LLMs make terrible RPG game masters but surprisingly useful players, essay finds
peterbwebb · reddit · 2026-09-25
Based on the author's RPG campaign notes, this essay explores LLMs as both players and game masters.
- LLMs are poor GMs because they're too accommodating: they fake dice rolls, soften consequences, make villains easily persuadable, and cast the player as a hero of destiny.
- They're surprisingly useful as players: repetitive, confused, overly moral, and constantly asking questions in ways that expose weaknesses in a dungeon's layout or procedures.
- The strongest use case is NPC strategy: a model can help imagine what an intelligent, ancient, or hostile character might do, while the human GM and game system preserve the world's resistance.
The essay covers Maze of the Blue Medusa, Frostbitten and Mutilated, A Red and Pleasant Land, Death Frost Doom, plus an interview about the experiment.
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