We Tested the Best AI Dungeon Alternatives for Role-Play and Writing

March 23, 2024

Helpful Summary

Overview: We review eight alternatives to AI Dungeon, highlighting their features, pros, cons, and suitability for different storytelling and role-playing needs.
Why you should listen: We’ve worked hard to develop DreamGen into the ideal tool for AI roleplay and story writing—complete with custom models, multicharacter support, and deep customization.
Why it matters: Exploring alternatives can enhance storytelling experiences by offering more reliable, diverse, and feature-rich platforms catering to creative needs and preferences.
Action points: Consider what you value in an AI storytelling experience—like narrative depth, customization, community, content moderation, and accessibility—then explore the alternatives to find the best fit for your goals.
Further research: Dive deeper into the alternatives that interest you by visiting their websites, checking user reviews, and experimenting with free trials or demos to better gauge their suitability for your storytelling needs.

Looking for the Best AI Dungeon Alternatives?

AI Dungeon is an interactive text-based adventure game fueled by artificial intelligence. It offers players the opportunity to craft and navigate dynamic, open-ended narratives. The game mixes creativity, storytelling, and AI-generated content—and it’s a hit with users.

That said, AI Dungeon isn’t the only option available. Many people seek alternatives (that’s why you’re here, right?), but it can be hard to tell which ones might be worth your time.

Don’t worry. We’ve got you covered.

In this DreamGen guide, we’re helping you skip the research and jump right into the action. We’ll introduce you to eight fantastic AI Dungeon alternatives (along with features, pricing, pros, and cons) to help you find the perfect fit.

Let’s get started!

Why Listen to Us?

At DreamGen, we have dedicated ourselves to creating an AI-powered role-playing and storytelling platform that allows anyone to create powerful stories with AI. Whether you’re drafting a fantasy novel or just want to chat with an AI companion, DreamGen has you covered with unrestricted open-source models that are up to the task.

However, we also understand that not all AI-generated content is created equal. In fact, a lot of it can be pretty glitchy and unpolished. That's why we've taken the time to test and evaluate AI Dungeon alternatives that provide a smooth, enjoyable writing and roleplay experience.

So, without further ado, let’s dive in.

What Is AI Dungeon?

Before we get to the alternatives, a quick overview.

AI Dungeon is an interactive text-based adventure “game” powered by AI. Unlike most text-based games, there is no pre-written storyline here—the game (or, more specifically, the AI) writes itself dynamically in response to the player’s input.

The result is a unique, unpredictable, and often non-sensical experience that has attracted a wide player base.

AI Dungeon Gameplay

Here’s how gameplay works.

Players start by selecting a setting for their adventure, such as fantasy, mystery, apocalypse, cyberpunk. You can also describe custom settings to get a more tailored experience. Next, players define their character class (setting-dependent) and name.

Once the game starts, players can impact the direction of the story through four kinds of inputs:

Do: Followed by a verb, lets players perform actions.
Say: Followed by dialogue sentences for communication with other characters.
Story: Describes events to advance the narrative or inform the AI for future events.
See: Followed by a description to perceive events, objects, or characters. This generates an image but doesn’t impact the story.

The AI adapts and responds to most player actions, resulting in dynamic storylines.

User-Generated Content

AI Dungeon lets players create and share stories with others.

The gameplay loop is the same, but the scenarios you’re dropped into can vary quite a bit. These pre-generated scenarios often have custom classes, but you’re free to write your own characters.

Multiplayer Mode

AI Dungeon also supports multiplayer gameplay.

You can invite friends to play with you or join a public game with other players. In multiplayer mode, each player takes turns entering commands and determining the story's direction.

Why Look for an AI Dungeon Alternative?

AI Dungeon is a popular game with a lot going for it—but it isn’t perfect by any means.

Here are a few of the top reasons why users look for alternatives:

Issues With Responses: The AI is known to be finicky. It’s not uncommon for the AI to forget key aspects of a storyline, like where you are, who is playing who, what a specific character’s traits are, etc. This means non-sensical or repetitive responses from the AI, which can be frustrating for players.
Glitches and Bugs: There are plenty of reports of bugs with AI Dungeon—especially with multiplayer games. These can range from minor annoyances to game-breaking issues that ruin the experience.
Limited Model Control: While AI Dungeon does let you choose the model that generates your game, that’s about as much control as you get. That’s fine for some—but if you want fine-tuned control over the outputs you get, you’ll need to find an alternative.

Criteria When Looking for an AI Dungeon Alternatives

Narrative Depth and Complexity

Make sure the AI Dungeon alternatives you consider can generate complex and compelling narratives. This means support for multiple characters, branching storylines, and unexpected plot twists.

Customization and Control

Look for options that allow for high levels of customization and control over the story, characters, and world-building. This includes setting themes, genres, and narrative boundaries.

Community and Collaboration

A vibrant community can offer shared stories, templates, and mods. Collaboration features may include co-authoring stories or sharing stories with friends.

Content Moderation and Safety

Effective content moderation is important to prevent inappropriate content. The platform should have clear policies and tools for reporting and filtering content.

8 Best AI Dungeon Alternatives

DreamGen
NovelAI
Silly Tavern
Deep Realms
AIdventure
AI Story Quest
SudoWrite
Dreamily.AI

1. DreamGen

DreamGen is a platform that lets you role-play and write stories without any restrictions on your creativity.

When you create an account, you can either start a pre-constructed adventure or create a custom adventure by defining the setting, scenario, and characters (yes, we support multiple characters at once!).

From there, you can type in messages, instructions, and actions for your characters. We offer all kinds of features designed to ensure that your role-plays are as engaging and immersive as possible—from forced replies to full control over model settings.

Key Features

Unrestricted Creativity: Our models don’t hold back—we encourage you to let your imagination run wild and explore the depths of the worlds you create.
Story Steering: Direct the story with simple commands that unfold naturally in response to your characters' actions.
Multi-Character Support: Define multiple player and AI characters to add depth to your role-plays.
Full Model Control: Fine-tune settings that control attributes like randomness, creativity, repetitiveness, and more.
Autopilot Mode: Let the model make decisions for more player characters and NPCs, and see where the journey takes you.
Scenario Library: Browse a library filled with exciting, ready-to-play role-play scenarios ranging from fantasy to romance.
Open Source Models: Our models are open source and available on Hugging Face, so you can customize and fine-tune them to your liking.
API Access: Access our AI models via our OpenAI-compatible API through your favorite frontend (e.g., SillyTavern).

Pricing

DreamGen costs $3.92 to $24.15 per month, with a 50% discount for the first month. Each plan offers access to all current models, with varying monthly completion credits and token context windows based on the selected tier.

Starter ($3.92/month for the first month, then $7.83/month) provides 200 monthly completion credits and a 4000 tokens context window.

Advanced ($9.68/month for the first month) offers 1,500 monthly completion credits and unlimited access to our small models.

Pro ($24.15/month for the first month) offers 3500 monthly completion credits and unlimited access to our small and large models.

You can try all of our models and features for free, with our generous free plan.

Pros

Story-writing and role-playing modes.
Models respect creative freedom, without arbitrary filters.
Ability to instruct the AI what should happen next.
Supports complex scenarios with multiple characters and rich lore.
Has an API and models are open source.
Generous free plan.

Cons

Scenario library is relatively limited.

2. NovelAI

NovelAI is an AI-powered platform that’s tailored for writers and storytellers.

It offers a range of features that make it easy for anyone to write compelling stories—including style emulation, worldbuilding tools, and custom models. The editor is also designed for long-form content, which makes NovelAI a great choice for AI story writing.

Looking for more tools like this? Check out our list of the best AI story generators.

Key Features

Editor Customization: Customize your editor's fonts, text sizes, colors, and more to create a writing environment that works for you.
Lorebook: Store details about your world and your characters so that the AI always obeys the rules you set.
Style Emulation: Choose from a variety of writing styles (like H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allen Poe) and have the AI emulate it.

Pricing

NovelAI offers a range of subscription tiers for AI-assisted authorship, starting from a free trial with limited features.

The pricing ranges from $10 to $25 per month, providing access to advanced AI storytelling capabilities, varying levels of text memory, image generation, and other extra features based on the chosen tier.

Pros

Great image generation features.
Wide range of pricing plans to choose from.
Tailored for story-writing.
Allows you to customize your writing environment.

Cons

Models are relatively dated and small, which shows in quality of outputs.
Not suitable for chat or role-playing.

3. SillyTavern

Unlike other tools on this list, SillyTavern is a desktop app that lets users engage in character-based chats and roleplay. It’s a “user interface” that lets you chat with AI models but doesn’t provide any models itself.

It features a customizable UI, mobile access, group chats, various prompt crafting options, NSFW content, and extensions developed by the community and the development team.

Key Features

Customizable UI: Create a UI that suits your preferences and enhances your writing experience.
Versatile API support: Compatible with a range of AI models, including GPT, Claude, NovelAI, and DreamGen, and can run models locally.
Community Support: Access community-made guides, extensions, features, characters, and more.

Pricing

SillyTavern is free to install. That said, if you don’t have a computer powerful enough to run models locally, you may need to pay for API access.

Pros

Great features for LLM power users.
Lots of room for customization.
Great model support.

Cons

Set up requires a bit of work.
Requires either an API key or a powerful computer.

4. Deep Realms

Deep Realms is an AI Dungeon alternative that offers a nice UI and a solid set of features for AI roleplay.

One of these is Adventure Mode, which turns your roleplay into a choose-your-own-adventure story with preset options for you to select. Beyond that, there are a decent number of models to choose from and a few useful extras like automatic memory and an instruction box for adding context.

Key Features

Adventure Mode: Turn your roleplay into a choose-your-own-adventure story with preset options.
Multiple Models: Choose from a variety of models to add depth and complexity to your roleplay.
Automatic Memory: Keep track of important plot points and details without adding them manually.

Pricing

The pricing for subscription plans in Deep Realms is divided into three tiers—Tier I at $8.00 per month, Tier II at $15.00 per month, and Tier III at $25.00 per month. Each tier offers different monthly credits, storage limits, and sharing capabilities.

Additionally, there is a separate pricing model for generating text using various AI models, with different prices based on the model used.

Pros

Implementation of chat-like functionality.
Use of OpenAI's models, including GPT-4, and custom models.
Custom AI memory system to extend model memory.

Cons

Lack of clarity on how to define characters within created worlds.
Free models deliver underwhelming outputs.

5. AIdventure

AIdventure is an AI-powered, text-based adventure game available on Steam.

It allows players to unleash their creativity by writing and sharing their own stories with other players, without any rules or censorship. The game offers more than 25 starting scenarios and encourages imaginative gameplay.

Key Features

Customizable AI interactions: Adjust settings to personalize the experience and enhance dialogue between characters.
RPG Character System: Define characteristics, abilities, and behaviors for characters, adding depth to the storytelling experience.
Generate Multiple Outputs: Request multiple responses from the AI if you’re unsatisfied with the initial output.

Pricing

The game AIdventure is currently available for purchase for $12 on Steam.

It is a one-time purchase without recurring subscription fees, offering access to the game and its features without additional costs. The developers have mentioned that the price might increase by 10-15% once the game is out of Early Access.

Pros

One-time purchase model, unlike subscription-based services.
Ability to customize AI settings and interactions.
Unique UI.

Cons

Long response generation times.
Most models are outdated (e.g., GPT-2 and EleutherAI/gpt-neo-1.3B).

6. AI Story Quest

AI Story Quest is an interactive AI storytelling game where players can guide their own adventures by typing actions or story ideas. It’s essentially a choose-your-own-adventure game powered by AI (with some cool extras like image and audio generation).

The UI is super basic, but it doesn’t need to be comlex in order to support the gameplay loop—entering text when prompted with a story scenario, seeing the AI-generated response, and making choices based on the outcome.

Key Features

Text, Image, and Audio Generation: Generated text is automatically read out loud by the AI using text-to-speech technology, and images are generated based on the scene.
Interactive Gameplay: Players can type in their actions or ideas to influence the story's direction, making each playthrough unique.
Easy-to-Use Interface: The simple UI design allows for a smooth and intuitive user experience, perfect for new users without a comprehensive tutorial.

Pricing

AI Story Quest ranges from $4 to $35 per month.

The Copper Plan ($4/ month) includes 150 page turns, the Silver Plan ($12/month) includes 1,200 page turns, and the Gold Plan ($35/month) includes 4,500 page turns. Each plan offers a personal, private storybook and unlimited access to all features.

Pros

Offers image and audio generation.
Unique UI combining all modalities: text, image, and audio.
Affordable "Copper" pricing plan.

Cons

Audio quality isn't great.
Very limited customization options.
Occasional technical glitches.

7. SudoWrite

SudoWrite is a bit different than other tools on this list because it isn’t an AI roleplay tool. Instead, it’s a serious writing tool designed to help writers overcome writer’s block and improve their skills with the help of AI.

There are a ton of useful features under the hood—from tools like a name generator and character map to more advanced features like high-level feedback generation, advanced sentence rewrites, and style emulation.

Key Features

Rewrite and Expand Functions: Allows writers to input their text and have it rewritten for clarity or expanded upon to enhance detail and engagement.
Describe Function: Utilizes the five senses to provide detailed descriptions of scenes, aiding writers who may struggle with creating vivid imagery.
Brainstorming Tools: Offers brainstorming capabilities for dialogue, characters, worldbuilding, plot points, names, places, and objects, helping authors generate new ideas.

Pricing

Each credit in SudoWrite equals one AI word generation.

With that in mind, Sudowrite offers three subscription plans —Hobby & Student ($10/month) which offers 225k credits, Professional ($22/ month) which offers 1M credits, and Max ($44/month) which offers 2M credits with rollover.

Each plan comes with a free trial, no credit card required, and allows for easy upgrades, downgrades, or cancellations. The pricing is designed to cater to different writing needs and usage levels, providing flexibility and value for users.

Pros

Intuitive interface and easy to use.
Ideal for generating story ideas and outlines.
Designed for writing long-form content and professional writers.

Cons

Does not have built-in story scenarios.
Not really suitable for entertainment purposes.
Lacks a plagiarism checker feature.

8. Dreamily.AI

The last tool on our list is Dreamily.AI.

DreamilyAI is an online platform that lets users engage in storytelling and world-building activities with AI companions and characters. The platform has a strong social component, with users able to collaborate on stories and hop into each other’s worlds via the homepage.

When you join a story, you’ll see a collection of pre-constructed characters, from which you can choose your own character to control and use to build the story.

Key Features

Creative Writing Assistance: Offers a range of writing aids, including prompts, sentence completion, and new plotline generation.
Customization and Creativity Tools: Features like Dreamipedia for character documentation, banned words for style consistency, and multiple writing styles cater to a wide range of creative needs.
World Publication Options: Creators can publicly share their worlds on the Discover page to allow other users to explore and interact with their stories.

Pricing

Dreamily AI provides various pricing options tailored to diverse requirements.

The Free Plan, available to non-members, offers restricted access to stories (with ads). The Gold Member Plan ($4.99/month) offers unrestricted access, an ad-free environment, and supplementary features like audio calls.

Pros

Accelerates the process of story composition.
Interactive character-building.

Cons

Confusing website and UI.
Privacy policy could not be found.

Conclusion

There you have it—eight AI Dungeon alternatives that use AI to help you create compelling stories and interact with a range of characters. As you’ve probably gathered, different options are better at different things—take your time to choose the one that fits your needs best.

Looking for a powerful AI tool that supports unrestricted roleplay and story writing?

At DreamGen, we’ve worked hard to create an experience that’s as rewarding for seasoned writers as it is for beginners. Our AI-powered platform lets you create to your heart’s content with unrestricted open-source models and endless customization.

Try DreamGen now for free to get started.