, what do you have to offer?”. To find out what your employer wants you to do, you decide to use the Adventure Generator.

You draw a 6 of Spades. Oracle 7 gives you “Circumvent… ”. The oracle instructs you to draw another card and consult Oracle  8. You draw a 5 of Spades. This gives you “… a trial.” Together they give you “circumvent a trial.”

The stranger tells you that he needs someone who can get their hands dirty. A friend of his has been arrested and he wants to break him out during his trial. Whether you accept the stranger’s offer or report it to the authorities is up to you.

Choosing locations for location-based adventures

The suit of Clubs refers to adventure objectives that involve locations. If you draw the 5 of Clubs, you are given “Destroy…” as an adventure objective. You are then instructed by the Oracle to choose a location.

Make a list of possible locations that you think would be suitable to destroy in your setting. You may have come across a bandit camp, a cult fortress, an infernal stronghold, etc. Roll a die to select which one you will attack and try to destroy. If you can think of only one suitable location, then choose that one.

Example:

You meet an agent in Waterdeep who has a task for you. To find out what she wants from you, you decide to use the Adventure Generator . You draw a 9 of Hearts which gives the objective as “Infiltrate …”.

Based on your setting you decide 4 possible locations would make sense: (1) A Zhentarim stronghold, (2) a Shadow Thieves hideout, (3) a corrupt merchant’s guild, and (4) an enclave of Red Wizards. As a result, you decide to roll a 1d4 to select the location. You roll a 2, the Shadow Thieves hideout.

You can interpret this as follows: the agent wants you to infiltrate a Shadow Thieves hideout in Waterdeep.

How to make the most of the Adventure Generator

Use these adventure hooks as inspiration, don’t follow them slavishly. If you come up with a better adventure hook, use that one instead. You are your own GM when playing solo or cooperatively. These rules and tools are intended to help you, not replace your judgment or creativity.

When you’re satisfied with your adventure hook write it down. It will provide context to your actions as well as a clear goal for your character to strive for. This will form the core of your story and can develop into an entire campaign. It will evolve in unpredictable ways and provide more inspiration for more adventures to come.

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The NPC Generator

Our NPC generator can create non-player characters on the fly for your solo and co-op games. The oracles in this guide can quickly generate a basic character outline for any NPC you encounter. To use it, all you need are percentile dice (D100) and the tables included below. All the oracles in this guide are available for free in the Solo Gaming Tool.

How to Use the NPC Generator

To use the NPC generator take a D100 and roll three times when you encounter an NPC. The tables will show the following things about a new NPC.

  1. The first table is the NPC’s role and what they do in the story. They could be a criminal, healer, or any other character. If you already know the role an NPC plays in your story, skip this card and go to the second playing card.
  2. The second table is the NPC’s most dominant personality trait; are they stern, aggressive, or gloomy? This card will give you a basic idea of how the NPC comes across to others. If you want a more complex character you can draw more cards.
  3. The third table is the NPC’s goal or motivation. It describes what they want to do in the game world. They might want to harm a rival or rebel against the authorities in your story.

The Character Role Oracle

Oracle 4: Character Role describes what the NPC does in your game world. This table contains a list of the possible types of NPCs you can encounter randomly. You don’t have to use this table if you already know what an NPC does in your world.

NPC Generator - The NPC's role in the adventure

NPC Personality Trait Oracle

This oracle in the NPC Generator contains a collection of dominant personality traits for NPC in your game world. Use this oracle as you deem necessary. If you encounter a random stranger then, a single personality trait is all you need. However, if you need more complex personalities for more important characters, you can roll more personality traits.

NPC Generator - The NPC's personality traits

The Character Goal Oracle

To give an NPC a motivation in your story, use this table in the NPC Generator. These character goals can be worked into the story as you see fit. If you already know what an NPC wants to accomplish in your story, then you can ignore this table.

NPC Generator - The NPC's goal in the campaign

Stat blocks and NPC proxies

A stat block is the list of NPC attributes that come into play during roleplaying and combat situations. Stat blocks tell you what an NPC can do in a confrontation or how your abilities can affect them. D&D’s Monster Manual contains stat blocks you can use for NPCs in Appendix B. To use these stat blocks for NPCs choose a stat block that you think matches your NPC the most.

If you want to create an exotic NPC, feel free to use monster stat blocks. These stat blocks can function as proxies for NPCs. Want to create a bandit leader who is feared across the continent and has the strength of 10 men? Use the stats of a giant instead of a default bandit. When you use monster stat blocks as proxies for NPCs you can create some very memorable characters.

Bringing NPCs into your game

You can bring an NPC into your game either deliberately or randomly. An NPC that’s deliberately created already has a predefined character role. You might need a captain of the guard for your game or the villain of your story might be a vampire. In these cases, you decide to bring the character into your game based on the needs of your adventure.

Alternatively, a random NPC is brought into the game by the Fortune Oracle. Whenever you draw a Jack, Queen, or King when using this oracle, an NPC has entered the scene. Whether this NPC is important or not depends on the plot of your story. When an NPC enters your adventure link it with a face card and write down on the Adventure Worksheet.

If you run out of a specific face card, use another one instead. The face cards can be any gender you like, the ones in the guide are only a suggestion.

When an NPC dies, simply remove them from the list. After every game review your list and decide which NPCs should stay in your adventure.

Whenever you draw face card that’s been linked to an NPC, it means that the linked NPC has entered the scene. The scene might refer to them or they might make an actual appearance, depending on the logic of your story.

Example NPC list:

You entered a town where a cult of Pazuzu has taken root. As you progressed through the story you encountered the following NPCs and linked them to face cards:

King of Spades: Harald Proudfoot (the mayor).

Jack of Spades: Alex Proudfoot (the mayor’s son and a Harper agent).

Queen of Diamonds: Rebecca Whitemane (a sorceress and ally to Harald Proudfoot).

Jack of Hearts: The cult of Pazuzu (a devil-worshipping cult).

Jack of Clubs: Dirzzt (an imp and emissary to Pazuzu).

Example of play:

To investigate the cult of Pazuzu, you managed to track down their location to a remote estate. When you arrive at the estate, you ask the Fortune oracle “What do I see outside the entrance?” You draw a King of Spades. On your Adventure Worksheet, you see that the King of Spades is linked to Harald Proudfoot, the mayor. Outside the remote estate, you see Harald Proudfoot about to enter it.

Roleplaying NPC interactions

The oracles and tools included in this tutorial are versatile enough to allow for conversations with NPCs. However, you will need to know the NPC’s basic personality and how they initially react to you.

When you want to talk to an NPC, roll for the NPC’s personality traits. To find out how an NPC reacts to you roll a 1d6 and consult the following table:

NPC Generator - NPC Reactions

The NPC Personality Trait and NPC Reaction oracles will give an idea of how the conversation might go. You can roleplay the interaction by asking questions. To answer simple questions use the Fate Oracle. To flesh out the conversation or to engage in small-talk, use the Fortune oracle.

The various themes and keywords of the Fortune oracle cover many possible conversation topics and themes. Together with Fate rolls and a little improvisation, you can have full conversations.

The key to interacting with NPCs without a DM is to improvise a conversation. This improvised conversation is based on the questions you ask and the oracles you use to answer them. The better you become at asking good questions and using the right oracles, the more natural your social interactions will be.

Example:

You decide to confront Harald Proudfoot about his presence at the cult estate. What is he doing here? You decide to consult the Fortune oracle to tell you what he says. You draw:

2 of  Diamonds

Keywords: Change, adaptation, alteration

Interpretation: He has changed his mind about the cult. One of their representatives met with him and convinced him that they don’t mean any harm. He is there to improve relations between the cult and the town.

Story events

As you play through your campaign, previous events have an impact on your adventure. Whenever a significant story event takes place, write it down on the Adventure Sheet and link it to a face card.

Example:

Harald Proudfoot befriending the cult of Pazuzu is a significant event in your adventure. You decide to record it on your Adventure Worksheet and link it to the Jack of Hearts.

Whenever you draw a Jack of Hearts, Harald Proudfoot’s friendship with the cult becomes an important factor in your scene.

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