The solo tabletop RPG movement has exploded. Busy group schedules, Forever DM burnout, or the urge to test a custom character: there are plenty of reasons to roll dice alone. The question is how to get a good game master without a monthly bill.

If you already have a ChatGPT account, you may already have one. You can sign in with it inside The Weaver and play on the plan you already have. No API key, no developer account and no deposited credit. OpenAI openly supports connecting a ChatGPT subscription to third-party apps, and that includes the free plan.

Sign in, then play

  • No API keys. Choose "Sign in with ChatGPT" in the app, approve the connection in your browser, and you're set. Nothing to generate or paste.
  • Free plan works. A free ChatGPT account runs the Weaver well. Some of the most advanced models are reserved for paid plans, so The Weaver picks models your plan can run and steps down to one that works if a saved adventure asks for something your plan doesn't include.
  • No extra usage bill from us. You play on the plan you already have. We never charge for model usage and we never see your sign-in. It's stored encrypted with your operating system's secure storage and goes only to OpenAI.
No developer accounts needed. If API keys and billing dashboards sound like work, signing in with ChatGPT is the simplest way in.

What about Claude?

Claude Pro and Max subscriptions can't be used to power third-party apps like The Weaver. Anthropic doesn't allow it, so we don't offer it. You can still use Claude through a pay-as-you-go Anthropic API key, billed separately from any subscription.

Prefer not to use ChatGPT?

A free Google AI Studio (Gemini) key is enough to play too. Our YouTube video shows how to get one in a few minutes. You can also paste an OpenAI or Anthropic API key and pay the provider's raw usage rate. See our no-subscription guide for all the options side by side.

Why a plain ChatGPT chat window isn't enough

You might wonder why you can't just run a campaign in a normal ChatGPT chat. For a one-off scene you can. For a multi-session campaign, it runs into walls.

1. The "memory bleed" problem

Language models have a limited context window. In a browser chat, older messages get pushed out as the story grows. The AI forgets NPC names, mixes up your inventory and loses decisions you made ten turns ago. In a TTRPG, that breaks the game.

2. The DIY prompt nightmare

To get a chat model to act like a fair, reactive referee instead of a chatty essay writer, you have to engineer long, fragile instructions. Remind it not to speak for your character, not to roll your dice, and to respect the rules. One off-topic message and it drifts. Building your own memory and rules engine takes days or weeks.

What The Weaver adds on top of your plan

The Weaver wraps your ChatGPT sign-in in a game engine built for tabletop play, so the model is working inside a structure instead of a blank chat.

  • Persistent campaign memory: inventory, NPC relationships, world lore and quest state are tracked across sessions and stored on your own computer. Sparing a rival in session one can matter in session ten.
  • Automatic context: before every turn, The Weaver feeds the relevant campaign history back to the model, so you don't have to re-explain your story.
  • A built-in referee: atmospheric narration, NPCs with distinct voices, and requests for your dice rolls, so you keep full agency over your character.

What it costs

The Weaver is free to try on itch.io during early access, and the itch page is pay-what-you-want with a $0 minimum. There's no subscription to us. On the AI side, you pay nothing extra beyond the ChatGPT plan you already have, and that can be the free one. The game stays on your machine: no account with us, no cloud save.