Overview

muthurGPT is a chat bot that simulates an onboard computer such as MU/TH/UR for Alien RPG or other TTRPGs.

It runs via OpenAI's API, and requires that you make a paid account with them to run. These are charged by OpenAI per token.

This was a quick weekend project, but feel free to add new plugins or features. I've tried to design this in a modular way to allow the easy addition of new story contexts via the plugin system.

Images

Video

YouTube video of muthurGPT in action

Setup

Suggested terminal emulator

This package outputs directly to stdout. I recommend running this on a terminal with a scanline aesthetic, such as cool-retro-terminal.

I recommend using a rather large terminal font size to get the right look. The included ascii art assumes a minimum terminal width of 64 characters. That said, I wouldn't recommend going higher than 100.

Installation

This is all python, so installation is pretty straightforward.

1. Update the config with your openAI API key.
2. Until you get your look right, I recommend specifying debug=true in the config so that it doesn't access openAI while you're iterating on cool-retro-terminal settings/etc.
3. Add the muthur script in the bin dir to your path or just run it directly. Run muthur --plugin cronus for the Cronus' onboard MU/TH/UR or muthur --plugin montero for the montero.

To be honest, I haven't attempted to run this from another machine yet, so I might have missed some steps. Because I'm doing sound in a dumb way for now, it will be mac dependant unless you update play_sound() in terminal.py

Config

You can configure MU/TH/UR plugins for different acts and story points. For example, the Cronus plugin can be configured to acknowledge that the characters have already woken from cryo. Take a look at the config file to see what else is configurable.

Each plugin can have their own overrides in the config. When running in the context of a plugin, plugin values will be used instead of the config defaults if both exist. For a simple example, the Fort Nebraska plugin overwrites the title bar with A.P.O.L.L.O. instead of MU/TH/UR.

OPENAI API KEY

The API key can be set via the environment variable OPENAI_API_KEY, via command line arg, or via the config key openai_api_key. I would suggest the former options for safety, but the config key can be used to simplify setup. I would recommend disabling auto-refill on your account balance, and only adding money incrementally.

Plugins

What is a plugin?

A plugin in muthurGPT can be loaded to initialize MU/TH/UR in different contexts. For example, on the Cronus or Montero in Chariot of the Gods. I've designed this package to allow new plugins to be installed without reinventing the wheel.

How to install a plugin

• Drag and drop the new plugin directory into your muthur_plugins directory.
• Only do so from trusted sources, since this will be running with your OpenAI key.

How to create a plugin

• You can quickly add additional story contexts beyond the Cronus/Montero for MU/TH/UR to run in.
• Duplicate the muthur_plugins/template directory, and rename it to a name of your choice.
• Update and rename the copied template_prompt.txt to include whatever scenario-specific information MU/TH/UR needs to have. (and rename it to <YOURNAME>_prompt.txt)
• In the copied template version of __init__.py, rename TemplatePlugins to <YOURNAME>Plugin and NAME to be <YOURNAME>.
• If you need it, edit your template's config.json to add more variability
• You're good to go! For most cases, I would suggest using the Montero plugin as reference. If you want to do advanced behavior, such as filtering input/output to display maps, then you can use the cronus or cronus_life_support plugins as reference instead.

Commands

While running the program, the user may use commands to interact with the tool. As of now, the following commands are implemented:

• !print prints the full config. !print key prints just one specific key and value.
• !set key value allows you to set a new value to a key. If you wish to add a new key, add a third argument - True (!print key value True)
• !exit allows you to exit the program as if you used keyboard interrupt
• !save allows you to save the current status of the interaction. Use !save name to choose you name for the savefile

Outstanding work (in vague order of priority)

• Output sound in less dumb way.
• Allow for user to quit MU/TH/UR from within MU/TH/UR using natural language.
• Add a mode to allow it to print exact text as defined in a config or text document, rather than interacting with bot (user request)
• Make prompts configurable with string replacements.
• Add standardized variant definitions in config for plugins.
• Have two streams --- one for stdout/debugging one for MU/TH/UR.
• Write simple unit tests, especially for plugin dev.