How to Write Good Actions for an AI Game Master

Playing with an AI Game Master is a conversation where your half is short and the other half is the whole world. The narrator can describe a storm, voice a dozen characters and keep track of who owes whom money, but it can only answer what you actually wrote. A good action tells the Game Master what your character wants, how they try to get it and what they say out loud, in one to four concrete sentences, and then stops before the outcome. That is most of the craft. This page breaks it down into habits you can use from your very first turn, with examples you can copy, and then explains how Thavernia turns your sentence into rolls and narration.

The short answer#

• Write intent, approach and words. What you want, how you try it, and what you say, with speech in quotes.
• Be specific. Name the object, the person, the direction. "I search the desk drawers for letters" beats "I look around".
• One action per turn, or a short chain of steps that belong together. Write them in the order they happen.
• Use what the story gave you. Names, objects and places the narrator mentioned are tools, not decoration.
• Never write the result. You declare the attempt; the dice and the narrator decide whether it works.
• Keep it to about 20 to 80 words. Long enough to be clear, short enough to keep the scene moving.

The three parts of a good action#

Almost every strong action has the same three parts. You do not have to use all three every time, but when a turn falls flat, one of them is usually missing.

Intent is the most important part, and the one players most often leave out. "I go to the docks" is a movement; "I go to the docks to find out which ship leaves before dawn" is a decision. With the intent written down, the Game Master can aim the scene at what you care about: the dockhand who knows the tides shows up, rather than three paragraphs about seagulls.

Approach is what makes a roll fair. Climbing a wall with a rope and a grappling hook is a different task from climbing it bare-handed in the rain. The more clearly you say how you try something, the better the narrator can judge how hard it is, which ability it tests, and whether your plan gives you an edge.

Words are the part that makes your character a person. A Game Master can play a reply off an exact sentence in a way it never can off "I persuade him". Tone, threats, jokes and lies all live in the words.

Specific beats vague#

Vague actions hand the decision back to the narrator. "I look around" means the Game Master has to choose what you look at, and what it picks may not be what you wanted. Specific actions keep the choice with you, and they give the scene something to react to.

• Name the target. Not "I talk to someone", but "I talk to the woman selling eels, the one who keeps glancing at the gate".
• Name the method. Not "I get the door open", but "I wedge my dagger into the frame by the lock and lean on it".
• Name the limit. "Without making noise", "without hurting him", "if more than two come, I back off". A limit tells the narrator what you are not willing to risk.
• Name the sense. Listening at a door, smelling the smoke, feeling the wall for a draught. Each one leads to different information.

Specific does not mean long. "I hold the lantern low and check the floor for drag marks" is twelve words and gives the narrator a clear job. The goal is precision, not volume.

One action per turn, or a chain?#

The safest rhythm is one meaningful action per turn: you act, the world answers, you act again. It keeps the story responsive, because you get to react to what actually happened instead of to what you assumed would happen.

Sometimes, though, two steps belong together and happen within seconds: you vault onto the cart and strike the rider; you throw the sand and run for the door. Writing them as one turn is fine, and often better, because it reads as one move. Two rules keep a chain clean:

• Write the steps in the order they happen. The narrator resolves them in that order.
• Make the dependency clear. If the second step only makes sense when the first one works, say it: "if I make it onto the cart, I strike the rider". A good Game Master will not let the strike land if the jump failed.

What to avoid is stacking unrelated plans: search the room, question the prisoner, write a letter home and sharpen your sword, all in one turn. Each uncertain step may need its own roll, the narrator has to compress everything into a summary, and none of it gets the attention it deserves.

Dialogue: put the words in quotes#

When your character speaks, write the actual words in quotation marks. It is the single easiest way to make an AI Game Master's characters feel alive, because they now have something specific to answer.

• Weak: I ask the guard about the prisoner.
• Better: I ask the guard, "The man you brought in last night, the one with the burned hand. Is he still breathing?"
• Strongest: I lean on the bars so only the guard can hear. "The man you brought in last night, the one with the burned hand. Is he still breathing? There is a silver coin in it if you tell me before your captain does."

Quotes also separate speech from action, which matters when you do both: "I keep my hand on the hilt and say, 'We are just passing through.'" The narrator knows the hand stays where it is and the words are spoken. If you want to persuade, deceive or threaten someone who resists, say how and why it should work; the line itself is part of what the roll is judging.

Use the world: names, objects, places#

Everything the narrator mentions is an offer. The chandelier, the barrels of lamp oil, the nervous stable boy, the name of the captain who signed your contract: each one can become part of your plan. Players who use these details get richer stories, because the world starts to feel connected.

• Reuse names exactly. If the innkeeper was called Mirela, write Mirela, not "the innkeeper woman". It keeps people from being confused with one another.
• Pick up objects. "I take the poker from the hearth" is a better start to a fight than "I grab a weapon".
• Bring back earlier details. "I show him the wax seal we found in the cellar" connects scenes and often unlocks information.
• Use the terrain. High ground, narrow doorways, darkness, water, smoke. A plan that uses the place feels clever because it is.

There is a practical reason too. A plan grounded in the scene is easier to judge, and a good Game Master rewards it: a clear edge in the fiction, such as striking from hiding or knocking a burning brazier at someone's feet, is exactly what advantage is for. The rules side of that is on the dice and checks page.

Asking questions in and out of character#

There are two kinds of questions at any table, and it helps to keep them apart.

In-character questions are things your character asks someone in the world. Write them as dialogue, aimed at a person: "Who else asked about the mill this week?" The answer comes from that person, with everything they know, guess or want to hide. This is usually the best way to get information, because it creates a scene.

Perception questions are about what your character can see, hear or remember. The cleanest way to ask is to describe the action that finds out: not "Are there guards?" but "I watch the gate from the tree line until the shift changes, counting heads." The narrator answers by describing what you see.

Out-of-character questions are about the game, not the story: how a rule works, what a button does, whether you should split the party. At a human table you would lower your voice and ask the Game Master directly. With an AI narrator, it is better to keep these out of the story text, because everything you write there is read as your character's words or actions. Ask the other players in a separate chat, or check a guide like this one.

When the story drifts#

Every long story wanders. An AI narrator sometimes follows a side character too long, misreads what you wanted, or lets an important thread go quiet. The fix is almost never to complain to the narrator; it is to take a concrete action that points back at what matters.

• Restate your goal in the fiction. "I unfold the map Mirela gave us and trace the road to the bell tower. We came here for the bell."
• Go back to a known person. Ask the last character who had a lead. Named people are anchors the story can hold on to.
• Make a decision the story cannot ignore. Leave the tavern, pay the debt, open the door. Momentum comes from choices, not from waiting.
• Fix misreadings early. If the narrator read your line the wrong way, say what you meant in your next action, plainly and without blame: "I did not mean to threaten her. I put the knife away and sit down."

If the narrator keeps deciding things for your character, write shorter turns that end on a clear decision point, and stop after your own action. The less room you leave for guessing what you meant, the less the narrator guesses.

Weak vs strong: examples to copy#

Each pair below shows the same idea written two ways. Copy the strong versions, change the names, and use them as templates.

WEAK:   I search the room.
STRONG: I check the desk first: drawers, the underside of the top, the back panel. I am looking for letters or anything with the baron's seal. I keep one ear on the corridor.

WEAK:   I convince the guard to let us in.
STRONG: I hold up the stamped pass from the harbour office and keep my voice bored. "Delivery for the quartermaster. If you want to wake him to check, go ahead. I will wait."

WEAK:   I attack the cultist.
STRONG: I kick the brazier over so the coals spill at the cultist's feet, and when he jumps back I swing my axe at his knife arm.

WEAK:   I jump to the other roof and kill the archer.
STRONG: I take a run and jump the gap to the next roof. If I make it, I go straight for the archer before he can nock another arrow.

WEAK:   I ask around about the missing girl.
STRONG: I buy the fisherman a drink and sit with my back to the wall. "The Dorn girl. You were on the pier the night she went. What did you see that you did not tell the watch?"

WEAK:   Can we get back to the main quest?
STRONG: I stop at the crossroads and unfold the map again. "We came for the bell, not for this." I head back toward the miller who saw the cart, to ask which road it took.

How long should an action be?#

For most turns, one to four sentences, about 20 to 80 words, is the sweet spot. Shorter than that and you are usually missing the intent or the approach. Longer than that and the important part starts to hide among descriptions of your character's feelings, the weather and backstory the narrator already knows.

A good habit: write the turn, then delete every sentence that does not change what your character does or says. What is left is usually the right length.

Common mistakes#

God-moding

God-moding means writing your character as unstoppable, or deciding what other characters do: "I disarm all three guards and they surrender", "the merchant agrees and gives me the key". It takes the uncertainty out of the game and the other characters' choices away from the narrator. Declare what you try; let the world answer.

Narrating outcomes

A softer version of the same thing: "I pick the lock and slip inside" assumes the lock opens. Write "I try to pick the lock" instead, and keep the next step for after you know. The difference looks small on the page, but it is the difference between a story and a list of wishes. It also protects you: if the lock holds, you have not already written yourself into a room you never reached.

Walls of text

Long, paragraph-heavy turns feel generous, but they make the narrator choose what to respond to, and it may not pick the part you cared about. They also crowd out other players at a shared table. If you have a lot to say, split it: one turn for the action that matters now, the next turn for what comes after.

How Thavernia reads your actions#

Thavernia is a tabletop RPG where the Game Master is an AI. Everything above works there as it would at any good table. This section explains what happens to your line after you send it, as the game works today.

Your words are intent; the dice decide

You write your line and send it; the host then hands the turn to the Game Master (in a solo game, that is you). Before any narration is written, a separate referee step reads the latest actions and decides which ones need a roll: which hero, which ability, how hard, and whether the fiction gives an edge. Some rules it follows are worth knowing as a player:

• Safe actions get no roll. Conversation, ordinary movement, looking around and asking a question never trigger a check. When the referee is unsure between no roll and an easy roll, it is told to choose no roll.
• An attack on a resisting foe always rolls, even if you typed the kill. Your words state the intent; the die decides whether it lands.
• One attack roll per hero per round. Declaring the same blow twice, or naming several targets, still gets one attack roll.
• Using the scene can earn an edge. A clear advantage the story itself established, such as striking from hiding or at a pinned foe, can turn into advantage on the roll.

The narration is written only after the dice have landed, and it is bound to them: a check succeeds when the total meets or beats the difficulty, and a failed check means you do not get what you tried for. If the narration contradicts a result, it is caught and rewritten. The narrator is also told never to play your hero: it should not write your words, your decisions or your movements unless your own latest line said so. The full detail on fairness is on the is the AI Game Master fair? page.

Chained actions become chained dice

When you write a chain like "I leap the chasm and drive my sword into the golem", the referee can link the second roll to the first. If the leap fails, the strike is cancelled: that die is never thrown, the screen shows why, and the story treats the blow as something that never happened. Links can also run between players. If one hero tries to banish a corpse through a portal and another tries to loot it, the looting only happens if the banishing fails, because actions resolve in the order the players declared them.

This is why writing the steps in order, and saying "if I make it", pays off: it matches how the game resolves your turn.

Actions in combat

Combat changes where your action goes, depending on the combat style chosen for the adventure.

• Tactical Map: during a fight the story box is for talk: shouting, planning, taunting. Your actions come from the action buttons of your class kit, or from the Custom action box, where you describe a move in your own words (one paragraph, up to 400 characters, 1 action point). The referee decides which dice that custom action needs.
• Narrative: there is no map, and the line you write in the story box is your action for the round.

In both styles the referee is told to reward invention, not wording. A custom action that concretely uses the scene (a named obstacle, the terrain, an object at hand, a foe's position) and takes a real risk earns advantage, or a difficulty one step easier. A plain attack in fancier words earns nothing, and the same trick pulled twice in one fight earns nothing the second time. How the two combat styles compare is on the grid combat or theatre of the mind page.

Help when you are stuck

• Suggest an action. If your character's AI control is set to Assistant, a Suggest an action button appears under the story box. It drops an in-character action for your hero into the box; nothing is sent until you have read it, edited it if you like, and pressed Send.
• Edit or delete your own line. Until the Game Master has answered, you can change or remove your own story line. Once the turn has started, the line stands.
• Out-of-character group chat. At a table with other players there is a group chat, marked out of character, that never touches the story. Use it for rules questions, planning and jokes you do not want your hero to say.

Dictate instead of typing

In browsers with speech recognition, a microphone button sits next to Send. Speak your action and it appears in the story box as you talk, in the language of the site. It never sends by itself, so you can fix a misheard name before you press Send. Enter sends, Shift+Enter starts a new line. The recognition runs in your browser; where it is not supported, the button is not shown.

The Game Master writes in your adventure's language

Each adventure has a story language, chosen when it is created: English, Turkish, German, Italian, French or Spanish. The narration and every line of character dialogue are written in that language, and the narrator is told that names which look foreign never change it. Write your actions in the same language for the smoothest game. The details are on the play in your language page.

Try it yourself#

The quickest way to feel the difference between a weak and a strong action is to send both. The trial needs no account and no card and gives you three turns as a guest; a free account then gives you 20 turns in total. Take one of the strong examples above, change the names to fit your scene, and watch what the Game Master does with it.

Frequently asked questions#