Running an AI-DM Game

The Autopilot DM is an AI Dungeon Master that runs a structured adventure for your table in the DND.chat tavern. This guide is the practical side — how to set one up, what actually happens turn to turn, and how you stay in control of it. For the full catalogue of AI features it's part of, see The AI Features Library; for the dice math underneath it, see Dice & Rolls.

The most important thing first: the Autopilot DM is opt-in and never automatic. A table with no session running never calls a model. You bring it in when you want a solo game, an unattended play-by-post table, or a hand to share the DM load — and you can take the chair back at any moment.

1. Load an adventure

The Autopilot runs a scene graph — a sequence of scenes with read-aloud text, NPCs, and exits. You get one of three ways:

• Generate one from a premise. In the Autopilot panel, type a one-line pitch — "haunted lighthouse, coastal horror, 4 players at level 3" — and generate a full multi-scene one-shot. (If AI is unreachable you still get a runnable scaffold.)
• Shred a published module. Import a PDF or Markdown adventure with the PDF Shredder, optionally with AI polish to clean up the read-aloud.
• Author your own. Write it by hand in the Adventure Format — Markdown or JSON, no AI, no cost, legally clean.

However it arrives, the adventure's scenes are embedded into scene memory so the DM can recall earlier beats and move around the story instead of marching strictly forward.

2. Start the session

Everything runs from the Autopilot panel in Tavern Settings. These controls are DM-only:

Press Start and the opening scene lands in The Table as an Autopilot DM message. From here the loop is live.

3. The turn loop

There is no rigid "player A, then player B" ordering in narrative play — the table talks freely, and the DM reacts. After each player message, the Autopilot takes one turn: it reads the current scene, the recent history, and the most relevant remembered scenes, then posts a single narration and picks one move under the hood.

A cooldown and a turn lock mean a chatty table still gets one clean DM turn at a time, not a pile-up. And the DM is instructed to never act or speak for your characters — it always hands the moment back to you.

When the move is combat, the AI doesn't narrate the fight into existence and fudge the numbers. It stands up the same real encounter a human DM would — initiative, HP, conditions — and resolves every monster action through the audited roll engine. The AI narrates; the math is real and logged. See Autopilot combat is mechanical.

End-of-turn direction selection

This is the part most people mean when they ask how the AI game "drives" forward. The Autopilot doesn't hand you a numbered multiple-choice menu after each beat — that would railroad an open table. Instead, every turn ends by handing you the controls, through a small set of prompts that turn "what now?" into one tap or one sentence. Together they're the end-of-turn direction:

• The narrative hook. Each DM turn ends on a question or an open hook — "The door is barred from the other side. The chanting hasn't stopped. What do you do?" You answer in plain language; the DM reads it next turn. Direction is the fiction, not a dropdown.
• The attack prompt. Start describing an attack — "I rush the cultist" — and a prompt rises above the composer with the resolved roll ready (+5 to hit vs the cultist). One tap confirms it; you never type a formula. (Deterministic intent-parsing, not AI — see Dice & Rolls.)
• The check call. When the DM wants a roll it posts the ask inline — 🎯 STR (Athletics) check — DC 15 — and you roll with the dice menu or /roll. Your result, audited, decides the outcome the DM narrates next.
• Queued actions. In a fight, when it isn't your turn yet, a queued-action bar lets you pre-declare what you'll do — "/attack goblin longsword — fires when it's your turn" — and one tap sends it the instant initiative reaches you.
• Reaction & legendary prompts. After an attack lands, the table surfaces the relevant reactions (an opportunity attack, a Shield) and, on a monster's turn, any legendary actions — so the right next move is offered rather than remembered.

So "selecting a direction" at end of turn is: answer the hook, confirm the offered roll, make the called-for check, or queue the action you're waiting on. The system narrows a blank composer down to the move you're most likely reaching for, and leaves you free to ignore all of it and just type.

4. Take the table back whenever you want

The human DM is the default, and reclaiming the chair is one click:

• Pause at any time and the AI stands down — it posts "Autopilot paused — human DM has the table" and stops taking turns. Resume to hand it back.
• A total party kill auto-pauses it. If every PC drops, the engine forces defeat and pauses autopilot on its own — a party wipe is a table decision, not the AI's.
• Usage caps pause it too. The Autopilot is capped at 150 turns per session and 400 per campaign per day; hitting either auto-pauses with a hand-back message.

Whether the AI is running, paused, or never started, you're typing in the same channel as everyone else — there's no separate "human DM mode" to switch into. Your DM powers come from your role on the campaign, not from the autopilot state.

5. Run it async (play-by-post)

For a table that plays a few messages a day rather than in a live sitting, turn on Async mode. A scheduled job will nudge the story forward on its own — but conservatively. It only moves when the DM spoke last, the players haven't answered, the table's been quiet for several minutes, and the AI hasn't already monologued. When it does advance, it emails the party a "the story moved — it's your turn at dnd.chat" note so people drift back in.

That's the whole appeal of an AI DM for a busy group: the campaign keeps breathing between sessions without anyone having to host it.

Costs and what's free

During beta, nothing is charged — the entire Autopilot loop runs free. When AI billing goes live, the only metered pieces around an autopilot game are the optional LLM session recap (50 credits) and optional LLM roll commentary (1 credit a line); the DM turns themselves don't meter. See One Membership, Every Site and Credits & Billing.

Where to go next

• The AI Features Library — every AI feature, live and coming soon.
• Adventure Format — author an adventure by hand for the Autopilot to run.
• The PDF Shredder — turn a published module into a runnable scene graph.
• Running a Connected Group Session — prep, chat, and tactical play across all three apps.
• Dice & Rolls — the audited math the AI never touches.