v1.0.0

AESOP — Any and Every Story, Online & Playable

RPG Solo
Walkthrough

Everything you need to know to run a full solo RPG campaign — from your first character to your hundredth scene.

Solo Play AI Game Master Full RPG Mechanics Patent Pending
01

Game OverviewWhat it is & why it's fun

AESOP RPG Solo is a fully AI-powered solo tabletop RPG engine. There is no dungeon master, no opponent — just you, the AI, and an evolving story shaped entirely by your choices. You create a character with real stats and skills, describe what your character does, and the AI Game Master narrates the consequences, tracks the world, and builds a living campaign around you.

Unlike story-only modes, RPG Solo gives you genuine mechanical weight. Your choices carry risk. A failed skill check can cost you hit points, resources, or trigger consequences that ripple forward through the story. Your character grows over time — gaining levels, accumulating skills, and building a reputation with factions and NPCs that the game remembers.

The game shines in long-form play. Start with a simple seed — a setting, a conflict, a wildcard — and watch it grow into a full campaign world with named characters, contested locations, and political intrigue between rival factions. Every session autosaves, so you can pick up exactly where you left off.

⚔️

Full RPG Mechanics

Six core stats, 500+ skills across 18 categories, hit points, survival resources, and real risk levels.

🌍

Living World

NPCs, locations, and factions tracked automatically and referenced by the AI in future scenes.

📈

Character Progression

Level up every 5 scenes per level. Gain skill slots and watch your character grow through play.

💾

Persistent Saves

5 world slots, 20 character slots. Any combination. Export and import characters to continue anywhere.

02

Objective & Win / LossWhat you're trying to do

RPG Solo does not have a fixed win condition — it is an open-ended narrative campaign. Your goal is to pursue whatever story the seeds establish, survive the challenges the AI generates, and build a character worth remembering.

✦ Success Looks Like…

Completing the story arc you seeded, reaching high character levels, discovering the full web of NPC relationships, and building out a rich world with multiple factions and locations. There is no score — but there is a Session History drawer that logs every scene you've played.

✦ Failure States

On Friendly and Standard risk levels, failure is narrative — bad things happen but the story continues. On Hardcore, the AI applies meaningful mechanical consequences when your character fails checks. On Permadeath, your character can die. If that happens, the campaign ends and you must start fresh — though your world slot can still hold the lore for a follow-up run.

03

Controls ReferenceEvery button & input

ControlWhat it does
↗ PlayAGame.aiOpens the main site in a new tab. Never loses your session.
← Back to AESOPReturns to the AESOP mode selector screen.
Seed Form FieldsGenre, Protagonist, Setting, Conflict, Wild Card, Tone — the six building blocks of your campaign. Fill as many or as few as you like before generating.
◈ Generate SeedsSends your inputs to the AI and gets back a full character, world, and story hook. Takes 3–8 seconds.
📎 Upload ButtonUpload an image or PDF to have the AI extract campaign seeds from it — useful for world maps, art, or published adventure text.
Risk SelectorFriendly / Standard / Hardcore / Permadeath. Sets the difficulty and death rules. Must be chosen before generating.
Scenes (number)How many target scenes you want the AI to plan toward for this adventure arc. Default 5. Range 2–12.
Setting NarrativeA short AI-written world description. You can edit it freely before locking.
◈ Lock It InLocks the narrative so it won't be re-generated. Required before creating your character.
◈ Create Your CharacterKicks off the campaign. Only becomes active after locking the narrative.
◈ Continue StoryResumes the last autosaved session without re-filling the seed form. Appears after your first scene.
Action InputThe main text field during play. Describe what your character does and press Enter or the send button.
◈ Continue Story (in-scene)Ask the AI to keep narrating the current scene without you taking a new action.
Skills (toggle)Opens the skill picker in the sidebar. Search or browse all 500+ skills and add them to your character sheet.
Worlds DrawerShows all 5 world save slots. Switch, save, or start a new world from here.
Characters DrawerShows all 20 character save slots. Switch, save, load, or delete characters here.
NPCs DrawerLists every named NPC the AI has introduced, with a brief description and the scene they first appeared in.
Locations DrawerLists every named location introduced, with description and first-seen scene.
Factions DrawerLists factions tracked in the world, with standing/description.
Session History DrawerA running log of scene summaries for the active session.
↓ ExportDownloads your character as a JSON file. Use this for backups or to move between devices.
↑ ImportPaste or upload a previously exported character JSON to restore it.
04

How to PlayFrom page load to a full scene

Follow these steps the first time you sit down with RPG Solo. After your first session, you can skip straight to ◈ Continue Story.

Choose your Risk Level — The four buttons at the top of the left panel set how dangerous the world is. Pick Friendly if you're new, Standard for a balanced experience, Hardcore for real stakes, or Permadeath if you want to live and die by your choices.
Fill in your Seeds — Genre and Protagonist are the most important. Setting, Conflict, Wild Card, and Tone add depth but are optional — the AI will invent them if you leave them blank. Set Scenes to how long you want this arc to run.
Generate Seeds — Click ◈ Generate Seeds. The AI sends back a Setting Narrative — a paragraph establishing your world. Read it and edit freely. When you're happy, click ◈ Lock It In.
Add Skills — Before creating your character, open the Skills panel and pick 2–4 skills that fit your protagonist. Type to search or browse by category. Skills shape how the AI interprets your actions throughout the campaign.
Create Your Character — Click ◈ Create Your Character. The AI generates your character — name, race, stats, backstory, hit points, resources, and opening scene. This takes a few seconds. Your sidebar populates with stat bars, HP, and the XP progress bar.
Take Your First Action — The main panel shows the opening scene. Type what you do in the action input at the bottom and hit Enter. Be specific — "I draw my sword and challenge the gate guard" generates a richer response than "I fight."
Watch the World Grow — After each scene, check the NPCs, Locations, and Factions drawers. The AI populates them automatically. You'll see the web of the world building out in real time.
Level Up — The XP bar fills as you complete scenes. Every level × 5 scenes, your character levels up. A level-up notification appears in the story — you keep playing, and the AI acknowledges your growth going forward.

✦ After Your First Session

The game autosaves after every scene to your active world and character slots. Next time you visit, just hit ◈ Continue Story on the seed form — it restores your last save and drops you straight back into the action.

05

Mechanics Deep DiveHow everything works under the hood

Core Stats

Every character is defined by six stats. The AI uses them when resolving actions — a high Might character succeeds at physical feats more often; a high Charm character gets further in negotiations. Stats are generated by the AI at character creation based on your genre, class, and protagonist description.

Might

Strength & Force

Physical power, combat effectiveness, endurance under strain.

Wit

Intelligence & Cunning

Problem solving, tactical thinking, trickery, and lore knowledge.

Charm

Social & Influence

Persuasion, deception, leadership, and commanding presence.

Grit

Resilience & Toughness

Resistance to pain, poison, fear, and harsh conditions.

Luck

Fortune & Fate

Random outcomes, critical moments, and being in the right place.

Sense

Perception & Awareness

Noticing hidden things, reading situations, detecting danger.

Skills

Skills are specific abilities that anchor your character concept. They're drawn from a library of 500+ entries across 18 categories. Each skill is linked to a governing stat — Swordsmanship keys off Might, Stealth keys off Wit, Persuasion keys off Charm, and so on.

The AI uses your skill list to interpret your actions. If you have Lockpicking and you try to pick a lock, you'll succeed more often and with more flair than a character who doesn't. Skills don't give you dice — they give you narrative authority and mechanical edge.

Combat
Subterfuge
Social
Magic
Arcane Crafting
Survival
Scholar
Crafts & Trade
Athletics
Psionic
Spiritual
Technology
Medicine
Exploration
Performance
Command
Dark Arts
Beast Mastery

You can add or remove skills at any time between scenes. Open the Skills toggle in the sidebar, search or browse, and click Add. Skills are saved to your character slot automatically.

Risk Levels

Risk Level is set before character creation and affects how the AI interprets danger, failure, and consequences throughout the entire campaign. Choose carefully — you can't change it mid-run.

🌿 Friendly

Narrative-first. Failure has story consequences but never removes agency. Great for beginners and pure story exploration.

⚔ Standard

Balanced. Failures matter and resources deplete, but death is not on the table. The default recommended experience.

🔥 Hardcore

Real stakes. HP depletion causes lasting injuries. Resource failure has severe story consequences. Not for the faint-hearted.

☠ Permadeath

Your character can die. When HP hits zero at a critical moment, that's the end. The world slot persists — your legend does not.

Hit Points & Survival Resources

Hit Points (HP) represent your character's physical endurance. They're generated at character creation based on Grit and class, then tracked in the sidebar HP bar. The AI reduces HP when your character takes physical harm and can restore it through rest, healing, or story beats.

Four Survival Resources also track your character's basic needs: Food, Water, Warmth, and Rest. These start at 10 each and deplete over scenes based on conditions. In wilderness or survival scenarios, managing them becomes critical — especially on Hardcore and Permadeath.

Leveling System

Characters level up through play, not through grinding. The formula is simple: you need Level × 5 scenes to reach the next level. A Level 1 character levels up after 5 scenes. A Level 2 character needs 10 more. A Level 3 character needs 15 more — and so on.

The XP bar in the sidebar shows your progress. Scene count increments automatically each time the AI narrates a new scene. Level-ups are noted in the story text, and the AI will acknowledge your increased power in future scenes — better outcomes on comparable challenges, new story options, and faction respect.

World Tracking — NPCs, Locations & Factions

Every named NPC, location, and faction the AI introduces is logged automatically in the sidebar drawers. You can see who you've met, where you've been, and which political forces are at play. The AI is primed to reference this accumulated world data in future scenes — creating the continuity that makes a real campaign feel alive.

NPCs log the scene they first appeared and any scenes you've encountered them again. Locations log description and first-seen scene. Factions log their standing toward your character, which the AI updates based on your choices.

AI Conversation Management

To keep responses fast and avoid timeout errors, RPG Solo sends the last 4 scene summaries to the AI rather than the full uncompressed conversation history. This means very early scenes may fade from the AI's active context over long campaigns — but the world state (NPCs, locations, factions) is always sent in full so continuity is maintained. If the AI seems to forget something important, re-state it in your action.

06

Saving, Worlds & CharactersHow the save system works

RPG Solo has a split save architecture: World Slots store the shared lore of a campaign world (NPCs, locations, factions, history), and Character Slots store your individual character (stats, skills, HP, level, resources).

✦ 5 World Slots

Each world slot is a separate campaign world. Different settings, different lore, different NPCs. You can run five entirely separate campaigns simultaneously — a fantasy kingdom, a space station, a post-apocalyptic wasteland — each in its own slot.

✦ 20 Character Slots

Characters are portable. A character from World Slot 1 can be loaded into World Slot 3. This lets you run multiple characters through the same world, or transplant a beloved hero into a new campaign. All data lives in your browser's localStorage.

✦ Autosave & Export

The game autosaves after every scene to whichever slots are currently active. For cross-device play or insurance against clearing browser data, use ↓ Export in the Character Sheet panel to download a JSON file, then ↑ Import to restore it anywhere.

07

Tips & StrategyBeginner & advanced advice

Beginner Tips

Start with Standard risk. Friendly is fine for pure story, but Standard gives you the real RPG feel — consequences matter without the fear of permanent loss.
Be specific with your actions. "I try to negotiate with the innkeeper by invoking Lord Ashvael's name" generates a far richer scene than "I talk to him." The more context you give, the better the AI's response.
Pick skills that match your vision, not just combat ones. A character with Stealth, Persuasion, and Forgery will play completely differently from one with Swordsmanship and Heavy Armor. Both are valid — pick what sounds fun.
Read the NPC and Locations drawers often. The AI can only weave continuity from what's there. Knowing who's in your world helps you write better actions and catch great story threads to pull.
Export early and often. Browser localStorage is cleared if you clear site data. Keep at least one exported JSON somewhere safe after every major session.

Advanced Tips

Use the Wild Card seed deliberately. The Wild Card is the AI's invitation to introduce something unexpected. Seed it with something specific but strange — "a dead god's heartbeat still echoes underground" — and watch it manifest as actual plot.
Mix a world slot with multiple characters for emergent storytelling. Run two characters in the same world on different play sessions. The NPCs and locations they've each touched build a shared world that feels genuinely inhabited.
Re-state critical facts when the campaign gets long. The AI works from the last 4 scene summaries plus world state. If an NPC made a specific promise 20 scenes ago, remind the AI in your action: "Remembering that Mira swore to open the gates…"
Use PDF upload for campaign seeding. Drop in a map image, a published adventure intro, or even a piece of atmospheric art. The AI extracts seeds from it automatically — it's a fast way to kick off a game in a setting you love.
Build faction standing deliberately. Every action that involves a faction is an opportunity to gain or lose standing. Helping the Merchant's Guild damages standing with their rivals. The AI tracks this — build toward a faction that can unlock story paths only available to trusted allies.
08

Known LimitationsCurrent build notes & unimplemented features

History compression: The AI receives the last 4 scene summaries, not the full raw history. Early scenes fade from active AI context over long campaigns. Restate important facts in your action text if needed.
No dice rolls: There are no explicit dice mechanics. Skill checks and outcomes are resolved by the AI probabilistically based on stats, skills, and narrative context. This is intentional — the goal is storytelling, not simulation — but players expecting a d20 system will find a different experience.
Level-up is passive: Leveling up triggers automatically at the scene threshold but doesn't present a skill-pick screen. New skill slots must be added manually via the Skills panel. This is a planned UI improvement post-GenCon.
Survival resources are advisory: Food, Water, Warmth, and Rest track narrative resource depletion but are not yet wired to automatic mechanical penalties — the AI responds to stated resource scarcity, but doesn't programmatically block actions when they hit zero.
No mobile layout: RPG Solo is designed for desktop use. The sidebar and multi-panel layout doesn't adapt well to narrow screens. A dedicated mobile build is on the roadmap.
localStorage only: Save data lives in your browser. Clearing site data, switching browsers, or using incognito mode will not have access to your saves. Use Export regularly to protect your campaigns.
NPC and location data is AI-reported: The world tracking drawers are populated from AI-reported JSON in responses. Rarely, the AI may omit an NPC from a scene's JSON even though it was narratively present. This is a known edge case.

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◈ Play AESOP RPG Solo