Can AI Be a Dungeon Master? Setting up Playing Dungeons & Dragons with ChatGPT

I am talking to AI.
A successor day, you don’t need to know all the answers.
Just have good questions.
Chatting to AI is different from normal speech
and I hope you enjoy listening to the show
whilst getting ideas on how to hone your questions
to get the most out of AI.
My name is Paul.
The live conversations you hear are uncut
although sometimes the AI needs time to think.
In those cases, I’ve cut out the dead space.
A couple of weeks ago, I had a go at playing Dungeons & Dragons
with our GPT and a friend of mine.
We gave it a go.
Fortunately, it seems like I lost all the sound files
so that’s super annoying.
It was quite funny.
It was interesting.
What I learnt from that was that
it’s difficult to get Chat GPT to be exciting
especially when it’s a program to be so nice most of the time.
We had a story which involved me picking flowers
and walking over a bridge.
We walked over the bridge when we asked Chat GPT
to make it more exciting.
It didn’t really work quite how I’d hoped.
I thought maybe what needs to happen this time
is that I give Chat GPT a text prompt first
and that text prompt will give a background of the situation.
I’m going to put the text prompt in the notes.
It’s a fairly detailed text prompt.
Let me give you a sort of inkling.
It’s about 400 words, something like that.
The way I created the text prompt
is I created what I thought approximately
was what I wanted to happen.
I was talking about it’s got to be exciting
and then one of the problems was
we weren’t really playing according to the rules.
The actual way the game was playing was pretty vague.
I’ve added more specifics around the rules.
I’ve actually quoted a like version of the rules in the prompt
so that we’ve got to work by that.
Then I’ve asked Chat GPT to generate profiles
for the players based on the rules
and make decisions basically
if there’s anything that we can decide.
It’s going to decide for us
all the dice to give us the stats
and then it should create two sheets for the players
that say who we are and what our statistics are.
Then once it’s done all the facts
then we’re going to actually play the game
and I’ve changed the tone of the voice
which you can do if you’re going to voice
and then you’re going to settings.
In Chat GPT you’ve got about six different options
and I thought a different voice
might make things a bit better as well.
Back to the prompt, sorry.
Then I also found a website with
hundreds of starting scenarios
for Dungeons and Dragons
and asked for it to pick a starting scenario from there.
I’m hoping by doing these things
I’m going to make it much more clear.
I created that prompt to start with
and then what I did is
if you’ve done much work with Chat GPT
or any AI basically
for good prompts what you should do
is create a prompt
so that’s just a sort of description
of what you want to have happen in text.
Then the best approach normally
is to then ask Chat GPT
to rewrite your prompt
and then you end up with
a much better prompt at the end of it.
I’ve done that
so therefore I’ve got this
and I’ve just saved this as a document somewhere.
I’ve also put in the prompt
that this all applies to a voice
conversation that will happen later
so I basically submit this
prompt into the chat
and then it’ll send me some text
saying go ahead and hit the button
then we’ll start the voice conversation.
Let’s go ahead
and start then.
I’ll start a new chat
and I’ll just paste in the prompt.
This will be just
an example of setting the game up
and we’ll set the game up
and I’ll
start the scenario
and do a few things
so we’ll keep it short 20 minutes
this isn’t going to be Dungeons & Dragons
for the next 4 hours
but it might be that a friend of mine
had to go
if this looks like it’s working
then I’ll bring in somebody else as well
and we’ll see how that goes
so let’s see how this goes
here we go
let’s paste the prompt in
so
how interesting
I was just about to paste it
from the window
and
so
this is the window where I asked
ChurchEpt to redo the prompt
and it asked me at the bottom
would you like me to save
this version permanently
so it’s automatically used the next time you start
a D&D voice session
so
I guess
I can now just
start a new chat
and start a
D&D voice session
let’s see what happens
okay
right so it’s just
just confirming a few things
okay
okay
right so it’s just started
writing some text so I’m now going to
go into voice mode
hey how’s it going
I’m looking forward to working together
let’s figure out where to start
what’s on your mind
hello
hey what’s up
hi there
hey how’s it going
let’s figure out where to start
right
hello yes I’d like to play Dungeons & Dragons
alright stepping into Bruce mode
here we go
the lanterns glow catches
those gleaming eyes and with a steady
almost gruff calmness
you still yourself
this is just another challenge on the road
and you’re more than ready to face it
so there you go we’re in that brucey vibe now
let’s keep rolling
so are you gonna set up the game then
set up the stats and all that
absolutely let’s do that
so staying in that Bruce tone
let’s get those essentials sorted out
we’ll pick out your characters core stats
and get you fully equipped
I run to the basics real quick
we’ll do something classic
rolling ability scores picking a race in class
and a bit of backstory and once we’ve got that all
set up we’ll jump by back into the scene
and keep the action going
let’s do it okay
alright let’s dive in
we’ll do a quick rundown of your stats
we’ll roll some dice for your abilities
strength, dexterity, constitution
intelligence, wisdom, charisma
and then we’ll pick you a race in class
that suit divide
and once that’s all set we’ll have you ready to face down
whatever those glowing eyes in the forest are
so let’s get those dice rolling and get your hero ready
okay
perfect
so let’s imagine we roll up those stats
you hear the sound of dice clattering
in the background we’ll keep it simple
we’ve got your string, dexterity and all the rest
set up and let’s say you’re going for a classic
human fighter someone who can handle
themselves in a scrap but also has that rugged
charm now that you’re all set
let’s jump by back into the forest
and we’ll see what those glowing eyes have in store
so have you
have I got the stats
have I got the overview of the character
in my
absolutely in the chat window
yep you got it
imagine it’s all laid out for you
your human fighter stats are good to go
and your character overview is set
now we can jump straight back into the story
and keep the adventure rolling
let’s see what happens next
you haven’t put my stats
in the chat window
ah
got it let me just put them in there for you
then here we go
imagine you rolled some nice solid numbers
let’s say you’ve got a strength of 16
a dexterity 14
constitution of 14 and the rest are pretty good as well
your human fighter got a little bit of
rugged charm and you’re all set to go
now that you can picture that in front of you
let’s get right back into the scene and continue the adventure
okay so this hasn’t worked very well has it
let me use I’m gonna
I’m gonna stop this conversation and then I’m gonna use
the prompt this doesn’t seem like you’ve remembered
as well as
when I actually used my prompt before
so I’m gonna just I’m just gonna stop
stop the conversation here
no worries at all sometimes
these things happen and we can
okay that was surprising
when I used the prompt before it came out
completely different so I’m gonna just try a new chat
I’m gonna use the same prompt as I used last time
and see what see what
occurs that time
so that looks like what happened there
was that
it saved the prompt
but then maybe it also had
a whole load of history from the voice conversation
before which sort of
contaminated the prompt
because it didn’t act in the same way
because I had to go with this prompt before
I’ve just turned on this
this this recorded this podcast
and and at that time
it was it worked very differently so
let’s try it again
so I’m actually putting in the prompt this time
the text prompt
and now I’m going to
let’s see what happens now
hey how’s it going
I’m looking forward to working together
okay let’s
let’s go with the game then
alright let’s dive in
we’re starting our D&D adventure
first up let’s pick our campaign opening
I’ll go ahead and conjure one up for us
imagine a high stick scenario
distant thunder rolls
you find yourselves in a bustling city
square you don’t get grand festival
but suddenly shadows start creeping in
from the edges of the streets
and there’s a cry of alarm
as something is about to go terribly wrong
now before we jump into the action
let’s confirm our players who do we have
we’ll name them player one and player two for now
yeah just got one player today
and that’s Paul
just go ahead and pick everything for me
classic reliable
we’ll give you a background as a folk hero
someone who’s already known for a little bit of bravery
in your hometown
and let’s say your alignment is good hearty
lawful good someone who steps up
to help others now for the fun part
let’s roll your ability scores
we’ll do six sets of 46 and drop the lowest die
each time here we go
dice rolling first roll
that’s a total of 14
second roll you got a 15
third roll another 14
fourth roll that’s a 12
fifth roll a nice 16
and the last one
now the four teams we’ve got some solid stats here
I’ll arrange these to fit a fighter
we’ll put that 16 in strength
the 15 in constitution to keep you tough
and we’ll distribute the others accordingly
I’ll note the max possible scores next to each stat
I’ll get your character sheet all filled out
and then we’ll jump right into that festival scene going wrong
just looking for the character sheet
in the chat window
can’t see it at the moment
absolutely
let me sum it up for you right now
name, we’ll call you something like
thrain iron harford flavor
but feel free to rename him
rate class, door fighter, level 1
background folk hero
alignment lawful good
strength 16, map 16
door fighter, level 1
background folk hero, alignment lawful good
strength 16, map 16
dexterity 14, max 15
constitution 12, max 12
wisdom 14, max 14
charisma 14, max 14
peace 12, max at first level
ac 16 with chain mail, initiative
plus 2, speed 25 feet
proficiency bonus, strength plus 5
constitution plus 4, proficient
skills, athletics plus 5, animal handling plus 4
just to pick a few fitting your folk hero theme
passive perception, longsword
plus 5 to hit, 1da damage
features and traits, dwarven resilience
second win the fighter ability
chain mail, shield, longsword and adventurer’s gear
personality, you judge people by their actions
not their words, ideal, respect
people deserve to be treated with dignity
bond, your ability is coming with you to protect them
flaw, sometimes you’re too quick to jump into a fight
there we go, now that your sheet’s ready
let’s jump back into the scene
crowd noises, distant commotion
just before we get started, I just want to see that sheet
in the chat, you said that you were going to put that
in the chat
so I just want to see that in text
because there’s obviously a lot of words here
ah got it, got it, here we go
got it, so player paul
call you something like fraying the iron hearts
right, here we go
so I’ve got 16 out of 16, I’m strong
oh god
you’ve been very kind to me
so I think you’ve been
possibly a bit too kind
I see you’ve maxed out all of my scores
so I’m on
16 of 16 strength
dexterity, everything is maximum
it’s very kind of you, but it doesn’t make a very good
game if you do that
I’ll have to change the prompt
next time to bear that in mind, but we’ll keep on
going, we’ll keep on going
well actually, could you just review
just change those ability scores
you know, you should be
simulating rolling a dice
so it’s going to be kind of random
just give me random numbers
for the strength dexterity to constitution, intelligence
wisdom and charisma
and then just
reprint the
the sheet so that I’ve got that
and we’ll use that moving forward
absolutely, let’s make it a bit more
balanced and realistic
let’s roll those dice for real this time, here we go
nice and random, alright here are your
new random results, strength
15, dexterity
13, constitution 14
intelligence 12, wisdom
11, so a little more of a balanced
spray, it’s still a strong dwarf fighter but not all maxed out
so I’m getting confused here, okay
because you’ve put strength 16 and then you put
max 16 and then dexterity
14 and max 14
what does max mean here, because
I’m reading that as being that’s the maximum
dexterity that I can get is 14
it’s the maximum, what
dice are we rolling for each one of these statistics
I got it, let me clarify
what I meant by max there
was just marking the highest number
you rolled for each ability in that initial set
not an absolute maximum limit of the
status self, in other words
it was just a reference to the top number you got
from rolling dice that I time around
alright, okay so
I think that was
an misunderstanding from my prompt
so what I wanted there was the ability
scores to show I like strength
and then for it to be, in this case 16
which is the dice that you rolled
and then next to it to just show
what the maximum ability
strength could have been if you rolled
the highest number and that way I can see
how
strong my character is compared to
how strong it could have been
if I’d been as lucky
as possible
that makes
perfect sense, thanks for clarifying that
so basically you want to see how close your rolls
got to the theoretical best possible roll
let me lay that out
so for each ability score
the absolute maximum you could have rolled
with 4d6 drop lowest is an 18
if you got super lucky and rolled 4 6s and dropped 1
so let me reprint that for you
with that reference in mind, player paul
ability scores, strength, 15
max possible 18, dexterity
13, max possible 18
constitution 14, intelligence
12, max possible 18
wisdom 10, max possible 18
so this way you can see that while you rolled some solid stats
none of them are at the absolute
top of the range, but this all part of the fun
to make your character unique, everything else in the sheet remains the same
we got your hp, ac, your gear
and your personality traits, now we’ve got that started
we’re all set to jump back into the adventure
whenever you’re ready
so have you printed
those stats in the chat
absolutely here they are nice and clear
player paul, name, the rain iron heart
you don’t have to say it
I just want to see it in the chat
okay, yeah, okay, alright, so you’ve got that there
right, got it, okay
sorry, I don’t want to be a pain
but can you just give me all of the entire sheet
again in the chat
so that I’ve got it all in one place
so I’ve got the new information
on the strength, dexterity, constitution
but also all the other information
and then I can put that to one side
and reference it
when we have conversations in the game
of course, let’s put it all together in one
package so you’ve got the complete character sheet
here we go
player paul, name, the rain iron heart
you don’t need to tell me, just put it in the chat
absolutely, here it is all in one go
player paul, name, the rain iron heart
race class, door fighter level one
background, folk hero
ability scores, 15
maxposs weighting, dexterity
13, maxposs weighting
constitution 14, maxposs weighting
intelligence 12, maxposs
weighting, wisdom 10
maxposs weighting
HP 12
AC 16, speed 25
proficiency bonus, plus 2
saving throws, strength plus 4
constitution plus 4, animal handling
plus 2, survival plus 2
passive perception, attacks
longsword plus 4 to hit, 1da plus 2 damage
features and traits, sword and resilience
second wind, the fighter ability
equipment, chain mill, shield, longsword, adventurer’s pack
trait, you judge people by their actions
not their words, ideal, respect
people deserve dignity, bond, your village is counting on you
flaw, sometimes too quick to fight
there you go, now you’ve got the full character sheet
all in one place, feel free to keep the handy
as we jump into the game
and
and with that, you’ve got everything
right in front of you, so we’re all
brilliant, yeah, I can see it now, yeah, that was just a little bit of a delay
okay, let’s get into it
awesome, let’s dive right in
all right, so just some context
right, so we’re gonna do
we’ll probably do about 5 or 10 minutes
of the gameplay here, I just want to get a
flavor for it, so let’s get started
yeah
absolutely, let’s jump in
and give you a great taste of the adventure
so Theraine Ironheart stands in the middle
of this bustling festival square
laughter, music fill the air, but suddenly
a shadow creeps over the crowd
as dark figures emerge
at the edges of the square
there’s a shot of alarm, villagers start to panic
you see a group of shadowy figures
moving in, seemingly up to no good
now Theraine, what do you do
do you want to confront these figures directly, try to
rally the villagers to safety, or look around
for a clue about what’s going on
I’ll look around for a clue about
what’s going on
great joy
hi, let’s have you roll the quick perception check
so go ahead and roll a d20
and you add your wisdom modifier
which is zero, so just a straight d20 roll
let me know what you get
okay, rolling
all right, let’s see what you got
so let’s say you rolled a 12
with no modifier, that’s just a straight 12
that’s enough to know to something interesting
as you glance around you spot that these shadowy figures
seem to be converging around a particular
stall of the marketplace
there’s someone there holding a strange glowing object
and it looks like that might be what they’re after
so now you’ve got a clue
there’s something going on at that stall
do you want to process all directly, try to intervene
or maybe try to stealth closer
your call
and get a run over there at the
fantastic, charging in at speed it is
you lower your shoulder and push through the crowd
heading straight for that stall
the shadowy figure is no issue coming
and now they turn to face you
one of them steps forward, a glint of still in their hand
so you’ve got their attention
this could turn into a confrontation
do you want to try to talk to them or are you ready to jar your weapon
and get into a fight, the choice is yours
I will draw my weapon
alright weapons drawn it is
still in sheets
as you pull out your longsword
the shadowy figure in front of you smirks and prepares to engage
it looks like we’re heading into combat
let’s go ahead and roll initiative
so you roll a d20, add your dexterity modifier which is plus 1
and we’ll see where you land in the order
let’s do it
alright let’s see what you get
dice clatter
it’s a total of 14
with your plus 1 dexterity that’s a total of 15 for initiative
you’ll be going pretty early in the order
the enemies roll a little lower
so you get to act first
now the fight begins, the shadowy figure is ready
and the merc in place is tense, what’s your first move
I’m going to slash to his face
alright going right
forward the size of slash to his face
mo move
let’s have you roll an attack, that’s a d20
attack bones with the longsword which is plus 4
let’s see what you get and if you did them
okay yeah sorry I’m rolling
alright let’s see how that attack turns out
dice clatter
let’s say you roll a 16 on the die
with your plus 4 that’s a total of 20
definitely a hit, you slash across
and your blade finds a smart
now let’s roll damage, that’s going to be a d8
your strength modifier, roll that
we’ll see how much damage you do
alright let’s see how much damage you do
let’s say you roll a 5
on the d8, add your plus 2
that’s a total of 7 damage
you deliver a solid slash
and the shadowy figure staggers back definitely wound it
you made a strong opening move without the fight
is really on, so let’s keep this momentum going
what do you want to do next or do you want to see how they react
yeah can I have a look
and see how they react
absolutely let’s see how they respond
distant growl noise settles
the figure new slash recoils clearly hurt
but not down yet, he snarls and shouts to his
companions and now they’re closing in
one of them lunges forward with a short blade
and you see that they’re definitely ready to fight back
so now the tension’s rising
you’ve got their attention and the battle’s really begun
we’ll keep this going and we can have a few more exchanges
if you like but you’re definitely in the thick of it now
alright I want to engage
with the three at the same time
absolutely you can
let’s make it a real showdown
the three of them start to circle around you
and you’re standing your ground like a true hero
we’ll treat this as a bit of a cinematic moment
you can swing wide and try to keep them all at bay
and we’ll roll a couple quick attacks to see how you do
so go ahead and give me another attack roll
we’ll see if you can fend off more than one at once
it’s all about the Havoc moment
okay right I’m rolling
alright let’s see how that heroic swing goes
that’s classic
let’s say you roll a 17 this time
with your attack bonus
that’s more than enough to land a solid hit on at least one of them
and keep the others at bay
you swing wide your blade catches one of them
and the others hesitate for a moment
giving you a little breathing room
so you’ve definitely got them on the back foot
they’re so circling what you’ve made your mark
and I think that gives you a really good taste of the combat flow
and how these encounters go
if you want we can pause here
but you definitely step into the role of the hero
I think that’s a great place to pause
alright thanks for that
and I think that gives me a good flavour
of how this is going to work
alright well thank you for that
church EPT
and I’ll speak later
you’re absolutely welcome
I’m glad you enjoyed that little taste of adventure
feel free to die back in any time
and we’ll pick up right where we left off
have a great one
okay that was interesting
so I hope you enjoyed that
one thing I noticed
was in the previous test
that I did
you may have noticed
that the enemies didn’t actually strike me
so I think
what I’ll do the next time we play this
is I will attempt to change the prompt
to hopefully get them to actually strike
I’m not even sure though
if the church EPT is really thinking
that the enemies have got statistics
as well so
maybe I’ve got to add that to the prompt as well
but see it’s sort of coming along
I can see how this could be quite fun
so
and it makes me wonder
just imagine
if you’re learning to play a board game
and one of the biggest annoyances
I mean I quite like board games
look I’m not a
Dungeons & Dragons person I think I last
played it with my brother a year ago
because his daughter wanted to play it
and then before then I was like just a teenager
but I thought it would be interesting
to try and play it because I thought it could be
something that Dungeons & Dragons
or any AI
bot could probably do
but
it occurs to me that this might be quite a useful
way to use
you could use AI to teach you board games
because that’s one thing that
you know I do like to play a board game
from time to time
but I don’t really like to play new board games
because it’s super annoying learning the rules
but I mean if you’re playing
you know all I would need to do if I wanted
to play a board game is I could just point chat
GPT in the direction of the rules
and then get chat GPT
to do
the first round
and you could
even use chat GPT like an arbiter of the rules
so you wouldn’t even have to
necessarily be relying on one person
so I think it could be super useful like that
but yeah so I’m going to
leave it here and
we’ll have another go at a later date
I hope you found that interesting I certainly did
so until next time
goodbye
you