Show HN: Machinations – a multiplayer strategy game where LLM is the game master

A new multiplayer strategy game called Machinations uses a large language model as a game master, with a 3d10 bell-curve dice system that forces the LLM to narrate outcomes from disastrous to legendary, preventing the model from always pleasing the player. The creator built a classifier that determines advantages and disadvantages to modify dice rolls, and the game state updates based on narrated outcomes, resulting in a Game of Thrones-style conquest mode with more modes planned.

I started by thinking about the game mechanics I actually wanted to see. I come from a long background in diceless tabletop RPGs, and what I loved about them was the GM improvising, making rulings on the spot. When LLMs came along, I saw a chance to build a mechanic that worked like that. But LLMs on their own are bad at it. They regress toward the mean and they try too hard to please the player. Nobody ever really fails. So I built a system I won't name it, I'm not here to self-promote around a 3d10 bell curve of outcomes. The dice decide how well an attempt goes, across a whole spread of grades from disastrous to legendary, and the LLM has to narrate whatever the dice say. That forces it to produce results the player won't like, which is where the drama comes from. With that in hand, I could resolve any conflict narratively. Two characters chasing the same goal, one trying to kill or rob the other, whatever. The roll leans the story in one direction or the other. Then I realized I needed the LLM to be able to add to or subtract from the roll itself, so I built a classifier of sorts: it looks at the situation, decides who has advantages and who has disadvantages, and those become modifiers on the dice. The last piece was making the story actually matter. On the back end, I take the narrated outcome apart and figure out which parts of the game state it should change, so the fiction and the mechanics stay in sync. The end result plays like Game of Thrones: scheming, backstabbing, and assassinating your way to power in a kingdom. That's just the first mode, basically a conquest mode where you take over the kingdom. Since resolution is story-based, other modes are really just different stories to resolve, so more are planned. The system behind all this goes back years. The game itself is finally done. Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48998591 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48998591 Points: 1 Comments: 0