Text adventures you play with an AI
Free interactive fiction scaffolds that turn Claude, ChatGPT, or any AI chatbot into your personal game master: part text adventure, part one-player tabletop RPG. Load one into your AI as a skill, or paste it straight into a chat, and start playing.
The Games
Each text-based game is a structured prompt (a "scaffold") that gives an AI everything it needs to run the game: rules, world details, and a consistent tone, like a rules-light TTRPG module written for an AI game master. Every game page has a downloadable skill and the full text, so you can run it as a skill or paste it straight into a chat. Some games are worlds with multiple scenarios, and new scenarios are added over time.
A Fool's Errand
A warm, silly, Terry Pratchett-lite medieval adventure. You're a peasant farmer declared the Chosen One by a very nearsighted Royal Wizard. Track your Gold, Dignity, and Cheese.
Well-testedEcclesiastical Politics
Literary historical fiction set inside medieval and early-modern church assemblies: priory and cathedral chapters, councils, synods, and diets. Argue theology, count votes, and decide what your conscience will let you sign. Five scenarios, from the Synod of Whitby to the Augsburg Confession.
BetaThe Emperor of the United States
A grounded, gently comic adventure in contemporary San Francisco. You've inherited the obligations of Emperor Norton I and have one week to decide what that means.
BetaNew Vinland
An alternate history where Norse colonization took hold of North America in the 10th century. Map the continent's rivers for the Danish crown, knowing that no map is neutral, or hold an occupied harbor town together while the fishing fleet is still at sea.
BetaHow It Works
Pick a game
Browse the games above and open one that sounds fun. Each page explains the setup and what to expect.
Set it up
The smoothest way is a skill: download the .skill file and add it to Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or Grok, and the rules stay put for the whole game. No skills on your plan? Paste the text into a chat instead.
Play
Start a new chat and ask to play the game by name, for example, "Let's play A Fool's Errand." The game takes it from there.
FAQ
Is this free?
Yes. All the games here are free to download, copy, remix, and share.
The game content is licensed under CC BY 4.0: if you re-share a game substantially based on one of these scaffolds, please link back to this site so others can find the originals.
What is a text game scaffold?
It's a carefully written prompt (sometimes several files) that sets up an AI chatbot to run a text adventure as your game master. It defines the world, the rules, and the tone so the game stays consistent and fun instead of wandering off course.
Is this like a TTRPG or D&D?
Close cousin. These play like a solo tabletop RPG with the AI as your game master: you have stats, make choices, face consequences, and can attempt anything your character plausibly could.
The other side of the family is classic interactive fiction: the story is told in prose, turn by turn, in a chat window. No dice, no rulebook, no scheduling four friends.
Is this like a Choose Your Own Adventure book?
Sort of. As in those books, you read a passage and decide what happens next. But nothing is written in advance: you can type anything you want to try, and the AI game master works out what happens.
Choose Your Own Adventure is a trademark of Chooseco LLC, which isn't connected with these games.
Won't the AI just give me whatever I want?
Left to itself, it might. That's why each scaffold builds in ways for the world to push back. NPCs have their own interests and can tell you no, negotiations stall or cost something, and consequences stick from scene to scene. You don't have to remind the AI to be tough; the rules already tell it to.
These are still story-first games, though. If you're after brutal mechanics where the numbers are merciless and you lose often, an AI chatbot isn't the right engine for that. And while you can always overrule the game master, the story lands better when you don't.
Can I play these with ChatGPT, Gemini, or Grok?
Yes. The games are written and tested as Claude skills, and ChatGPT, Gemini, and
Grok support skills too, so the same .skill download works in all of
them. If your chatbot won't take the file as is, unzip it and upload the folder
inside.
ChatGPT and Gemini only offer skills on some plans. Without them, paste the game text straight into a chat. That works too, but longer multi-file games may need condensing to fit, and the rules can drift out of memory as a session runs long. However you set a game up, expect it to play a little differently than it does on Claude.
What's a skill?
A skill is a folder containing a main instruction file (and sometimes supporting reference files) that your chatbot loads when you start the game. Skills began on Claude, and ChatGPT, Gemini, and Grok support them too, so downloading the skill is the smoothest way to play on any of them.
The .skill download is just a ZIP archive with a different
extension. You can open it with any unzip tool to get at the text.
What do "Well-tested" and "Beta" mean?
Well-tested games have been through many full play sessions and their mechanics are smoothed out. Beta games are complete and playable, but newer. They've had fewer run-throughs, so you might hit a rough edge. Beta games graduate once they've earned it.
Are these games kid-friendly?
They're written for a general audience, and it's all text, so the practical bar is that a player needs to read fairly comfortably to enjoy them.
How any given session actually plays depends on two things the scaffold doesn't control: your chatbot's built-in moderation, which sets the real content boundaries, and the choices the player makes, since the story follows where they steer it.