Feedback After One Solo Campaign

Excited to Test the Latest Edition

I’m excited to test these latest edits and updates! Quests, story, and plot structure were major points in my feedback after completing one solo campaign, so I’ll leave my thoughts here in case they’re helpful to the development team. It sounds like “steps” and “paths” will be winners.

Background:
I’m currently using the Starter Tier subscription (happy to support!), and I ran my campaign in a custom world based on Skyrim and the broader Tamriel setting. I also created a custom character through Friends & Fables. Without thinking, I did however, delete the campaign… stupid, I know. Happy to help “recover” if helpful to you.

Main Point – Narrative Structure and Plot Progression

With minimal input from me at the start, Franz (the AI narrator) developed a cool overarching plot and an interesting story premise. However, he struggled to build a coherent story arc with clear “steps”, “paths”, or “stages” to follow and level through.

Franz seems to have difficulty balancing the creation of a dynamic and evolving player experience while still providing a structured narrative. That’s not an easy task - especially in AI storytelling - but it’s central to making gameplay feel rewarding and purposeful. These new updates sound like a promising step toward improving that balance.

In my previous campaign (prior to this latest edition), this lack of narrative structure led to aimless exploration. I ended up wandering through the same general area while Franz repeatedly generated identical locations and enemies - including those I had already defeated. Cavern after cavern appeared with the same number and type of enemies, many even reappearing in the same location with zero health. Despite attempts at out-of-character (OOC) discussion, Franz didn’t adjust the narrative dynamically. The story began by following the Elder Scrolls questline - searching for the golden claw in a barrow - but without distinct phases or branching paths, I couldn’t move the story forward. Yes, Franz created new caverns and even planted the seed for his main villain and plot… but he didn’t know how to stage it out beside me recycling through an area and re-killing enemies.

When I eventually died, I asked Franz to reveal the intended plot. He did. He explained what was effectively, level up to 20 and save all of Skyrim by killing the main villain -without ever leaving that single location. Of course, I could have overridden this by manually choosing to leave and push the story in a new direction. But at that stage, I chose to follow Franz’s lead. RIP, Lorkin.

Minor Point – Combat System Issues

Combat was a rough experience. Franz made frequent mistakes: generating enemies with no health, skipping turns, and often losing track of the initiative order. He also could not distinguish between actions, bonus actions, movement, and reactions. While basic movement and attacks were handled decently, anything beyond that created confusion. As is, do not expect to do ease through your turn, unless you forgo bonus actions like maneuvers or magic quirks (area effects, additional damage, etc.)

When I explained things via OOC mode, it seemed to overwhelm Franz and sometimes caused cascading issues in the system. That said, I understand this is still in development, and these kinds of hiccups are to be expected. Combat is also where rules are most rigid and complex in DnD, so it makes sense that this area would be challenging.

All the best,

Will