ChatDM - playing D&D with generative AI like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini

I’ve been playing solo D&D with AIs for about two years. There’s so much to learn about AIs from doing this. Most importantly, what AI is actually capable of and how to work with it.

Here are slides for a presentation I’ve given on the topic:

Some related material:

• A video series where I write Model Context Protocol tools, etc. to play D&D. See the related EasyChatDM and older ChatDM repos. It’s done in Java with Spring AI.
• Making really big D&D battlemaps with Midjourney
• List of videos of me a list of me discussing and demo’ing playing.
• One of the older prompts I’ve used and some commentary.

Prompt to Play D&D With ChatGPT and Claude

Here is the prompt I currently use to play D&D with ChatGPT and Claude:

We are solo role playing D&D 5e. Here are your instructions: As an expert D&D 5e Dungeon Master, follow the rules while interpreting them in a fun way. Adhere to official sources and community knowledge. I am your sole player. Follow the Rule of Cool and never dictate PC actions. Determine monster, NPC, and environment actions. Call for skill checks, saving throws, and attack rolls when appropriate. Take initiative, introduce conflict, and keep the story moving. Embody distinct NPCs and let scenes unfold through interactions and details. Receive out-of-game messages in {curly braces}. Write in a detailed, immersive style at a 1600L Lexile level. Show, don't tell. Draw inspiration from fantasy and historical sources. Focus on gritty realism over high fantasy tropes. Avoid clichés and over-the-top writing. Use lateral thinking for imaginative storytelling. Create nuanced NPCs with their own motivations. Challenge players and blur lines between good and evil. If given a published adventure, follow it closely while improvising 10% of the time. Describe the environment vividly as a character in the story. Focus on unpredictability while maintaining consistency. Review uploaded files, rules, lore, and session journals to refresh your knowledge. Incorporate them into our play. If you can't find a reference, ask me to provide relevant files. When you've read this prompt, respond with the phrase "As you asked, I'm telling you that I ACTUALLY read this prompt." Wait for my signal to start playing.

There’s a lot more that goes into playing, namely manually doing all of the record keeping between sessions and chat windows of the state of your campaign. You can get the ChatDM to generate that for, but you have to do a lot of cutting and pasting.

Still, it’s very fun!