AI RPG: what it is and how to pick one

What is an AI RPG?

An AI RPG is a role-playing game in which an AI, not a script, answers what you do. You play a character. The AI describes the world, speaks for the people in it, and decides what happens next. Because nothing is written in advance, you can try things no designer planned for, and the story goes where your choices take it.

The three kinds you'll find

• Character chat. You talk with one AI character at a time. It's good for conversation and companionship. There is usually no game underneath: no rules, no dice, no world that moves on its own.
• Story sandbox. You and the AI take turns writing a story in text. It's open-ended and fast. How much the story holds together over a long campaign depends on the tool and on how much upkeep you do yourself.
• AI game master. The AI runs a game the way a person at a tabletop would: it sets scenes, plays everyone you meet, applies rules, and calls for dice when an outcome is in doubt. Orpheus is this kind. Here's what an AI game master does.

Seven questions to ask before you pick one

1. Does it remember? Play for an hour, then bring up something from the first ten minutes. A campaign only works if names, debts and grudges last.
2. Can you fail? If every plan works, there is no game. Look for real rolls and outcomes you didn't choose.
3. Who plays your character? A good game master never decides what your character says or does. It asks you.
4. Do other people want things? Characters with their own goals make a world. Characters who only agree with you make a mirror.
5. Are there rules underneath? Rules make fights, money and risk mean something. You shouldn't have to learn them to benefit from them.
6. What do you look at? Some are a plain chat window. Some have art, portraits, voices and music. Decide what you want to spend an evening with.
7. What does free include? Check what you can play before paying, and what a plan adds.

How Orpheus answers them

• Memory. The people you meet remember how you treated them, and a campaign keeps going between sessions. Open the history to reread earlier scenes.
• Failure. When an action could go either way, the game master calls for a dice roll, and the result shapes what happens next. Fights use initiative, real rolls and death saves.
• Your character. Most scenes end on a few choices written for that moment. Pick one, or switch to typing on the web and say what you do in your own words.
• Other people. Everyone you meet wants something. They gossip, keep secrets, and lie when it suits them. Some can be taken aside to talk in private.
• Rules. They come from SRD 5.2, the openly licensed tabletop rules. The game master tracks them; you don't need to know any of it to play.
• The stage. Scenes play like a visual novel, with backdrops, portraits and music. On a plan, art is painted for your world and every character has a voice.
• Free. A free account gets a daily allowance of story turns and three campaigns, with art and music from the Orpheus library. No card is needed. See the plans.

What Orpheus is not

It is single-player, so it won't run a game for your whole group. It is in English. It plays in a browser, on a computer or a phone. And it is an AI, so it can get things wrong; you can report a scene from Settings.

Where to start

New to playing alone? Read the solo RPG guide. Want ideas? Browse worlds by genre. The help center covers the details of play.