For about 7 months, I’ve been playing solo D&D with ChatGPT. I prompt ChatGPT to be the “ChatDM.” It sort of works, and at least, it’s fun enough to keep doing it and working on making it better. Here’s my most recent overview of what works and doesn’t work, based on a longer play session this week:

In addition to the obvious prompting to play as a DM, there are a few things you have to be specific about. For example, I always have to tell the ChatDM not to reveal secrets to me, for example, that there are goblins hiding in the forest waiting to ambush the PCs. Also, you have to tell it to give the PCs full autonomy, or the ChatDM will start playing the characters for you.

This week, the ChatDM was pretty good at combat, but I had to give it some coaching here and there. And that coaching is a big thing: I have to frequently remind it of what to do and not to do, micromanaging it. There are a few other lessons learned in the video.

Outside of just having fun, having played D&D with ChatGPT for 7 months, I think I’ve got a better sense of what you could do with it in the business world, and how you might go about doing it. For example, it’s good to be very specific, narrow, and focused. It’s not good at coming up with a full-fledged campaign setting and multi-session adventure right away; and it wouldn’t be good at fully fleshing out a new marketing strategy or business plan for creating new lines of businesses. Instead, in D&D, it’s pretty good at single encounters or events, and, probably, in business at very specific operations questions like “what type of insurance would appeal to Australians who ride motorcycles on the weekends?”

Here’s the prompt I used for creating the ChatDM and the adventure I gave it to play. And, if you want to watch the full, 2 hour session, that’s up as well.