How to play
From zero to adventuring in five minutes.
Taverna is an AI Game Master that lives in your Discord server. You don't need to know the rules — just add the bot, forge a world, create a hero, and tell the story what you do. Here's the whole journey.
- 1
/startOpen the start menu
Run this in any text channel to see the start menu with your setup progress. One channel hosts one world — pick a fresh channel for a new campaign.
- 2
/createworldForge your world
A short wizard asks for tone, theme, and difficulty, then the AI builds a whole realm — custom races, classes, spells, factions, NPCs, locations, and history. Any genre you can dream up.
World generation takes a few minutes. Everything after this is instant.
- 3
/createcharacterCreate your hero
A guided wizard walks you through name → race → class → background → ability scores → skills → spells → feat → gear. Every step has a 📖 Help button explaining the basics — no rules knowledge needed.
One character per player, per world. The whole party can share a channel.
- 4
/beginOpen the scene
The DM reads your world and party, then writes a vivid opening scene and drops you into it. Run this once to kick off the adventure.
- 5
/dm <action>…and you're playing
Describe what your character does in plain English — “I sneak behind the guard” or “I cast Fireball at the skeletons.” The DM narrates the outcome, calls for rolls when needed, and moves the story forward.
Want to talk without taking a turn? /speak lets you banter in-character — the DM hears you and remembers.
Every command works as a slash command (/dm) or a prefix command (!dm) — whichever feels faster.
The whole game
Everything your table can do
Beyond the core loop, Taverna runs a full tactical RPG — combat, character growth, a living world, and more. You'll discover most of it in play; here's the map.
Roleplay & banter
Not everything needs to be an action. Say something in-character — banter with the party, mutter to yourself, set up a moment — without spending a turn. The DM won't respond, but it hears you and weaves it into the story next time it narrates. Your lines post as your character, portrait and all.
/speak <message>— Talk in-character without taking a turn — free, any time./dm <action>— When you want the world to react, this is your turn.
Stuck or confused?
You never need to know the rules — but when you're curious, ask. The AI assistant answers any rules question or digs into your world's lore, mid-game, without interrupting the story.
/assistant <question>— “What does concentration do?” “Who rules this city?” — rules or lore, answered instantly./help— The full command guide, in Discord, any time./feedback— Send the dev team a bug report or suggestion.
Rolls & checks
Dice settle the uncertain moments — sneaking past a guard, forcing a door, haggling a price. You never roll by hand; the bot rolls when you press a button and shows the full breakdown.
/roll <check>— Ask for your own check — Stealth, Perception, Athletics, Persuasion. Optionally set a DC to beat or roll with advantage.
Combat
When a fight breaks out, a dedicated combat UI takes over — target picker, spell and ability buttons, action economy, and a 🔍 Inspect button for any enemy's full stat sheet. It runs on a real 5e-style rules engine: real dice, real armor class, real death saves. The AI narrates; it never fudges the math.
/combat [difficulty]— Ask the DM to start an encounter scaled to your party (trivial → deadly)./endcombat— Leave a fight and return to the story./resync— Re-post fresh controls if a button ever stops responding.
Character & growth
Your sheet, inventory, and abilities all live in one hub. Earn XP from combat and from the DM's story rewards, then claim your level-ups to pick new spells, roll HP, and take stat boosts or feats.
/sheet— Your character hub — sheet, inventory, abilities, and AI portrait./levelup— Claim a pending level-up and choose what your hero learns next./rest— Short or long rest to recover HP, spell slots, and abilities.
World & lore
Worlds are persistent and alive. Browse the map, meet NPCs, and follow plot threads — living story arcs that escalate if ignored and react to what you do about them.
/codex— Browse your world: 🗺️ Map, NPCs, and 📖 Lore including 🧵 Plot Threads./recap— An AI-generated recap of the current session — perfect for catching up.
Saves & recovery
Your characters, world, and story save automatically, with manual save slots and restore on top. Nothing is lost between sessions.
/saves— Snapshot, load, or delete saves for this world./recover— Re-attach a world after its Discord channel was deleted.
Make it yours
Tune the experience to your table — voice narration with 18 narrators, character portraits, scene illustrations, and dice skins.
/settings— Voice narration (TTS), portraits, image quality, and dice skins./generate_image— Paint an AI illustration of the current scene, with your party in it.
🧍 Play solo
No party required. Create a world, roll one hero, and adventure on your own — the DM tailors pacing and encounters to a party of one.
🎉 Play together
Everyone in the channel makes their own character and shares the story. When the whole party has a hero, a Begin Adventure button appears — one tap and you're off.
Quick reference
Commands worth memorizing
/startStart menu & setup progress/createworldGenerate a new world/createcharacterBuild your hero/beginOpen the adventure/dm <action>Take your turn/speak <line>Talk in-character, free/roll <check>Request a dice roll/combatStart an encounter/sheetCharacter hub/levelupClaim a level-up/restRecover on a rest/codexWorld, map & lore/savesSave & load/assistant <question>Ask about rules or lore/settingsPreferences/helpThe full in-game guideRun /help in Discord any time for the full, always-current command guide.
Ready to roll initiative?
Add Taverna to your Discord server and your first world is minutes away. Free to play — no credit card, no downloads.