Using AI to Make Adventures (5e Sourcebook)/Using Edit Mode

Edit Mode in OpenAI Playground is currently free to use while it is in beta. I have found that, if instructed to add narrative elements, it can be more creative than the normal mode.

In this example, my input text was:

The Dungeon of Deyeneerex is located beneath the Temple of Flora, the entrance hidden by a heavy stone slab. The Dungeon was created by Mindflayers in 873 CE to force mind-slaves to mine iron ore. In 912 CE all the occupants were wiped out by a mysterious curse, and the Dungeon was abandoned for hundreds of years.

My instruction was:

Add the description of 5 areas in the Dungeon, including what traps, monsters and treasures they might hold.

And the output was:

In 1802 CE the Dungeon was rediscovered by Parllan adventurers, who created the map using this website (a work in progress) and marked their progress on the map.

Area 1

The classic entrance, with a stone hall and stairs, suitable for imprisoning mind-slaves, leading down to a door. Nothing interesting is down here.

Area 2

This entrance leads down to a trap door, allowing adventurers to hear the monsters in Area 3 down in the main body. D12 monsters should hang around down here, but nothing too dangerous.

Area 3

The central body of the Dungeon, full of D12 Goblin fighters or D4 bugbears. It looks as if there was some successfull treasure hunting in the stack of treasure in the northeast. If adventurers take the loot from the platform, the bugbears will swarm up to attack the party.

Area 4

This area is full of monsters with lizardfolk, orcs and ogres, including Moots and leaders. This is the lair of the lizardfolk tribe. Matoukotek is a reveneant, who was slain in a battle before the place became cursed and rose years afterward, corrupted and leading the tribes now, a sort of typical raid boss. There is a trap door, with a pit and ladder, hiding the treasures below. The trap door is clearly secret, but isn't detected as a trap, so any thief, fighter or elf veteran rolling a 8+ on a D12 is ok to search for a trap on entering the room. However, detection doen't mean getting past the trap, simply avoiding disaster!

Level 1

A secret room containing a pit that's 2 metres deep containing an owlbear egg is down here, nestled in a nest of rotten tat. If the thief fails a D6 roll the thief falls into the pit naturally, but if the thief fails a D12 roll if the thief has hidden the pit, or discovered it and attempts to leap over it. Any character rolling their D4 or D12 chance to land safely on the other side, or failing that falling into the pit, but should literally end up between a rock and a hard place, due to the monster. Mamma owlbear can be involved, maybe lurking in the corner of the pit and waiting to rend the thief to pieces, or maybe she's lurking outside and the thief has to roll a natural 20 on their climbing roll to avoid the trap.

Level 2

At the bottom of the ladder is the passage to this massive treasure oubliette. A mass of treasure is stacked up down here, together with a succubus and a wolf. The dungeon is full of rock monsters and treasure, so is quite iconic. The :players should describe how they find it, and decide for themselves how to bypass any traps and so on, but all of the treasure is magic or above.

More Editing

What else can we do with Edit mode? I wanted all the clunky dice rolling removed.

I instructed

Remove all references to dice rolling.

and

For each area and level, describe what that place looks like: lighting, architecture, smells, feelings

This is the output:

The Dungeon of Deyeneerex is located beneath the Temple of Flora, the entrance hidden by a heavy stone slab. The Dungeon was created by Mindflayers in 873 CE to force mind-slaves to mine iron ore. In 912 CE all the occupants were wiped out by a mysterious curse, and the Dungeon was abandoned for hundreds of years.

In 1802 CE the Dungeon was rediscovered by Parllan adventurers, who created the map using this website (a work in progress) and marked their progress on the map.

Area 1

The classic entrance, with a stone hall and stairs, suitable for imprisoning mind-slaves, leading down to a door. Another door leads back up, to the Temple of Flora above.

Nothing interesting is down here except a rotting corpse and its discarded belt. This corridor is around 1 metre wide, and unlit. The large, heavy stone door which fills the passage is the door to the Temple of Flora above surface, with a large metal lock. A more regular door, slightly thinner, is the entrance to the dungeon, with a similar large metal lock.

Area 2

This entrance leads down to a trap door, allowing adventurers to hear the monsters in Area 3 down in the main body. The approach looks like a guard's room. If there were any occupants of the Dungeon, they would have been trapped, but are probably long dead.

There's some monsters down here, including a hill giant and some undead. A [spell needed, such as serpentlight] spell will illuminate the approach, although the area in the southeastern corner looks to have some mechanism to control the light: a chain hangs from the ceiling, potentially attached to a light source below. If a fighter reaches 11+ level it is worth searching through the rubble from the collapsed ceiling, to find a magic belt of giant strength. On the way past, it's worth trying to find the climbing pit in the northeast, which is a secret but not a trap.

Area 3

The trap door opens up on a flight of stone stairs, around 30 centimetres wide, and lit by a large torch on the right side of the stairs as they descend around 7 metres to the passage below. There's some centaur mounts here, who use their spells to blind their targets, and some wizards, who use spells to deal powerful magical damage and death spells. Monsters have fought over some treasure here, the victors have pocketed some and a defeated nalfeshnee has ad-libbed some.

The central body of the Dungeon, full of goblins and bugbears of various types. It looks as if there was some successful treasure hunting in the stack of treasure in the northeast. If adventurers take the loot from the platform, the bugbears will swarm up to attack the party. It is worth climbing up the ladder through the trap door, since there is a owlbear egg and a old bucket, holding a magic rapier.

Area 4

This massive, irregularly-shaped chamber is full of monsters inhabiting and controlling areas within the dungeon. These monsters are centaurs, with lizardfolk, orcs and ogres, including Foom, Moots and leaders.

This is the lair of the lizardfolk tribe. There are lots of slimes and orcs and things, too, that seem to have moved in, so there's a bunch of things to fight. The lizardfolk lair contains three well-made sarcophagi, and one smaller one, in the western corner, near the map of the river Chalkton. The larger oendeks have wings, as do the ogres with plate armor.

Level 1

A secret room containing a pit that's 2 metres deep containing an owlbear egg is down here, nestled in a nest of rotten tat. Mamma owlbear can be involved, maybe lurking in the corner of the pit and waiting to rend the thief to pieces, or maybe she's lurking outside and the thief has to roll a natural 20 on their climbing roll to avoid the trap.

Level 2

At the bottom of the ladder is the passage to this massive treasure oubliette. A mass of treasure is stacked up down here, together with a succubus and a wolf. The dungeon is full of rock monsters and treasure, so is quite iconic. The players should describe how they find it, and decide for themselves how to bypass any traps and so on, but all of the treasure is magic or above.

Level 3

This level contains a brain. The brain talks to the player. Originally it would have been to the mindflayers who entered, but the curse has opened up a new mind-slave, the player!