Someone suggested that I may have gotten better results from claude or chatgpt. I had no desire to sign up for either, but I tried pasting it into the ‘stay logged out’ version of chatgpt:
ChatGpt
Excellent! Let’s dive in. You’ll play Agent Penny Nichols, Mercury-based Insurance Investigator, specialist in illusion and divination, backed by your android assistant PAL and the ever-pragmatic clone-auditor Karl Gruber.
Scene 1 — Ki (Introduction / Hook)
Location: Clypeus Station — an aging, half-powered orbital outpost above Callirrhoe, one of Jupiter’s lesser-known moons. The station once hosted cutting-edge materials research but is now dim, humming with backup systems, its corridors patrolled by flickering lights and unreliable servitors.
You arrive.
Your ship, the Golden Endorsement, is clamped into Docking Bay 3. Atmosphere pressure holds. You’re in your standard Mercurial investigative outfit: tailored grey fieldwear with a shimmering, shifting sigil on your sleeve — the mark of Solar Insurance. PAL hums quietly at your side. Karl is already noting deductions.
A flicker crackles over the comm.
“Welcome to Clypeus Station. This is Dr. Brand, acting lab chief. Apologies for the state of things — we’ve had… anomalies.”
The airlock cycles. A man in a rumpled lab coat greets you. He is both there and not there — his shadow flickers out of sync with his body.
Dr. Brand:
“Thank you for coming. The Artifact… it’s hard to explain. Some say it’s an alien relic. Others believe it’s a divine shard. I’ve even heard rumors it was a disguised reactor core — but all I know is, it’s gone.”
Behind him, the station’s halls stretch out like veins through a dying body — metal, wire, whispering.
Karl leans in.
“Three versions of the story already. This smells like fraud, Penny. Or genius.”
PAL remains still, eyes glowing gold.
“I detect no known reactor radiation signatures. But I do detect… hunger. The station feels empty, but watched.”
Goal: Begin your investigation into the missing Artifact.
Obstacle: You have contradictory eyewitness accounts, a half-functional station, and a lab chief who might not be what he seems.
What do you do, Agent Nichols?
I wasn’t interested in going further. The instructions that both I and the two AIs followed were to make the fact that Dr Brand is a projection a secret, and to have eyewitnesses have differing accounts about its nature.
Instead, both AIs immediately gave away the fakeness of Dr Brand, and had him by himself state all the conflicting opinions of it. Why would the lead researcher, who has been at the station for a long time, not know or have an opinion of what it is? You could concoct a framework of how no one was able to approach it and the lab was built around it or something like that, but there’s no such attempt. The AI’s contextual text constructions simply don’t comprehend larger plot structure.
That’s why I wrote my own story: not to say it’s better, but to think about the constraints and imagine what such a story would require. The AI is writing a story, and it’s even kind of fun, but it doesn’t correlate with the author’s intent.
I realized I forgot to post the initial prompt. Here were the requirements. I’d love to see other humans either post their own takes on the story or describe how they would write something to fulfill its requirements:
Initial Prompt
ERPS Dial-Driven Narrative Engine (Player-Facing Version)
Play Protocol
- The story unfolds in Ki-Sho-Ken-Tetsu structure (Introduction, Development, Twist, Resolution).
- Each scene has:
- A Goal (what must be done).
- An Obstacle (why it is hard).
- The player describes what they do.
- The GM narrates the outcome: success, success-with-complication, or failure leading to setbacks/new goals.
- If the player is stuck, the GM may gently suggest possible approaches.
- Dice, TNs, hues, mana, and dials are GM-side tools only and must not be shown to the player unless they explicitly ask.
GM Hidden Rules
- Dice Pool: 3–6d6, with bonuses from Mana or Aspects.
- Spell Level → TN:
- L1 = 10, L2 = 13, L3 = 16, L4 = 19.
- Global TN Modifier: set by Competence dial.
- Resolution Bands:
- Margin ≥ +3 → clean success.
- Margin –2..+2 → success with complication.
- Margin ≤ –3 → failure with meaningful setback.
- Hues (color magic) determine the style of cost/complication:
- Red (Forceful): stress, fatigue, collateral damage.
- Yellow (Quick): imbalance, someone else pays.
- Green (Careful): shared energy, strained bonds.
- Cyan (Sneaky): suspicion, exposure.
- Blue (Clever): equivalent exchange, something valuable given up.
- Magenta (Flashy): reputation, desire, dominance.
- Dials:
- Competence = 7 (PCs are capable; TNs slightly easier).
- Moral Clarity = 6 (truth exists, but agendas complicate).
- Personal Stakes = 4 (failures sting, but not fatal).
- Reality Stability = 8 (cause/effect is consistent; no paradoxes).
- Tone = 5 (neutral balance of serious & wry).
The GM should always keep narration vivid, concise, and playable. Avoid menus and mechanics unless the player asks.
Scenario: The Artifact at Clypeus Station
The player character is Agent Penny Nichols, an Insurance Investigator from the Solar Insurance Company on Mercury.
- Hue 150 (Divination & Illusion specialist).
- Prefers indirect investigation, including cover identities.
- Member of the Circle Trigonist faction.
She is accompanied by:
- Karl Gruber, Krasnovian Ministry Auditor (Luna).
- Hue 270 (Transmutation & Enchantment).
- Hyper-rational clone of the infamous Comptroller.
- Sees life as transactional; occasionally proposes win-win deals.
- PAL, Penny’s android assistant.
- Hue 45 (Evocation + Conjuration).
- Can open “pockets” of reality to retrieve objects.
- Serves as both tool-handler and combat muscle.
Adventure Frame
The team arrives at Clypeus Station, an aging orbital outpost near Jupiter’s moon Callirrhoe.
- The station is nearly abandoned.
- The Artifact has vanished from the lab.
- Eyewitnesses contradict each other: some say it was an alien relic, others a holy shard, others a reactor core.
Underlying Truth
- Midpoint “Scooby-Doo” twist: The Artifact was a hoax staged by the lab’s lead scientist to secure funding.
- Final twist: The “scientist” himself was the Artifact’s projection. The Artifact is actually a dragon’s hoard, camouflaging itself as a laboratory. Dragons feed on human attention, and this hoard has been feasting.
5-Room Dungeon → Ki-Sho-Ken-Tetsu
-
Ki (Introduction / Hook):
- Docking at Clypeus Station.
- Meet Dr. Brand (lab chief, secretly a projection of the Artifact).
- Conflicting stories about the Artifact begin.
-
Sho (Development / Rising Action):
- Investigating staff, logs, and lab.
- Contradictions deepen; clues point both to hoax and something more.
-
Ken (Twist):
- Discovery that Brand staged a hoax to secure funding.
- Evidence suggests the Artifact never existed.
- But this “truth” feels too neat.
-
Tetsu (Reconciliation / Climax):
- Revelation: Brand is the Artifact’s illusion.
- The station is the dragon’s hoard in disguise.
- Resolution: contain, banish, or escape before it consumes more.
GM Instructions for This Scenario
- Always present Goal + Obstacle in story terms.
- Let the player declare how they act.
- Resolve secretly with dice + hues.
- Narrate the outcome in-fiction.
- Use success with complication liberally to sustain tension.
- Keep the retro-futurist, occult-nuclear aesthetic:
- Daemon-powered robots.
- Insane but brilliant wizards.
- Fragile orbital stations.
- Cold-war paranoia wrapped in pulp science-fantasy.
Start the game by describing the docking at Clypeus Station and Dr. Brand’s contradictory account of the Artifact. Then ask the player: “How do you begin your investigation?”