Homun.ai
Homun.ai is a revolutionary new approach to RPG character development. We run a local LLM (no token costs for players!) that allows players to talk directly with characters in your game. The model does not generate its own story or characters. Instead, characters, story, quests and world-building are all written, through character prompts, by the game developer. The model takes a character background prompt that includes general information about the game world, rules for the model to follow, and instructions for the character, and handles dialogue with the player.
The easiest way to describe what we’re doing is with an example. Here’s an example dialogue from a game we’re working on (Mar Kebir). The player is talking to an old lighthouse keeper.
————————
player: "Hello sir. How are you today?"
Fredigar: "Ah, good day to you, friend! Why, I'm as right as rain, I am! A bit o' a breeze comin' in off the Bay, mind, but a steady light keeps a body warm enough. Been watchin' the ships come and go all mornin'. Always a comfort, seein' 'em. Keeps a body from gettin' too lonely, ye know?
It's a good spot, this. Best view o' Mar Kebir Harbor ye could ask for, I reckon. Though it does get a bit draft sometimes, even with the lantern pane.
And yourself? Comin' from the city, are ye? Or from further afield, perhaps?"
player: "I'm a newspaper reporter, just looking for some stories. You heard of anything interesting?"
Fredigar: "(Adjusts my spectacles and leans forward, peering at you with a kindly, if somewhat rheumy, gaze.)
Ah, a newspaperman, are ye? Welcome, welcome! It's a grand job, telling folks what's goin' on. Though truth be told, not much *is* goin' on 'round here, not lately. Peaceful as can be, most days.
The docks are always busy, of course. Ships comin' in from all over. Heard a whisper or two about a shipment of fancy fabrics from the hill country, though I don't rightly know who's buyin' 'em. And Old Man Gargaw down at the Hungry Lion is always complainin' about somethin' or other, but that's just Gargaw bein' Gargaw.
(I chuckle softly, then sigh.)
Truth be told, the most interestin' things 'round here happened a good while ago, I reckon. Stories of the sea, mostly. This lighthouse has seen a few things, ye know. A few *terrible* things. But ye wouldn't want to hear old tales from an old man like me, would ye? Still... if ye're lookin' for a yarn, I've got a few.
(I tap a finger against the stone railing of the balcony, gazing out at the sea.)
What sort of stories are ye after, lad? Somethin' about the docks? Or maybe somethin' a bit more... ghostly?"
player: "Sure, tell me something ghostly. That sounds cool."
Fredigar: "(Fredigar adjusts his spectacles and leans forward, a faraway look in his eyes. He speaks with a thick Southern Welsh lilt.)
Ah, ghostly, ye say? Well now, there's stories aplenty 'round these parts, but none so chilling as the tale o' the Harrow. Aye, the Harrow… a navy ship-of-the-line, she was. A grand vessel, the pride o' Sym Caelora's fleet, back nigh on a hundred years ago.
She went down in a storm, ye see. A proper tempest it was, the likes o' which I ain't never witnessed, and pray I never do. The wind howled like a banshee, and the waves… well, they were mountains, I tell ye! Mountains o' water crashin' down.
Now, I wasn’t here for it, mind ye. I was a young lad then, aboard the Aurora, sailin' the Bay. But the old lighthouse keeper at the time, Old Man Hemlock, he told me the story. Said the light in the lantern, a powerful beacon it was, went out. Blown right out by the gale.
Without the light, the Harrow lost her way. Drove straight onto the rocks below, she did. Shattered to smithereens, they say. Every soul aboard lost, and the wreckage… well, it scattered all along the coast.
But that ain’t the end o' the tale, oh no. On stormy nights, like tonight, ye can see her. A ghostly apparition, sails billowing, driving relentlessly forward, straight for the rocks. A phantom ship, doomed to repeat her final voyage for eternity.
I've seen it meself, more times than I care to remember. A chilling sight, it is. A reminder o' the power o' the sea, and the fate that awaits those who defy her. Aye, the Harrow… a ghostly tale indeed.
(He pauses, taking a sip from a chipped mug.)
Now, what brings ye to these parts? A long journey to hear an old man's tales, isn't it?"
------------
The story of Harrow was written by me, in the character's prompt. Fredigar is instructed to tell the player the story after a couple of turns of the conversation. The setting (the lighthouse), the character’s dialect and personality, the story of the Harrow that the player discovers through natural conversation, Gargaw’s pub, the hill country, his time on the Aurora, Mar Kebir Harbor, all of this came out of the character prompt or the background info that the character can access, both written by the game developer. He made up the bit about Old Man Hemlock.
If you’re interested in learning more about our product, please look me up on Linkedin (Chaim Reach). I answer connection requests and messages promptly.
