For as long as I can remember, I’ve played strategy games with one goal in mind: winning. Yet, what truly excites me is the big picture—the unfolding scenarios, the decisions I’m forced to make, and watching everything evolve over time.
I’ve always admired players who choose a different path—those who set aside the “best” tactical move in favor of fully roleplaying their species, character, or ideology. I’ve struggled to figure out how best to do this. It’s easy to see that a fanatic xenophile would be friendly to all species, a predatory swarm would consume everything in its path, and democracies would naturally despise dictatorships. These archetypes are obvious and have clear real-world counterparts.
But how do you roleplay a species that is both a fanatic authoritarian and a dictatorial regime—embracing the corvée system—while also being a xenophile? My unimaginative brain has always struggled with this.
Then came the rise of large language models like ChatGPT. While it’s important to remember that LLMs essentially predict the next word (and can be incorrect at times), they’ve made it much easier for me to explore these complex ideas. For example, here’s how ChatGPT processed that very request, offering fresh insights and narrative possibilities.
"Your species combines Fanatic Authoritarianism with Xenophilia. On one side, they believe that only one ruler—embodied by a charismatic, all-knowing Philosopher King—can wisely guide the state. Every citizen is expected to submit to a singular, unchallenged authority, creating a highly organized society with a clear chain of command. On the other side, there’s an inherent—and almost ironic—admiration for the unfamiliar and the exotic. In diplomatic encounters, your empire might lavish praise on alien innovations or cultures while simultaneously insisting on strict obedience back home. This duality can color your in-game decisions: alliances and trades might be struck with distant, unusual species, yet internal orders are delivered with iron precision."
How to Use ChatGPT to Roleplay in Stellaris
If that sounds interesting to you, here’s how you can do the same.
After starting up a session with ChatGPT, I tend to tell it that I’m going to play Stellaris and want help figuring out how I should behave as my species.
From there I feed it all of the relevant information: origin, ethics, authority, civics, and traits. I include not only the names, but the descriptions copy and pasted from the wiki as well, so it comes out looking something like this:
- Origin
- Payback – This civilization began as a mutiny aboard a slaver vessel and is made up of a diverse group of pre-FTL species. (Effect is no slavery or purging of population is allowed)
- Ethics
- Fanatic Authoritarian – A single voice, a single throne, a single state. It is the solemn duty of the masses to obey those enlightened few who have been charged with the great responsibility of leadership.
- Xenophile – There exists, in all of us, a deep-seated fascination for the unknown. An adventurous spirit that rejects the familiar and glories in the unfamiliar, whatever – or whomever – it may be.
- Authority
- Dictatorial – Dictatorial governments are ruled by a single individual for life that wields absolute control over the state.
- Civics
- Philosopher King – It is not enough to simply rule. The Ship of State must be guided by a king that wields enough wisdom and knowledge to steer it true.
- Corvée System – This society considers it the absolute right of the state to decide where its citizens live and work.
- Traits
- Sedentary – This species has a sedentary past, and its members are reluctant to migrate away from where they grew up.
- Ingenious – Members of this species are good at ‘thinking outside the box’ and know how to maximize the efficiency of their infrastructure and power grids.
- Inorganic Breath – The slightly toxic digestive methods of this species have resulted in a highly exotic breath composition.
- Nonadaptive – This species does not adapt well to foreign environments.
From there it should give you a baseline of information to really help you figure out how to roleplay as any given species.
Despite their ingenuity, your species struggles to thrive in foreign environments. This could compel the empire to focus on perfecting artificial habitats or heavily terraforming new worlds before colonization becomes possible.
Take the Roleplaying a Step Further
While you can simply take that information and play, you can also lean on ChatGPT for more guidance. You could input your leader’s traits to help figure out what decisions they would make. You can also go to it when certain events come up, input the descriptions and your options and have it help you figure out which routes your species would take.
When a critical event occurs—a diplomatic crisis, a border dispute, or even a complex alliance negotiation—you can describe the situation and your available options. ChatGPT will offer insights and narrative possibilities, helping you evaluate which path best reflects the legacy and values you’ve built for your species.
This tool also excels at breaking down more complicated scenarios. Facing tangled boundary issues or multifaceted interstellar conflicts? Just feed in those details and let ChatGPT help untangle the narrative threads so that every decision is not only strategically sound but also steeped in character-driven storytelling.
In the end, though, the final decisions are always yours. ChatGPT serves as a creative partner—an endless well of ideas to inspire your choices, refine your strategies, and deepen the narrative of your empire.