What is the “Initial Prompt” of an Adventure?

What is the “Initial Prompt” of an Adventure?

Adventure Prompts

In AI Dungeon, we use the term “Prompt” to refer to the Initial Prompt, or the first block of text that starts an Adventure. This is either defined by the Quick-Start Option, Scenario, or World you use or create, or by you alone if you are using the “Custom” option under Quick Start.

This can lead to minor confusion, as “Prompt” is sometimes used in the AI community to refer to everything given to the AI before it generates the next set of text. (See “How are AI responses generated” for details.) In AI Dungeon, we refer to what is sent to the AI as “Context”, and the part of the story that is included in that as “Current Context”.

The second Action in an Adventure is immediately generated by the AI in response to the Prompt upon starting the Adventure, making the Prompt the Current Context for the first AI-generated action.

Tips for Writing Custom Prompts

  • Longer prompts are better, because they give the AI more to work with when generating early responses.
  • Start broad, go specific, end with the now. The point of a prompt is to set the stage for your story, so it’s best to first give the AI specific details about the setting and characters for it to draw on before you lead into the initial scene. The final thing you write will be followed immediately by the AI trying to continue the story, so the prompt needs to end by starting that story on a note that puts the player in the action.
  • Use multiple paragraphs to divide information. You should be putting in a decent amount of text here, and if you don’t break it up, this will not only be hard for humans to read, but also makes it more difficult for the AI to transition between details and separate topics. Newlines and separate paragraphs also encourage the AI to generate those itself during gameplay.
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Desktop Users: If you are using the Custom option under Quick Start to write your own prompt for an Adventure, you must use Shift + Enter to create newlines and separate paragraphs. Hitting Enter alone will begin the Adventure.
  • Finish the Prompt with an incomplete sentence to let the AI know what you want it to start with, preferably the reveal of the first interesting detail that you want to leave up to the AI. The AI will complete the sentence.
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If you slip up and accidentally start an Adventure with a Prompt you were still typing, or want to change something in an existing Prompt, you can always go back and edit it, then click Retry: the Prompt is just the first action of an Adventure.

Examples of Well-Worded Prompts

The Kingdom of Larion was once a prosperous land, filled with magic and wonder, but as the king aged, the kingdom declined. Now, with the death of the king, his power-mad brother has returned and taken the throne, plunging all of Larion into chaos! You are a knight, loyal to the previous king, and you have vowed to stop the new Mad King at all costs! You ride into the town of Townton on your trusty horse, and make your way to the local tavern: the Prancing Pony. As you walk in through the shoddy wooden door, you see
The year is 1920, and London is bustling with commerce, industry, and crime. Every day, Britain’s most dangerous criminals are thinking of new ways to elude the detectives of Scotland Yard. You are Sherlock Holmes, a brilliant freelance detective with a knack for spotting inconsistencies in crime scenes and solving cases with deductive reasoning. You walk with a cane due to an old injury, and years of using pain killers has led to you having a few nasty addictions. Still, you live for the mystery, and solving them is your greatest thrill. You have been called to the scene of an unusual murder, which has baffled the police. You walk past the constable guarding the property without so much as a nod and slip casually under the rope cordoning it off from the street full of onlookers. As you step inside the building where the murder victim was found, you immediately notice
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