AI text adventure: type anything, and it answers

What is an AI text adventure?

An AI text adventure is interactive fiction in which an AI writes the story's reply to whatever you type. You say what your character does, in plain words, and the AI tells you what happens. There is no fixed list of commands and no fixed plot.

How it differs from a classic text adventure

Classic text adventures were written by hand. Every room, object and outcome was planned by an author, and the game understood only the commands the author expected. That gave them tight puzzles, and it is also why they so often answered “I don't understand that.”

An AI text adventure turns that around. It understands almost anything you type, and it can take the story anywhere. The risk moves to the other side: with no author, something else has to keep the world consistent, make failure possible, and give the story a shape.

What makes one a game and not only a story

• Outcomes you don't control. If typing “I win” works, nothing is at stake. A roll, a rule or a stubborn character has to be able to say no.
• A world that holds still. The locked door stays locked. The person you robbed still remembers.
• People with their own plans. A story moves when someone in it wants something you don't.
• Somewhere to go. Threads that carry from one session to the next.

How Orpheus plays

Orpheus is a tabletop RPG run by an AI game master. On the web, switch the dialogue box to typing and describe what you do in your own words; the game master works with whatever you write. Most scenes also end on a few suggested choices, for when you would sooner pick than type.

• Real rolls. The rules come from SRD 5.2. When an action could go either way, the game master calls for a dice roll, and the result shapes what happens next.
• Things you can touch. Scenes mark objects you can look at, use or take, and containers you can open.
• People who remember. Everyone you meet wants something and remembers how you treated them.
• A campaign that lasts. Come back tomorrow and the story is where you left it. Open the history to reread earlier scenes.
• More than text. Scenes play on a visual-novel stage with backdrops, portraits and music.

Good first lines

You don't need a plan. A first sentence is enough: “An all-night diner where the regulars are werewolves, and it's your first shift.” “Salvagers board a dead warship that still thinks the war is on.” There are more on the worlds page, by genre.

What's free

A free account gets a daily allowance of story turns and three campaigns, with scenes, portraits and music from the Orpheus art library. No card is needed. Orpheus is single-player, in English, and plays in any modern browser. The help center has the details, and the AI RPG guide covers how to compare games like this.