It helps to keep your commands simple and consistent, and to use verbs in the imperative tense: Go to the river. It was clear that the system was inferring my intent through natural language. I found the game remarkably easy to get the hang of and was genuinely impressed by the AI responses. You’re not sure where exactly, but you end up finding a place called ‘The Blacksmith.’ You wake up early the next morning and make your way to the nearest tavern. The next day I did the one thing that every self-respecting D&D player does when confronted with uncertainty:Īfter a few seconds of cogitation, the system replied: Using simple text commands, I returned to my forest hideout and slept. I tried to track it - that’s what rangers do - but no luck. You know better than to approach it as it could attack at any moment.Īfter a few more attempts at peaceful greeting, the mysterious stranger ran off. The system recognized the general gist of my command and replied: You call out to the creature, but it doesn’t respond. I like to play straight and stay in character. I could have taken any course of action at this point, but I’m one of those goody-goody role-playing game types. The AI is quite powerful and is custom-built to interact with humans. It’s wearing a hooded cloak and its face seems distorted with hatred and pain.Īfter each entry from the AI, you’re allowed - encouraged, even - to type literally anything you want. Suddenly, you see a dark figure standing by one of the trees. You spot the deer and are ready to finish your hunt when suddenly you hear an unusual noise coming from the forest. You have a hunting bow and a quiver of arrows. You are Walker, a ranger living in the kingdom of Larion. I did the one thing that every self-respecting D&D player does when confronted with uncertainty: > find tavern The game dropped me straight into the action: I named my character Walker, in honor of Strider, J.R.R. I chose ranger, as I have pretty much without exception since fifth grade. The game offers a choice of character class - noble, knight, squire, wizard, ranger, peasant, or rogue. I’m an old-school nerd, though, so I went with fantasy. You can choose from five genres, including zombies and post-apocalypse stories. (The game comes as a phone app, too.) AI Dungeon isn’t just for fantasy swords-and-sorcery-style role-playing. I clicked over to the web-based interface and was up and running in seconds.
So I was genuinely excited to give AI Dungeon a try. Ranger, Peasant, or Rogue?Īs it happens, I was a teenage D&D nerd of rather startling intensity.
It’s like talking to Siri, if Siri were a 7th-level half-elf wizard. Ostensibly, it’s spinning a new and original tale every time. Instead, you’re really conversing with a “live” AI, which is using natural language processing to figure out what you want. Unlike those older games, AI Dungeon doesn’t use a limited set of verbal commands. AI Dungeon is deliberately designed to evoke early PC-era text-based games like The Oregon Trail. There are no graphics or sound (yet), but that’s part of the appeal. It’s made a serious splash in the gaming world, with more than 700,000 players as of March. No other humans required.ĪI Dun geon is a text-based adventure in which the AI plays the role of Dungeon Master, generating narrative and dialogue in response to any action you choose to take. Tabletop D&D game nights are popular online and in real life - even on podcasts - for kids and grownups both.Īnd now, thanks to recent advances in artificial intelligence, you can play D&D with an AI-powered collaborative storytelling machine. Nerd culture is ascendant and a recent wave of 1980s nostalgia has turned the pop culture dial back to those Spielbergian days of Doritos and 20-sided dice. The venerated role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons is enjoying a cultural resurgence.
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