We Played D&D With a Chat-GPT Dungeon Master – Can AI Really Run Your Campaign?
Artificial Intelligence has stepped up to fill the void that NFTs left in our hearts. Except it’s not really AI. It can play D&D. Sorta.
Roll up your sleeves and stare headlong into the most boring dystopia with us as we try and see what playing D&D might look like in a future ruled by artificial intelligence. Assuming that we don’t outsource all of our leisure and creative activities to AI, leaving humans to do the grindy actual work that AI was supposed to save us from.
Here’s what it’s like to play D&D with an AI, while we still can. Look forward to seeing you in the content moderator/AI server maintenance mines. Why does it always have to be the boring dystopia?
I Asked Chat-GPT to Play D&D
Okay. So first things first, here’s a high-level look at what it was like. For right now? It’s a lot like playing Zork. Because text is the only real way to interact with Chat-GPT. Sure, there are some programs that make it speak, but then you’re just playing D&D with a Speak & Spell.
Also asking Chat-GPT to accomplish anything creative really highlights the limits of a Large Language Model. Chat-GPT doesn’t “know” anything. It knows what words are likely to go together. And it can string together some things that sound impressive. But it doesn’t “know” how to balance the rules of D&D any more than it “knows” how to follow them.
ChatGPT:
With the information from the shady figure in hand, you set out to retrieve the Dragon’s Tear. The path leads you out of the city once more, towards the rugged cliffs near the coastline. There, atop one of the cliffs, is a nest made of large twigs and branches, and within it, a single, glittering Dragon’s Tear. Just as the shady figure said, a griffon – half eagle, half lion – stands guard over it.
The griffon hasn’t noticed your approach yet. How would you like to proceed? You could try to distract or appease the griffon somehow, confront it directly, or attempt to sneak up and grab the Dragon’s Tear.
USER: I’d like to try and appease the griffon
Chat GPT:
Remembering legends and stories about the griffons’ fondness for fresh meat, you rummage through your supplies and pull out some salted jerky you had packed for your journey. You carefully unwrap it and approach the griffon slowly, making sure to avoid any sudden movements that might startle the creature.
As you get closer, the griffon lifts its head, its sharp eyes trained on you. It lets out a low growl, but doesn’t attack. You carefully lay down the jerky a safe distance from the griffon and step back, showing that you come in peace.
The griffon sniffs the air, its nostrils flaring. After what seems like an eternity, it carefully steps towards the jerky, its gaze still fixed on you. It sniffs at the food, then picks it up in its beak and eats it. As it does so, it relaxes slightly, its threatening posture easing.
Using this moment of distraction, you edge closer to the nest. With the griffon busy with the meal, you carefully reach into the nest and extract the Dragon’s Tear. The stone is heavier than it looks, its surface smooth and cold to the touch. It pulses faintly with magical energy.
Which sort of begs the question, what do we get out of having an AI Dungeon Master? Well. You get “content” for one. Sort of. At least you would if it wasn’t limited to 25 messages every three hours. Turns out Chat-GPT gets tired about at the same rate as your average DM. But Chat-GPT is very good at coming up with possibilities.
Possibilities that it feels like a human mind needs to interpret. For instance, you could tell Chat-GPT to come up with a custom race or class or subclass (we did) and it will. In like, no time at all.
At 18th level, you have achieved a transcendent state of harmony with the very essence of magic. As an action, you can enter a state of Transcendent Attunement for 1 minute. While in this state:
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- You can cast Sorcerer spells without expending a spell slot, as long as the spell’s level is equal to or less than half your Sorcerer level (rounded up).
- You have advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
- Your spells ignore resistance to damage of the chosen type and treat immunity as resistance.
Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.
But what it came up with was honestly a little broken. Not so broken that you couldn’t see making it work with just a little bit of love. But Chat-GPT is an optimizer. So of course it recommends playing with the best buffs to your class. That’s the only way to play, of course.
You See a Tortoise, It’s Crawling Towards You
But once you get started, we get to the real heart of the matter. We play games and tell stories to have experiences that feel meaningful. Studies have shown that reading about someone going through an experience activates the same parts of the brain that might be activated as if you were going through it yourself.
We are hardwired, not just for the story, but for the character. This is why you cry whenever Ted Lasso just looks at you with those soft brown eyes and loves you the way your real father never could.
Even though we know it’s not real, the experience affects us as though it is. Does the same hold up for Chat-GPT? Weirdly, no. At least not in our personal experience.
The LLM can come up with great idea-seeds. But when it comes time to actually nurture and grow them? The chatbot doesn’t take the time to stop and tend the roses. It doesn’t understand the ebb and flow, the pacing of a scene in a game, or a story or adventure:
However, as you step closer, you notice the crystal structure is guarded by a group of fey creatures. They haven’t seen you yet, but they look vigilant. You can choose to approach them diplomatically, try to sneak past them, or prepare for a possible confrontation. What do you want to do?
USER: Try to sneak past them.
ChatGPT:
Given the alert state of the fey creatures, you decide that attempting to sneak past them is your best course of action. You hunch low, using the natural cover of the underbrush and the distracting glow of the crystalline structure to your advantage.
Let’s see how well you do. Since this is a narrative-based format, I’ll roll the dice for you. In an actual tabletop game, you or your Dungeon Master would do this. I’ll roll a D20 and add your Dexterity (Stealth) modifier to see if you’re successful.
(Dice roll) You rolled a 12, and let’s assume as a Sorcerer with decent Dexterity, you have a modifier of +3. That makes a total of 15.
The fey creatures seem entranced by the glowing structure and do not notice as you skillfully move from shadow to shadow, the light from your eyes dimmed to avoid drawing attention. You make it to the other side of the clearing without alerting the guardians.
Now standing at the base of the crystalline structure, you can feel the pulsating magical energy more intensely. The glowing symbols carved into the crystal are vaguely familiar, reminiscent of the markings on the ancient map you have been following.
As you reach out to touch the structure, a surge of energy courses through you. You feel a deep connection with the crystal, your magical energies humming in resonance with it.
All that was just one roll. And fights are much the same. A lot of descriptions, but Chat-GPT has this tendency to rush you right past being in the moment directly to a conclusion:
Chat-GPT:
Back in Neverwinter, word of your accomplishment in the forest quickly spreads. The woodcutters are relieved and grateful, and news of the magical disturbances’ resolution reaches the ears of Lord Neverember himself. As a show of gratitude, you are summoned to the Lord’s castle, a grand fortress in the heart of the city.
When you enter the castle’s great hall, Lord Neverember, a stern yet fair-looking man, is seated on his throne. He commends you for your bravery and thanks you for resolving the issue in the forest. Then, his expression grows serious.
“There’s another matter that requires attention,” he says. “There have been reports of mysterious disappearances around the city. People vanish, leaving behind only a trace of magic, similar to what the woodcutters described. As someone who has dealt with such magical anomalies, I request your aid.”
He offers you a generous reward for investigating these disappearances and ensuring the safety of Neverwinter’s citizens. Do you accept Lord Neverember’s request?
One thing flows right into the next. There’s no savoring. No basking. Just endless content. Which is fine, Chat-GPT isn’t there to understand things. Or have moments. It’s there to put one word after another in a way that echoes the thing you’re looking for.
But there’s no sense of getting lost in the story. Perhaps because Chat-GPT can’t help but try and give you exactly what you want. When we play a game, we want to be surprised. We want a narrative arc. Players want to feel like the world is real and that their actions have consequences… while also having their whimsy catered to.
It’s like Westworld, in a way. We want the world to cater to us, but we never want to know that it’s happening. Players want to inhabit characters and DMs want to craft a world. And in the conversation between the two a sort of give-and-take happens that transports us.
There’s no take, with Chat-GPT, only give. Or maybe it’s the other way around. There’s never a moment where you feel the push of another human saying “that’s a real bad idea, are you sure you wanna do that?” Nor does an idea ever make everyone at the table laugh and sit up because it’s “so crazy it just might work”.
What is it Good For?
That said, Chat-GPT could be helpful to DMs and also players. As a tool, it’s fantastic at helping you iterate. You can have it spin up ideas faster than you would alone, sitting by yourself. You can work with it to come up with possibilities. Whether that’s coming up with your next character, or coming up with the description of the dungeon room you’ve crawled into.
It takes a lot of the grunt and guessworks out of the work of ideation. Chat-GPT is fantastic at coming up with a lot of things you tell it to.
So while it can’t design a “balanced encounter” for instance, it can tell you a bunch of fun monsters to put together. It can’t come up with the perfect background for your character, but it can help you find one you like real quick. And it might even surprise you.
Chat-GPT:
Elara’s smile brightens as you agree to gather the ingredients. She hands you a piece of parchment with a list written in elegant handwriting. The items are as follows:
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- Stardust Moondew: A rare herb that grows only in places blessed by the moonlight. It is said that it has the power to reveal the unseen.
- Dragon’s Tear: A crystalline mineral formed from the tears of dragons. It is known for its potent magical properties.
- Nymph’s Sigh: A delicate blossom that is said to bloom when a nymph sighs. Its magical essence is used to enhance sensitivity to arcane energies.
Elara explains that these ingredients combined would allow her to create an elixir that would temporarily enhance your perception of magical energies, making it easier for you to identify and analyze the arcane traces left behind by the disappearances.
This right here? That’s the kind of stuff you could agonize over. But it’s all ultimately just figuring out what plot coupons you need to get to the next plot point. Which Chat-GGPT excels at. And as you can see here, some of the results, while a bit trope-y, can still be surprising. Which is ultimately what we want out of D&D—surprise at the things we find and the moments of discovery that make the game feel “real”.
So while Chat-GPT is a useful tool, there’s no substituting the most powerful idea engine in the world: the imaaaaagination.
What Could Go Wrong?
Well. You know, Capitalism is gonna Capitalism. This mostly means funneling money out of the hands of workers and into the hands of faceless conglomerates run by the kinds of villainous hedge fund managers who would try to short GameStop or AMC, for instance. And stuff like Chat-GPT, while it’s not really great at making adventures, could definitely be appealing to someone with $$$$ where their heart should be.
Chat-GPT does not understand balance at all. So, you can just make the most broken BS that sounds like something you might read in a WotC-approved book. So, there’s bound to be an avalanche of “I ‘found’ this custom class I’d love to try” that might seem fine and then in play be busted as all get out. But that’s D&D for you.
What do you think? How would you use Chat-GPT or tools like it in your D&D games?
