Master of Lore uses AI and human creativity to immerse players

I know little about tabletop RPGs. My first in-depth experience with them was in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. A friend of mine from a Spanish class invited me to join him and some friends for a campaign of Pathfinder, based on the ruleset for Dungeons and Dragons. Joining up with the party via video chat, I set up a character sheet and learned the basics of playing, including what dice to use for what situations. Needless to say, I had no idea what I was doing, and I had a blast with it.

So when I received an email from a representative of Master of Lore, a text-based, single-player, AI-powered RPG experience that promised to reproduce the experience of having a real dungeon master, I was intrigued.

Thomas Bondu, who goes by the alter ego Tom Bombadil, gave me a walkthrough of the game when we spoke online in October of 2025.

The game is powered by their in-house AI tool called SAGE, which stands for Storytelling Agentic Gaming Engine, according to the official documentation.

Different aspects of the Master of Lore Experience are relegated to specific language models of the game engine. Such aspects include the Lore Master, which narrates the story and can answer player questions about the game, the Rules Agent, which manages the game mechanics, and the Memory Agent, which tracks such things as player choices, inventory, and NPC relationships.

“Right now we’re working with ChatGPT and about 50 agents,” said Bondu.

Bondu assured me immediately that Master of Lore’s AI is not going to use artificial intelligence as a substitute for human artists and writers.

“And we are providing a Bible and some files so that our worlds are really deep and rich,” said Bondu. “And it doesn’t feel like the other so-called RPG experiences. It’s really closer to tabletop experience. And you will see as you play.”

Bondu walked me through their original IP game world of Loom: Woven Worlds, which, according to the Master of Lore website, promises “moth-like Bombyx sorcerers, majestic Drakes, and resourceful Humans forging great cities—all under the watchful eye of mysterious forces seeking dominion.”

“[Loom] has been created by tabletop RPG veterans,” said Bondu. “And even the art was designed after the concept art of our guys.”

Other game worlds available from Master of Lore include Dream of the Old Ones, based on the work of H.P. Lovecraft, and King Kong-Skull Island, based on the classic film.

Upon starting a game in Loom, I built up my character, including its species, its occupation, a special item, a companion, and a nemesis. For my species, I chose a Yrch, a communal, subterranean species with fire abilities.

One thing I loved about the game right off the bat was the music. It perfectly captured the alien, mysterious vibe of wandering through the streets of Loom’s port city of Kesi. The best part of it was that it was entirely human-made.

“It’s a human composer called Lies,” said Bondu, “and he’s done a wonderful job, and he’s doing that for all of the different worlds as well, so for this one, well, this is just a little part of what he created.”

Bondu also said, “We will have more and more music, depending on where you go, which area, and things like that.”

A unique hook of the gameplay is the tension system. If you get a dice roll at a certain point that you don’t like, you have the option of rolling again, but this will impact your luck in certain situations with the game.

At one point, I told the game I wanted to investigate a sacred rune that had been defaced, and I was given the option to do a virtual dice roll to affect the outcome.

I rolled a low number initially, but I had the option of rolling again, which would impact my tension level.

Thankfully, the gamble paid off, as it yielded a number of items, including a piece of charcoal, which may have been used to deface the mural.

I decided to test whether the Master of Lore Engine could recognize humor, as Bondu claimed. I told a resident of the city with whom I spoke “May the Force be with you.” While the AI Loremaster recognized these words as “a curious phrase from distant stars,” it encouraged me to use a phrase more in line with the world of Loom. I suspect this is to avoid summoning Disney’s copyright ninjas.

The big thing that Master of Lore is lacking right now is the multiplayer component. That is what makes an RPG an RPG, the social aspect of navigating scenarios together, bouncing ideas off of each other, leading to some genuinely goofy and hilarious scenarios.

According to the Master of Lore website, multiplayer is in the works. It should allow for players to host and join live sessions, as well as the ability to chat privately with team mates or the game’s AI lore master, which could be used for strategizing next moves or potentially deceiving fellow players.

Overall, I would not say that it was quite the same thing as a real-world tabletop roleplaying experience. Nothing will quite match the same experience, gathering around a table (or in my case, Zooming in on one) and making things up as we go along. As it stands, I had a fun time with my playthrough in the world of Loom. The SAGE AI did do a good job of keeping up with me, though, and responding dynamically to many of my dialogue choices. Even after our hour session was over, I wanted to continue playing. I got immersed in the mystery I was exploring, and the writing carried everything along at a smooth pace.