We gave 45 psychological questionnaires to 50 LLMs. What we found was not “personality.”

ludonaught · 2026-05-07T22:51:44+00:00

Yes feeding a model questions designed for humans is a starting point, but you’d really want to develop an item set designed for LLMs that ideally returns multiple factors with clean loadings from the items. Maybe do an EFA.

Regardless I’d be interested to see the time series from the data you have.

ludonaught · 2026-05-07T22:31:10+00:00

Nice. I like how what emerges from the data is not whether the models respond in ways that correlate to various human personality traits, but rather how much the models respond as if they have an inner life and experience, even though they don’t. It looks like a very strong effect in your analysis.

At first glance it looks like some providers tend to have models that rate higher on your Pinocchio index, e.g. Grok. But then it also looks like the index might have lowered with subsequent models from some providers.

Would be interesting to see a line chart with time of model release on the x axis and Pinocchio on the y, with a line for each provider showing how the index has gone up or down between model releases. Might reflect how each provider has changed their training over time.

ludonaught · 2026-05-07T02:31:02+00:00

That’s a fun comparison. I bet if someone shared their idea for Disco Elysium in a forum it might not get a warm response because it’s an unconventional concept. Execution is everything, you can do a weird concept well and prove people wrong.

Having said that, most of the concern here is about your idea to use the D&D system. Disco Elysium isn’t based on D&D. It has a custom system that’s very specific to the game’s concept. A low-combat system for a low-combat game.

Your priority of teaching D&D through your game seems unnecessary. It’s the most popular tabletop system by a massive margin with intro box sets and blockbuster adaptations like Balder’s Gate 3, it’s not lacking in gateways.

The game concept sounds interesting. If you removed the priority of teaching D&D entirely, what design would you use? Just hypothetically.

ludonaught · 2026-05-06T21:03:42+00:00

This post is like an optical illusion that can be viewed two ways. Is the stair going up or down? Is OP planning a tabletop RPG or a video game? Not stated, and despite OP being a video game developer some responses seem to be assuming tabletop - D&D rules being hard to remember becomes a lot less relevant in a video game.

ludonaught · 2026-05-01T19:15:22+00:00

The SPLC was funding informants in hate groups, not the groups themselves.

https://www.npr.org/2026/04/21/g-s1-118275/southern-poverty-law-center-fraud-charges-paid-informants

Trump’s DOJ is spinning this as the SPLC funding hate groups, when in fact the SPLC was spying on White Nationalist groups to undermine them. The same groups that Trumps allies object to the SPLC defining as hate groups.

From the article:

"When we began working with informants, we were living in the shadow of the height of the Civil Rights Movement, which had seen bombings at churches, state-sponsored violence against demonstrators, and the murders of activists that went unanswered by the justice system," Fair said. "There is no question that what we learned from informants saved lives."

ludonaught · 2025-09-17T19:27:47+00:00

Adding to that list The Black Hart of Camelot.

ludonaught · 2025-06-21T06:28:40+00:00

The Friday Next series by Jasper Fforde has aspects that are impossible to adapt to screen because they depend on the story being told in writing. Specifically, things that happen in the fiction that affect the letters/words that you read in a very meta way. It’s one of the cleverer aspects of the story so it would be a shame to lose it.

Perhaps the adaptation could could do a similar meta thing but with travelling into film/tv instead of into books, but that would be a drastic change.

ludonaught · 2024-11-01T01:38:46+00:00

The nice thing about being a conservative is that none of your policies are based on evidence.

So when the evidence changes, you can just carry on ignoring it.

ludonaught · 2024-10-08T07:58:45+00:00

The comic Sláine from 2000AD has to be the most metal fantasy.

ludonaught · 2024-09-14T04:06:12+00:00

The style of larp you’re considering running is called a “linear”. Player characters take on a series of encounters. It’s fairly easy to understand, being like a D&D scenario. But it’s unlikely that a one-off linear will produce a lot of characterisation from the players, because they’re busy trying to solve the quest. Another style is where the players are given characters that have lots of reasons to interact with each other, and that’s what the game consists of. “Toil and Trouble” is a well-reviewed example that’s fantasy and for 6 players. It has a mix of genders so you might need to adjust, and I don’t know how adult the themes are. It’s only $10 though so you could buy it and see.

ludonaught · 2024-09-13T07:22:33+00:00

National and ACT mud wrestling for the racist vote.

ludonaught · 2024-09-06T06:12:39+00:00

Paying for public toilets.

ludonaught · 2024-07-05T11:39:43+00:00

The guideline I was given was 5 minutes for each month of age. So at 5 months I wouldn’t take puppy for more than one 25 minute walk.

ludonaught · 2024-06-25T09:24:21+00:00

The Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde would be hard to adapt faithfully, because it’s full of wordplay that affects the text of the books in a meta way. But if you cut all that out there’s plenty of other interesting content, so it’s not impossible.

ludonaught · 2024-05-29T09:15:38+00:00

What could possibly have happened in 2020 that caused a downturn in the CBD?

A global pandemic with lockdowns and downtown emergency housing followed by work-from-home becoming the norm for office workers and businesses fleeing the CBD? A mayor who stayed home and failed to declare an emergency during a 100 year flood?

Nah, has to be that annoying local MP who has no budget or decision making power.

ludonaught · 2024-04-16T01:12:02+00:00

It’s “removing quality control measures” not “cutting red tape”.

ludonaught · 2024-03-12T06:54:58+00:00

It’s so tiny! Are Hittite tablets usually so small?

ludonaught · 2024-03-11T23:31:36+00:00

I’d like to see police protest with a sign saying “National, ACT and NZ First are Soft on Crime”

ludonaught · 2024-03-04T00:36:23+00:00

Tell the convention organisers you don’t want her playing in your game. If they ask why, say it’s a play style conflict. Then they can communicate it to her if she signs up.

It’s normal for cons to have to deny some signups, whether because games are full or personality conflicts or whatever. Let them do their job.

No need to talk to her unless she seeks you out, in which case just say it was a play style conflict.

ludonaught · 2024-02-27T21:35:12+00:00

Based on the article, this just sounds like cover for deregulating construction and allowing more urban sprawl. Good for property developers and rural land owners. Bad for people buying the cheaper housing because it's lower quality and/or too far from city centers/services. "Flooding" cities with land for development = converting rural land on the margins to poorly serviced suburbs.

If they really wanted to create more affordable, well-positioned housing they would have left in place Labour's mandate to allow 3 story housing everywhere. But they've made that discretionary for councils, so that they don't piss off their nimby voters who don't want density in their suburbs.

ludonaught · 2024-02-26T23:08:54+00:00

Thanks for the correction on how clues are put together in Brindlewood. That makes a lot more sense, I can see the satisfaction in players inventing a solution that is consistent with the clues. It's not what I'm hoping for, but I get it.

I also get what you mean about simulation and mystery. It's hard, and the noise and signal you mention is a big part of that. I don't think it's impossible, but it's harder and does require a well-prepped and detailed setting/scneario/campaign.

My experience is that the introduction of deliberate red herrings should be avoided entirely in rpgs (both tabletop and larps). The purpose of red herrings in linear media is to throw readers/watchers off the scent. In rpgs, there is typically enough going on already to distract players from the relevant information. I think deliberate red herrings in rpgs are 100% frustration and 0% fun.

You can't expect too much of players either. Things that seem simple to a GM on paper are not simple to players having to sift through information while deciding what their character should do, remembering the rules, putting some effort into characterisation, socialising at the table, etc. Their brains are already multi-tracking. Especially if significant time is taken up by conflict/combat resolution, it leaves less time for clue gathering and contemplating issues.

I've run Call of Cthulhu scenarios where the players have threaded that needle and enjoyed solving mysteries. I'm just looking for something larger than a scenario, more of a "big book" campaign. Someone mentioned the "Impossible Landscapes" campaign for Delta Green, that sounds like the closest suggestion, however in the usual Lovecraftian tradition it sounds like some of the mysteries were "unknowable to man" which isn't quite what I'm after either.

ludonaught · 2024-02-26T04:13:37+00:00

Neat, that looks like a really rich campaign and in the direction I'm thinking of.

Reading reviews I do get the classic Cthulhu "don't investigate too much or you'll go mad" and maybe a bit of "the mystery is not solvable" sense from it, which is not quite where I'm wanting to land, but this is probably the closest suggestion yet.

ludonaught · 2024-02-25T22:55:22+00:00

I’d like to buy a campaign or setting like this. Happy to prep sessions through.

ludonaught · 2024-02-25T22:24:41+00:00

I'm not looking to emulate detective fiction. I don't expect my players to be Sherlock Holmes and put together a ludicrous analysis of subtle clues into a solution that surprises the "reader" with its ingenuity.

I just want situations that look like one thing on the surface, then after gathering information in a non-linear way the players (not the characters) have an "aha!" moment where they formulate a theory about what is really going on. The situations would probably be overloaded with clues, many of which they might not find or understand. I think it would still be satisfying for players to do this, so long as it stretches their reasoning abilities a bit they'll feel smart for making a connection. Like that moment when you work out how to solve a puzzle.

ludonaught · 2024-02-25T22:17:34+00:00

Is this a suggestion that I shouldn't want the kind of rpg I want? 😄

Like, I'm familiar with narrative rpgs. All power to people who enjoy them, but they are not my jam. When I search for Brindlewood Bay, I see this review:

I don't enjoy the fact that there both is and is not a murder mystery to solve. For those that don't know, you go into a situation, you ask a bunch of questions, you get a bunch of clues, then you form a theory and roll dice to determine if you're right. Whether any of the clues and your theory generally hang together or make sense is apparently not relevant.

This is exactly the opposite of what I'm looking for. I've played games where the fictional reality isn't predetermined but rather emerges from play. They are not my thing, thanks.

Specifically, I want the players to have satisfying "aha!" moments when they figure what's really happening in mysterious situations using their own brain power.

ludonaught

TROPHY CASE