Dungeons, Dragons, and Emotions: A Preliminary Study of Player Sentiment in LLM-driven TTRPGs

Xiao You, Pittawat Taveekitworachai, Siyuan Chen, Mustafa Can Gursesli, Xiaoxu Li, Yi Xia, Ruck Thawonmas

Abstract: In this paper, we present a Tabletop Role-Playing game (TTRPG) driven by ChatGPT. Prompts are employed to instruct ChatGPT to act as Game Masters (GMs). In crafting each prompt to integrate a distinctive role, three roles denoted as Role 1, Role 2, and Role 3, are established. Subsequently, we perform pre-game and post-game emotional assessments employing the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) questionnaire to scrutinize players’ emotional dynamics throughout the gaming experience. Upon analyzing the collected data, we observe that Role 1 and Role 2 affect players’ positive emotions. Notably, Role 2 exhibits the most pronounced influence on players’ positive emotions. Our findings demonstrate that a TTRPG GM powered by ChatGPT can significantly enhance players’ positive emotions. This leads us to recognize that TTRPG GM powered by ChatGPT plays a positive role in enhancing the mental well-being of specific populations.