Incline RPGCodex RPG GOTY 2025: DeepSeek R1

[Bibbimbop]

So, I've been enjoying a new RPG game that a lot of casual RPG fans don't even know about yet: DeepSeek R1.

Here are some screenshots of the gameplay:

I haven't even been using the DeepThink R1 option for most of it, but once I selected that for a challenging bit, the new level of world-building and actually critiquing my choices for weaknesses changed it to be even more GOTY in my eyes.

Is DeepSeek the new GOTY?

Use this thread for your experiences using AI to dm any roleplaying RPG games that you've recently enjoyed.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

It's all quite generic. If you try to make it worldbuild to your tastes, it'll fail. We're not there yet.

 

[The Wall]

It's all quite generic. If you try to make it worldbuild to your tastes, it'll fail. We're not there yet.

"Yet" is key word. It's amazing what this technology is capable of. Already better writer then all writers from Bioware, Bethesda and Obsidian combined. Grok AI is even kinda based

 

[NecroLord]

I would only use AI as a DM/Game Master to manage and keep everything in order and running smoothly.
Letting AI write content feels wrong and it should only be done by (preferably) creative people that care about making good rpgs.

 

[Bibbimbop]

It's all quite generic. If you try to make it worldbuild to your tastes, it'll fail. We're not there yet.

As you can tell by my prompt, I'm a monocled connoisseur of generic fantasy tropes.

I mean, it's bad in a lot of ways right now, but let's give it some credit. The character Garrick had a brother named Thorne which was briefly mentioned as one of the casualties in the first battle. About 20 prompts later, I built an outpost in the now conquered wilderness which I named Fort Thorne and Garrick was touched by the honor. There are some human dms that wouldn't remember their little bits of world-building like that.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

It's all quite generic. If you try to make it worldbuild to your tastes, it'll fail. We're not there yet.

As you can tell by my prompt, I'm a monocled connoisseur of generic fantasy tropes.

I mean, it's bad in a lot of ways right now, but let's give it some credit. The character Garrick had a brother named Thorne which was briefly mentioned as one of the casualties in the first battle. About 20 prompts later, I built an outpost in the now conquered wilderness which I named Fort Thorne and Garrick was touched by the honor. There are some human dms that wouldn't remember their little bits of world-building like that.

The context will be cut off eventually. Deepseek is based on transformers, and their context scales quadratically. Other perspective models, like RWKV, have linear context scaling, plus they have a "state", which is like a savegame of your current dialogue that constantly mutates while you talk, and it makes context less important entirely. This is much better suited for the task you're trying to use the LLM for, but I don't think there are powerful RWKV-based products on the market. Other methods will probably involve generalizing the conversation and remembering specific names, etc. Eventually, transformers will solve this problem, or other models will win the race, but for now you basically got lucky that the model hasn't forgotten your Thorne dude. With a bit more time, it would've.

 

[Tyranicon]

Just wait for AGI. Then we'll have good RPGs again, but we probably won't care.

 

[Gandalf]

I tried using deepseek when it started, but it just kept telling me that server is unavailable.

 

[JarlFrank]

I despise AI, it's soulless slop.

 

[The Wall]

Just wait for AGI. Then we'll have good RPGs again, but we probably won't care.

I'll always opt for good Human creators first. Why? Feels more real. Like organic eggs from Grandpa's farm > supermarket eggs. I do think Humans should use AI, it's a great tool

 

[Necrensha]

Old news. You used to be able to play entire campaigns of whatever you wanted, until somewhere in 2024 when all the big corpos decided at the same time that if you get GPT/Claude/Gemini to write about a goblin being beheaded you get instantly banned. I played the entirety of Fear & Hunger like this.
Deepseek can do this stuff too, but it will have trouble over long chats since the architecture of this thing was made to ''solve'' your query in one answer and it will have trouble keeping up any kind of narrative. Also, if you use Deepseek for any kind of story you will learn very quickly that it LOVES bringing up completely random and unrelated stuff, much more than any other LLM.

 

[Sweeper]

Dude, what the fuck are you doing?

 

[Bibbimbop]

Dude, what the fuck are you doing?

Going from peasant to king, of course.

But as I scaled the social hierarchy, I kept getting dreams about a dark ancient evil awakening in a mysterious cave. The more I climbed, the more it began to emerge from its lair. When I became king, it was revealed to be a monster that fed on my ambition, as it blighted the land.

So I rage quit. DeepSeek is a cock-blocking ASSHOLE dm.

Now I started a new session with a less cliched backstory.

 

[Iucounu]

Looks like an efficient way to brainstorm and prototype game settings. Obviously competent human writers need to add the final touches, but before that lots of time will have been saved. AI could also be used for prototyping level designs, models and textures.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

Looks like an efficient way to brainstorm and prototype game settings.

I haven't had any success with it. Just yesterday I asked for an "original magical blade", not OP, but something that could be used in imaginative ways. I asked it specifically to do something new and original. As an example, I gave it "anyblade" - a blade that can turn into any type of melee weapon at will, or can turn into a ring when not used.
It gave me a bunch of shit, none of it was original in the slightest. Mundane examples like "a sword that does elemental damage depending on what you last dipped it in". Zzzzz.

Then I asked it for a specific person that I needed for my plot, but with the caveat that this person needed to be accompanied by some social commentary or subversion of tropes, in short somebody interesting. Nothing, not even close, it just sucked ass.

 

[Bibbimbop]

Just did a historical Viking session. I've got it avoiding supernatural shit, making character sheets, doing skill checks, etc.

People keep telling me it's shit, but I just keep lapping it up, so we can't both be right.

Here's an adventure summary of the viking session, even told it to generate output in bbcode:

VIKING SAGA: PATH OF AMBITION​

---

CHAPTERS & KEY EVENTS​

• The First Raid:
  • Led a dawn assault on a Saxon village, flanking the shieldwall.
  • Claimed a huscarl's mail shirt, igniting rivalry with veteran Guthrum.
  • Burned the village, earning Thrain Ironhand's scorn: "Fire is a coward's weapon."
• Rise to Power:
  • Challenged Thrain to holmgang after mocking his caution. Killed him on the longship deck.
  • Lost Rurik One-Ear (Thrain's loyalist) and 3 raiders during the mutiny.
  • Seized Thrain's silver and authority, but rumors spread of your "recklessness."
• Greek Fire Gambit:
  • Ambushed Saxon iron wagons, stole 10 pots of volatile Greek fire.
  • Sold half to Frankish nobles in Quentovic, earning 600 sceattas.
  • Betrayed Jarl Bluetooth's steward, killing him for withheld silver. Now hunted by Danish ships.
• Traitor's End in Dorestad:
  • Stormed the docks, slaughtered Harald Silvertongue's huscarls, and exposed his pact with Saxons.
  • Recruited 10 Frisian mercenaries (now 8 remain after the battle).
  • Ship damaged: rudder shattered by Bluetooth's spy. Escape requires repairs or cunning.

---

CURRENT STATUS​

Crew	12 warriors (Bjorn, Asmund, 8 Frisians, +2 loyalists)
Silver	300 sceattas (after payments and bribes)
Enemies	Jarl Bluetooth (Danish fleet en route), Thrain's widow (sowing dissent at home)
Assets	2 Greek fire pots, Saxon silver routes map, letter incriminating Bluetooth
Wounds	Leg scar (healed), burns (-1 CON vs exhaustion)

---

MAJOR DECISIONS & CONSEQUENCES​

• Killing Thrain: Crew split. Younger raiders hail your boldness; veterans call you "Odin's mad dog."
• Burning Bluetooth's Hall: Danish jarl now offers 100 sceattas for your head.
• Sparing Thralls: Asmund respects this, but Bjorn mocks: "Mercy breeds weakness."
• Harald's Death: Saxons scatter without his leadership, but Bluetooth's spy escaped—your ship is crippled.

---

"Glory is ashes if your name dies here. The All-Father watches..."​

 

[Bibbimbop]

I haven't had any success with it. Just yesterday I asked for an "original magical blade" ... I asked it specifically to do something new and original. As an example, I gave it "anyblade" - a blade that can turn into any type of melee weapon at will, or can turn into a ring when not used.

That's a very high level of performance that you're expecting.

 

[Necrensha]

Deepseek is very autistic, prease understand. Here's what happens when you ask for a sword and put Dak'kon's Zerth blade as an example:

1. The Blade of Fractured Hours​

• Origin: Forged from the shards of a time god’s sundial.
• Abilities:
  • Cuts not flesh, but time. A strike might age a target’s body by decades, revert them to a helpless infant, or trap their consciousness in a 3-second temporal loop.
  • The blade itself exists in multiple timelines simultaneously—its edge flickers between possibilities, making it impossible to parry.
• Drawback: Overuse causes the wielder’s own timeline to fray, risking random amnesia, sudden aging, or unintended leaps into alternate realities.

---

2. The Oathrender​

• Origin: A sentient blade born from the broken vow of a primordial titan.
• Abilities:
  • Severs conceptual bonds. It can cut the connection between a king and their crown (rendering their authority void), a wizard and their familiar, or even a soul and its moral code.
  • Gains power when the wielder breaks promises or betrays others.
• Drawback: The blade slowly erodes the wielder’s own bonds—friends forget them, loved ones grow distant, and eventually, their name vanishes from history.

---

3. Mirror of the Unseen Self​

• Origin: A blade forged from liquid void, reflecting the wielder’s subconscious.
• Abilities:
  • Inflicts wounds that manifest the target’s hidden fears or regrets as physical aberrations (e.g., a coward grows armor-like scales, a liar’s tongue becomes a writhing serpent).
  • The blade’s appearance shifts to embody the wielder’s insecurities, becoming heavier or sharper based on their self-doubt.
• Drawback: The wielder’s own psyche is laid bare—enemies can "read" their weaknesses in the blade’s ever-changing surface.

---

4. The Consensus Edge​

• Origin: A weapon that only exists if enough people believe it does.
• Abilities:
  • Its power scales with collective belief. In a crowded battlefield, it’s a godlike weapon; in solitude, it’s a brittle stick.
  • Can cut through illusions, lies, or even "unmake" creatures whose existence defies consensus reality (e.g., eldritch horrors).
• Drawback: If the wielder doubts the blade’s existence, it vanishes. Propaganda and misinformation become strategic tools against them.

---

5. The Dialectic​

• Origin: A philosopher-knight’s blade, tempered in the fires of logical paradox.
• Abilities:
  • Deals damage proportionate to the wielder’s ability to intellectually dominate their foe. In a battle of wits, it becomes unstoppable; against mindless beasts, it’s inert.
  • Can "cut" through arguments, literally disarming adversaries who rely on deception.
• Drawback: The blade forces the wielder into a Socratic dialogue mid-combat—hesitation or flawed logic weakens it.

---

6. Lament of the Unbound​

• Origin: A sword forged from the grief of a forgotten civilization.
• Abilities:
  • Wounds inflicted by the blade cause victims to physically remember forgotten truths: ancestral sins, erased languages, or their own mortality.
  • The more despair the wielder harbors, the more the blade whispers strategies to exploit enemies’ hidden regrets.
• Drawback: The sword’s whispers grow louder over time, eventually drowning out the wielder’s own thoughts with the screams of the dead.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

I haven't had any success with it. Just yesterday I asked for an "original magical blade" ... I asked it specifically to do something new and original. As an example, I gave it "anyblade" - a blade that can turn into any type of melee weapon at will, or can turn into a ring when not used.

That's a very high level of performance that you're expecting.

If I asked for this exact level of difficulty in programming, it would've nailed it. In artistry, it's not as good because of all the garbage in its dataset. Making multilingual models was a mistake, they don't complement each other, they just spreads the LLM thin.
There was an experiment recently where Sea Ltd trained a model on 5 South-East Asian languages and the model kicked ass in benchmarks.
Waiting for something like this in English only, it'll be a major boost.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

Origin: A blade forged from liquid void, reflecting the wielder’s subconscious.

Origin: A sword forged from the grief of a forgotten civilization.

Origin: A philosopher-knight’s blade, tempered in the fires of logical paradox.

Origin: A sentient blade born from the broken vow of a primordial titan.

It's jut meaningless words, idealistic nonsense. There are no "fires of logical paradox", material "grief", material "broken vow", liquid "void". It's all fucking nonsense.
You can do this stuff only on the basis of a solid worldbuilding. If there's a certain plane of existence, and it's got special physics, then some special kind of weapon can be brought back from it. But you can't just create a "blade of winking anus" and expect it to fit anywhere. This would require a huge background explanation.
The task wasn't good, I think. Zerth blade wasn't a good example for the model to work from.