Cozy RPG with an AI game master
A night shift at a diner, a market stall, a graveyard with opinions. Pitch somewhere warm with small problems, and the game master fills it with people worth knowing.
How cozy plays in Orpheus
A cozy game is about a place and the people in it. The stakes are small on purpose: a late order, a neighbor's feud, a loan application. The game master keeps your premise at the intensity you wrote it, so a gentle story stays gentle.
The people are the point. Everyone you meet wants something, remembers how you treated them, and makes their own choices. Learn how a regular takes their coffee and they notice. Forget a promise and they notice that too. They gossip, so kindness gets around.
You set the pressure. Before you start, tell the game master the themes you want and the ones to keep out, and how challenging it should feel. A cozy campaign can go whole sessions without a fight.
The dice still have a say, and that keeps it a game. A roll can decide whether the soufflé rises or the landlord believes you. A failed roll in a cozy game is a small disaster and usually a funny one.
Scenes mark things you can look at, use or take, so a kitchen, a stall or a shed full of tools is somewhere to potter about. Come back tomorrow and the place is as you left it, regulars included.
How a scene opens
An example first beat from “The dead have notes”, written the way the game master writes. In the game, nothing is scripted: this is just how a scene like it might start.
The fog is in early tonight, and so is Mrs. Abernathy. She has been dead for eleven years and has not once been late to complain about it.
“The Pruitts,” she says, from somewhere near her headstone. “Three plots down. They have had visitors every Sunday this month. Flowers. Singing. Do you know what I have had? A snail.”
Behind you, a newer voice clears its throat. Someone was buried this morning, and they sound as though they would like a word about the view.
Your choices
- Promise Mrs. Abernathy some flowers by Sunday
- Ask the newcomer what's wrong with the view
- Go and see what the Pruitts are singing about
Or type what you do in your own words.
Pitches to start from
Werewolf night shift
“An all-night diner where the regulars are werewolves, and it's your first shift.”
Cozy supernaturalYou play: The new hire
The dead have notes
“A gravedigger who can hear the dead, and every one of them has a complaint.”
Spooky comedyYou play: The gravedigger
Goblin, small business
“A goblin trying to get a small-business loan in a city that hates goblins.”
Fantasy comedyYou play: The goblin
Runaway spellbooks
“You're the apprentice who let the spellbooks loose. The wizard is back on Tuesday.”
Fantasy farceYou play: A panicking apprentice
Make it yours
Pick the place you'd like to spend an evening: a bakery, a lighthouse, a bookshop with a cat who runs it. Say what stays out, set the challenge low, and decide whether anything strange lives nearby. Start from a pitch below or a sentence of your own.
More worlds: Fantasy · Sci-fi · Horror · Mystery · Comedy · Adventure · Fan fiction. New to this? Read what an AI game master does.
Put the kettle on
Pitch a small place with small problems, and the game master sets the first scene. Free to start, no card needed.
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