Dungeons & Pawns

Dungeons & Pawns

Ever wished you could run a D&D campaign with your pawns? No? Well, after getting two tabletop sessions cancelled on me for lack of players, I decided I wanted to play with my pawns instead. So here it is.

What is this?

Dungeons & Pawns is a tabletop RPG system built inside RimWorld. Start a session, pick your colonists, choose a class for each, and let the story unfold. Turn by turn, dice roll by dice roll, narrated in real time by an AI Dungeon Master.

Two ways to play

Let the AI lead. The AI acts as your Dungeon Master, setting scenes, reacting to your actions, narrating combat, and voicing NPCs. You play as one of your colonists while the rest of the party is controlled by the AI, each responding according to their own personality, class, and RimWorld backstory. Be the DM yourself. Take the Dungeon Master seat and write your own narration. The AI steps back and focuses entirely on bringing your colonists to life, each one reacting, deciding, and acting in character based on who they actually are as pawns.

Your colonists, their way

Classes and traits combine to shape how each colonist plays. A volatile Warrior charges without thinking. A careful Cleric heals with visible frustration when the party ignores her warnings. A pyromaniac Ranger is best kept away from the torches. Every pawn brings their own personality to the table, not just as flavor text but as behavior the AI actively draws from during every session.

A world worth adventuring in

A fully written default campaign is included: Shadows Over the Reaches, set in a post-imperial frontier world with factions, locations, secrets, and a mystery to unravel. Ready to play from the first session. Want something different? The world editor lets you build your own setting from scratch: lore, factions, locations, campaign objectives, and custom instructions for the AI narrator. As detailed or as minimal as you like.

What's included

6 default classes: Warrior, Mage, Rogue, Cleric, Ranger, and Paladin, each with stats, descriptions, and a narrative style the AI uses to keep them in character. Full class editor included to create your own or modify existing ones. D&D 5e 2024 ruleset out of the box, with support for custom rulesets. Combat system with initiative order, d20 attack rolls, damage, critical hits, fumbles, status effects, and loot. Animated dice for critical moments. Custom content editor for enemies, items, and scenarios, all accessible from the mod settings with no file editing required. Session history saved automatically to JSON. Every adventure can be reviewed, exported, or deleted from the in-game history window.

AI provider

The mod works with several AI providers. For the smoothest experience, Player2 is recommended. It's built specifically for games, requires no technical setup, and connects directly through its desktop app with a single click. You can download it or generate an API key directly from the mod settings. player2.game Also supported: Gemini (with live model browser to always use the latest available model), OpenRouter, OpenAI, and any OpenAI-compatible local model such as Ollama or LM Studio.

Frequently asked questions

Does this affect my colonists in any way? Mood buffs, debuffs, anything? Not right now. I've tested this a lot and I want to gather feedback before making sessions affect your actual colony. That said, if enough people ask for campaign outcomes to have real consequences for their pawns, I'll add it. Consider this a very deliberate maybe. Wouldn't it be more immersive if colonists gathered around a table in their free time to play? Can I tell you a secret? I have no idea how to add new furniture and make it work properly. Take that as evidence that there's an actual human behind this mod and not some AI-generated content machine. Pure human incompetence, I promise.

Source code

The full source code is available on GitHub. If you want to contribute, report a bug, or build something on top of this mod, you're welcome to open a pull request or start a discussion there. github.com/CarlosNahuelcoy/DungeonsAndPawns

Feedback and suggestions

This mod is actively developed. If you run into issues, have ideas, or just want to share how your session went, come find me on Discord. Join the Discord

Support the project

I'm a huge enthusiast about the incredible potential AI has for this game. If you'd like to see more mods like this in the near future, please consider supporting me with a coffee. Thank you so much for your support! ☕❤️