Building an RPG Character Generator with Google AI Studio

What I Built

I created an interactive RPG Character Generator using Google AI Studio's Gemini model. This app generates detailed fantasy characters complete with stats, backstories, and visual descriptions for tabletop role-playing games like D&D, Pathfinder, and other fantasy RPG systems.

The Prompt I Used

You are a creative RPG character generator. Create a detailed fantasy character with the following elements:

1. Basic Info: Name, race, class, level (1-10)
2. Physical Description: Height, build, distinctive features, clothing/armor
3. Ability Scores: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma (3-18 scale)
4. Backstory: 2-3 sentences about their origin and motivation
5. Personality Traits: 2-3 key personality characteristics
6. Equipment: Primary weapons, armor, and 3-5 important items
7. Special Abilities: 2-3 unique skills or magical abilities

Make each character unique and interesting with creative details that would inspire roleplay. Vary the races (human, elf, dwarf, halfling, tiefling, dragonborn, etc.) and classes (fighter, wizard, rogue, cleric, ranger, etc.).

Character Theme: [USER INPUT - e.g., "Dark and mysterious", "Noble and heroic", "Quirky and comedic"]

Demo

Live App: https://rpg-character-gen.example.com

Screenshots

Main Interface:
![Character Generator Interface showing input field and generate button]

Generated Character Example:

Name: Thorne Shadowbane
Race: Half-Elf
Class: Rogue
Level: 5

Physical Description: A lean, 5'8" figure with sharp angular features and piercing green eyes. Dark hair streaked with premature silver falls to his shoulders. Wears form-fitting black leather armor with numerous hidden pockets.

Ability Scores:
- Strength: 12
- Dexterity: 18
- Constitution: 14
- Intelligence: 15
- Wisdom: 13
- Charisma: 16

Backstory: Once a nobleman's son, Thorne lost everything when his family was framed for treason. Now he works in the shadows, seeking evidence to clear his family name while using his skills to help other victims of injustice.

Personality Traits:
- Charming and silver-tongued, but struggles to trust others
- Has a strong moral code despite his criminal methods
- Collects small trinkets as mementos of successful missions

Equipment:
- Primary: Twin enchanted daggers "Justice" and "Mercy"
- Armor: +1 Studded Leather Armor
- Tools: Thieves' tools, grappling hook, smoke bombs, forged documents, family signet ring

Special Abilities:
- Shadow Step: Can teleport through shadows up to 30 feet
- Detect Lies: Supernatural ability to sense deception
- Lock Whisper: Can "communicate" with locks to understand their mechanisms

My Experience

Building this RPG Character Generator was an incredible introduction to Google AI Studio's capabilities. The Gemini model's creativity and consistency in generating coherent character details exceeded my expectations.

What I Learned

Prompt Engineering: I discovered the importance of structured prompts. My initial attempts were too vague, producing inconsistent results. Breaking down the character creation into specific categories (stats, backstory, equipment) gave much better outputs.

Creative AI Applications: This project showed me how AI can enhance creative processes rather than replace them. The generated characters serve as inspiration that players and DMs can build upon.

User Experience Design: I focused on making the interface simple - just input a theme and get a complete character. This taught me the value of hiding complexity behind clean UX.

Challenges and Solutions

Challenge: Ensuring balanced ability scores that make sense for the character class.
Solution: I refined my prompt to include guidelines about class-appropriate stat distributions.

Challenge: Making each character feel unique rather than formulaic.
Solution: I added variety instructions and examples of different character archetypes to the prompt.

Next Steps

I'm planning to expand this app with:

Character portrait generation using image AI
Integration with D&D Beyond API for stat blocks
Save/share functionality for favorite characters
Campaign management features

This project was a fantastic way to learn Google AI Studio, and I'm excited to build more creative tools with Gemini!

Tags: #GoogleAIStudio #AI #RPG #GameDevelopment

Oni @onirestart