General Feedback and Suggestions

I’ve spent a lot of time the past several days pushing the AI to it’s limit to see what was and wasn’t possible. I think you’ve got a great tool here, but it definitely needs a lot of work.

Feedback:

Franz has a serious issue with retaining locations. Various times through the campaign I was playing it would randomly switch the location we were at. We’d be in the middle of interrogating someone at Corvinus Keep, and halfway through we’re suddenly at Shadeholm Manor, or Willowdale Estate. This has happened consistently at these locations. It could have something to do with their placement and proximity on the map, but it has a lot of trouble keeping our location consistent. Most recently we were in the sewers of a city, in the lair of a group called the Silver Hand, and halfway through the event we’re suddenly in Flora’s Respite, speaking to an NPC that was not around. The immersion and roleplay is constantly broken and it’s tough to get Franz back on track, sometimes needing guidance multiple times in a row to return to the story.

Another issue I ran into regarding consistency is that Franz loves to completely break the story and appears to reset us. In the middle of an event, in the middle of our roleplay, suddenly it’s “You’re standing outside X location, how would you like to proceed?” It got to a point where it was happening so consistently, every five or six generations, that I just stopped playing altogether.

Quests don’t track properly. I’ve been having to manually update my quests to ensure that Franz doesn’t try and pull us back to another objective or prevent us from proceeding any further.

Character sheets don’t feel properly utilized and aren’t tracked properly when playing.

Repetition is a huge issue for Franz. I’ve noticed several patterns. There’s always an intricately carved wooden box, someone is always “not to be trifled with”, you always feel like you’re being watched regardless of where you are, and more. It also has an issue with generating names. Through three different campaigns I’ve run into at least six or seven characters who use the same exact name and description. I’ve had to start telling Franz every time it introduces a new character to change their name. In one campaign I was fighting in a tournament and it had me fight three different characters named Lady Valtira almost in a row. It has such an issue that it constantly brings back characters who have previously been killed. It’s fine once or twice, especially since in the one campaign we’re dealing with dark magic and beings that want to warp reality to their will, so seeing that one character we knew for sure was dead suddenly reappear was quite a shock, but it happens way too much. For instance, a character that we had previously killed showed up in a new plotline, and Franz explained it away as revived through some sort of dark magic. Again, that’s fine, when it happens once. Ten minutes later, after storming a thieves’ guild’s hideout, Franz brought this character back again. I directed Franz that the character was dead for a second time and would not be coming back, and again a few moments later, it tries to bring this character back.

One last minor gripe I have is with how you’re introduced to characters. Every character you meet already knows you, they know what you’ve done, they know what you’re capable of, etc. If you become the hero of the realm, sure, it makes sense that many people know who you are and know of your feats, but when you’re a level one nobody who just blew into town, it makes no sense for everyone to immediately know everything about you. This is a larger issue overall with Franz, where you have to constantly direct it to make characters forget things that they shouldn’t know, or for instance you tell Franz you place an item in storage (your pocket, bag, whatever) (i.e. an artifact) and the next character you meet is gazing at the item in your hand.


Overall a lot of things fail to track properly. Character sheets aren’t updated correctly, quests, etc, everything has been had to be done manually.
I can’t think of anything else at the moment as far as my feedback goes, but if I do I’ll be sure to drop it in the comments.

Suggestions:

I’m not sure what kind of “AI” is powering Franz, I’m assuming it’s just another language model similar to ChatGPT, but as far as the repetition, the failure to generate new characters properly, and the lack of consistency goes, I’m putting it on this. I believe Franz, although he can definitely cook sometimes, still needs a lot of work. This isn’t so much a suggestion as it is an observation, but I threw it in here anyways.

Character sheets definitely need some work. Being a long time D&D player and DM, it leaves way too much to be desired. I’ve created sheets by hand, used orcpub, D&DBeyond, some other obscure ones, and all of them fair much better than this one. I think the integration with Franz needs to be worked on for sure, but the sheets themselves should be fleshed out way more. I love to play Monk characters, but playing a Monk on here is basically playing a fighter without a weapon or armor. Subclasses don’t matter at all on here, and you get no access to skills that your class would have unless you’re specifically a spell caster. Now the good thing is, with Franz, there are hardly any limits to what you can do. With the proper verbiage you can really let your imagination run wild, and if you know your class and what you could do in an actual game of 5e, you can goad Franz into letting you do it. I think that aspect of it is great, and allows players a ton of creative freedom, but I would love to see actually fleshed out character sheets that update as you level up and access to class skills that you would have in a game of 5e. It would make it easier to track what you can do, and for players who may be unfamiliar with the class they chose, or D&D as a whole, it’s a lot easier on them.

Another suggestion I have is to give us access to the map while we’re actively playing a campaign. The only way you can see a campaign’s map is if you’re editing it, and it makes it hard to get a sense of the scale of the world. As I mentioned with the failure at location tracking, being able to see the map would help you better guide Franz to where you need to be if and when it decides you’re somewhere you’re not.

As for the maps, I think the current tools, while good for what they are, could use some work. I’m transferring my own campaign into fables and because I created my world and maps by hand years ago, it’s hard to keep the correct size of the world. A tool that allows us to draw borders, instead of just drawing a square, could not only help creators retain as much of their campaigns size as possible, but would also allow you to create some pretty interesting locales. The shape of the continent of my campaign and the way the borders are laid out is intentional, and having to break it to fit within the constraints of the tools available just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Because I’m forced to make the continent a square there are larges areas that just shouldn’t exist, and if a player were to venture into these areas, I’m afraid it would break immersion because they are barren plots of land with nothing in them. It’s not the biggest deal, I’m making due with what’s available, but it’s a feature I would like to see.

I would also suggest either a daily recharge of a set number of generations, or upping the limit. I feel like 50 generations isn’t enough to get a good feel for it, especially with how much guidance and hand holding Franz needs to properly navigate you through the story you’re trying to play.



Overall I’ve had a ton of fun with fables. I spent 8 hours the other night playing a campaign with a friend. It’s a great tool, but it definitely needs a lot of work. Too many times in the past several days have I gotten frustrated with Franz not being able to keep consistency and just stopped playing because it refuses to correct itself properly. I’m excited to see what kind of work is put into this tool and how it grows.