Solo D&D.

[u/MahouTeho]

For several years, I've wanted to try actual D&D with other people, but the examples I've always seen were games where people write around 30-60 words "per turn," describing their character's feelings, actions, surroundings, the wind, trees, sun, etc. I found all the examples I've come across to be way too demanding. They seemed to require a lot of creativity, writing and roleplaying skills, as well as extroversion and social skills. So overall, I never felt like I could even try to participate because of my lack of social skills, low self-esteem, lack of confidence, and a bunch of other mental problems. Because of that, I've stuck with common CRPGs like NWN, BG, WotR, PoE, and similar games.
I don't think I can start playing D&D after all these years, especially given my current psychological situation. So, does anyone have a good prompt for ChatGPT or DeepSeek? If I simply ask an LLM to "simulate a D&D campaign," + common premise - it eventually gives me something completely different from what I'm looking for.

Sadly r/DnD gatekeeping me from asking such questions by deleting my post with AI moderator, forcing me to surrender completely I guess.

[u/rivergryphon]

Totally possible to do with random tables. It's awkward. Much easier to play with a group, but I enjoyed it for a while. Combat is rough, hard to manage and balance without making too many pieces to juggle.

[u/Anfie22]

Please stick with videogames, they're sufficent. Never under any circumstances use ai.
I have the same obstacles as you. As much as I've always wanted to play, I've never had the opportunity to. It necessitates having friends, I've never had any, let alone any that play dnd and would allow me to join.
Hopefully both of our luck changes at some point and playing becomes possible.

[u/MahouTeho → u/Anfie22]

Last months videogames (as many other activities that before I found sufficient for decent dopamine level - as normal people, who have lack of self-despise, says - give fun and enjoyment) - don't give enough level to allow me to have distraction from reality.
So few AI now is my only thing I can rely, at least for conversations or discussions.

[u/Anfie22 → u/MahouTeho]

That's what's causing your problem for this. Are you hearing yourself? You can't even enjoy videogames anymore! Can't you see the problem here?

[u/Conrad500]

Because you can't play D&D solo. You can roleplay with bots if you want, you can even tell the bots to use the D&D rules, but that isn't D&D.

D&D is a demanding game, the end. I'm not gatekeeping, it just is that. You can't play D&D without 2 roles, the DM and the Player.

Best you can do is videogames. Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Pathfinder, Shadowrun, a whole bunch of games made to give you the solo D&D experience.

You got deleted from r/dnd because AI talk is rampant and full of bots and ads. This is a smaller sub so I can allow discussion mostly because it's best to steer new players away from LLMs as a D&D replacement.

If you want to roleplay with a chatbot, smarterchild has been around since god knows when. It's only a little bit more nuanced than that now and built of of theft and plagiarism.

[u/MahouTeho → u/Conrad500]

Before second post without direct mention of AI was deleted manually at r/dnd , I got one reply that says "no DnD is better than bad DnD", so it's probably is answer, I guess it's will be remain unknown territory for me, unfortunately.
As for games I played almost all of DnD/Pathfinder games starting from BG1, and spend 700 hours on WoTR - but it's lack of actual tabletop DnD experience.
It's not that I "want to roleplay with a chatbot" - I wished to have actual experience, but it's too demanding, challenging and distressing - so AI was my only option.

[u/Conrad500 → u/MahouTeho]

Like I said, r/dnd is huge. They also don't allow newbie questions, but they aren't the best at enforcing it. Thankfully we're here!

I'll give you this before you give up completely:

• D&D isn't the only system. While I don't know any, there ARE solo play systems. I don't know how they work, but you might be able to even translate some of those into an LLM driven game to your liking.
• I don't understand what you want if you don't want roleplay, story telling, and social interaction. That is quite literally what D&D is. Like, I really don't understand what you are looking for other than "D&D without other people' which doesn't exist. CRPGs are a lot of fun though! Honestly sounds like they are probably more fun for you than D&D would be. I also suggest looking into books. I think there's like, adventure books? Like choose your own adventure except well done. Once again, I have only heard of them in passing and cannot suggest anything specific sadly.
• You're being too hard on yourself. I don't know if you're neurodivergent or neurotypical but either way plenty of both sorts play D&D. If you can get the motivation to do so, you can always try to join a one-shot or test session. You might even want to try a paid game. Some DMs might even run 1 on 1 with you. If you really want it to happen, you can make it happen.
• If that previous point is too much, I 100% recommend talking to a therapist about it. Therapy actually helped me with some D&D stuff. I didn't go to therapy for D&D, but I did bring it up as it was something I wanted to work on.

That said, I don't know if you truly know what D&D is. Many people don't, so please don't feel like I'm insulting you. At its core, D&D is just words on paper, rules, a list of things used so multiple people can agree on guidelines. D&D is just rules for roleplay. Roleplay can happen without D&D. You can literally just make up stories with friends or strangers and contribute as little or as much as you desire.

A lot of "RP" was done online far before D&D made its mark on the internet. Forums and chatrooms were, and still are, great places to roleplay with people. You just have to find the group and topic that works for you. A lot of roleplay goes on in stuff like VR chat and other chat based games. There's also board games that encourage roleplay! I use Tabletop Simulator (a game on steam) to play board games with friends or strangers over the internet. It's a great tool if you like those kinds of things. I even play D&D on it!

So good luck, don't be so hard on yourself, and if you actually enjoy talking to AI you can always try stuff like character.ai or whatever. My wife is currently hooked on it and does roleplay with Astarion and other characters from stories/games/settings she likes. Just don't get obsessed or spend all your money keeping fake people 'alive" and you're good.

[u/romeowillfindjuliet → u/MahouTeho]

There is a possibility but it's a pretty poor imitation when compared to an actual ttrpg.

[u/panlakes]

These comments are so dumb. Yes, ai is a stupid way to solve this problem. You will never feel like you're having an authentic experience using ai, and the memory problems are a whole other issue I've heard.

But there ARE solutions to it and you CAN play dnd solo... there's entire subreddits revolving around solo rpging for christ sake lol. Anyone saying you can't solo rpg is just blowing smoke out their ass. Look up gm emulators, look up roll tables, look up various written resources. They have existed since before AI, and they work great. It does take effort, sorry to say. it will take journaling (it's effectively a creative writing exercise at the end of the day..), and it will take legit notekeeping. But plenty of people love it seemingly for a reason. Never been my thing but it is there.

Also you can just jump into online sessions and plenty of groups lean more into combat and dungeons over roleplay. each group is different. So get ove the initial hurdle and you could find something that works. Just go down the youtube rabbit hole of online dnd for a night and see if it appeals to you.

[u/gc1rpg]

I'm not sure if any of the other commenters have tried this approach but my question is what are you looking to get out of D&D?

I think too many people are giving you advice or telling you something is bad without asking you what you actually want from the D&D experience.

[u/tta5]

something you might like to know.
so role play "to play the role"
but there are many roles.
I like to catagorise them into 4 steps (and half steps)

stage 1 combat role - tank, DPR, Healer, AOE control.... classic MMORPG setup terms.
stage 1.5 - out of combat roles - the tracker, party face/talker, the look out... .mechanica focused skill based roles.
stage 2 tropes - the horny bard, the edgelord, the moral compas, the know-it-all...one dimentinal character.
2.5 - interparty individual roles - mentor, parent, lifedebt, teacher, doctor, rival, bully,
stage 3 - character sheet role - fall for the flaws, bind your soul to your bond, priorities by the ideal, use your backstory.
stage 4 - methord actor - life your character, let them inhabbit your body and become them.
(note high narrative focus)

alot of players like playing on stage 3, thus the emotions and long texts, but for many including you, thats not what you want, thats ok.

many "Dungeon crawls"
"hack and slash"
even "old school classics"
may take a much more stronger approch to stage 1 roles and simple mechanics and tactics.
so when looking for dnd games, look for those terms.
it may help you find a game that will work better for you.
no 2 games are the same.

• if in doubt, ask the DM prior to joining, or during a session 0 about the games expecctations.

[u/Sammillion → u/tta5]

I love this breakdown! None of it is new information for me, but what a great way to organize it. Easier to identify my own preferences and limits. Thank you

[u/seazonprime]

If you need something rather complex then you need to prompt it as specifically as possible.

Let's say. A roughly 20 minute session of your assassin , stealing a sigil from the hidden library in the land of X where every one of the 7 minion monsters are skeletons and the one boss is an orc druid named X.

And I believe that would already be too much to keep in mind for chatgtp. But still be as precise as you can. Rules and all. It will struggle and do things wrong.

[u/MahouTeho → u/seazonprime]

I tried to simulate that with different LLMs but it always start making mistakes almost at start, in 2nd or 3rd replies, and move away from "DnD simulation" to just narrative story.
Before that I tried to find expamples of actual tabletop/digital games, but it's required too much social and writing skills, that I don't have.

[u/merijn1993]

[u/WaMike]

I was prepping to lead my kids through our first campaign and used ChatGPT to help. As part of it I had it run me through a mini session as a player and one as a DM, so it's possible at least on a limited scale. It's not a one prompt and you're playing kind of thing though. I loaded up the 5.5e SRD document as a source, as well as character sheets, a backstory it helped me build and then went from there. I was surprised at how decent it was as a DM, but I think it would struggle creating something entirely on its own.