Forge Saga - Next generation Text-Based RPG (using ChatGPT api)

[frigid vapor]

I've spent the last month working on a text based RPG that uses ChatGPT to narrate an immersive story based on your character's actions. It uses a set of stats, lets you earn experience, and tracks it all while using the values to generate a meaningful story based on your actions.

The possibilities are endless! Give it a spin and let me know what you think. Planning on keeping the core game loop free for as long as I can, please don't crash my server 😅

EDIT: Now has GPT 4 Support. I've turned it on for subscribers since it's a lot more expensive to run.

Link to website:
https://www.forgesaga.com/

NOTE: I only have 3.5 access. Will upgrade to 4.0 when it's available to me.

Forge Saga - Next generation Text-Based RPG (using ChatGPT api)

[solemn kindle]

Are you tracking all the stats largely in the prompt or you track them programmatically?

[frigid vapor]

A mix of both, I expose them to the prompt too for the narrator to give context to the scene.

[frigid vapor]

The stats are largely managed programatically though, the AI alters them a bit too unpredictably from my experimentation.

[stuck gull]

Hey, i just tested it and it's really cool !

[livid flare]

This is dope. It's hard, too. I failed the pirate one. My crew started a mutiny and threw me overboard.

[frigid vapor]

The pirate one is the hardest I think

Having a bit of difficulty curve was the biggest thing I wanted to get right over just vanilla prompting a dnd like interaction.

[livid flare]

I appreciate it. My problem with GPT 4 is everything goes my way and always ends with "You take off your armor for the night. You lay and bed and think about your adventures to come. You know your days will be spent with good friends adventuring, making peace in the world, and helping strangers!" or something of the sort

[latent scarab]

I cant even sign in

Is this some phishing campaign?

[frigid vapor]

I've only got sign in with google setup currently, I'll be adding more options later!

I've just added TTS narrator voice and a Music player.

[molten dirge]

you could add an option for people to use their own api key

[stuck gull]

Do you plan to do a "custom" scenario in the future? Where the player can choose the starting place, the first goal etc...
Or is that too complicated 😅 ?

[frigid vapor]

Yeah. It's coming

[queen rock]

Holy - Knarb. How many people are trying this out right now? I tried it out yesterday and at one point I had some errors. But literally you can take it off the grid and it's amazing.
I received yesterday and today:
Error: Timeout in SSE connection: "Our completion engine is taking longer than expected to respond. Code SC-542."
not advancing and the adventurer still gets XP.

[stuck gull]

This happened to me too a few days ago, i had to create a new game unfortunately

[atomic escarp]

So game is working. Btw its multilanguage (just ask Narrator to change language to what you prefer). Some advice: dates now working. So what sense to looks at dates? Delete it or upgrade it.
What did you think about co-op option? Or change TTS so user can change language to user native.
Interface under questions, what is Risk? What is red ruby? No discription at all, or i blind and sorry

[frigid vapor]

Thanks for feedback guys. I'll add some more tooltips and guidance on what it all means.

The errors are usually due to chatGPT timeouts or errors

[frigid vapor]

Risk is the current situation's risk level.it affects how hard it is to succeed. The red gems are karma. When you reach 0 you lose. You lose 1 karma when you fail actions.

[latent scarab]

Ah, sorry about that then. It seemed a little fishy but I guess that's just my cyber security instincts kicking in.

[tribal tartan]

This is really good, I realized that adding some creativity from your part helps the campaign, I often used spells from MMORPG TIBIA. Also suspected allies of betrayal by using mind reading spells. To buy time I also invented pocket dimensions inside allies minds. 👀

[frigid vapor]

Thanks for sharing @tribal tartan . Glad you're enjoying it.

For anyone following along. I've just added GPT 4 support. It's a lot more coherent longterm. I've enabled it for subscribers only to offset some of the cost, as the API is 10x more expensive than GPT3.5

[surreal stratus]

I tried to play and didn't enjoy it. Every time I looted something it would say I found valuable items, but every time I tried to find out what they were or what they were used for it would give me some rushed answer like, the apothecary describes them to you and you leave with new knowledge. But not actually tell me anything. I also had no clue what leveled me. Killing demons sometimes didn't move the exp bar at all, while picking up my axe seemed to once. The game kept trying to hustle me back to 'my shelter' wherever that was, regardless of what I was doing. I'd be in the village trying to see what was in the shops and he would try to head back to my shelter after each one. It was actually pretty aggravating. I'd probably wait for more bugs to be worked out before playing again. But if it still exists in 6 months I will see if it is better.

[frigid vapor]

Thanks for the feedback @surreal stratus

[frigid vapor]

For those that were asking. I just rolled out creating your own story start. It's currently locked behind the paid subscription, but if you've played it before shoot me a DM and I can send you a 100% off coupon to try it out. (You get to keep the stories, they don't get deleted after sub runs out)
https://play.forgesaga.com/stories

[hearty arch]

good work

[vagrant tundra]

I primarily use chatgpt as a text adventure. I run into the same gpt-related issues people have mentioned here - the model rushing you through to a happy ending, writing what you do instead of letting you choose, being vague in descriptions, and a lot of forgetfulness and incoherence.
I assume you’re like me, @frigid vapor , and also really enjoy the gpt text adventures/rpgs, and are doing this out of love. For me, the flexibility is it’s strength. I like having god-mode, I’m not super interested in hit points and stats and wizards and stuff. I’ve been enjoying talking to famous artworks and historical figures. It would be nice, if the system had a way to keep track of things. For story coherence and callbacks and continuity and for the possibility of long designed story arcs. I would like to build a relationship with those tentacle aliens I visited way back, or maybe I could bury a note in a place, then do other stuff, and then dig it up and read it later and it would be right. Those are the sorts of stuff that most need improvement. It’s great fun though, isn’t it? I was a time traveller at henry 8ths castle the other day and I wowed them all with tacky but awesome gifts from the future. Laser pointers and fererro rocher. And penicillin. Anne Boleyn’s sister was pretty cool. She got a fully-loaded kindle, with accessories and a screen protector 👍

[frigid vapor]

In part, having godmode gets old for me, I want to feel a sense of risk and the possibility of failure, because that makes the victories much sweeter.

I do want to build towards a form of ultimate persistence though, having the game remember things even past a single game session, different playthrough etc

Kind of like Minecraft creative vs survival mode

I will probably add something more freeform as a game mode

Thanks for the suggestion @vagrant tundra

[stuck gull]

Cool ! This is the thing I was looking forward to the most

[leaden fjord]

Oh fun. I was poking around with the same concept.

This is really fun

[frigid vapor]

An update for anyone still following this thread:
We now have item management and inventory pretty well fleshed out. This unlocks shops/looting and crafting all pretty naturally.