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Table of ContentsAll About AI Instructions
AI Instructions is a new feature that gives you unprecedented control over the AI. It’s a great way to steer the AI in the direction you want it to generate responses.AI models can accept a set of instructions that influence their behavior. Up to this point, we’ve used backend model instructions to guide the AI to respond in a text adventure format. Now, this is built into AI Dungeon Scenarios and Adventures so you can add your own custom instructions and direct AI models in even better ways.
How to Add AI Instructions
We’ve set up this feature to function like other Plot Components, so you can add AI Instructions from the Scenario or Adventure levels with the + Add Plot Component button.
+ Add Plot Component button under the “Plot” tab.
+ Add Plot Component button under the “Adventure” → “Plot” tabs.If you don’t want to start with a blank slate, use the + Insert Default button when creating or editing a Scenario to populate the section with an example of our default instructions. From the Adventure level, use the + Insert Example button to do the same.
+ Insert Default from the Scenario settings to start with a set of example instructions.
+ Insert Example from the Adventure settings to do the same.Like other Plot Components—such as Plot Essentials or Author’s Note—AI Instructions are not required to create a Scenario or play an Adventure, but having good instructions can help keep the AI on track, which leads to more coherent and consistent gameplay.
How to Use AI Instructions
AI Instructions are extremely powerful. You can use them to control anything from the:
- Writing style (want an H.P. Lovecraft vibe?)
- Conflict level
- Events in your story
- Character behavior
- Point of view (first, second, third person)
- Much more
You can also use instructions to solve common issues like:
- Avoiding cliche phrases (if a sense of dread washes over me one more time...)
- Avoiding repetitive phrases
- Avoiding other common tropes
Model instructions are one of the first things sent to the AI during prompt construction. For some models, they are formatted in a unique way to ensure the AI follows the directions they contain. So, you can use the model instructions to solve some of the issues described above. For instance, you might add lines like:
- Use unique phrasing and language. Avoid common phrases and cliche tropes.
- Keep the story centered on topics and themes that would be appropriate for a younger audience
- This is a historical fantasy. Only use technology, tools, settings, and locations that would have been present during the Middle Ages. Swords, knights, castles, etc.
One thing to pay attention to is that the AI doesn’t always respond well to “don’t talk about this” sorts of instructions. Think of AI language models like a probability machine. If you say “don’t think about the blue banana”, it might have a hard time forgetting about blue bananas. It’s better to instruct with what you want it to stick to, like the examples above.
Types of AI Instructions
Model Default
Our built-in, default model instructions can be accessed through the in-game Adventure settings when Mixtral, MythoMax, Tiefighter, or GPT-4 Turbo are selected as the Story Generator. Once you add the AI Instructions card, use the dropdown to select Model Default. Changing your AI model under the “Gameplay” tab brings up other default model instructions.
Editing the Model Default instructions automatically turns them into Custom instructions.
If the AI Instructions component hasn’t been added to a Scenario or Adventure, our default model instructions will always be used.
Examples of Model Default Instructions
Note: Because of model limitations, AI Instructions are not available for the deprecated Griffin or Dragon AI models. Instructions may be more beneficial to some models than others.
Scenario Default
When AI Instructions are added on the Scenario level, every resulting Adventure will have Scenario Default instructions available as an option through the in-game Adventure settings:
Editing the Scenario Default instructions automatically turns them into Custom instructions.
Custom
Whenever you add your own instructions or edit the Model and Scenario instructions, these will be labeled Custom under the in-game Adventure settings:
A blank custom instructions component will function differently than no instruction component (which falls back to our default model instructions), so you may end up with a pretty funky story if custom instructions are added but not filled in.
If you delete custom instructions with the trash can icon, they will be completely unrecoverable and cannot be brought back.
Examples of Custom Instructions
Our Alpha testers group on Discord has been playing around with custom AI Instructions for several weeks now. We’ve included some of their examples that you can look at for tips and tricks or use for yourself. We’ve also included our Mixtral Duck instructions if you’d like to recreate that AI experience, since this model is now retired.
Open the toggles below, copy the text inside the code block, and then paste them into AI Instructions for your own Scenarios and Adventures:
Default versus Custom AI Instructions
To highlight the effectiveness of custom AI Instructions, here’s a comparison of the same Quick Start prompt using the default Mixtral instructions versus custom AI Instructions:
Default Mixtral Model Instructions
Custom AI Instructions
You can see in these examples that custom AI Instructions produced a much different story than the default model instructions.
Author’s Note versus AI Instructions
Up to this point, you may have been using Author’s Note to accomplish what AI Instructions can now do more easily. But, both components can be used together to guide the AI into generating a coherent story.
While AI Instructions are included toward the beginning of the context, Authorʻs Note is inserted near the bottom, which means it has more of a direct influence on how the AI generates outputs. You shouldn’t add too much information here, or the AI is likely to focus on those details instead of what happened most recently in your Adventure. Our recommendation is to keep Authorʻs Note short, no more than 3 or 4 sentences, and only focus on a couple of key instructions about your story’s theme and setting that you want the AI to follow.
If AI Instructions is like talking to a customer support rep, Authorʻs Note is “Can I speak to the manager?” Try to address most issues in AI Instructions, and use Authorʻs Note when the AI Instructions isnʻt accomplishing what you need.
Comparing AI Instructions and Author’s Note
AI Instructions | Author’s Note |
List of general directions the AI should follow when generating new outputs. | Short list of 3-4 key instructions the AI should follow when generating new outputs. |
Could be used for story instructions, style guidance, plot outline, topics/words to avoid, or description commands. | Could be used for specific scene instructions, setting guidelines, or theme reminders. |
Banned Words versus AI Instructions
The Banned Words feature has been deprecated. Many of you have noticed that the banned words system hasn’t worked well (due to issues with token conversion and logit bias not being supported on many modern models). We believe AI Instructions will be more effective at helping you guide the AI away from words and topics you wish to avoid. Read more about this change →
On this page
- All About AI Instructions
- How to Add AI Instructions
- How to Use AI Instructions
- Types of AI Instructions
- Model Default
- Examples of Model Default Instructions
- Scenario Default
- Custom
- Examples of Custom Instructions
- Default versus Custom AI Instructions
- Default Mixtral Model Instructions
- Custom AI Instructions
- Author’s Note versus AI Instructions
- Comparing AI Instructions and Author’s Note
- Banned Words versus AI Instructions
