Creating Dungeons & Dragons Content with GPT-3

Earlier this summer, I got access to GPT-3 API from OpenAI. Since then, I’ve built a set of twelve fantasy RPG content generators. It has been an amazing and encouraging experience. In this post I’ll share my experience and outline what I learned.

OpenAI GPT-3 is a state-of-the-art generative text model. GPT-3 takes a sequence of characters as input and produces the next character in the sequence as output. It can generate whole sentences with this method. GPT-3 was trained on an enormous amount of fantasy and sci-fi content. As a result, it’s very good at generating new content that’s similar to existing works.

Using what’s coming to be known as “prompt engineering,” I have coaxed GPT-3 to deliver character backstories, spells, skills, creatures, dungeons, cities, shops, and more. Because I’m using a general model (Davinci) that is not fine-tuned (yet), I have to give GPT-3 two examples for it to output something decent. This is known as two-shot learning, by the way.

GPT-3: Character Backstories

My personal journey with GPT-3 began back in February as I used the previous model (GPT-2) to create D&D character backstories. After many hours of fine-tuning the 775m model, I began to see some interesting results. Then GPT-3 was announced. I didn’t get access right away, but I emailed with a detailed plan of how I’d been using GPT-2, and how I would like to use GPT-3.

And that’s how LitRPG Adventures was born. It started as an idea for 2d text-based MMORPG powered by GPT-3 (hence the name), but being a single person (mostly an author, not a full-time developer) I ran out of time before OpenAI began charging for their API in October. I totally understand their need to do this and want to help fund GPT-4 and future models too!

That’s why I switched gears and decided to release the LitRPG Adventures Workshop. I realized I had created a bunch of cool generators for the game, and changed them to make it easy for gamemasters to quickly produce a ton of unique (and sometimes quite amusing) RPG content with the press of a button.

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With character backstories, you can tell your players that the NPC they all met last week is actually a powerful wizard who was defeated in battle and raised from the dead by a necromancer. Because GPT-3 is quite good at generating natural-sounding speech, I’m able to generate a variety of backstories.

I currently have 25 or so races and 30 or so classes to choose from when you’re generating a character backstory. This means there’s over 800 combinations to create. Whether you’re creating a new character or re-rolling a backstory, the generator is well-suited to both.

GPT-3: Fantasy Skills Generator

With skills, you can create a funny and unique skill that’s either general for one of the four major class archetypes (fighter, mage, rogue, and priest). Some of the skills GPT-3 comes up with are very bizarre. On the other hand, it’s also quite capable of creating a skill that makes sense if you think of it as a combination of existing skills.

GPT-3: Fantasy Spells Generator

With spells, you can create a funny and unique spell, choosing the school of magic and well as other details. Then, with the press of a button, GPT-3 will output a spell description that you can use in your adventures.

GPT-3: Fantasy Dungeon Generator

With dungeons, you can create a funny and unique dungeon. I have a few dungeon generators that will take a variety of input and craft a dungeon from it. The input is again keywords with a variety of different options.

GPT-3: Fantasy Creature Generator

With creatures, you can create a funny and unique creature. Creatures can be added to a dungeon, placed in a city, or used in any other situation where you want to add an NPC or monster. You have a lot of different options here, including the size and intelligence of the creature and other things like it’s attack types and more.

GPT-3: Fantasy Magic Shops Generator

With the LitRPG Adventures Workshop Magic Shop generator, you can create a funny and unique shop. The shop generator also allows you to add a number of different items to the shop.

GPT-3: Fantasy City Generator

With our city generator, you can create a funny and unique city. The city generator also allows you to add a number of different buildings and NPCs to the city.

GPT-3: More D&D RPG Generators

There are a few more generators that I haven’t mentioned yet, but I’ll save that for a future article.

In all, it’s been an amazing experience. I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to work with GPT-3. If you’d like to see the LitRPG Adventures Workshop in action, you can watch this video:

Like what you see? Head over to LitRPG Adventures and start creating D&D or other tabletop RPG content today!

Fantasy RPG Random Tables Books

Make life as a Game Master easier.... If you play Dungeon & Dragons, Pathfinder, or other fantasy tabletop role-playing games, this RPG random tables book is full of encounters, NPCs, and more. Available as an eBook or in a classic print format. Either way, you'll have a wealth of adventure ideas at your fingertips.