I am not a huge fan of AI in solo games, although I know many people use it. I also like gaming away from my computer, just dice, pencils, and paper. But AI is finding its way into everything. My computer has AI (Copilot) built in, my web browser has it and offers AI results above everything else, and so on. You can even get local LLMs, such as Ollama, that work offline and apps on your phone that give you a local offline AI.
So the idea is: if you are already keeping very brief gaming notes anyway, why not keep an AI chat window open, tell it what game system you are using, describe recurring NPCs and their established personalities and peculiarities, and keep it abreast of the current situation. In each scene, you can then ask the AI what the NPC would want to do next.
I am not suggesting that you do this round by round and blow by blow, but once at the top of the scene to get the NPCs intentions, or at important crunch points where a decision one way or another are going to have long lasting implications.
I know LLMs are inaccurate. I know they are just trying to work out what word is more likely to appear after the previous word, and they are pretty much just randomising replies skewed by probability. But is that any different than me rolling the dice to decide if they do what I kind of expected them to do? That is also just trandomising skewed by probability.
I don’t see the threat here. I don’t use AI art because there are talented people struggling to make a living from their art. I don’t use AI texts because I enjoy writing and sharing ideas, and I don’t use an AI GM because I like GMing, but is the AI giving better quality NPC actions and reactions than I regularly come up with? I am afraid it is, but I am not committed to using them. They are ultimately just suggestions.
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