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The world of roleplaying becomes more vibrant than ever, as with the help of artificial intelligence, Dungeon Masters can now create fascinating and unique non-player characters (NPCs) for their Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) adventures. With ChatGPT, it’s possible to conduct interactive conversations and generate detailed descriptions, motivations, and even secrets for NPCs. In this article, you’ll learn how to use ChatGPT to enrich your D&D game world with living and multi-layered characters. Dive into the possibilities that AI-based tools offer to create unforgettable encounters and exciting stories.
What is ChatGPT anyway?
Over the past few months, OpenAI’s artificial intelligence (AI) has taken the internet by storm. It’s a so-called Large Language Model (LLM) that is capable of conducting conversations through machine learning. This works through a simple text field (prompts). There’s currently a free version based on the GPT-3.5 model and a paid version that uses GPT-4. We’ll only use the free version here so you can follow along with everything.
As a general tip for getting the best possible answers from ChatGPT, you should describe in as much detail as possible what you want. It also helps for context if you tell the AI what role it should take on. Therefore, the first part of our prompt is:
You are the narrator of a Dungeons and Dragons story. Please describe a character that the adventuring party can encounter.
Creating a General NPC
As all Dungeon Masters know, adventuring parties love to do completely absurd things and you have to quickly improvise to adapt to their decisions. In these situations, I personally often find it difficult to spontaneously introduce good characters into the world. Using ChatGPT for D&D NPCs (or of course for other game systems too) was therefore immediately interesting to me when I heard about it.
There are some things that are important to me when I create an NPC:
- Description of appearance
- Character motivation
- Opportunity for interesting interactions with the party
Describing an NPC with ChatGPT
To get a description, we just need to ask for it. To give the whole thing more substance, it makes sense to add some details. In Dungeons and Dragons, it’s often relevant what race a character is, for example. Traditionally, dwarves and elves often harbor grudges against each other, and other races like orcs are even perceived as evil. Therefore, we add the following part:
You are the narrator of a Dungeons and Dragons story. Please describe a character that the adventuring party can encounter.
Your description should include the character’s appearance (including race).
Here’s the response we receive:
As the adventuring party wanders through the dense forest, they suddenly stumble upon a solitary clearing. There, under the shadow of a majestic oak tree, stands an impressive figure. Before them rises a tall elven warrior named Arannis. His tall, slender form is encased in armor of light, gleaming metals that don’t hinder his movements. His long, silver hair falls gently over his shoulders, while his piercing green eyes radiate a mixture of determination and mystery.
– ChatGPT
Here you can of course also add some information if you already have a plan for the character. For example, describing a profession or the environment where the character should be found can help get good results right away. I’ve personally noticed, however, that without further specifications, stereotypes are often reproduced. For example, you often get a dwarf when you specify that the profession should be “blacksmith.” If you don’t want this, you can make additional specifications or ask for unconventional characters.
NPC Motivation
To integrate Arannis even more into the world, we want to give him his own motivation. We can also simply build this into our request. I personally always find it nice when there are some secrets that the party might discover (or maybe not). When I come up with secrets myself, I always feel a bit bad when the characters don’t learn them. This way it’s not much work and it can exist independently of the story. So now we ask ChatGPT:
You are the narrator of a Dungeons and Dragons story. Please describe a character that the adventuring party can encounter. Your description should include the character’s appearance (including race), motivation, and a secret.
The response now contains the additional paragraphs:
Arannis’ motivation is to maintain the balance between the forces of nature and the aspirations of civilization. He wanders the lands to eliminate threats to the wilderness and protect the elven people. But beneath his stoic facade lies a deep secret.
– ChatGPT
Secret: While Arannis fights for the preservation of nature, he has entered into a dark alliance with a group of shadow beings to gain their help in defending the elven realms. However, this pact has placed an invisible burden on him and forces him into secret and conflicted actions to support his hidden allies.
– ChatGPT
ChatGPT for D&D NPCs in Roleplay
Since the idea of Arannis isn’t mine, I find it difficult to play him as a Dungeon Master. What would such a stoic guardian of the wilderness say when he encounters my adventuring party? Let’s just ask again:
You are the narrator of a Dungeons and Dragons story. Please describe a character that the adventuring party can encounter. Your description should include the character’s appearance (including race), motivation, and a secret.
Also write three quotes that the character could say to the adventuring party when they meet him.
And just like that, we get the following quotes:
“You are brave adventurers, but always consider the consequences of your actions. The balance of nature hangs by a silken thread.”
– ChatGPT
“Sometimes we must turn to darkness to preserve the light. But be warned, not every alliance is as pure as it seems.”
– ChatGPT
“There are things that should remain hidden to save our world from the abyss. Sometimes the price one pays to protect the unknown is higher than one could ever imagine.”
– ChatGPT
Here, not only does the character’s role become clear, but he also already hints (very obviously) at his motivation and secret. If my party encountered this character, I would definitely have plenty to say and could probably fill a few hours with it. Not bad when you consider I only wrote four sentences for this.
NPCs in Combat
Knowing my party, I should always have some dice values ready in case it comes to combat. Especially when Arannis speaks of dark powers, it’s probably not bad to at least know what I need to roll if they try to interrogate him. Therefore, I add to my prompt that I’d like a character sheet:
Create a complete NPC character sheet for the character.
The response I get adds some important information:
Name: Arannis Race: High Elf Class: Ranger (Fighter) Background: Defender of Nature
Attributes:
- Strength: 14
- Dexterity: 16
- Constitution: 15
- Intelligence: 12
- Wisdom: 18
- Charisma: 13
Skills:
- Animal Handling: +6
- Nature: +6
- Survival: +6
- Athletics: +4
- Perception: +6
- Intimidation: +3
Equipment:
- Longbow and quiver with arrows
- Two shortswords
- Leather armor
- Adventuring gear (backpack, rope, tinderbox, etc.)
Special Features:
- Natural Talent: As a High Elf, Arannis masters the cantrip “Prestidigitation.”
- Favored Enemy: Arannis has specialized in fighting monstrosities. He gains a +2 bonus to damage and investigation rolls against monstrosities.
- Natural Explorer: Through his knowledge of the wilderness, Arannis cannot get lost in nature and finds twice as much food as other adventurers.
– ChatGPT
That’s very workable! Now I can simply derive armor values and attacks from these stats and we can get started right away!
Other AI Tools for NPCs
Besides ChatGPT for D&D NPCs, there are many other AIs that have gained recognition in recent months. Among these, the image-generating AIs are particularly exciting for me personally. Especially if you play online, for example on Roll20, it’s often better to have a token for your newly created NPCs.
We’ve already written a general article about AI in roleplaying games. There you’ll also find information on how to create your own AI images.
Image source: Screenshot from chat.openai.com
