Playing AI Dungeon
Common Questions
What are Scenarios?
Scenarios are templates players can use to start a new Adventure from. Scenarios typically use our Prompt Settings to provide structured set-ups for new play-throughs.
Clicking the Play button on a Scenario will start a new Adventure with all of the Memory, World Info, and other settings transferred over, and the Prompt used as the first Action, giving the new Adventure a starting point to go from.
With a Scenario, you have the ability to start multiple Adventures from the same custom beginning, and you can Publish them for other players to do the same, or play from Scenarios that other players have created.
This is comparable to the Quick Start options when you click “Start” from the homepage, though Scenarios have capabilities which aren’t used there, such as the ability to change the Memory, World Info, and Author’s Note, or to add Scripting.
Using Scenarios to start Adventures
When the Scenario begins, it may ask you questions, with some suggested formatting, to help customize your play-through. Be sure to answer as suggested so the prompt-generation works as the Scenario’s creator intended.
After the questions (if any), a block of text called a “Prompt” will begin the Adventure, and the AI will generate the first output in response to that. The Adventure will be automatically saved to your My Stuff folder.
Creating your own Scenarios
To create a new Scenario, go to the My Stuff page by clicking it on the Left sidebar, then navigate to the “Scenarios” tab at the top of the page, then click the “Create Scenario” button on the right.
You will be taken to the Scenario Creation Page, which is full of empty fields for you to fill in.
Title
This is what the Scenario will be listed as in My Stuff, or in other people’s Search if you Publish it. Be sure to make this a name that is unique and descriptive, so you and others can find it easily later.
Description
More detailed information, the first part of which will be displayed with the listing under the Title. You can use this to keep additional information describing the Scenario, which is especially important if you intend to publish it.
Prompt
The Prompt is the first message in the Adventure, and is the meat of a Scenario: every Scenario should have a Prompt, and the bigger the better!
Note that the prompt is the first Action in the Adventure, and there’s nothing stopping you from filling it to the maximum size, which is about as far back as the AI can remember. This means whatever you put at the very top of the Prompt will disappear from the Current Context relatively quickly in a long Prompt, meaning you should put anything tone-setting in the Memory where it will always stay at the top of the Context.
${like this.} This is explained in the Tips section at the bottom of the article.Memory
The starting text of the Memory, which will add more context to the story without you having to write it in your Prompt, and which will stay in the context shown to the AI until the player edits it.
Note that the text of the Memory will show up at the very beginning of the story, before your Prompt.
Author’s Note
The starting text of the Author’s Note, which will guide the story for the player, until they edit it.
PROTIP: Many Scenario creators leave this blank: it is not only optional, but not recommended if you’re not sure what you’re doing with it.
Scenario Options
This is an advanced Scenario feature which allows you to create selectable options at the beginning of the Scenario, like the ones on the Quick Start menu. When a Scenario has options, it will be started by using the Prompt to describe itself, then give the user a menu from which to select from a set of options, which are Sub-Scenarios with their own Prompts, Memory, etc.
To create a new Scenario Option, click + create new option to create an entry in a list below that. Clicking this will being you to what is effectively a new Scenario page, pre-populated with some of the traits of its parent Scenario. The Title will be shown on the selection screen, after the Prompt from the parent scenario, and the player will be able to click it to get to the sub-Scenario within the option.
Tags
You can add tags to Scenarios to help you or others find it in Searches. Type the name of a tag in the entry field, then hit Enter to make it appear in a list below it. You can remove them by clicking the ‘X’ next to them.
Flagged NSFW
Turn this on if your Scenario contains (or is intended to generate) NSFW content, as described in our Community Guidelines. If you Publish it, this will hide it from safe searches, and keep you in compliance with our content rules.
Publish
Makes it possible for others to see your Scenario and find it in Search.
We recommend that you proofread and test the Scenario before you Publish it, to make sure you haven’t made some mistake or typo.
Unlisted
Appears only when Publish is toggled on.
If this is toggled on, your Scenario will still be Published, but not be listed in the Search. You will still be able to share your Scenario with people, but only by sending them the direct link.
3rd Person Only
The Adventure will be set with the 3rd Person Only flag, meaning it will use a character name instead of “you” when using the DO/SAY modes. This is recommended for Scenarios exclusively intended for Multiplayer. Note that players can always turn this on or off on their own, and that it does not affect Story Mode.
Banned Words List
A list of words which you don’t want appearing in the Adventures created with the Scenario. Players will be prevented from using these words, and the AI will be strongly discouraged from using them. Note that Players can add and remove words from this list if they don’t like what you put here.
Allow Comments
If this is on, other users will be able to leave comments on your Scenario. We recommend you keep this on if you Publish your Scenario, so that people can leave you feedback.
Scripts
You can add Javascript code to a Scenario which will change things about how the interface handles the text. People have used this in ways ranging from quality-of-life features like setting up the Memory or giving reminders, to creating entirely new experiences which drastically change the way the game operates.
Note that you cannot access this on mobile.
World Info
World Info entries are called when the text in their Keys appears in the recent text of the Adventure, and are fed to the AI as added context about subjects that will come up in the Scenario. Some Scenarios are built entirely around having a large World Info database to describe a setting. This is good if you want to include information that isn’t always relevant enough for the Memory.
For Example, if you want a peaceful setting, you might add…
Keys:WarEntry:
The War was won a long time ago, and is over now: this is a time of peace.
Tips for Creating your own Scenarios
- The main point of a Scenario is to present an idea for play, and save the user time in setting it up. A good Scenario has a unique and interesting idea which it takes at least a few paragraphs worth of text to set up for the player and the AI in the Prompt, along with Memory and World Info.
- When writing your initial Prompt for a Scenario, go long. You aren’t just bringing in the player, you’re setting up the AI for the first few actions worth of play. Start by giving some flavor text to set the mood, give at least a paragraph of background about the setting, take at least a paragraph to set up whatever’s happening in the scenario, use {$player input} to build some customization, and end with either the beginning of the first sentence of the story or a player input field so they can give their own beginning.
- Remember: the first thing that happens after your prompt, unless you use scripting to change it, is an AI-generated action.
- Your Memory needs to be general to the entire scenario, and you should write it with the express understanding that the player will want to add their own details to it. You should aim to keep it under the recommended 500 characters, especially if you expect the player to write their own paragraph of self-description in there.
- Protip: your Memory is used for the first generated action, meaning you can omit any details you put in it from the prompt, and the AI will still have them.
- Click Here to read about Memory. The tips in the Memory article will be VERY useful for creating good Memory text which helps the AI generate a coherent experience for everyone who plays your Scenario!
- You can add user-entered fields to the Prompt and initial Memory by adding a $dollar-sign followed by a statement in {curly-brackets}.
${Like this.}The user will be presented with whatever text is in the brackets, and whatever text they enter in response will be used in that part of the Prompt instead. ${character.name}is a special version of this, which will be replaced with “Enter your character’s name…”, and may have some other weights applied to it.- Using the exact same text in one of these fields more than once will use whatever answer they gave the first time they answered, allowing you to use it more than once.
- Note that these are Case-Sensitive
For example, if your prompt is…You are ${character.name}, ${Enter a few words to describe who you are and what you do.} living in the Kingdom of Larion. One day, the king says to you, “${character.name}, I need you to…the player will be presented with these two inputs before the Adventure starts…
Enter your character’s name…Enter a few words to describe who you are and what you do.…and if they respond with the answers “Peach” and “a princess”, respectively, the story will start with…
You are Peach, a princess living in the Kingdom of Larion. One day, the king says to you, “Peach, I need you to…which the AI will respond to, beginning the Adventure!
- Be sure to add at least a few short World Info Entries, to help the AI along with concepts that may have appeared in the initial prompt, which will usually be out of the Current Context which is sent to the AI once the player is a few actions in.
- Click Here to read about World Info. The tips in the World Info article will be VERY useful for harnessing the power which World Info can bring to your Scenarios!
- Protip: you can also Import World Info from a JSON file, which is useful for sharing and generating it outside of AI Dungeon.
- Before you publish your Scenario, be sure to start it a few times to see how it plays for the first few actions. There may be something the AI isn’t understanding that you can improve, or you may find a typo, or that a tweak to your prompt gives you better output. Just go through and make sure that it’s running the way you like before you publish it.
- Bring your Scenarios on the Discord: we have places for you to talk about them, get advice on them, and share links to them with other players.
- #aid-general is for chatting about the game in general, and people spitball ideas there.
- #sharing-forum is a place for you to post your Adventures, Scenarios, Worlds, and related content, and to find content other people are posting.
- #help-forum is for asking questions about how to use AI Dungeon, even about advanced things like Scripting and Scenario Options.
- #scenario-requests is where you can request for someone else to make a Scenario, find ideas for Scenarios for you to make, or even post a thread asking if anyone wants a specific Scenario from you!
