"Lost Out Here" - Sci-Fi RPG
Lost Out Here – AI Game Master Sci-Fi RPG with hand-crafted lore
Feel free to share your experiences in the comments below.
My stance on AI & this game
Lost Out Here is a hand-built world that uses AI as a Game Master.
I don’t see it as replacing authors or story writers; I see it as a new format: a world bible plus an improv engine. Every city, gang, law, NPC, event and bit of lore is written by me, and the AI is there to react so the story doesn’t run out of pages.
If that kind of experiment interests you, welcome. If you’re skeptical about AI in storytelling, that’s valid too – and I hope the transparency here makes it clear what this project is (and isn’t) trying to do.
The game
Rathyal doesn’t care who you were. It only cares what you’re willing to do to survive.
Lost Out Here is a solo, text-based RPG where an AI Game Master runs the campaign for you.
The lore is handcrafted and written by Josh Michaud.
You play in the year 2097, in the mega-city of Rathyal, ruled by a corporate regime called The Guild.
You begin by creating your character, then choose a starting life at the bottom of the city:
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Low-rank Guild Union officer on slum patrol
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Homeless ex-SteelWorks worker waking on a bench with two Guild guards over you
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Market stall scrap vendor in the slum bazaar
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Guild Union prisoner with a cellmate planning an escape
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Breaker courier running jobs through Pillar 16 Underway
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Dockline cargo handler at Gate Seven, close to the ships but far from leaving
From there, the story isn’t locked to routes or fixed endings – the AI GM reacts to what you try: talking, lying, running, fighting, scheming, or just trying to find a bed for the night.
If you like visual novels, solo TTRPGs, or choose-your-own-adventure books, this is that feeling, but with a GM that riffs with you in real time.
What makes this different?
Instead of a static script, a custom GPT acts as your Game Master:
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It knows the lore of Rathyal: districts, factions, products, NPCs, events.
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It narrates the world, offers numbered choices, and responds to your own ideas.
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It tracks your:
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Stats: Health, Stamina, Satiation
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Traits: Strength, Agility, Charisma, Intelligence
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Inventory & credits
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Factions & reputation
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NPC relationships
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In-game day count
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As days pass, the city can shift around you: crackdowns, riots, accidents, and orbital incidents may trigger based on where you are and what you’ve done.
Behind the scenes, the GM is instructed to keep using stats, checks, credits and inventory consistently, even in very long or very “off-the-rails” campaigns. If you push things into wild territory, the system should still feel like a game, not just loose story.
It’s a bit like having a human GM improvise a campaign just for you: sometimes brilliant, sometimes a little weird, always reactive.
How to play
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Click “Run game” on this page.
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On the landing site, hit “Play in ChatGPT”.
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Log in to your ChatGPT account if needed.
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Type
New Gameto start.
The AI GM will:
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Introduce the setting
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Ask you to define your character (name, age, gender, one-line backstory)
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Roll your starting stats
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Let you choose a starting origin
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Drop you into your first encounter based on that choice
From there, you:
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Choose from numbered options, or
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Type your own actions if you want to get creative or weird
The GM will roll checks, describe outcomes, and keep the world consistent as you move through Rathyal.
You can also play using voice mode in ChatGPT if you want the GM to read scenes aloud and speak your choices back like you’re at a table.
Saving & loading your run
You don’t have to do everything in one sitting.
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Type
save gameto get a SAVE BLOCK of text.-
Copy it into a file on your computer.
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Later, paste (or upload) that block and type
load gameto continue where you left off.
You can use this as:
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A checkpoint if a decision goes badly, or
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A way to branch your story and explore alternate lives in Rathyal
What you can do in Rathyal
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Try to survive in Spillway Ward and the Underways beneath the highway pillars
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Court favor with the Guild Union or undermine them from the shadows
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Work with slum gangs, nomadic Breakers, or raiders like Star Flux
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Visit clinics, bars, precincts, prisons, Dockline gates, and more
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Hunt for a Star Badge, ship parts, and maybe a way off this rock
The game isn’t about “winning” as much as seeing who you become in this city: informer, enforcer, smuggler, ghost, or something stranger.
Who is this for?
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Players who enjoy reading and making choices
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Fans of:
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Visual novels
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Solo journaling RPGs / TTRPGs
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Interactive fiction
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Dystopian sci-fi and corporate hellscapes
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If you like the idea of sitting with a notebook, a drink, and a world that talks back to you, this is meant for you.
About the AI
The narration, dialogue, and encounter logic are handled by a custom GPT acting as your GM.
The worldbuilding, lore indexes, locations, factions, and visual style guides are all hand-built by Josh Michaud and fed to it as reference. The AI then improvises within that lore sandbox.
It’s experimental, occasionally messy, and sometimes surprising – very much like playing with an over-caffeinated human GM.
Content notes
This game explores a gritty dystopian setting with themes that may include:
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Poverty, corporate control, addiction, violence, imprisonment
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Moral gray decisions and systemic injustice
Everything is text-based, but the tone is mature and heavy at times.
If you try a run, I’d love to hear:
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How your first origin played out
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How things went with the Guild, the gangs, or the Dockline
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Any moments where the AI GM surprised you in a good way
Welcome to Rathyal. Type New Game and see what the city turns you into.
Development log
- NPC Patch38 days ago
- Update – Multiple Origins & Systems Tuning38 days ago
- Stat & Mechanics Update (Long-Run Support)39 days ago
- Tutorial: How to Play39 days ago
- New Save/Load system added!39 days ago
- Lore Expansion Update: Rathyal Gets Deeper47 days ago
Comments
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I have been doing an insane amount of testing with the pins by using to dictate narritive rules story rules how they interact it allows for the creaton dynamic and responsive npc places factions loctions and get them to interect independently of screen and have npc come back when it is important to the story narrtive same with locations ect as long as u set all the conditions correctly the system works beautifully but i have found that the system slows to a crawl during excessively long campaigns but i don't expect that to be a problem for most people i just take it to the extreme lol it only starts getting unsustainable at like 6 hours in but can be half that time depending on the depth u create with the pins it overloads it can take like a minute to write a scene which honestly doest bother me though I doubt anyone will have those kind of issues
This is honestly some of the coolest feedback I could hope for. I love that you’re using the pins almost like narrative rules to keep NPCs, places, and factions active off-screen and then pull them back in when it matters – that’s exactly the kind of dynamic feeling I was hoping the system could grow into.
The slowdown you’re seeing on those extremely long, very dense runs makes sense: you’re pushing the GM to track a huge amount of history and pinned details over many hours, which is way beyond how most people will play. It’s really helpful for me to know roughly where it starts to feel “heavy” for you though.
I’m really glad it still feels worth it to you even when it crawls a bit, and I seriously appreciate how hard you’re stress-testing this thing
And al be doing that run with my girl soon but i am just actully planning some npcs out first and the general concept instead of just running with whatever comes to mind
Just dropped in to say that the system somtimes looses its way when creating a story arc and it can be passed with a little actul story building when your deeper in a run if there was a way like by placing an arc tag beside a choice u make it would make to expend that choice and go into a more long arc with more depth insted of just allowing the player to pass it by after a few choices and if u where able to tag spicific npcs as improtent to the arc by aplying the same tag with like say arc 1 2 etc so the system can id then those npc will be wirte them into the arc as antagonist allies etc mabye evan a way to make places and event in the story as background or vital i can do it with the pin function but i am not sure if the game will eventual get confussed if i overload it was just thinking if it has a sepreret designation like pin location/event importent/background etc could help the system stay on track
Ps
Love the new changes as well the world already feels like it has a real depth having a blast with the new starts and npc machnics the pins work so well really allowes u to shape the npcs personalitys And connections and sorry for my insanly bad grammer using a phone and and may be a bit to lazy to correct it all lol only time i have been mad at not having auto correct lol
Just finished my underground street fighter run became the king of district 7 turned my mum and myself it to augmented nightmares lol took out the guild by uniting all the street gangs and outcast was cool as hell and i have found that the game stops bringing up npcs if u dont intrect with them for awhile and they tend to not be activley brought up if there was some way for the player to tag specific npcs as esssetial and mabye evan allow the player to flesh them out a bit so that they are always relavent to the story and feel real that would help immensely in making the world feel that bit more alove and consistant gonna start that run with my girl today aswell should be fun and i love the new start options cant wait to see how they effect the storys when i realy dive into all of them
thats so dope, uniting the street gangs. that's probably the satisfying path lol
Really appreciate the note about NPCs fading out over time. You’re right, if someone matters to the player, they should keep feeling present in the world. I’m going to update the GM so players can “mark” important NPCs and have them show up more often in recap system and future scenes.
Thanks again for stress-testing this thing and for all the feedback so far
it makes me really happy that you’ve done this many runs and are still pushing the world in new directions. The fact you told your girl and you’re doing a run together tomorrow is awesome. I’d love to hear how that duo playthrough goes. Thanks again for taking the time to write all this and for stress-testing Rathyal this hard.
Dude am obseesed am playing another run now a underground street fighter for the reapers running jobs and fighting in the pits trying to save his mother can't wait to see how this one ends and i have found that the sytem often finds it hard to keep track of credits most inventory items work mostly fine but i have had to prompt payment allot not really an issue mind u its an easy solve on my end and i would assume that probably more to do with chat gtp systems than yourself i will keep posting runs and pushing this beutiful world u created to its limits honstly such an amzing creation told my girl about it cause i was on the phone so much she was getting sus and now we are doing a run through tommrow will let u know how that goes
damn, that run sounds absolutely wild in the best way 😅
Ex–Guild operative with wiped memory to fighting a cosmic eldritch thing and getting worshipped… that’s the kind of off the rails stuff I was hoping people would try to push it into. I’m really happy you told the GM “run with it” when it warned you you were off track, and that it still held together for you. Hearing you’ve went thru 6 runs and they all felt different but fun, honestly means a lot, thanks for taking the time to write all that out. You made my day with “best use of AI I have ever seen in any creative field” and the part about the depth of the lore keeping things cohesive. That’s exactly where most of the work went, so it’s really cool to hear it comes through on your side.
On the PS: you’re right about the stats getting easier to “break” in very long runs. Over time the GM can start loosening up on checks and drifting into pure freeform chaos, especially once things go very cosmic like your example. I’m going to look at tightening that up so longer campaigns keep using stats and checks more consistently, while still letting people go nuts if they want to. Seriously, thanks again for playing this much. Knowing people are pushing the system this hard (and having fun doing it) makes me really excited to keep improving it.
Dude i have just had this run started of as an ex guild oprative memory wiped built my way back up took out all the directors found out i was the bases for hundreds of evovled semi human machince clones of me and i took over and became some machine human demi god fought an cosmic eldritch being then basicaly became worshped and yeah the gm did say hey your running of track but i just told it to run with it and was quite cohesive given that it wasnt within the permaters honestly u have somthing so special here and this was juat one of the more crazy runs i have had made like 6 already all so diffrent from each other but all where intereting and engaing cant wait to see what u do with this in the future best use of ai i have ever seen in any creative field u should be so proud of yerself i reken that the only reason the game stays as cohesive as it does when i go crazy is beacuse of the depth of lore u have put into the world
Ps
It is also quite easy to break the stats the longer your story goes on eventully it just stops checking altogher and it becomes a free for all of choice which is definatily fun but it can get crazy realy quick like said example of this run
Love this only issue is i cant save my progress
Thanks for the feed back, glad you’re enjoying it!
You’re right – there isn’t a proper save system yet. I’m working on adding one in the next update: you’ll be able to type save game and the GM will print a save block you can copy into a text file. Next time you play, you can paste that back in (or upload it) and type
load gameto continue from where you left off.Really appreciate you calling this out – it’s a super important feature for a longer run.
Also, if you ever feel like sharing what happened in your run (even just a quick summary), I’d genuinely love to hear it. I’m really curious which paths people end up taking in their first night in Rathyal.