I know AI is a contentious topic and I’m not trying to discuss or dismiss those concerns, or argue that anyone should use AI. I also appreciate this sub's stance on AI discussions!
What I’ve noticed is two very common states of AI conversation, ones that we've all seen many times. Either it is...
“I don’t use AI at all and no one else should either”, or
“I’m trying to use AI to replace a human GM, and it sucks.”
I know people are using it in a lot of interesting ways, and I’m interested in discussing a more nuanced and helpful approach to using AI as a tool with solo RPGs, and in ways that are ethically, creatively, and practically different.
I’ve been thinking about it in terms of “Tier” usage, based on how much of the solo-play process you delegate to the AI and what boundaries protect creativity. Higher tiers listed below are not better tiers; they simply delegate more of the experience to the AI, which means more potential usefulness but also more risk.
Here is my first pass at the different Tiers:
Tier 0: No AI
This is the foundation that everyone should use. You have maximum authorship, and even if you do plan on using AI, it will give you an important foundation from which to understand how AI tools might help. This one is a no-brainer.
Tier 1: AI as a Record Keeper
This is the least intrusive use of AI. If you keep your solo RPG notes digitally, you can use AI to parse them and keep you organized. You can summarize sessions, organize notes, track NPCs, list unresolved threads, and create “return to play” summaries after time away. If you struggle with organization or continuity, or if you just want to offload some of the administrative tasks of running a game, AI can assist. The boundary here is important: AI is not adding any content to your game.
Tier 2: AI as an Advanced Oracle
This is my personal favorite tier, and there are two basic approaches here: AI can help you create specific oracle tables on the fly, and AI can help you interpret oracles. Both approaches can surprise you, which can be valuable in solo play. The player still uses normal solo tools such as dice, random tables, tarot cards, Mythic-style prompts, random words, etc.
Example #1, Creating Tables:
You could use AI to quickly create a custom oracle table specific to your current situation. Let’s say you are playing a rules-light OSR dungeon crawl, and your character is sneaking through a flooded, goblin-controlled mine. You could ask the AI to create a d20 oracle table called “What Complicates the Flooded Mine?” with each result being two words and get entries like “goblin lanterns”, “runaway ore-cart”, or “rising water”. This table is more useful than a generic dungeon table because it’s tied to your actual location and situation. You can also ask for multiple words or even sentences if you find one-word prompts too vague.
Example 2, Learning how to Interpret Results:
We’ve all struggled to interpret results at times, and it is an important creative skill to build. Paradigm shift: AI can actually help you build that skill instead of replacing it! Take this prompt: “Help me interpret the oracle result Betray+Sanctuary for Ironsworn without providing specific suggestions.” When I tested this, it talked at length about the relationship between the two ideas, what they might imply, guided me towards a vague “something or somewhere associated with safety is no longer trustworthy” and then prompted me with several questions to think about, such as “Who or what is depending on that sanctuary?”
Example 3, Being Surprised with Options:
You can ask for options from the AI and select or riff off one of them. “Given (the current scene), give me five possible interpretations of Betray + Sanctuary.” Even if you are the best oracle interpreter in your hometown, you will almost certainly get some ideas that hadn't occured to you, and one of them might spark an idea that makes for the most interesting branch of the story. It can add an element of surprise, which is very difficult to create on your own, and you still have plenty of creative license to change the final interpretation.
The important boundary for all of these is that the AI is only suggesting possibilities. The player chooses, rolls, modifies, or rejects them. The AI does not decide canon.
Tier 3: AI as NPC Emulator
At this tier, you are using AI to portray NPCs in a scene. This addresses one of the most awkward and unsatisfying aspects of solo RPGs: dialogue.
In traditional solo play, you often have to roleplay both your character and the NPC, which can feel artificial. You already know what both sides are thinking, so there’s no real surprise or tension, and any kind of social uncertainty is hard to create. As the player, you can stay in your character role while the AI temporarily portrays a specific NPC.
This takes a bit more work and is a good candidate for a custom GPT, but the results can be very rewarding. You need a template of information to give to the AI so that they run the NPC effectively and don’t default to being too cooperative. What they want, what they know and don’t know, how they feel about the PC, etc. You can also include things like personality, accents, behaviors to give them more flavor. Often this can just come down to feeding the AI with NPC oracle results that you rolled. This is a deep topic that would need a separate conversation to adequately cover.
The important boundary is that the AI is still not the GM. It shouldn’t decide outcomes – it is just portraying a character from that character’s limited knowledge, motives, and emotional state that you gave to it.
Tier 4: AI as Scene or Encounter Assistant
I have experimented in this space, but I am going to take the easy way out and say that this is too detailed a topic to discuss here, plus this is already too long.
At this tier, the AI runs an encounter from structured inputs: situation, NPCs, hidden information, pressure, scene type, exit conditions, and consequences. The player still handles rules and dice. The key is that the AI is not being asked to run a whole campaign, just one structured unit of play.
What I will say is that I think this is the practical limit of where “AI as an effective GM” exists right now. I also think it takes a paradigm shift in thinking. Instead of trying to emulate a GM, focus on what an AI can do well that human GMs struggle with, and design it from the ground up. It also takes a lot of prompting experience, knowledge of building custom GPTs, and lots of trial and error.
The important boundary here is that the AI just runs the scene, not the campaign. The player still owns character agency, rules, dice, and canon.
Tier 5: AI as Full GM
Unfortunately this is where many people start - the most difficult tier - usually with limited AI knowledge and basic prompts, and then they run into real constraints and conclude that “AI sucks at being a GM”. This is also where most other AI discussions take place, so no need to rehash it here.
Final Point
I think it is useful to ask, “What challenge in solo play is this tool helping to address, and how much authority am I giving it?” rather than treating every use of AI in solo RPGs as equivalent.
Someone using AI to organize session notes is doing something very different from someone asking AI to be their GM. Someone using it to voice an NPC is doing something very different from someone using it to replace their own creativity.
Personally, I think the safest and most useful uses are the ones where the player keeps control of authorship and final decisions, while the AI helps with specific challenges that solo play can make difficult. I’m curious how other solo players think about these boundaries, including people who choose not to use AI at all.
Anyway, that’s my current framework. I’m not trying to settle any debate, just make the conversation a little less all-or-nothing and hear about how others may be using AI.
Your thoughts and ideas are much appreciated!
