If, like me, you want to play more tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs), there is a perfect AI tool, especially if you want to take on the role of Dungeon Master.
I recently checked out Alien Romulus and loved it so much that I wanted to get back into the universe in any way I could. One of my best experiences with the universe is the Alien TTRPG. I found the game very engaging and my last campaign was a rollercoaster of immersion and enjoyment, even when a Xenomorph rugby tackled me out of the dropship my party was escaping in.
However, planning and playing a TTRPG can be stressful, and running it as a DM is even more stressful. There is so much work that goes into designing an adventure that real-time syncing can put many people off. However, that’s where LoreKeeper comes in, and in the time I’ve played with it, I’ve found it to be a real game-changer, even though it’s still in beta.
What is LoreKeeper?
The first question to answer is what LoreKeeper actually is. Luckily, I had the opportunity to talk to two of the developers, Ali and David, about LoreKeeper and what it can do for aspiring Dungeon Masters. When asked to describe it, David said this: “Lorekeeper is a system that allows you to upload your own rules, your gods, your monsters, your homebrew, whatever it may be, your own little world, and then you can essentially create an AI, a private AI, out of it that you can basically interrogate.”
LoreKeeper is the perfect tool for any DM. It can create adventures and characters with ease and even answers questions about player characters. LoreKeeper takes a lot of stress off of being a DM, no matter what game you’re playing. It can even help you create your own homebrew and streamline the whole process.
However, the AI is focused on helping the Game Master rather than replacing them, which was important to the developers. David explained, “We believe the game is the game,” adding, “It’s about being with people, talking, and doing silly voices. We don’t want to try to distract from that, but be a help, because a lot of the burden is on the Dungeon Master.” Lorekeeper is designed to make the Game Master’s life easier and avoid hours of preparation, making it much easier to start a game.
The real question for any aspiring or experienced DM, however, is how good the actual experience with LoreKeeper is and whether it really delivers on all that it promises. Thanks to LoreKeeper, I had the opportunity to try out the current beta, which included several pre-made game systems. One of them was the Alien RPG, which I will focus on.
How LoreKeeper helps you create a campaign
I chose Alien because I love the series and the recent movie piqued my interest, so I wanted to see if I could use AI to create a deep journey that I could adapt and change to what my players were doing. So I asked them to write an adventure where Weyland Yutani seals a block of flats after placing several Xenomorph eggs inside. This block would be filled with characters from different backgrounds, including the player characters. This simple description was the basis for “The Hive Within,” the title generated by the AI.
First, once you’re set up, using LoreKeeper couldn’t be easier. All you have to do is ask a question or request a scenario. You can be as detailed as you want about the story and location, and Lorekeeper will create a detailed adventure. In this case, it created three acts, some sample characters, and even sample encounters. This is a great foundation for a DM to start a game with, and gives players a good framework to work within. But LoreKeeper can go even further.
Let’s say I want to add a new villain or event. All I have to do is ask the AI to include it in the current storyline. LoreKeeper will then rewrite the original scenario with the new parameters while keeping the basic story intact. This means that the DM can easily add changes on the fly without suddenly having to rewrite everything and make the players wait for weeks. If you’ve ever played a TTRPG, you’ve experienced this, I certainly have.
In my last Dungeons & Dragons campaign, I made the mistake of blowing up a warehouse. On its own, this wouldn’t be a problem, but this warehouse also contained important plot points and was a crucial focal point of the entire campaign. To be fair to my DM, the chance of my fireball blowing up this warehouse was about 1 in 100, but this action completely derailed the campaign. This meant that the poor Dungeon Master had to essentially rewrite the entire campaign, which took a lot of time. With LoreKeeper, however, this only takes a few moments, as all the DM has to do is tell the AI to adjust the plot accordingly.
LoreKeeper can not only write a campaign, but also dialogue. For example, I added a Weyland-Yutani scientist to The Hive Within and mentioned his obsession with the Xenomorphs. I could even ask the AI to write a speech for him, with a few notes from me about the character’s personality. The speech Lorekeeper created is as follows:
“Ah, there you are, my little lab rats. Welcome to the grand experiment. I am Dr. Victor Lang, your overseer and the architect of this beautiful chaos. You see, my dear Xenomorphs, these humans are here to serve a higher purpose. They are the vessels for your perfection, the stepping stones in the grand plan of evolution. “Humans, consider yourselves honored. You may host the ultimate life form. Painful? Yes. Necessary? Absolutely. Your suffering is but a small price to pay for the birth of perfection. So scurry along and try to survive if you can. Every move you make, every scream you let out, I will be watching. Learning. Enjoy your fleeting moments. Welcome to your destiny and the future of life itself.”
As you can see, this is a great foundation for the DM to work with and put their own spin on, especially if they want to improve their voice acting skills. There’s no doubt that writing dialogue is one of the more difficult skills to master, so including it is a huge win for any DM.
Overall I found LoreKeeper to be great, it has definitely made my life easier, although I must say having to pay for credits might be a bit off-putting for some. However, if you play a lot of board games this is certainly a great tool to save time and add some new twists. Also I should mention that LoreKeeper still requires you to buy the companion books for the main game systems, so you will need to own those to get the most out of LoreKeeper. Getting started can also be a bit complicated, but luckily there is a helpful Discord where users and developers are happy to lend a hand.
I also like how many game systems you can set up in LoreKeeper. For example, I was able to create a campaign in Imerpium Maledictum, a game set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, where the entire party was made up of Orcs pretending to be humans. The ability to add homebrews is also fantastic and opens up LoreKeeper to people who may not play games but may want to write novels or screenplays and need a place to share ideas.
While there is no free plan, you can buy credits for $5, $10, or $15 and use what you need. Alternatively, you can pay a monthly subscription, which is set in tiers and can cost either $10, $20, or $50 and offers credits and unlimited uploads for your worlds, with the amount you can upload limited by the tier you choose. While it is a bit expensive, you can split the cost with your entire gaming group and it is still cheaper than renting a space to play every month.
So if you want to speed up and improve your DMing, craft some interesting adventures, or design a world for that fantasy novel you’re working on, then LoreKeeper is a great place to start.
