Using AI to Make Adventures (5e Sourcebook)/Simple Example
Initializing[edit]
My initial prompt was "Write a choose your own adventure about a wizard exploring a cave."
Playground gave me:
You are a wizard exploring a cave. You come to a fork in the path. To the left is a dark passage. To the right is a light passage.
If you go left:
You find yourself in a dark and dreary part of the cave. You see a faint light in the distance and decide to investigate. As you get closer, you see that the light is coming from a magical crystal. You take the crystal and continue on your way.
If you go right:
You find yourself in a bright and sunny part of the cave. You see a beautiful waterfall in the distance and decide to investigate. As you get closer, you see that the waterfall is actually a magical portal. You step through the portal and find yourself in a different part of the cave.
I don't think GPT-3 is capable of giving me a true branching-structure adventure, but we can keep prompting to expand on these locations.
Dreary Path[edit]
I simple took the description of the "go left" location and used it as a prompt. I got back:
Suddenly, you hear a noise. You turn around and see a giant ogre coming towards you! What do you do?
Do you:
A) Run away!
B) Stand your ground and fight!
C) Try to reason with the ogre.
My next prompt: "What happens if you run away?"
You drop the crystal as you turn to run and the ogre catches up to you. He grabs you with his giant hands and squeezes the life out of you.
What happens if you stand your ground and fight?
You pull out your wand and start casting spells at the ogre. He is immune to your magic and easily overpowers you. He punches you with his giant fists and you die.
What happens if you try to reason with the ogre?
The ogre stops and listens to what you have to say. You explain that you're just exploring the cave and mean him no harm. The ogre seems to understand and lets you go on your way.
It's funny that it also gave me the results of the other options. When we come to write this into a proper D&D adventure, we would not have the instakill in option B. But we do have this idea of an ogre with some magic resistance and who can be easily negotiated with.
We just need a bit more information about this branch to link it to a new location. "What happens if you go on your way?"
You find your way out of the cave and back to your wizard tower. You study the crystal you found and discover that it has powerful magical properties. You keep it safe and use it in your magic for many years to come.
An abrupt ending, but that's okay for this short demonstration.
Waterfall Portal[edit]
We return to the "light passage", and I give the text about the waterfall as a prompt.
You keep walking and find yourself in a dark and dreary part of the cave. You see a faint light in the distance and decide to investigate. As you get closer, you see that the light is coming from a magical lamp. You take the lamp and find a secret passage.
Okay... we need a bit more. I re-submit.
You follow the secret passage and find yourself in a large chamber. You see a treasure chest in the center of the room and decide to open it. Inside the chest, you find a magical wand. You take the wand and cast a spell. Suddenly, the chamber begins to collapse. You use your wand to teleport yourself out of the chamber just in time.
In the D&D adventure, there should be other riskier options to escape from the collapsing chamber, if one didn't think of using the new wand, such as simply running back to the secret passage.
"Can I go back through the portal?" We can ask direct questions about the adventure.
No, the portal closed when you stepped through it.
Uh oh.
"Are there any other passages?"
Yes, there are two other passages. One leads to the surface and the other leads deeper into the cave.
We'll leave Level 2 for another time.
What Doesn't Work[edit]
I tried to see if GPT-3 would give me a proper choose-your-own-adventure with numbered paragraphs. I broke up the initial "You are a wizard exploring a cave" text into numbered paragraphs, with "go to <number>" for the choice. While it did return more numbered paragraphs, each just repeated the "dreary part of the cave" description... most of the time... and none gave more choices or branches.