An AI visual novel where the choices are yours

What is an AI visual novel?

An AI visual novel is a story game with the look of a visual novel (backdrops, character portraits, dialogue in a box) and no fixed script. An AI writes each scene in response to what you do, so the story is not a tree of branches someone drew in advance. It can go anywhere your choices take it.

How it differs from a traditional visual novel

• The choices aren't a menu someone wrote last year. In a traditional visual novel, every choice leads down a branch the author planned. Here, choices are written for the moment you're in, and you can type your own.
• The premise is yours. You are not picking a title from a shelf. You describe a world and a character, and the story starts there.
• There is no last page. The story keeps going for as long as you keep playing.

What you give up is an author's hand-polished route. What you get is a story nobody else has read.

How Orpheus plays

Orpheus is a tabletop RPG run by an AI game master, played on a visual-novel stage.

• The stage. Each scene has a backdrop, the characters present, narration and dialogue. Music plays underneath.
• The choices. 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.
• The cast. Everyone you meet wants something, remembers how you treated them, and makes their own choices. Companions join you along the way. Some people can be taken aside to talk in private.
• The game underneath. Rules come from SRD 5.2. Risky actions call for a dice roll, and fights use initiative, real rolls and death saves. You don't need to know the rules to play.
• The scenery. Scenes mark objects you can look at, use or take.

Art, voices and music

Free accounts play with backdrops, portraits and music from the Orpheus art library, and choose a character portrait from a gallery. On a plan, scenes and portraits are painted for your world as you play, narration and characters are voiced, and music is made for your scenes. See the plans.

Any genre

Romance, mystery, horror, comedy, fantasy, science fiction, or a mix. You set the tone and say what to keep out, and the game master plays your premise at the intensity you wrote it. A few things are never allowed; the Content & Safety Policy lists them. For ideas, browse worlds by genre.

What to know before you start

Orpheus is single-player and in English. It plays in any modern browser, on a computer or a phone. A free account gets a daily allowance of story turns and three campaigns, and needs no card. The help center covers the rest, and the AI RPG guide explains how games like this differ.