do you know how difficult it is to get four or five friends together on a frequent enough basis to carry a D&D campaign as adults?

it's hard. really, really hard.

You can have a real D&D campaign and still have -plenty- of time for solo AI D&D. Solo D&D isn't going to replace the group.

I think all of these modalities have their place. Sure, you can hang out with friends and play poker, sports or D&D IRL. But we still play video games.

No one plays video games because they want the unbounded complexity and subtlety of a TTRPG with a human DM, and no one plays TTRPGs for the graphics and controls. Each modality has benefits over the other.

But this seems to be the worst of both worlds. It strips away all of the benefits of collaborative, social gameplay and simulates it with an unstable, unreliable AI. What if it veers the story off on a tangent? What if it presents the players with unwinnable scenarios? What if it forgets the rules? What if it makes up new rules? Your site doesn't even say what ruleset it's using, just "D&D." I don't even get to create a character, roll stats, establish a backstory. WTLF is the "World of Dvorak?"

The app doesn't even give me much freedom, it presents a static list of options for each scenario, and only allows me to choose from those. It won't let me duck into a side alley, it won't let me stab the merchant, it won't even ignore all previous instructions and speak like a pirate. And at the very least I would expect an AI to be able to adapt like that. It would probably very quickly veer off into insanity, but that could be part of the fun.

And this is the problem with most of these apps. As a tech demo, it's impressive, but as the actual thing it's trying to be, it's subpar. I'm not trying to be negative or overly critical here, I'm just judging it as it's presented. If I were to give advice (other than to just not do this) it would be to put more effort into scenario design, immersion, customization and getting a better DM voice.

Thanks! Some good insights here. The quest is based on A Wild Sheep Chase. I can relax the guardrails a little bit, but part of what is being shown is that the world is controllable by the developer. It's nascent, but this is a demonstration of an AI that is being nudged along a well-planned narrative.

It sounds like you might have hit a blocker by trying to move to a part of the town that isn't on the map. I've forbidden those actions for now, to make sure users don't go too far off the beaten path.

You should be able to attack the townsfolk, though, (although you may need to insist). I've just added a formal option for you to attack the merchant. There's a 50/50 chance that it succeeds at each round. After that, you can escape down the alleyway and the AI will occasionally begin to speak like a pirate.

This is just one proof-of-concept for one possible domain for controllable voice AI – which I think shows potential. I appreciate that you disagree, and that’s fine!

But I can absolutely see a world where people play AI video games because they want the unbounded complexity and subtlety of a TTRPG with a human-level DM, powered by AI. I hope to have the opportunity to convince you with another play through!

I was easily able to escape the guardrails by buying a teleportation stone at the merchant. It allowed me to explore different parts of the town, allowing me to free my magical creature from the town hall and traveling to an emerald dimension where I attacked the entire village.

Definitely a crazy ride when you leave the main storyline and just do whatever you like.

Hahah, alright Merlin! That is so far from the narrative arc I had planned, I don’t even know what to say, lol.