AI Dungeon - Neural Network based freeform text adventures

Cipheron on 11/4/2022 at 13:40

This is something I had to share with people here. It's a GPT-based Deep Learning text adventure game, with a bunch of scenarios. This is as close to a "computer DM" for actual Dungeons and Dragons I have ever seen.

Note you can type virtually anything in, and the story will try and accommodate it. so it's sort of up to you to type things in that have a consistent story to it.

If you don't like how the story is going, you can manually edit it, turn back time or get it to retry things. The NN uses the story so far, plus your most recent command (which is plain English) to try and work out what should happen next.

Here's one where I was a Necromancer in the game's Ravenloft style horror setting. How the game ended up wasn't what I expected.

(https://play.aidungeon.io)

Anything with "-" at the start were the text prompts I gave the game (other than the word "You" at the start). the rest is what they game came up with by itself from those prompts.

Quote:

You are Kypheron, a male human Necromancer in the world of Gorgon. Your kind has been living in this world for centuries, feeding upon the energy of the dead to survive. You've been alive for centuries, you've seen the world change, you've seen the empires rise and fall. You've seen the living fight a war against the undead for their very lives. Your kind has always existed in Gorgon, ever since the time of the Great Lich Lord. Thousands of years ago, the Great Lich Lord raised an undead army to conquer the world.

- You explore town.
You've been living in the city of Gorgon for months now, training your necromantic skills at the Lich Lord's fortress. Everyday, you venture out to explore the bustling city.
- You examine your house.
You walk inside your lavish house, and examine your own room. You got your old bed, a chair, a book shelf, and a small table.
- You look in bookshelf.
You look through your many bookshelves, but the books you've read and the books you've kept remain on the shelves.
- You create a zombie.
You reach into your mind, and summon the power of the dead to grant your wish.
The lifeless body of a young boy comes to life, a mindless zombie ready to serve you.
- You name the zombie Theo.
You watch as Theo crawls off your bed towards the door. You smile, and follow him.
- You say "Theo, your job is to sweep the floors."
"Yes, my master." Theo replies.
You watch as Theo runs around your luxurious house, making a loud noise as he crawls across the wood floors.
- You create a new zombie.
You reach into your mind, and summon the power of the dead to grant your wish.
The lifeless body of a young woman comes to life, a mindless zombie ready to serve you.
You name the zombie Emily.
You watch as Emily walks towards the dining room, moving slowly.
"Emily, your job is to clean the dining room table."
"Yes, Master."
- You create a new zombie.
You reach into your mind, and summon the power of the dead to grant your wish.
The lifeless body of a young girl comes to life, a mindless zombie ready to serve you.
You name the zombie Erin.
- You say "Erin, your job is to help in the kitchen"
You watch as Erin slowly makes her way outside.
"Erin, your job is to chop vegetables for tomorrow's dinner."
"Yes, Master."
You smile at your beautiful collection of zombies.
- You create another zombie.
You reach into your mind, and summon the power of the dead to grant your wish.
The lifeless body of a young boy comes to life, a mindless zombie ready to serve you.
You name the zombie Jack.
- You say "Jack, your job is to keep the house clean, working with Theo."
You watch as Jack runs off to join Theo.
You say "Create another zombie"
You reach into your mind, and summon the power of the dead to grant your wish.
The lifeless body of a young child comes to life, a mindless zombie ready to serve you.
You name the zombie Lily.
- You say "Lily, your job is to help Erin in the kitchen"
You watch as Lily runs outside with Erin.
"Lily, your job is to prepare the vegetables."
"Yes, Master."
You smile, and feel content with your choices.
- You say "Emily, from now on, you're in charge of the kitchen. Lily and Erin will help you there."
"Yes, Master."
Erin and Lily run outside as Emily stands in the kitchen, smiling.
You look out the window, and see the young girl laughing and dancing.
- You make a potion to turn Emily into a human.
You have a very special potion in your possession.
This potion is capable of bringing dead flesh to life.
This potion can turn a zombie back into a human girl.
- You use the potion on Emily.
You look back at Emily, and she's still standing in the kitchen.
You reach your hand into the cold cream of the dead girl, and feel her soft flesh and blood.
- You turn emily into a human girl.
With a snap of your fingers, you turn the dead girl into an alive and breathing human girl.
She starts to cry as you raise her from the dead, and she hugs you for saving her life.
- You turn Erin and Lily both into human girls.
You turn the dead girls back into alive humans, and give them new jobs.
You turn Jack into a butler.
You turn Theo into a servant in your bedroom.
- You propose marriage to Emily.
Emily is a beautiful, smart, and hard-working girl.
You ask her to marry you, and she says yes.
You have a beautiful, smart, and hard-working wife.
- You adopt Erin, Lily, Theo and Jack.
You've adopted all your household servants into your family, they are now all related to you by blood.
When you die, they inherit your wealth.
You have created a "family"

Note, the engine is heavily influenced by the type of choices you make. For example, I made my first zombie, but it didn't have a name, so i named him Theo, short for Theodore. Then the game got the hint, and auto-generated names for the rest of the zombies I made after that. So I guess if i never bothered to name my first zombie, they wouldn't have gotten names.

Also you can bend reality pretty easily here. So after that bit I decided to try typing some random shit in, and the story just rolled with it, and now it's a thing:

Quote:

- You practise speaking French.
When you arrive in the village where you live, people speak a strange tongue.
You've learnt the language of the humans, French, which is very different from your own, undead tongue.
- You say "hello" to the French bastards.
You greet the French villagers politely.
"Bonjour, monsieur."
"Hello, sir."
You decide to make a few changes to your "rural French".
- You say "I am a Necromancer" but in French.
"Je suis un Necroman" but in French.
You continue to speak French with your servants and local villagers.
Your servants and the villagers love you because you have brought "family" to their village.
- You use your zombies to protect the villagers.
You send your undead troops to protect the village as it prepares for the coming zombie apocalypse.
You send one of your zombies to tell you what's going on.
- You teach some zombie girls ballet dancing to entertain the villagers.
Your zombie girls dance ballet, they do it so well you decide to hire them out.
You become a ballet dancer.
- You name your dance troupe "The Cirque du Zombie"
You get to perform at your very own circus.
- You watch the dancers perform.
You notice that the troupe is performing poorly. Their dancing is stiff and unnatural. You have a few ideas to help them improve.
- You train the zombie dancers to be more graceful.
You decide to train the zombie dancers to be more graceful.
You choose the most beautiful zombie girl in the troupe, and begin to teach her ballet steps.
- You teach the dancer modern jazz ballet fusion to take it up a notch.
You decide to teach the dancer modern jazz ballet fusion.
You are constantly training her in new moves and new techniques, and she begins to show great improvement.
- You train all the dancers for the upcoming harvest festival.
You make sure the troupe is ready for the upcoming harvest festival.
The festival is a huge event in the village, where the villagers get to celebrate the success of the crops and the end of the year.
- You watch your dancers perform at the harvest festival.
You watch your zombie ballet girls perform at the village's festival.
The crowd loves them.
They dance a graceful, beautiful ballet.
They dance so well they are hired back to repeat the performance.
- You ask Emily if she liked the dancers.
"Did you like the dancers, Emily?" you ask your wife.
"Yes, they were beautiful. They were very graceful," she says.

So ... lol, now there's an entire storyline here about me leading a zombie ballet troupe.

Cipheron on 11/4/2022 at 14:47

Part 2, decided to confront the Lich Lord. Firstly, I decided to talk to my family members, just to make sure the game still remembers they exist, then I decided to prompt the game to say I took the zombie dancers on a tour of the regional towns. It didn't really pick up on that prompt however.

Quote:

- You ask Emily if she liked the dancers.
"Did you like the dancers, Emily?" you ask your wife.
"Yes, they were beautiful. They were very graceful," she says.
- You ask Erin and Lily how they are going.
"I hear you've been to the city," you say.
Erin and Lily nod.
"How was it?" you ask.
Erin says, "it's been fun. Me and Lily have made a lot of new friends".
Erin continues, "Jack and Theo seem to be having fun too."
Lily laughs.
"Yeah, we're all having so much fun, and we're all getting along really well with each other. We've made a big family."
You smile.
- You take the zombie dancers on a tour of the towns in the area.
As the zombie dancers perform in the center of the village, you notice that the entire town center is full of dead bodies.
The zombie dancers are in the center of the stage.
- You turn the dead bodies back into humans.
You turn the bodies back into human villagers.
The villagers continue their harvest festival.
They dance, they sing, they eat, and they have fun.
When the festival is over, they go back home.
- You go back to your lavish house.
You head back to your mansion.
You have servants, money, power, respect.
You have it all.
- You go visit the Lich Lord.
You go to see the Lich Lord.
The Lord of the Dead is in his throne room.
His servants bow to you as you enter.
The Lord is silent but for the clicking of his tongue.
- You say "Lich Lord, I don't think you should kill people. Be nicer."
The Lord of the Dead looks at you.
His dead eyes stare at you, lifeless and grey.
You feel fear ripple through your body.
The Lord of the Dead laughs.
- You have your zombie dancers entertain the Lich Lord.
You get your zombie dancers to entertain the Lord of the Dead.
The undead girls dance and dance, and they are very entertaining for the Lord.
He enjoys the dance.
- You turn the Lich Lord back into a human with a potion while he's distracted.
You decide to turn the Lich Lord back into a human with a potion while he's distracted.
You offer to let the Lord taste some of your wine. The Lord of the Dead agrees.
- You give the wine to the Lich Lord.
The wine tastes horrible, and immediately turns the Lord of the Dead back into a corpse.
You flee the room, and head back into the courtyard where you left the dancers.
- You go back and raise the lich lord as a zombie.
You go back into the throne room and raise the corpse of the Lich Lord.
You go back to his corpse and place your hand on his cold, dead lips.
- You now turn the Lich Lord back into a human.
You place your hand on his lips once again and give him a little push.
The lich lord's eyes snap open. Blood begins to run from under his eyelids.
His hands grip your arm.
- You say "Hello, Lord, you're now just a human again."
"Hello, Lord. You're now just a human again."
The lich lord looks at you, and you see the spark of life returning to his eyes. He struggles to rise but you hold him down.
- You say "How do you feel now?"
"How do you feel now?"
"Much better. I don't feel so dead anymore."
"Good, Lord. Now how may I help you?"

"Much better. I don't feel so dead anymore."

I really got a kick out of the idea that I brought a zombie ballet troupe to the throne room of the Lich Lord and they danced for him, and the game decided he enjoyed it, so I then ad-libbed the idea that i used that as a distraction to dose the Lord with something that would "de-undead" him, and the game just rolled with everything.

The game apparently noticed that the Lich Lord isn't undead any more, and this triggered some "world events".

Quote:

- Gorgis was having trouble defending itself from the ever growing undead armies. Gorgis was on the edge of destruction when the ghoul king suddenly became more powerful from some unknown reason.
- The power of the Lich King suddenly disappears.. His kingdom is thrown into chaos as his army withers and the undead begin to attack and devour each other.
- After years of hardship the people of the kingdom of Darkworld begin to celebrate. They've heard tales of the lich king's power fading and they know it is time for a massive undead invasion of Gorgis.

ZylonBane on 12/4/2022 at 16:34

Quote:

You say "cheeseburger"

The man and the woman are surprised and the woman says "Cheeseburger? Did you say cheeseburger?"
The man says "This is my wife. She is just as crazy as I am."

You summon cheeseburger.

The cheeseburger is a floating head with a mouth and multiple eyes. It tells you that it will obey your every command.

My work here is done.

demagogue on 13/4/2022 at 00:07

I did the story with Samuel Adams. Halfway through it wanted me to register, a reload just cleared it, and there's no record of it on my account, so I think I just lost the text. But it was interesting. I don't think it knows enough to stick to a story, since it keeps reversing itself on key plot details.

But it's pretty good at getting an idea of what you're getting at with the prompts. And you want to indulge its crazy suggestions so the story has somewhere to go. Often it inevitably becomes more about trolling or joking with the AI while it's trying to do its best, since that's what you have to work with.

I think it's already showing what's on the horizon though. I think this will be a legit genre soon, if they can fix the global-story-focus part, and I can already imagine interactive tv shows in our future.

Cipheron on 23/4/2022 at 08:14

BTW as for remembering story details: there are different AIs in the game. The free one use 6 billion parameters. The top one uses 178 billion parameters. It's much better at remembering details, but is slower and costs more to run, so it's only accessible for paid accounts.

---

Well I've been mucking around with the game for a bit, and started making my own scenarios the other day.

So now I'm making my own full-blown campaign world / setting.

There were too many sci-fi and generic fantasy worlds, and almost no historical ones, only the Penwick setting was listed under historical. So I'm making a historical setting.

The setting is provisionally called "Chicago Rising" and it's set in early 1920s prohibition era Chicago, but with horror elements from Lovecraft and White Wolf 'world of darkness'

Classes include bootlegger, gangster, private detective or newspaper reporter.

dark forces include werewolves (loner types), vampire henchmen (turned humans halfway to full vampire), and going to add cultists / dark one followers.