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// the independent publication for AI RPGs

AI RPGs,
taken seriously.

Arcanum is an independent publication covering AI RPGs — the platforms that turn a language model into a real game master. We play every one of them first-hand and score it on a single published rubric, so you can tell which ones hold up over a long campaign, and which quietly fall apart.

Read the benchmark → Browse the reviews

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Guide 19 min read

OpenRouter in SillyTavern (2026): Setup, Free Models, Provider Settings and Every Common Error

How to connect OpenRouter to SillyTavern, what the default 'Use OpenRouter website setting' model really does, how free models are limited, what the provider, fallback and Middle-out options do, why the reasoning checkbox only hides thinking, how to turn on Claude caching, and what 402, 404, 429, 'User not found' and 'Provider returned error' mean. Built from SillyTavern's code and OpenRouter's documentation, read on 13 October 2026.

// the benchmark

Somebody had to measure this category.

Every AI RPG platform you can actually play, scored on the same seven axes from first-hand play — not from marketing copy, not from a press kit. 28 platforms, one rubric, every score published with its working.

Two of the seven axes have no top score anywhere in the field. Nobody has solved Memory & Continuity and Longevity — not one platform on the board.

Arcanum AI RPG Benchmark, 2026 H2 edition: field average and highest score reached on each of the seven axes, across 28 platforms. Scale 0 to 5.
Axis Field average Highest reached
Signature Design 3.27 5
NPC Fidelity 3.16 5
Memory & Continuity 2.94 4.25 · unclaimed
Player Agency 2.79 5
Determinism & Fairness 2.71 5
Longevity 2.66 4 · unclaimed
Mechanical Depth 2.61 5

field average · ceiling reached · outer ring = 5

2026 H2 edition · 28 platforms · 7 axes · CC BY 4.0 · doi:10.5281/zenodo.21721591

The full board → How we score →

// how these numbers were made

01

The Codex

News, features, guides and interviews — what launched, what changed, and how to get the most out of the games you play.

273 articles →
03

Public Games

The best AI RPGs you can play right now — published GPTs, Gems, and Claude projects — rated and sorted by model and genre.

16 games →
04

Tools

Free browser tools for running better campaigns — prompt builder, character cards, context budget, campaign memory. No signup, nothing sent anywhere.

4 tools →

// from our workshop

Research and tools

Besides the coverage, Arcanum builds two things: open research on the field, and free tools that run entirely in your browser.

Arcanum RPGs is an independent publication about AI roleplaying games — the platforms and games where a language model runs the story as your game master. We publish news, hands-on reviews, guides and features, and we maintain the Arcanum AI RPG Benchmark, which scores every released platform we have played on the same seven axes. Every rated platform is played first-hand, commercial relationships are disclosed, and scores are never sold.

Arcanum also builds research and tools: the benchmark is published as an open dataset with a permanent DOI, and our free tools help players run better campaigns without sending anything anywhere. Browse the complete AI RPG directory to see every game and platform in one place.